We’re introducing a new feature, starting this week: a Friday news roundup, with a summary of releases, events and happenings in the games world; and the best of the week’s articles concerning intersectionality, social critique, and women in videogames. (Cuppycake: This one is being published today, on a Monday, because I completely messed up and didn’t publish it last Friday! Oops!) Tell us what you think, and post links to what you were reading this week in the comments below!
This Week in Game News
This week’s big game releases are Medal of Honor: Warfighter, and The Unfinished Swan. Preliminary reports of both games suggest definitely play the latter over the former….Nobody’s favorite game company Zynga hoped we wouldn’t notice that it fired over 100 employees and closed its Boston offices on Tuesday. But we did….PS3 owners take note: Hackers have reportedly gotten hold of the PS3′s LV0 codes, which may mean the console has been irreversibly compromised….This week in sneak peeks, the newest BioShock: Infinite trailer is heavy on the Americana, and DragonAge III has released its first concept art….Kickstarter does it again–indie sci-fi revival Star Citizen looks like it’s going to be a thing!…In games journalism, EuroGamer calls out the industry for being too cozy with industry PR, and tech news site The Verge’s game news spinoff Polygon went live on Thursday…And for your weekly dose of game design theory, check out Raph Koster revisiting his ten-year-old Theory of Fun at GDC online, video footage of which is now live.
Border House Editors’ Picks
- On The Mary Sue, Becky Chamberlain talks about how the oppressed women in Dishonored still manage to find a voice. And in case you missed it, The Border House’s own Tami Baribeau responded with a critique of her own.
- At Gamasutra, Leigh Alexander wants to reframe the “as a woman in games” discussion that she and many other women in gaming so frequently encounter.
- This article about game designer Peter Molyneux and his relationship with his Twitter parody counterpart @PeterMolydeux is oddly touching! (via Wired)
- On Kotaku, Patricia Hernandez takes a hard look at “serious games” in her article “The Complicated Truth about Games that Want to Change the World.” TL;DR: real life is complicated.
- Most of us can relate on some level to the short film Escape by Kennedy J. Baruch, about a girl who plays Twilight Princess to escape pressures at home and school. (Via Joystiq)
- ICYMI, Anna Anthropy called for more diverse voices in the videogame industry at Indiecade, saying “Token characters tend to distract media and press away from the people who are actually making games and telling their own stories.” Preach, girl. (Via Gamasutra)
Zynga wasn’t the only game company that fired people during that convention. However you don’t see them getting any hate. It’s actually a common practice by many game companies.
Why not provide some more info, or do you just want to critique? It makes me sad that for a brand new feature, the only comment is a “Actually…” comment.
Bigpoint laid off staff during the Apple presser as well – http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/10/23/bigpoint-cutting-120-jobs-abandoning-u-s-development/
I like this feature a lot!
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I’m so glad that you’re doing this! I love the voice of Border House, and have been sad that you guys have been writing fewer articles lately. I would absolutely love a BH-curated news roundup as a regular portal
Nice idea – I really like the idea of this feature and there’s some good stuff in there.
“Cuppycake: This one is being published today, on a Monday, because I completely messed up and didn’t publish it last Friday! Oops!”
This may sound strange, but apologizing for “messing up” in a breezy fashion jarred me. It made the post sound like a personal blog, not a news listing. Is the roundup going to be informal in nature, or a more professional report?
The apology itself didn’t offend but hitting a consistent tone is always part of what I look for in a feature or news site, so I thought I would call it out.