Friday, July 15, 2016

News & Views
7/9/16-7/15/16

As a surprise to absolutely no one, it turns out a full Ph.D. student lab workweek after a tropical vacation feels absolutely awful. But I made it through. I guess? Anyway, onto the goods.

News & Views collects the week’s best video game writing and puts it all into one convenient place. Check out the links below for tons of Pokemon GO think pieces, what creators need to think about when designing narrative in VR, and a spotlight on one of the world’s earliest MMOs.

And of course please check out the brand new episode of The Impact Factor podcast that was posted today! You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or if you prefer other methods, check out our SoundCloud. We’re on YouTube too!

Spotlight
Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker

Worth Reading
Matt Sayer, Kill Screen

Justin Groot, Kill Screen

Andrzej Mazur, Gamsutra

Colin Lecher, The Verge

Glen Weldon, NPR

With Comments
Austin Walker, VICE
Walker puts into words a lot of what I’ve been thinking. Pokemon GO isn’t very good. That’s not to say it is a bad game, but it certainly isn’t a good one. Nor the game I think it could have been. But that’s all irrelevant. Pokemon GO has taken the world by storm in a way I never thought possible. As a game, Pokemon GO falls flat. As a cultural phenomenon, it’s deeply fascinating.

Andrew Webster, The Verge
A “no duh” article, but one that was worth writing. If you listen to the podcast, you’ll already know how I feel about Nintendo – they should stop making hardware and just release their games on other platforms. Pokemon GO shows that this would be more than financially viable for the company. People clearly don’t care about Nintendo hardware anymore (see the New 3DS or the Wii U), but people are absolutely crazy about their IP. It’s time to move on, Nintendo.

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