Tag Archives | Gaming

Apple Blocks Sweatshop-Themed Satirical Games From App Store

By on March 25, 2013 in News 0

Corporate gatekeepers say that provocative ideas don’t belong in video games. Via Pocket Gamer:

According to UK developer Littleloud, Sweatshop HD is an iPad game that “challenged people to think about the origin of the clothes we buy”. But it has now been removed from Apple’s online marketplace because the App Store was “uncomfortable selling a game based around the theme of running a sweatshop”.

Sweatshop HD wasn’t the first game of its kind to be removed by Apple, either. In Phone Story, Molleindustria depicted the seedy side of smartphone manufacturing, including sweatshop suicides and the harvesting of rare minerals in the war-torn Congo. Apple pulled the game, saying it violated App Store clause 16.1 – “Apps that present excessively objectionable or crude content will be rejected.”

There’s also In a Permanent Save State, an artistic game centered on “the spiritual afterlife” of overworked electronics labourers who had committed suicide.

… Read the rest

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In Memorandum: Free Chasing The Wish comic

By on March 11, 2013 in News 0

 Produced in close collaboration with the late Dave Szulborski, the comic tied together his previous, massively successful ARG Chasing The Wish, with an ARG that was running simultaneously with the comics production and release called Catching The Wish.

Dave was posthumously named the World’s Most Prolific ARG Producer by Guinness World Records 2012 Gamer’s Edition. We at Modern Mythology are happy to share this comic with you, free, in memory of Dave’s creativity.

FULL BOOK 1 (PDF)
FULL BOOK 1 COVERS (PDF)

Chasing The Wish comic credits:

Written by: Jason Stackhouse with James Curcio. Based on the ARG by Dave Szulborski. Art: P. Emerson Williams, Jessika Kaos, James Curcio.… Read the rest

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Pixelated Misogyny

By on March 9, 2013 in News 105

Last May, Anita Sarkeesian–founder of Feminist Frequency–launched a Kickstarter for a video series about “stereotypes of female characters” in video games. The description begins, “I love playing video games but I’m regularly disappointed in the limited and limiting ways women are represented. “

With an initial goal of $6,000, it ultimately raised $158,922 from 6,967 backers. While this outcome speaks to the level of interest, Sarkeesian has written about receiving a “torrent of misogyny and hate speech” and “intimidation and harassment” from the gaming community.

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Rioting Video Game Allows You To Fight The Police

By on February 28, 2013 in News 38

Atlantic Cities describes the 8-bit-style smartphone game RIOT, a thought-provoking attempt to capture the liminal state which occurs during uprisings when order breaks down. I’d rather have my kids playing this than a game which makes them Navy SEALs:

“Riot” is a developing project in Italy that’s led by film-and-game director Leonard Menchiari, who previously did cinematography for “Half-Life” creator Valve Corporation. The atmospheric little simulator of bedlam, which runs on iOS or Android phones, is inspired by real-life political turmoil from around the globe.

There’s a hefty element of strategy involved, with the player taking on either the role of the agitators or the truncheoned legions of police trying to maintain order.

The developers have received modest funding so far on their Indiegogo page. If they collect enough cash, they hope to enrich the simulator by traveling to the sites of recent uprisings in Greece, Egypt and Italy to interview people involved in the conflicts.

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LSD Dream Emulator: The Japanese Mind-Simulation Video Game

By on January 4, 2013 in News 3

The best late-night console game of all time? Lovely Sweet Dream (LSD) Dream Emulator was released in Japan in 1998 by Playstation. There is no way to win or lose, and no defined tasks  – except to explore one’s subconscious, set to a trip-hop-jazz soundtrack:

There are many strange environments in this world, and one way to travel through them is by foot. Bumping into people, animals, or special objects usually results in a stranger dream. The number of “days” are kept track of. As the player progresses, the pattern on walls and the form of the player may transmute. Occasionally the player may come across a man in a gray trench coat, commonly referred to as the “Gray Man” or the “Shadow Man”. He walks in one direction only. Getting too close to him will make the screen flash, the man will disappear.

