Recent content by Finnish(ed)

I think the lure of activities like LARP, re-enactment and paintball and sports like rugby are all based on the same experience. They all attempt to create the atmosphere of a battleground. Because we react to this type of situations according to primitive, tribal instincts, the surge of...

While I agree with most of what Blow said, I think there is a lot more room for reform. For example, Braid had me jumping on generic enemies and reading the story in text. These are the wrong kinds of traditions to uphold. Games should try to avoid the traditional abstractions and trust their...

Many games try to make a compromise between player freedom and authored content. This seems to be doomed to fail. I would rather see a tightly scripted story, with well-thought-out dramatic content, themes and intellectual challenge. On the other hand, I would also welcome a game with absolutely...

I'm looking forward to seeing what new ideas this issue can provide, but I'm not actually expecting much, since the video game industry seems to be extremely derivative. Even the highly praised "Braid" seemed to embody the most basic of platformer dogmas. It also had me jumping on relatively...

Excellent topic. I've always thought that a role-playing game should have some actual role-playing in it. If there is no room for choice, there can be no role-playing. On the other hand, because there will always be a very limited amount of choices, dialog options, character appearances and...

My example is not very extreme, nor is it uncommon. I'm a little shorter than average, so I've gotten used to getting all kinds of bad attitudes from people of both sexes. Some people who have had similar problems become withdrawn and timid, but I just learned how to deal with people who have...

The bit about the girlfriend was funny, and sad. I know it is evil to laugh at the misfortunes of others, but comedy is evil. Or then I am. I forget which. To comment on gaming addiction: This might be too big of a simplification for some, but games, movies, drugs, music and sex are all the...

I'm sorry, but I have to mention that nearly everything that is good in Star Wars, follows very closely the path made clear in Joseph Campbell's works "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" and "The Power of Myth". Lucas has said himself, that he rewrote the story after reading Campbell, so that it...

I actually, literally, laughed out loud while reading this article. It was only for a few seconds, but for me, that's a lot. At one point, I almost felt sorry for you, Mr. Spanner, but then I realized that your parents were the real victims of this particular money-grabbing, opportunistic...

For me, every work of art or a consumer product must stand on its own. Overall, I really liked the original trilogy, although there was many things in it that I did not like. This does in no way predispose me to like anything related to Star Wars. If another product has some of the elements that...

I respect the altruistic, the courageous and the gentle. A person's profession actually has very little to do with the matter. Usually people work only because they have to make money and/or because they want respect or authority. Sometimes people seek some sort of personal validation through...

I've had to send my 360 to Germany two times. I haven't bought any games for it in months and probably never will. I'd like to play games, but the whole industry is just making it really, really difficult for me to enjoy them. 1. Games are usually released buggy and incomplete. 2. Consoles...

I would much rather go out and play paintball with my friends. We make sure that no one wears too thick clothes so that the hits actually hurt. Those circular bruises are pretty funny. In my opinion it would be a good thing to keep videogames simple and easy to access. Sports, exercise and real...

What do you think about... ...the Fermi Paradox? Are we alone in the Galaxy, or is it teeming with life? What forms could life take and could we ever have meaningful, peaceful interaction with a species from another world? Will species from different planets be so different...

I actually do not like any rating system. They are unreliable and unequal. Journalists should keep to the facts and leave their preferences and prejudices out of it. They could just tell about the style, mechanics and technical issues. It is also possible to make comparisons to other games, so...