Welcome to GameSpy's revised features index! Here, you'll find all of GameSpy's longform feature stories, penned by some of the best writers in the gaming press. Magazines may be a dying medium -- but it doesn't mean that the sort of research, quality, and uniqueness that goes into the best magazine articles is lost forever. GameSpy is committed to delivering high-caliber, feature-length stories for gaming's Internet age. Enjoy!
Please also see our
comprehensive list of recently published articles, which includes all of our features, columns, humor articles, and more!
Flash!: Epilepsy and Video Games
by Julian Murdoch
For a moment, I can see the light actually flowing into the room, like honey. Everything smells like oranges. My palms sweat. And, most inexplicably, I feel the passage of time. Not deja vu, not the slow-motion of adrenaline reactions, but I can sense time as a tangible thing -- as if I am moving through the future, step by step. Then, blackness.
Minecraft: Digging Deep Into a Curious Realm
by Nathan Meunier
A ton of pixels and a little freedom can produce strange and incredible things. For Swedish indie developer Markus "Notch" Persson, they've turned his life upside-down in one of the best ways imaginable. He's in the enviable position of having his first major game project rake in well over $12 million... and the game isn't even finished or officially released yet. That's unheard of in the indie gaming world. Minecraft is shaping up to be one of the biggest indie success stories yet, and as development continues on this perfect storm of blocky landscape exploration and sandbox-style survival adventure, the prospect of building pixelated worlds and staying alive within them grows even more enticing.
The Male Gamer Stereotype Dissected
by Evan Hoovler
For decades, speculation has run rampant that video games make children hyperactive, murderous imps with impossible-to-stop hand-eye coordination. But this can't still be the dark ages of video games anymore; years' worth of of data has been collected with regard to the behavior and characteristics of gamers. Instead of arguing abstract reasoning, people can start pointing to hard facts. With that in mind, it's a good time to re-examine the classic derogatory stereotype of the male gamer.
Press A to Jump: A Theory of Jumping Mechanics
by Ryan Kuo
Jumpman jumps. This feels as self-evident as saying water is wet. Of course Jumpman jumps, because that is his name (Aquaman swims; Superman is super). But at some point, Jumpman became Mario, and the story became more complicated.
Who the Hell Is Jack Thompson?
by William Vitka
Everyone knows him as the most insane anti-gaming lawyer (or, well, ex-lawyer) ever to light up the Internet, pushing an aggressive agenda to protect us against violent games, and attacking anyone who disagrees with him. But is he really the villain that everyone believes he is? In this candid interview, we endeavor to hear his side of the story. This is Jack Thompson, in his own words.
The Dungeons & Dragons Effect
by Jason Wilson
D&D; is now in its 4th edition, though the most recent version of the game hasn't appeared in video game form yet. Thirty-six years after its first publication, what influence does the product of the late Gary Gygax's and Dave Arneson's imaginations still have on video games?
Finding Religion in Video Games
by Evan Hoovler
Today -- whenever that day is -- is always the most technologically and culturally advanced period in all of history. Because of this, it's easy to entertain the notion that "modern" society bears no fundamental ties to its philistine predecessors. However, we can often find shockingly similar parallels between "ancient" and "modern," media which go beyond the realm of explanation that the definition of "a coincidence" can provide.
Football for Dummies: Learning the Ropes from Madden NFL
by Chris Dahlen
My love of sports died in kindergarten. I was on the playground with some other boys, and we were tossing the ball around. I don't remember if we were playing baseball, dodgeball, or catch: all I recall is that somebody threw it to me, and I missed it. It rolled maybe 10 or 14 feet away, so I had to run and throw it to the next kid -- and of course, when I tried, it fell short. We went around and I tried again, and the ball missed my hands and flew away. The other boys made a decision: If I was going to have to keep running to the end of the playground, I might as well stay over there.
Eberron on Five Points a Day
by Cory Banks
Last year, Turbine surprised the MMO world by opening the gates to Dungeons & Dragons Online, allowing anyone to simply sign up for an account, download the client, and save the world of Eberron -- all for free. Gone are industry-standard subscription fees, replaced by an in-game eCommerce system filled with items and content that players can buy, on-demand, whenever they wish. Turbine gambled on the idea that giving their content away will make the game better -- and even make more money. I decided to find out how much it would cost me to have fun.
The Perfect Arcade
by Julian Murdoch
As geek-overlord Wil Wheaton has written about repeatedly (and speechified at two different Penny Arcade Expo keynotes), a real arcade is -- was -- a special place. And while attempts to recapture the mid-'80s feel of a real arcade exist in magical spots around the country, like New Hampshire's Funspot, or the retro room at Penny Arcade Expo East, they suffer not just from a lack of hygiene and me-not-being-13, they're also very far away. So I built my own.
Coming Attractions: Behind the Curtain of the Opening Cinematic
by Troy S. Goodfellow
You watch it once. Maybe twice. But game developers place great importance on a well-done opening movie. In this feature, we delve into the hows and whys of the all-important introduction cut-scene.
Bad Romance: Love in the Time of Videogames
by Lara Crigger
Examples of love in videogames abound, from Harvest Moon's set of collectable wives to Mario's Sisyphean quest for the elusive Princess Peach. And certainly, games feature more sex now in the HD era than ever before, from the tasteful applications (the one-night stand in Mass Effect) to the simply titillating (Dante Inferno's exquisitely rendered corpse-boobies). But genuine, believable
romance -- an intimacy between two characters that can be passionate or pragmatic; long-simmering or sexually explosive -- remains elusive in all but a select few titles. And for good reason: Writing love stories is
hard.
Loss of Death: Suicide in Videogames
by Ryan Kuo
In many of the games that we play, death is an inevitability -- the reaper catches even the best players sometimes. But what happens when a game invites us to willingly seek death or self-destruction as a means to an end? This feature explores the implications of deliberate suicide in videogames.
Other People's Stories: An Examination of Gaming's Literary Adaptations
by Troy S. Goodfellow
Game developers have a lot to think about when they adapt literary works to an interactive medium. This feature examines some of the factors and decision-making inherent to crafting such adaptations, with feedback from the developers games such as Dante's Inferno, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and The Witcher.
The Preservation of Fun: New York's Videogame Museum
by Lara Crigger
The Strong National Museum of Play overlooks downtown Rochester, NY, a frosty, upstate boomtown better known as the home of Susan B. Anthony and Eastman Kodak. From the outside, the museum resembles a toy box gone supernova, all jumbled angles and primary colors. The inside isn't much different -- just louder.
God's PR Problem: The Role of Religion in Videogames
by Julian Murdoch
By most accounts, the Bible and the Koran are the two best-selling books of all time. 40% of the U.S. population attends church services at least once a week. So why does God get short shrift in videogames?
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