Tag Archives: affect

Robert Macfarlane on Anthropocene Affects

Where the pain of nostalgia arises from moving away, the pain of solastalgia arises from staying put. Where the pain of nostalgia can be mitigated by return, the pain of solastalgia tends to be irreversible. Solastalgia is not a malady … Continue reading

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You Buy It I Write It: The Polynomial

Is there a game you think I should write about? If you buy it for me on Steam, I will write about it. Check out the information here. There was a flurry of activity when I announced that I would … Continue reading

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On Cart Life

Cart Life broke me in less than half an hour. I started the game as Andrus Poder. Andrus Poder is from Ukraine. He works on his English by translating Ukrainian poetry while on the train to his new life. He has … Continue reading

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On Experience-Taking

This is a quick bit of writing about “experience-taking,” which is a term created by Lisa Libby and Geoff Kaufman, from Ohio State and Dartmouth, respectively. If you don’t care about what I have to say about it, just read … Continue reading

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Cabinet Interview with Sianne Ngai

This isn’t something substantive, but rather it is a moment where I tell you video game and comic book people that you have to read this interview that Sianne Ngai did with Cabinet last year. Ngai writes on aesthetics in a really … Continue reading

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On Plink

Go play Plink. Do it right now. I don’t have a lot of things to say about the game. It is poetry in motion, and when you are playing with a few other people, you can really feel it click. … Continue reading

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Is the Aura the Same as Affect? A Response to a Lingering Question

I have a friend who has been asking Benjamin scholars, for a few years now, if affect and the aura are the same thing. It is a fair question, and there isn’t a hard answer to it, but I am … Continue reading

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What Will We Simulate Next?

Epic is licensing the Unreal 3 engine to the government. Read the press release here. On face, this all looks like great stuff. A number of games that are being developed are designed around simulation that prepares specialists for difficult … Continue reading

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A Thing We Do With Video Games

I read Ian Bogost’s How To Do Things With Video Games on a plane last weekend. I think it is a really smart book that acts as a really great introduction to video game studies, and more particularly, I think … Continue reading

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To Be Shepard

This is one of those posts where I don’t make proscriptions about or critique a game. This is all about my experience with Mass Effect 3. There are spoilers about the game. *** Mordin died singing. That’s what has stuck with … Continue reading

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