For eagle-eyed readers of my contributions to The Guardian’s Game Theory column and my gamesblog posts over the past few years, it may come as no surprise that, upon my return to The Guardian after Digital Revolution production is over, I am moving on from games coverage to technological pastures wider. I have been skirting around the mainstream games industry news for a long time, writing more about play than PlayStation, more about the Web than the Wii, and more about creative uses of technology than controllers. Although I am still passionate about the extraordinary joy and power that fun can produce, it’s time for me to cover another area of interactivity. I’m looking forward to treading new ground with The Guardian, the details of which will be unveiled soon. However, with the sanction of the gamesbloggers, I may throw a few games-related posts on their blog if the story is suitable.
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[Guardian] This gamesblogger is movin' on, plus Tech Weekly in the New Year
Saturday November 14, 2009 @ 06:20 PM (UTC) -
[Games Theory] Here is the news: videogames hysteria is just for the kids
Wednesday September 02, 2009 @ 08:50 PM (UTC)Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian
Wednesday 2 September 2009I have, in effect, been living under a videogames rock for the past three months. My self-imposed exile at the hands of a looming PhD thesis submission date and the subsequent two weeks in a recovery position has rendered my bleeding-edge knowledge of computer gaming obsolete. When confronted with the headlines announcing trends, new releases and banal news, I feel like an OAP outpaced by the young whippersnappers who’ve staked out their turf in my neighbourhood: “Get offa my patch you little devils!” I want to shout, while shaking a gnarled PlayStation 1 controller at them. “Whateva, grandma,” they’d throw back, casually cool with their Wiimotes and iPhones. Harumph.
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[Games Theory] Time to press pause before hitting another level
Wednesday August 19, 2009 @ 08:44 PM (UTC)Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian
Wednesday 19 August 2009There are few things more satisfying in life than levelling up. That, after all, is what games are all about. As a long-time player, I have a tendency to look at the world through console-coloured glasses. Recently, I had one of those mini-boosts in XP when I was on a train. I had quite happily, furiously, been scribbling in the margins of a document, drawing spaghetti arrows from one end to the other and back again, jotting down incomprehensible notes for myself and scratching out passages of text, when out of the blue my pen ran out of ink. It wasn’t blocked, it hadn’t dried up: I had used the entire charge of red in my ballpoint pen, from the moment it was first de-capped through to its final stroke. When I realised just what had happened, I heard that telltale little “ding” and knew I had a new trophy for my achievements shelf.
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[Games Theory] Why World of Warcraft may be the future of the Nation State
Thursday August 06, 2009 @ 09:15 AM (UTC)Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian
Wednesday 5 August 2009World of Warcraft and its ilk represent the next phase in human social evolution. Seriously: those people who spend their (virtual) lives dressed up like trolls or people with pointy ears, who feel a sense of accomplishment from smacking digital rats around for hours each night – they are creating the new sovereignty, establishing a nation-state that transcends borders, that challenges traditional ideas of governance, that threatens economic structures and upsets power hierarchies. People, the future is in the hands of a bunch of trolls.
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[Games Theory] Retro classics may save Hollywood
Wednesday July 08, 2009 @ 11:27 PM (UTC)
Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian
8 July 2009
It’s the news we’ve all been waiting for: Universal Pictures has secured the film rights to the 80s vector-based space shooter Asteroids. Yes, that Asteroids – the white-on-black arcade classic. The news arrived via the pen of fellow Game Theorist Keith Stuart and the phrase “scraping the barrel” comes to mind. But rather than mock, I’m going to play devil’s advocate for a moment and propose that getting into a bidding war for an outdated, nostalgia-laden computer game is a good thing for the film studios to do. No, a great thing. Believe it or not, I have three reasons. Hear me out.
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[Games Theory] Sex and games – why haven't they got it on?
Wednesday June 24, 2009 @ 12:38 AM (UTC)
Aleks Krotoski
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 June 2009 19.00 BST
Sex. Got your attention? OK, good. I’ll try again. Games. Still here? Excellent. Now that I’ve got your number, let’s try the two of them together: sex and games. Hello? Nothing? Where did you go? How strange. You’d think that sex-plus-games would equal a rush of eager gamers waving fists of cash, but according to Brenda Brathwaite, founder of the International Game Developers Association’s Sex in Games special interest group, the adult entertainment industry has never really had a look-in. They may have propelled other digital innovations, but when it comes to console-based hanky-panky, grown-up situations have been a turn-off.
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[Games Theory] E3 - a trip best taken in the safety of your home
Thursday June 11, 2009 @ 12:37 AM (UTC)Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian, Thursday 11 June 2009
A throbbing head, weak knees and flashing lights: these are only three of the reasons I did not go to the second coming of E3, the Electronics Entertainment Expo, last week in Los Angeles. There are others. The west’s Tokyo Game Show is, as I have written on the Gamesblog in the past, an orgasm of the senses. Problem is, it’s actually someone else’s orgasm, and you’ve had nothing to do with it.
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[Games Theory] Put down the controller and get some fresh air
Thursday May 28, 2009 @ 12:35 AM (UTC)Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian, Thursday 28 May 2009
The sun is finally out and, confession time, the last place I want to be is inside playing a computer game. Yes, making such a statement under the heading Game Theory may seem treasonous, or at least the end of my tenure on these pages, but I assure you, I’m not letting the side down. I’m still playing – I’ve just taken my playthings outside.
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[Games Theory] In loving memory of Duke: Hail to the King, baby!
Thursday May 14, 2009 @ 12:33 AM (UTC)
Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian, Thursday 14 May 2009
The games industry lost a great figure last week, a man whose near two decades of service helped to define our modern gaming culture. Duke Nukem, the iconic frontman of the cherished series that bore his name, was laid to rest with the closure of 3D Realms – the development studio that bore him, raised him and pig-headedly refused to let him go.
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[Games Theory] It's time to turn on, log in, and shape up
Thursday April 30, 2009 @ 12:31 AM (UTC)Aleks Krotoski
The Guardian, Thursday 30 April 2009
Last weekend, the Department for Health released its latest TV ad in the Change4Life campaign. It features a clay modelled family coming to the realisation that the scientists are right: a sedentary lifestyle leads to health problems. “Throw down the remote! Chuck away the joystick! Stop eating greasy takeaways!” was the message. “Save our NHS from an epidemic of fatties!” was the subtext. And dutifully, the family did as they were told and started freakin’ on Dance Dance Revolution.
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