More video games exist than can be played in a lifetime, so every gamer has to choose what is most enjoyable to play. The big question is how to make this decision. Here are some of the things I consider when selecting what games to play, and I hope you might find them helpful, too.
1. The Series: I’m a huge Mario fan, and chances are I will race to pick up the latest release featuring the famous plumber. Whether or […]
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Imaginary Gardens
Time can be as regular as clockwork or supple as our shifting perceptions of it. Each year I note the winter solstice and hold onto the certainty that each day afterward is growing longer, minute by minute. As the days lengthen, I inevitably succumb to the seduction of the gardening catalogs that “like clockwork” begin to arrive in my mailbox. Though the ground remains buried beneath drifts of snow, these harbingers of spring fill my thoughts with images of lush […]
Nostalgia: It’s Good for You!
Last spring, I graduated from college and found myself, diploma in hand, thrust into an unfamiliar world. I felt disoriented without a magical meal plan that guaranteed regular feedings or the overwhelming piles of homework that occupied my time. What good would a double major in history and sociology do me now? In this new world brimming with unwanted responsibilities, I began to reflect on my experiences. I “waxed nostalgic”—a phrase that once was associated with heartsickness, suffering in the […]
The 2010 TAGIE Award Winners
Imagine the Oscars for toy and game inventors—with a glamorous gourmet meal. That provides a good picture of the Chicago Toy and Game Group’s annual Toy and Game Inventor Expo (TAGIE) awards presentation dinner in November. The Strong is a co-sponsor, along with many other significant contributors, of the event which coincides with the Chicago Toy and Game Fair and Toy and Game Inventor Exposition, where new and established toy inventors demonstrate their creations. Outside of New York’s annual Toy […]
Geeking Out on Game History at D.I.C.E. and GDC
Over the last month, fellow CHEGhead Eric Wheeler and I attended two video game events—D.I.C.E. Summit and the Game Developers Conference (GDC)—featuring lots of information not only about the latest titles, but also about classic games and the history of the industry.
While at D.I.C.E. in Las Vegas I heard great perspectives on game history from Mark Cerny, Bing Gordon, Bill Budge, and others. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AAIS) also hosted their annual Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony, where […]
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A Tide of Tub Toys
Here’s a story about global toy distribution that’s driven by natural forces rather than consumer trends.
There are few things I like better than heading to the beach to get lost in a good book. I read every day for my job at the museum, but my beach reading is play. Mark Twain was right when he said that “work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” If […]
New Pac-Man Game Coming to ICHEG
If you’ve seen me grinning as I drop tokens in ICHEG’s eGameRevolution exhibit, you’ve probably concluded I’m a huge retro coin-op fan. Games like Galaga, Tron, and Centipede keep me coming back in hopes of a new high score. In my book, playing “Golden Era” arcade cabinets never gets old.
My attachment to these classics makes me worry when I read about the pending release of a new version of one of these timeless games. It’s hard to live up to […]
Dolls and their Care
Here at The Strong, we take dolls seriously. Archeological evidence places dolls among the very oldest playthings and proves that children have enjoyed them since ancient times. More recently, dolls played an important part in the life of the museum’s founder, Margaret Woodbury Strong. Margaret started collecting dolls as a girl and amassed more than 27,000 during her lifetime. Today, The Strong’s National Museum of Play builds on Margaret Strong’s collection, continuing to collect dolls and provide for their care. […]
Chess Problems and Computer Games
I’ve played chess for decades, and during most of that time I’ve also enjoyed chess problems. Such puzzles, which chess players have constructed and enjoyed for centuries, present a chess position and task players to solve a particular problem related to it—white checkmates in four moves or black sacrifices a knight to win the queen. Sometimes these puzzles sharpen one’s chess game, as in Fred Reinfeld’s classic 1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations, but more often they simply offer a […]