video game essay

  • Self-expression is an integral component of many video game experiences, for self-expression fosters immersion and intensifies the player / player character relationship; all parties involved benefit, absolutely. Robust morality systems, when properly and respectfully implemented, expand opportunities for such self-expression. On one level, any given player is forced to grapple with, say, equipable armor and

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  • On Video Game Prices

    Save for the early years of my existence, when the Playstation 2 and the Xbox were the dominant home consoles, video games have consistently released at the same price point – sixty dollars, that price being established and accepted with the release of the Xbox 360 back in 2005. Given the poor present state of

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  • Games with robust customization systems are traditionally highly compelling, those systems primarily used as a tool of self-expression. It would be unfair and inaccurate to state that games devoid of such systems are somehow lesser in quality than games which do boldly feature them – they are simply different, perhaps more focused. Still, the inclusion

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  • On Grinding in Video Games

    Grinding as mechanic is most prevalent in the role-playing genre, though in recent years, and as the industry as grown, the mechanics of grinding have spread, tinging titles which had heretofore spurned them. Still, the trope largely originated from, and was made popular by, role-playing games. In certain of these titles – many entries of

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  • Verticality in video games serves a number of functions, principally providing greater strategic freedom. As a secondary effect, vertical expansion can help to convey the largeness of the world proper – views from above afford a different sort of perspective, cities and landscapes laid out in their totality, one singular entity. In many games, also,

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