Archive of our old blog (2005-2010)
She attacks The Sims with a passion, accuses games of supporting a dying capitalist system and delights when her avatar gets flowers in its antlers in The Endless Forest. Maaike Lauwaert is a Belgian writer and games researcher at the academy of Maastricht. In this third Tale of Tales interview about game design and appreciation, she rolls a ball through mainstream game joy with a hopeful eye on a more creative and participatory future.
The second interview in our series about the design and appeal of games is with designer-theorist Celia Pearce. We knew her best for her fascinating reserach into an online community of players that migrated from Uru to other multiplayer environments. Her findings show that people play games for a multitude of reasons that designers often neglect but that mean a lot to the audience. In the interview we find out about her background as a theme park attraction designer, her current work with a group of students on an innovative mmo called Mermaids, built on the Multiverse platform, her activist tendencies and enthusiasm for the indie scene, as expressed in Indiecade, a showcase of independent games that will take place at the next E3.
Photo by Tracy Fullerton.
Tale of Tales presents! the first in a series of interviews with game authors and theorists: an interview with American McGee, author of the wildly succesful American McGee’s Alice and the violently criticized Bad Day LA. About fairy tales and sacrifice, narrative and art, digital distribution and his newest project “American McGee’s Grimm”.
Soon, we will start publishing a new series of interviews with designers and theorists about games. Focussing on aspects that we feel are often neglected: storytelling, new forms of interaction, realtime aesthetics, different audiences, etc. The idea is to break out of the typical narrow cycle that blog discussions often end up in and listen to what other people have to say about these things. We’ve already started these interviews and I can tell you there’s a lot of Good Stuff coming up!
The first in the series is an interview with American McGee about fairy tales, sacrifice and art.
Next we will be talking to Celia Pearce, Alex Mayhew and Maaike Lauwaert.
So watch this space!
If you have any suggestions of people we should interview, please leave a comment.