Back during my WoW research days, Lord Marrowgar, in Icecrown Citadel, was the first boss I learned to tank entirely by myself. I feel like I just said that to a room full of WoW[…]
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Day 225: Thinking about game design and frustration vs. fun
There’s a chapter in my book about the WoW raid group I followed learning a new encounter. I wrote about one specific instance, but I watched this happen about 70 times while I was researching, always[…]
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Day 224: That activity from yesterday, part II
One of the questions that students ask after the activity I explained yesterday is why I’d ask them to do that, why I’d make them go through such an activity. If you understand how the[…]
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Day 223: Monopoly and good/bad game design
This week my writing for games class will have, as their homework, the task of re-envisioning the narrative of Monopoly so that it is a better game. Monopoly is polarizing. Some (a small select few[…]
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Day 222: Madden season
I sometimes think of it as my gamer-shame, but one of my favorite gaming moments every year is loading up the new version of Madden and taking my up-and-down Colts team through the motions. It’s[…]
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Day 221: Cop Outs and Half-Steps or Why The Status Quo is the status quo
Marvel Comics just wrapped up Secret Empire, the event that CHANGED EVERYTHING. When this started, for those who remember, it was revealed that Captain America was a naz… Hydra Agent. And a being named Kobik,[…]
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Day 220: We Make Stuff
I’ve been working hard on an academic theory that I think is a fair, solid reflection of my discipline. As a new Assistant Professor, one of the things I have to do is sort of[…]
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Day 219: But of course…
Recently, the CCCC Executive committee released this statement about the upcoming conference in Kansas City. I want to be fair and generous– it’s not an awful statement. I’m glad they’re being transparent, though it did[…]
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Day 218: The Thing about Villains
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about villainy the last few weeks. I think I wrote a post earlier in the year about one of my favorite super hero mythology quotes. It’s from Smallville, which[…]
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Day 217: And we're baaaack…
Tomorrow is the first day of our academic semester here at Miami, our welcome to the class of 2021. First of all… Now that I’ve made a Sealab 2021 joke, I want to do my[…]
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