Erik Hanson's Page

It's starting to sound like game creation might be an ethical act. [Go ahead and insert "No duh!" here.] Here's what the internet said last week:

MIGS, War Crimes & The Games Medium

Chris Remo compiled a rundown of coverage on the Montreal International Games Summit.

After seeing Brenda Brathwaite's talk at MIGS, David Sirlin waffles on… Continue

I've been ruminating out loud and with other on Twitter regarding ideas for how to make the link-aggregation of Context Clues 1) less insular to just the RSS feeds I follow and, 2) less work for me. Collaborative ideas have been proposed, and they appeal to me. As an alpha-stage test, here are some links with fewer and shorter summaries. If you want to give a summary in the comments below, I'll edit it in--all Paleolithic wiki-style. (Warning: These haven't had my usual 3+ passes to make sure al… Continue

Hypertextual Abomination!

Big releases continue to drive the discussion this week, with Modern Warfare 2's virtual terrorism, raising questions of social responsibility in simulation, the narrative efficacy of bombast, and the role of games in society. On the other hand, Dragon Age raises questions of which genre and gameplay conventions have become the forgotten banana at the bottom of the backpack, carried forward on accident, unknowing of the mess you're causing with every… Continue

Reachin' out, touchin' faith.

The internet's really outdone itself this past week. I tallied roughly double the number of interesting articles to read through come Saturday (at least 140, I believe). Although this week's edition of Context Clues highlights a large number of those posts, not all of them made it in. (Sorry!) If you'd like to dig a bit deeper into my rabbit-hole life, you can catch some these links and more, you can find the shorter list at the… Continue

This past week was certainly an exciting one. You may be aware that there are folks out there who still dismiss games as being the same mainly lighthearted distractions that once populated the first video arcades. Seems to me that the mere fact that games cause controversy beyond "Pac-Man Fever" is a solid indication that games have moved forward from the days of Centipede and Joust. Growing up isn't just about growing pains, though. At some point, trying to wear the same shoes… Continue