Hey everyone, this weeks reading in “Training the Body for China” was a pretty interesting read for me for several reasons. First of all, whenever I read anything on China I am typically perplexed about the ways in which the government impacts peoples lives in ways that I typically see as private. Brownell writes about…
Short Take: Kottabos, the Ancient Greek Form of Beer Pong
by chandsaker •
There is a reason why the Ancient Greeks are portrayed in history as a bunch of wine drunkards, because they were. A famous quote by Greek philosopher and historian Thucydides around the 5th century BCE states, “The peoples of the Mediterranean began to emerge from barbarism when they learned to cultivate the olive and the…
A Brief History of (Game) Sound: Andrew Schartmann’s Maestro Mario
by Griffin H. •
More than just a diatribe on game music as art, Schartmann unravels a complicated history of “Game Music” going back to Boardwalk Penny arcades and Pre-Pinball cabinets through an thoughtful, music-theory based analysis of how music has become an integral part in participatory games culture and presentation.
How Game Design Teaches Players
by Griffin H. •
In this brief, informative video Youtuber Mark Brown demonstrates Director Hayashida Koichi’s design process, and how it’s been utilized to create some of the most critically acclaimed games in the Mario series.
Fantasy Sports and Contemporary Spectatorship
by Alan Kloosterhof •
Short take Apex Smash tournament
by Keenan T •
This Short take is about an event that happened quite a while ago but is still incredibly important to the competitive gaming world, or at least for the super smash bros competitive scene. The big event was Apex 2015, the biggest smash tournament ever. What makes this event so important, even to people who aren’t…
BoRT 2 Friends and gaming
by Keenan T •
Blake J. Harris’s “Console Wars”
by Griffin H. •
BotRT 3: Synesthetic Gamefeel
by Griffin H. •
On Skill and What Skill Means
by Patrick Anderson •
We’ve been spending a lot of time discussing what games are and how to define them, but I think a conversation equally worth having is the definition of what elements constitute games. Probably the closest thing we’ve talked about to this are Callois’ classifications, but we debunked their validity in equal measure, because of their…