March Roundtable: Remakes and Remasters

March Roundtable: Remakes and Remasters

In theory, March is about renewal—the weather warms up, the little flowers that grow in grasses spring up, and the month marks the Persian New Year. (What do you mean I’m the only person who cares about that??) Anyway, this kind of renewal has us thinking about rebirth (we already talked about renewal in games, after all!), and rebirth in games means remakes and remasters. (more…)

Do We Really Need Combat? Systems of Interaction in AAA Games

Do We Really Need Combat? Systems of Interaction in AAA Games

If you’ve been involved with any sort of political conversation surrounding video games for the last twenty years, you’ve probably heard a lot of people harping on about violence: specifically, that violent video games lead to violent behavior in real life. While that claim has largely been debunked by research, there’s no denying that violence is an integral part of most high-profile titles. A tight and fluid combat system is a major selling point for a major release from an AAA studio, and a game with poor combat is lambasted with bad reviews. For better or worse, combat can be how players define a game: it determines how we view its quality (sometimes privileged over other concerns like graphics and narrative), and how fun the process of violence is in a game is the point by which we decide whether or not to play. (more…)

July Roundtable: Games Imagining Better Futures

July Roundtable: Games Imagining Better Futures

Who doesn’t want a better world? Games have the power to let us see, build, and imagine something different than we currently inhabit; in other words, how can games imagine better futures? In this month’s roundtable, the Sidequest team asks what games are doing that, what games are failing, and the pitfalls to consider. (more…)

Gaming from the Margins: An Outside Look at Mainstream Media

Gaming from the Margins: An Outside Look at Mainstream Media

I live in Buenos Aires, one of the largest cities in South America. Despite the fact that our country’s economy is in perpetual crisis and our politicians belong firmly in hell, we have some positive things going on for us. I am deeply grateful for my peaceful, if neurotic, home. But, like most people who do not hail from central countries, I’ve also spent a lot of time looking outside, into the ever-present cultural there (more…)

Gaming from the Margins: An Outside Look at Mainstream Media

Firewatch, Gone Home, and the Power of a Good Bad Ending

Spoiler Warning: This piece contains spoilers for Firewatch, Gone Home, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Two of my favorite games of the past few years are also two of the games I most frequently see criticized for having bad endings—Gone Home and Firewatch. These are quiet, simple stories told in only a few hours at most. You don’t kill anybody in them. You explore and interact, putting together pieces of a narrative, rather than literal, puzzle. (more…)