Category Archives: Games and Gaming

Gamergate. Shit, We’re Still Only in Gamergate.

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Timothy Burke

A couple of nights ago, I got up to go to the bathroom. Still only partially awake, I flushed and stumbled back to bed, only to hear the gushing sounds of the toilet overflowing. I seriously considered just letting it … Continue reading →

History 82 Fall 2014 Syllabus

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Timothy Burke

Here’s the current version of the syllabus for my upcoming fall class on the history of digital media. Really excited to be teaching this. ——————— History 82 Histories of Digital Media Fall 2014 Professor Burke This course is an overly … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities, Games and Gaming, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Intellectual Property, Popular Culture, Swarthmore | 4 Comments

Lashed to the Rack, or the Ideology of Incremental Improvement

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Timothy Burke

I was walking through a poster session at a conference on educational and learning games some years ago and came across two very nice presenters who had created a game for students who were planning to study abroad in countries … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Games and Gaming, Politics, Swarthmore | 6 Comments

Stagnation

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Timothy Burke

By now, I think everyone knows that the new Sim City is a flaming car wreck, the gaming equivalent of Ishtar or Hudson Hawk, the kind of misfire that raises serious questions about its corporate creator and the entire industry. … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming | 3 Comments

Hell Is Other Gamers (And Some Games)

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Game developers talking about “culture” are often deeply frustrating. Either they are overly credulous about how design directly and symmetrically can create a particular set of cultural practices and outlook within a game, as my friend Thomas Malaby has observed … Continue reading →

Posted in Digital Humanities, Games and Gaming, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System | 1 Comment

The Work of Criticism

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Timothy Burke

Jumping straight out of my Twitter feed about THATCamp Games, I want to work a bit more on a reaction I had to a morning panel on teaching games in a higher ed class. I heard a pretty strong strain … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Digital Humanities, Games and Gaming | 5 Comments

Move the Data Server-Side! Occupy Sanctuary!

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Timothy Burke

Three things about Occupy, two short, one long. 1) Occupy is already a success if the model is to provoke reaction from its chief targets. It’s hard to imagine pundits passing up the chance to comment on anything: the 24/7 … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System, Politics | 7 Comments

Out, Out Damned Spot

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Timothy Burke

Is there anything more grating than an interpretation whose language slips and innocently anoints its analysis with the status of a fact? I’m sure I noticed this pattern in the letters to the editor in this week’s New York Times … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Games and Gaming, Popular Culture | 6 Comments

Blizzard Is CLU

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Timothy Burke

x-posted to Terra Nova I donâ€™t understand why Tron: Legacy has come in for so much critical abuse. I like it as much as my colleague Bob Rehak does. Just taken as an action film, itâ€™s considerably more entertaining and … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Popular Culture | 2 Comments

Mimesis and Interactivity

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Timothy Burke

Here comes a bunch of blogging! Fasten your seat belts. ================ So yes, we got a Kinect at our house. I am the very model of the modern gamer tech geek. As an incremental change to the wand-driven interface design … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Popular Culture | 3 Comments