As the United States finally begins to take haphazard steps at taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously, several politicians have already begun comparing the global health crisis to a war. Joe Biden made the comparison numerous times during the Democratic debate on Sunday and President of France Emanuel Macron has declared war on the virus while …
Category Archives: media
Sounds Fake But Okay: Thoughts on Facebook’s Efforts to Fight Fake News
Facebook can’t solve the problem of fake news but it wants to make sure the conversation around it is happening on Facebook.
Street Fighters: Thoughts on the Video Game Voice Actor Strike
The voice actors strike brings to light questions about the boundaries between work and play
Is Anyone Out There?: Alienation in No Man’s Sky
No Man’s Sky explores the loneliness of the networked life
Digital Doldrums: A Review of Ready Player One
Would you like to save your game?
The Hunt for the Familiar: The Nostalgia of Pokémon GO
Pokémon GO brings players familiarity in an increasingly uncertain world
Mama’s Gotta Work: The Feminist Origins of Wages for Facebook
Why do we do all of this work for free?
No Solace in Shadows – A Review of Liyla and the Shadows of War
Much of the current debate around video games revolves around whether or not games should be viewed through a political lens. There are many gamers who advocate for better representation of women, people of color, and LGBTQ people in games, and there are others who reject these demands as “politicizing” the ostensibly non-political. For those …
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The Internet of Despairing Things
“Hi, thanks for checking in. I’m still a piece of garbage.” Is melancholy a dominant emotional state of many internet users? Why does everyone seem so sad and depressed? Are websites like Upworthy a response to this negativity? A feeble attempt to inject the positive into an all-consumingly depressing world? We all see those Facebook …
War Games – Gender and Violence After Gamergate
Why are political criticisms of video games so often treated as declarations of war? Gamers may understandably find the question of politics to be rather tiring. To debate whether or not video games are political is, in itself, an exercise in politics, insofar as debate is the process by which the limits of acceptable speech …
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