I don’t like playing Metal Gear. I love experiencing Metal Gear. I love Solid Snake. Because I love him because there is enough in the game to make me love him, enough character interaction and gameplay opportunity to ask me to love him and exhibit why I might stick around, and because I stick around…
WarGames: The Only Winning Move Is Still Not to Play
WarGames is a late 20th century film that puts the lie to adults scoffing that teens care about nothing other than food, fooling around, and enjoying the latest pop culture fads. Surprise, surprise: teens don’t want to die in a nuclear holocaust either. Teens are as capable of empathy, love, regret, guilt and fear as any adult —…
Idle Animations: El Presidente Doesn’t Care
Idle Animations is a recurring series in which I play games without playing them, exploring quiet, still moments, how games fill space and time, and what happens when you let a game play itself.
Black Rain: Hiroshima and the Cold War
Kuroi Ame (Black Rain) Directed by Shohei Imamura Produced by Hisa Iino Written by Ibuse Masuji & Toshiro Ishido Starring Yoshiko Tanaka, Kazuo Kitamura, Etsuko Ichihara, and Keisuke Ishida Distributed by Hayashibara Group, Imamura Productions, and Tohokushinsha Film Co. May 13, 1989 “Today is already yesterday.” Shohei Imamura’s 1989 film Kuroi Ame, based on a…
Call for Essays: Cold War in March
In March, WWAC is taking an in-depth look at how the Cold War shaped culture. We are looking for critical essays on books, movies, tv shows, comics and games made during or about that period after the end of WWII until the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are particularly interested in international works and…