Category Archives: Posts by Author

Leadership, Rhetoric, and Videogames

I find myself thinking about leadership often. Perhaps I think about leadership because we rhetoricians get press (for good or ill) for a few months every four years when our nation chooses a leader based on “mere rhetoric.” But, I … Continue reading

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Framing Meaning through Play – or – Everybody’s Gone to Film School

*Minor spoilers for Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture to follow, I think.* The perfect shot is a powerful thing ­– not only in communicating pleasure and meaning to a viewer, but also in the feelings it can engender within its … Continue reading

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Fun Possibilities

When I sit down to produce a singular piece of writing, I generally do a few things to spark creativity and get the ball rolling. I generally search Google Scholar, Critical Distance and my own library for things that might … Continue reading

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Hype and Nostalgia: Gaming’s Memory Flows

It took me about four hours to find out that double-clicking made Manny Calavera move faster, running instead of the slow walk I had gotten used to. The game had changed there, in an instant, to something much different. The … Continue reading

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Criticism and Habits: My Fear of Never Alone

Every Wednesday in high school I went out to do community service that the campus ministry of my Catholic high school facilitated. We would go to nursing homes, care facilities, and homeless shelters, work for a few hours, and return … Continue reading

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What I’m Playing Now: Combat Mission Red Thunder

In my ongoing effort to find a hybrid game uniting the best principles of table-top RPGs, wargames, and video games, I’ve been exploring the world of wargames a lot. Specifically, I’ve been following two table-top wargames: Bolt Action and Infinity. … Continue reading

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“We Just Want to Make Good Games.”

I’ve been writing a lot for I Search for Traps lately, but through my discussions of table-top RPGs I’ve come across an old question that I’ve encountered when I was studying the world of video games: What is a good game? … Continue reading

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I Search for Traps

I’ve been contributing to this blog for over a year now. I intend to continue contributing, but I’ve also been wanting to write about other things. Despite the fact that I write about video games a lot, most of my … Continue reading

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What I’m Playing Now: Elite Dangerous

I’ve made no secret in the past that I love space sims and that I’m on the lookout for the next Starflight. I’ve tried many games, but none really filled in that particular gap in my heart. Until recently. I’ve … Continue reading

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Sports Games and Remediation

Brendan Keogh wrote a wonderful article for Reverse Shot on the visual workings of FIFA ’14 and it’s really cool. As someone who plays a ton of different sports games, I’m always excited to see new critical engagements with the … Continue reading

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