Popular games like Candy Crush, Farmville, Words with Friends, and others have been maligned by serious gamers and institutions for years now. These games are often accused of being designed solely to maximize attention. Largely focused on turning a profit more than anything else, these games, subject to little oversight, are accused of utilizing every trick in the book to turn a profit. In this mobile gaming Wild West, due to mobile users’ general resistance to paying for apps, attention becomes the name of the game. The longer these mobile games can hook their claws into people, the more profitable…

In past years the Blizzcon tickets would sell out too quickly, and even if I could get them, they were often prohibitively expensive for me. I would usually have to wait for a recap from Kotaku or Polygon to show up or resign myself to continually refreshing the Blizzard news site and Reddit for updates. Blizzard held an online version of its yearly celebration this past weekend due to BlizzCon being postponed last year. …

I saw a thread recently that outlined all the reasons why a modern Assassin’s Creed game wouldn’t be feasible. It made some points that weren’t unreasonable, but it got me thinking. If Ubisoft were to take up the challenge of developing a game set in the 20th century, where could they go and how would they make it work. I’m not saying there wouldn’t be challenges, but I contend that not only would a game like that be possible, it could also have the potential to be a very cool shakeup for the entire series.

I want to eliminate a…

My friend dragged me into Apex Legends, and now, I can’t stop. Before this, I always found myself skeptical of these types of competitive games. I wasn’t very good at them, and, channeling my inner elitist, I thought that only single-player games with robust narratives were worth playing. I’d scoff at people who played Call of Duty or League of Legends all day. What was the point of playing what was ostensibly the same thing over and over for days on end? Nevertheless, I gave Apex a chance, and hundreds of matches later, I’m still playing.

I knew deep down…

It wasn’t until after I had finished the main game that I started to dig into some of the finer aspects of the story design of Origins. The world, the characters, and the story are all impressive in their own right. Still, as I was doing my research, I came across several details that truly exemplified the meticulousness of those who worked on the game.

I thought it would be fun to include some of these hidden nods to Ancient Egyptian mythology. The average casual gamer can easily miss these on a first play-through of the game. Some range from…

I think most kids growing up in the 90s played a trading card game (TCG) at one point or another. The big three back then were Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon. All of my friends played at least one, often two or more. I had phases myself. My dad played Magic: the Gathering quite a bit in his younger days, so growing up, my brother and I would try our hardest to beat him. I was so proud the day that I finally beat both him and my brother for the first time. I have so many memories playing…

I promise I won’t push the tired talking points of the down-on-his-luck millennial too much. While we all know the hits: student loan forgiveness, legalizing weed, the soul sucking job market, the sudden death of every industry boomers love, this piece isn’t about all that exactly. (Though I’m crossing my figures for at least some student loan forgiveness!) This piece is about how hard it is to save money today, and why it’s important to find a long-term way to do it, even if it’s only a little bit and even if its in cryptocurrency. It’s better than nothing.

I’m…

What a week! While the focus of all of our political effort has been and still should be on the events that took place at the Capitol building last Wednesday, Republicans have ostensibly put all their efforts into shifting the narrative towards the wave of deplatformings that have occurred by a slew of tech companies. Donald Trump, a range of popular conservative talk show hosts, and many culpable Republican politicians have all fallen victim to various bannings from a variety of services. …