Review: Kill Screen Magazine: Games are No Fun
EricMesa
- 3 minutes read - 492 words
Video Games Are No Fun by Kill Screen Magazine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
As I usually do with an anthology-style product, I’m just moving over my status updates.
“Big Buck- I’ve seriously misjudged this game all these years”
“King of the Ogres - Although I never got into WOW, I’ve faced similar issues with others (sometimes peers and sometimes the older generation) not understanding games as a diversion as valid as whatever they do for fun.”
“Feminist gamer of the year: This aligns with what we often describe in the comics world as men with breasts - female characters that the male authors don’t fill with authentic female voices. Reading about fallout was pretty eye opening. The Portal section was great, but I’m surprised the author didn’t pick up on the female taunts from glados like calling Chell fat.”
“Intensive - interesting interview about the role of games and point and click games in particular”
“Tura, Lost - Very deep. I’m thankful to the author for sharing that. What a great, eclectic collection this Kill Screen is turning out to be.”
“Some Russian - not only was that fan fiction great, the intro reminded me of the back stories my brother’s and I created for Tetris.”
“Bungie Dev - Interesting meditation on whether competition is always best for video games”
“The sound of sickness - a good reminder that sound had to be created for video games. There is no ambient recording”
“Ball is out of control - I heard this story on a podcast. (I think 99% Invisible) Pretty weird bit of history with Pinball and NYC.”
“Creating discomfort - I’m not familiar with these games, but I’m glad we have a good indie scene now that can support them.”
“Winning hearts and minds - reminds me of conversations I’ve had with veterans about what they think of military shooters.”
“Lick Her Boot - just like creating discomfort, a discussion with a designer who does things to mess with the player. There’s a logic to the way the player is messed with that reveals how we’ve been conditioned by decades of play and game design vocabulary.”
“Axe to grind - It’s so amusing how we get so caught up in what we’re supposed to be the best at that we fall apart when a kid bests us.”
“Chiller - arcades …. I wish they still existed”
“Bosses - a look at some truly disturbing bosses and what it says about us.”
“The local - As I’ve learned more and more about how localization works, I’ve been less and less upset with the compromised made”
“Calling off the engagement - an examination of how we interact with games and how that makes it different from other art”
“Stephen Lavelle - communicating difficult themes through games in which there is no winning.”
“Monday - a neat use of a text adventure interface to communicate a sad story.”