In Medias Resolution: Chris M. Yap Research Blog on Game Narrative

Games, Seriously Podcast Ep. 06 out now!

Reflections on Shadow of the Colossus (PS2; Team ICO, 2005), Pt. 1

Reflections on Carnage Heart (PS1; Artdink, 1997)

DnDnG: A Short Documentary

Little Boy (before playing D&D with girls): "They [the girls] might pass out because of gore." Little Boy (after playing D&D with girls): "Playing with girls was weirder than I expected because they are so good.... They were more violent than I expected..." I found this mini-documentary on little kids playing D&D to be absolutely charming. It makes me want to start DMing again. #subculture #fun #advocacy #tabletoprpg

Wonderful game stories from beyond the grave

This just in from Rocket News, but apparently a Gamer discovers his deceased father’s ghost on an old Xbox game, challenges it to a race. Per the story: "[A] 16-year-old participant shared the story of his father, who passed away a decade ago. When the son was four, his dad brought home a first-generation Xbox, which provided hours of fun for the two as they played games together on it. Recently, though, the son decided to fire up the console again for old time’s sake, poppin

An exercise in naming

This reddit thread is beautiful. The rules are simple: remove one letter from a game title, what's the new synopsis? One example: "Ass Effect: an open world ass simulator. You have can choose of of three characters to play as: a donkey known as wild-ass, a jerk known as jerk-ass, or an an anthropomorphic butt known as Ass-ass.You can explore the world by trotting, walking, or gas-propelled rolling, respectively. Each class has a different interaction wheel, each having 3 choi

Hello Kittyについて

ぜんぜん重要ではないが、もし時間があれば、日本人の友達の声および意見を聞かせてください：最近（昨日ぐらい？）、日本で人気なアヴリル・ラヴィーンは下記のＰＭをユーチューブでリリース。そのあとすぐに、大勢な欧米人は「日本人に対してレイシズム」の原因ですごく反対していて（コメント、マスコミの議論などで）、ＰＭはすぐに消された。しかし、いらいらな方はほとんど日本人ではなかった。本物の日本人にとってどうかな。予想的に、僕はなんか問題なし程度かな？と思う。どうでしょうか？ #localization #japanese #otaku #subculture #musings

日本はオタク・サブカルチャーだけではない

インターネットにおいて、日本の珍しくて、オタク、およびサブカルチャー（アニメ・マンガ・ゲーム）のものが好き外国人が多い。下記の例は大勢から一つだけですが、まぁ、こういうものは現在、結構流行っている。僕もこうみたいなことを見ると、「あっ、やっぱりジャパンはめっちゃおもろいなぁ」と思う。しかし、こんなにヘンなことを見て日本（いや、どこでもの国）を定義することアカンと信じている、僕。ただ、一つの面だけだ。特に、日本は、文化的に非常に深いもの（サブカルチャー以外、例えば伝統的なもの等）でも多いけど、インターネットのトリビア・ニューズ見たいなこと（例：kotaku.com, io9, 等）は日本におけるオタクのことのみを世界に伝えることが大好きそう。まぁ、もう言ったけど、僕は実際にコスプレー卒業式が非常に面白いな・いいなと思うが、こう見たいなニューズばかりをインターネットで放送をちょっと次第にやめろうっと考えている。まとめで、日本のサブカルチャーニューズは面白いが、オタクニューズだけではなく、さらにComplete Pictureが必要で。 http

On 大恐竜時代(Daikyouryuu Jidai/Era of the Dinosaurs, 1979)

On 大恐竜時代(Daikyouryuu Jidai/Era of the Dinosaurs, 1979): This aired on TV back in the early 80's when I was bout 5 or 6 years old. I remember watching this movie about three kids who are taken by an alien and transported back into the dinosaur era, where they befriend a blue baby Triceratops and run for the lives from a malevolent T-rex. They learn a great deal about the dinosaurs of that time, and somehow are transported to some point during the development of early humans, w

Conference on the Apocalypse

Holy crap. I just received a conference alert for a conference about the Apocalypse. Anything re: the End of the World is welcome, apparently. Here's a (slightly abridged) bit from the actual announcement: "Presentations,papers, performances, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to (but not limited to) the following themes: Decline, Collapse, Decay, Disease, Mass Death Survivalism and Doomsday Preppers The Second Coming/Mill

One Anime Opening Crawl to Rule them All

DAICON was a series of sci-fi and animation conventions held in Osaka in the 80s. Here's the phenomenally weird opening of DAICON IV, with music provided by Electric Light Orchestra. You can compare the above video with the one below, which is the opening to the wildly-successful J-drama "Densha Otoko." #lifeinjapan #anime #japangamestudies #masters #musings #otaku #personal #subculture

I rode 宇宙戦艦ヤマト to get to this place

「宇宙戦艦ヤマト」isn't just some anime title. It is a phenomenon with a myriad of mantles. Transliterated, it is Uchuu Senkan Yamato. Roughly translated into English, it is Space Warship Yamato. Re-dubbed and retitled for broadcast in Hawaii in the early 1980's, it was Starblazers. It is the very reason why a 4-year-old me was even made aware of the existence of Japan. Pick any teenager off the street at random, and the chances are fairly high that their proverbial gateway drug to Ja

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