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Senate Bill Proposed To Study And Possibly Crack Down On Video Game Violence

By on December 25, 2012 in News 23

Congressional Republicans poised to censor video games to ensure that a massacre at a school never happens again. In all honesty I thought kids just played Angry Birds nowadays. IGN reports:

A proposed bill could lead to a study of the role of violence in video games. In the wake of the recent shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller has proposed a bill to study “the impact of violent content, including video games and video programming, on children.”

In a statement posted to his site, Rockefeller wrote “I have long expressed concern about the impact of the violent content our kids see and interact with every day. As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have introduced legislation to direct the National Academy of Sciences to investigate the impact of violent video games and other content on children’s well-being.”

Under the bill, the National Academy of Sciences “would be directed to conduct a comprehensive study and investigation of the connection between violent video games and violent video programming and harmful effects on children.” Rockefeller also noted plans to call upon the FCC and FTC to “expand their work in this area.”

… Read the rest

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Maine Political Race Hinges On Candidate’s World Of Warcraft Alter-Ego

By on October 5, 2012 in News 13

Is the American public finally ready to elect a role-playing gamer to public office? In Maine, the Republican Party is portraying Democratic state Senate hopeful and World of Warcraft devotee Colleen Lachowicz as unfit for office because she “lives in an online fantasy world,” Kotaku writes:

Colleen Lachowicz is running for state senate in Waterville, Maine. She also plays a lot of World of Warcraft. According to Maine Republicans, this means that she is unfit for office. The Maine Republican Party has set up an entire website dedicated to digging up old forum posts made by Lachowicz on Blizzard’s online role-playing game.

… Read the rest

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Microsoft’s Own Holodeck

By on September 12, 2012 in News 2

Picure: US Patent Office (PD)

Via Ars Technica

A newly published patent from software giant Microsoft indicates that the company is looking at developing a new, immersive video game environment. The concept sounds similar to the holodeck of Star Trek fame. Here’s hoping that the “blue screen of death” won’t become literal anytime soon:

Microsoft’s patent for an “immersive display experience” was published by the US Patent Office last week after being filed back in early 2011. It describes a standard video game system with a connected “environmental display” capable of projecting a panoramic image that “appears to surround the user.”

Such a projector wouldn’t replace the central TV display used in current consoles, but it would provide a “peripheral image” that would “serve as an extension” of that primary display. The purpose, of course, is to extend the gaming environment outside of the TV screen, so a player could, for instance, “turn around and observe an enemy sneaking up from behind.”

Wrap yourself in a snuggly digital cocoon and keep reading here.… Read the rest

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Soon Advertisements Will Involve Forced Interaction

By on September 10, 2012 in News 19

In the near future, television commercials will make you do things, such as throwing a pickle onto an imaginary hamburger, if you want to get back to your show. Via Electronista:

Sony recently filed a patent for a new method of ad delivery that would turn television commercials into “interactive networked video games.” The patent, uncovered by Game’N’Motion, details a number of interactive commercial possibilities built on the motion and voice technologies currently available in Sony’s PlayStation 3, PlayStation Move, and PS Eye devices.

… Read the rest

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Taiwanese Teen Dies In Internet Cafe After 40 Straight Hours Of Video Games

By on July 24, 2012 in News 6

In all honesty, gazing at the packaging of this so-called Diablo III, it seems implied that a few users will die while playing. Via the Australian:

The Taiwanese teenager collapsed and died at an internet cafe after playing Diablo 3, a popular online video game, for 40 consecutive hours, according to Australian Associated Press. The 18-year-old identified by only his surname, Chuang, booked a private room at the cafe in Tainan around noon on July 13 and played for nearly two days without eating.

On the morning of July 15, an attendant entered the room and found Chuang resting on a table. After the attendant woke him, he stood, took a few steps and then collapsed, the report said. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital.

In February, heart failure was the attributed cause of the reported death of a man in New Taipei who was found dead, slumped in a chair facing a computer with his arms still reaching out for the keyboard after playing for 23 hours.

… Read the rest

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