Gaming Round-Up: June 29, 2015

"Brotherhood of Steel" by Tim Fangon

[ Check out previous Gaming Round-Ups here on the The Geek Art Gallery ]

23 Games from E3 2015 with Badass Playable Female Characters, as picked by Sam Maggs for The Mary Sue

Apparently Dudes Who Use Female Avatars In MMORPGs Aren’t Doing It Right

As Bethesda is gearing up for the release of a new game in the Fallout franchise, Shamus Young of Twenty Sided considers the writing in Fallout 3. In a five part series, Shamus details the "blistering stupidity" of the concept, the world, the protagonists, the antagonists, and the conclusion. Young has been featured previously on the blue talking about both Skyrim and Star Trek.

As a former economics student, I really enjoyed reading Stephen Winson's history of World of Warcraft’s gold economy earlier this week.  I would love to see a similar write up on Project Entropia's economy, but I'm just a nerd like that.

At Not Your Mama’s Gamer, Alisha Karabinus talks about the practice of avoiding combat, not from the perspective of a pacifist, but rather in regard to time-wasting enemies, which is something I think we can ALL relate to. 

Austin Walker kicks off his new spot at Giant Bomb with a piece on public funding in the games industry.  More specifically, he considers what Tale of Tales studio's "failure" can teach us about public funding in the game industry. 

Chris Donlan of Eurogamer thinks about vapourware in the wake of an E3 that saw revivals of games such as  The Last Guardian.

Developer on Anthony Kyne weighs in on sports games to address the delusion that they are uncreative. Fans of sports games and simulators in generally may have noticed that the genre tends to make design decisions invisible to users, but what you may not realize is that those decision are often invisible to fellow designers, as well.

Game Espresso's Javier Rodriguez examines Youtube's effect on the Game Industry.


In honor of last week's SCOTUS ruling, Kotaku's Yannick LeJacq offers this (Very) Brief History Of Gay Marriage In Video Games.

Infographic: America's Favorite Video Game Genres

In June, 1994, a man goes missing. His wife makes a series of interviews with police. Those interviews form the basis of the recently released title Her Story, an FMV-style game that tasks the player with digging through hours of video to determine what happened, and how, and why.  Developed by Sam Barlow, Her Story is receiving almost universal accolades for its unconventional form, non-linear narrative, and the performance of Viva Seifert in the lead - and only - role. It's available now for Mac, Windows, and iOS.  Gunpoint creator Tom Francis on what works in the detective game Her Story. 

Jason Serafino argues that Rocksteady changed the face of gaming with the Batman: Arkham trilogy in this review by way of love letter over the Tech Times (which I wholeheartedly agree with).

Javy Gwaltney of Paste Magazine delves into the character of Batman and explains (quite convincingly) Why Dishonored Is The Best Batman Game [N]Ever Made.

Katherine Cross of Gamasutra discusses the "difference between a ‘sexist portrayal’ and a portrayal of sexism," citing uses Night Witches as an example.  In response to a different Katherine Cross piece, Lana LeRay argues that AAA studios have made progress their depictions of sex and intimacy.

At Kotaku, that Nathan Grayson proposes that Valve create a metagame that incentivizes playing games from your backlog the same way they create metagames to inspire you to spend more money in sales.  Sure, it's not likely given the lack of profit incentive, but it's a fun mental exercise.

Michaël Samyn and Auriea Harvey talk about their experience trying and failing to make a game for gamers over at Gamasutra.  It's a surprisingly uplifting piece.

"After the barrage of sad tales about depression caused by indies turning into millionaires overnight, allow us to raise your spirits with a story about the liberating and energizing effects of complete commercial failure."

At the New York Times, Nick Bilton discusses how online playgrounds mimic real-world social constructs through the eyes of 10 year olds.

Over at the Guardian, games writer Naomi Alderman argues that the BBC needs to tackle online gaming.  Superficially, it may seem ridiculous, but the BBC's entry into television and film-making were also initially controversial.  Given the rising ubiquity of games, might software development be the next logical step in upholding their mandate?

"Can the BBC make games? Of course it can, and does. Its “mission” is to “enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain”. Its purposes include “promoting education and learning”, “stimulating creativity and cultural excellence”, and its means of output are “television, radio and online”. This country is a world leader in games-making talent. Online gaming can be creatively and culturally excellent. Games can inform, educate and entertain – and also engage, a pretty vital prerequisite for doing the other three. But right now the BBC just isn’t applying its values to games."

Rob Fahey considers the consequences of Bungie’s decision to produce Destiny content without a subscription.  Will the so-called "fragility" of Bungie's business model make them better custodians of their customer base? 

At Unwinnable, Stu Horvath points out how the enthusiasm (or lack thereof) surrounding both Metroid Prime: Federation Force and Shenmue 3 are two sides of the same bad penny.

At VICE, Matt Porter explores the Art of Adapting Video Games into Comics, asking "What can a comic do for storytelling that a game can't?"  Meanwhile, Christian Hoffer counts down The Five Best Comic Book Video Games Of All Time.

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