Unwinnable

When I was about 12 years old, one of my friends from school invited me to his birthday party at a place called Playdium. It was an enormous three-story arcade in the middle of a big suburban mall, and it had just about every popular arcade game of the era. At the time, my experience with videogames was confined to the world of NES and SNES, despite the fact that it was the tail end of 1999 and newer consoles were available. Entering Playdium for the first time and seeing the impressive three-dimensional worlds of Time Crisis and House of the Dead completely changed my perception of what games were capable of, and I was immediately sucked into the world of golden tokens and plastic handguns. (more…)

The countdown ends. The match begins. The rest of my team rushes around the other side of the abandoned bar, eager to get first blood. I duck to the left and dash past a burnt-out car wreck and down a back alley. There’s no need to check corners. This early into the game, there’s no way I’m getting outflanked.

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My life is often dominated by lonely activities. Every weekday morning, I go to an office where I am by myself most of the day. When I go home, I often spend my time writing and editing alone. I eat alone and watch Netflix or Hulu to unwind. For fun, I play videogames, usually alone. (more…)

I can’t remember thinking The Smiths were a miserable band until I started listening to them when I was miserable and then I became…well, a “Girl Afraid.” (more…)

When I was 16, the first guy I ever dated died of a shotgun wound. Among other things, he was a gamer.

I’m not a gamer. I’m an educator; I grade papers on Renaissance and science fiction literature at U.C. Berkeley and review essays on a wide variety of topics at Smarthinking, an online tutoring company. In the past couple of years, my current partner has become a professional videogame critic and I have reviewed over 60 essays on videogames. I haven’t played that many videogames in my life. (more…)

There seems to be a new cross-genre in film, comics and games: famous figures in history beating the piss out of monsters. I recently previewed some photos and footage from both Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and FDR: American Badass! and loved what I saw. This is definitely a fresh twist to the horror genre, but it’s not the first time we’ve seen this battling of historical and horror icons. (more…)

Don’t buy videogames on Black Friday. In fact, don’t buy anything on Black Friday. Don’t leave the house. And if you have to go outside, stay far away from malls and big-box retailers. In fact, you should probably stay away from your computer too. Finish reading this story, close the browser and power down your PC. (more…)