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When a game is also a game engine
So Warcraft III Reforged just released, and Blizzards fans are kinda angry. Partly because the visual improvements aren’t as great as they were hyped up to be, but more interestingly, the remaster’s licensing agreement indicates that all custom user-created maps become the intellectual property of Blizzard. This policy was in all likelihood inspired by the…
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Work and the Zero
[Some spoilers for Kentucky Route Zero] Through an unfortunate series of events, Kentucky Route Zero’s Conway finds himself in debt to a mysterious distillery in the Zero, staffed entirely by strange glowing skeletons. With no way to pay, the distillery hounds him into working for them. His traveling partner Shannon Marquez suggests that he could…
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The Smallness of Florence
One of the texts for our interactive storytelling class is this, an interactive music video for Jeff Buckley’s rendition of Bob Dylan’s Just Like A Woman. As the music plays, a series of comic book style panels scroll past the screen. You are invited to click the panels, causing them to alternate between alternative narratives,…
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Contagion and Information
David Fincher has always been known as a director who is interested in *information*. Panic Room’s introductory one take shot, where the camera flies through the house so your awareness of the space, and how elements in the space relate to each other is a classical example of this. Another director who shares this fascination…
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Essay Proposal: Disco Elysium
Here’s my proposal for my research essay for my interactive storytelling class, on Disco Elysium: Research Question: Disco Elysium is a roleplaying game about an alcoholic amnesiac detective who’s tasked with solving a grisly murder amidst an ongoing labour dispute at the local docks, all while trying to recover his forgotten identity (or construct a…
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A Worm Through the Mind
“You are a worm through time. The thunder song distort you. Happiness comes. White pearls, but yellow and red in the eye…” As the hiss burrow through and infect the very walls of the Federal Bureau of Control in the videogame Control, they chant a very curious incantation. The words go on and on, seemingly…
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The City in The City and The City
There’s something Borges-esque about China Mieville’s The City and They City. It’s a book about cities, but a dreamlike visage of them. The titular cities are Beszel and Ul Qoma, but they are not cities as we know them. What defines a city? What delineates it from the rest of civilisation? What defines its culture…
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Sex Education
The Netflix show Sex Education is actually a great source of sex education. Who knew? Seriously though, some of its scene and plot beats seem almost purposefully constructed for the sole purpose of delivering useful and affirming information about sex, romance and intimacy. One character learns about pansexuality and reads a dictionary definition of it…
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Subjectivity and The Garden of Forking Paths
[Spoilers for The Garden of Forking Paths] Borges’ The Garden of Forking Paths ends in a tragedy. The death of Stephen Albert seems at once fated, yet coincidental. His death was due to an unfortunate coincidence in names, yet it seemed that fate brought the killer to him. Our protagonist Yu Tsun’s arrival was expected…
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The Magic Trick in Deus Ex
I’ve been obsessively watching old clips of the TV talent show Penn and Teller’s Fool Us recently. The show’s premise is this: magicians come onto the show and perform a routine in front of Penn and Teller along with a live audience. At the end of their routine, Penn and Teller discuss amongst themselves and…