Author: Joanna Mueller
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Super Seducer Offers ‘Controversial’ Pick-up Advice
From the best-selling author of The Natural: How to Effortlessly Attract the Women You Want, comes a dating sim designed for idiots. Richard La Ruina’s FMV seduction simulator, Super Seducer is coming to Steam and PS4 on March 6th. Needless to say we’re not linking it. Naturally, a game that “teaches” men to win women…
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Terraria: Blood Moons & Misogyny
In a world of giant flying eye monsters and mountable unicorns players are free to do and be almost anything. Yet in all the fantastical make-believe somebody at Terraria developer Re-Logic felt the need to spice things up with a dig at those crazy females. The snide little social commentary had gone mostly unnoticed or…
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Authentically Combat Gun Violence With Thoughts & Prayers: The Game
As America struggles with its epidemic of gun violence, many citizens feel powerless. Fortunately, there is an app for that in the form of Everyday Arcade’s Thoughts & Prayers: The Game. Never before has a game so accurately portrayed the power of doing absolutely nothing. The game is free-to-play and browser based. It consists of…
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Far Cry 5 Makes The White Male Power Fantasy Accessible To All
Ubisoft isn’t exactly shy about courting controversy to sell video games and the new trailer for the next Far Cry promises more of the same. Where previous installments have taken players to exotic locations for their wanton murder sprees, Far Cry 5 brings the controversy home. Far Cry 5 takes place in rural Montana. The game’s antagonists…
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2064: ROM Devs Punished For Their Politics On Metacritic
One of the most effective ways to show displeasure with a company or product is to refuse to buy it. If you don’t like something a creator says or does then don’t support them. Gaming offers even more recourse in the form of user reviews. Fans have learned to utilize these to vocalize displeasure with any…
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Safe Spaces For Dark Tasks
Videogames let us do some pretty fucked up things. Sometimes that’s part of their appeal, after all nobody played Postal for its gripping narrative. It was a rampage murder sim that garnered enough of an audience that it was far from the first or last of its kind. Videogames never made us subversive and terrible,…
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On The Portrayal Of People Of Color And Potatoes In Fantasy Games
Fantasy RPG’s can take us to worlds we could only ever imagine. Worlds where dragons freely roam the skies and all the spooky monsters of lore actually exist. The only worlds that, even now, remain out of our reach are those with true diversity. Why is this still so difficult? Historically, people of color, those…
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Asylum Jam Returns To Show Horror Without Stigma
Now in its fourth year, Asylum Jam is a 48 hour game jam where developers must create a horror game. There is just one catch. “The only rule,” explains Jam creator Lucy Morris, “is that you can’t use inaccurate stereotypes.” This includes using, “psychiatric institutes, medical professionals or violent/antipathic/’insane’ patients as settings or triggers.” The…
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Satire Barely Scratches The Surface Of Reality In The American Dream
Australian developer, Samurai Punk is inviting gamers to experience a future where guns are the solution to every problem. In their upcoming virtual reality title, The American Dream, players explore a vast futuristic complex and shoot everything. The complex, constructed by a group of respected gun manufactures, is a ‘World’s Fair’ styled attraction. Their goal is…
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Accessible Gaming Is All About Options
Representatives from The AbleGamers Foundation recently took part in a Skype panel as part of Tulsa’s XPO Game Festival. They shared a few simple changes that can make games more accessible for gamers of different abilities. They also stressed the importance of developers not going overboard in the quest for inclusiveness. AbleGamers is a nonprofit…
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Shock Value Alone Won’t Sell Shitty Games
Some games just want to watch the world burn. Or at least blow the minds of ultra conservative parents trying to protect their precious little snowflakes from simulated violence. Look, I understand sometimes a developer just wants to sell some games and doesn’t mind appealing to the lowest common denominator to do it. Not every…