“Think you could lift 185?” Anthony, my partner in life and in gym, asked me, only half joking. (more…)
Madison Butler writes about advertising by day and about video games the rest of the time. She can usually be found crying about Final Fantasy and Nier: Automata on Twitter @madisonrbutler.
Welcome back to Diary of a Hardline Shep. Last time I talked about how Mass Effect’s premise positions humanity as an exceptional species. What I didn’t talk about is how much embodying that really sucks. (more…)
A genderless eldritch beast bound to mortal flesh. Interests include games, gardening, magical realism, and the complete restructuring of America’s political and economic systems. Frequently orders too much food at restaurants. Tweets @unnnez.
So I want to start this diary from the very start. And from the very start, Mass Effect is very clear about one thing.
Shepard is special. (more…)
A genderless eldritch beast bound to mortal flesh. Interests include games, gardening, magical realism, and the complete restructuring of America’s political and economic systems. Frequently orders too much food at restaurants. Tweets @unnnez.
I don’t exactly remember when I picked up Bloodborne. Like a dream, worn-out memories hang at the edge of consciousness to the point that if you told me one day it had appeared on my shelf with no explanation, I would believe you. The more likely explanation is that I purchase games to add to my library and swear I’ll get to them later. I know it appeared in my home near its release, and I tried a few fruitless hours to navigate the streets of Yharnam, only succeeding in defeating the Cleric Beast. While I wasn’t far into it, Bloodborne’s story did intrigue me; unlike Dark Souls, you’re not given much of a summary. Just tasked to go out and kill a few beasts since it’ll “do some good.” The answers within this city—of a mysterious illness and blood-as-medicine, of being called a “Hunter”—were yet to unfold.
The following essay discusses familial illness and contains spoilers for Bloodborne. (more…)
When I’m not co-oping in a FromSoft game or trying to convince someone how good the Venom movie was; I usually enjoy crafting, drawing and hanging out with my two cats.
I’ve been playing tabletop RPGs for a long, long time. I started in the 1990s with DC Heroes by Mayfair Games (because of course I did) and pretty quickly moved into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. But I didn’t get big into games until Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition came out in 2000. That’s when I really began to pore through rulebooks, both core and supplemental, and when I began to explore campaign settings. While I learned a lot about Faerûn and the Forgotten Realms, my heart truly belonged to Krynn and Dragonlance. (more…)
Cori McCreery is a two-time Eisner-winning critic who primarily writes for Women Write About Comics. She is writing the literal book on Superman.
I first experienced an intentionally frustrating game when someone showed me QWOP in my freshman dorm room. I was relatively new to PC gaming, and some of my boyfriend’s rather unkind friends liked to poke fun at my lack of skill; I was probably presented with QWOP as a joke intended to frustrate me for their amusement. (more…)
Emma is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Composition who studies how play impacts learning. Her words have also appeared in Critical Distance and Unwinnable. When not writing, she enjoys passing the controller between friends for runs of Silent Hill. She can be found @kostopolus on Twitter.
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