Skyrim and the Problem of Audience It’s huge. It’s unending. It’s the blockbuster, millions-selling, open-world RPG, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. And sometimes it’s just downright absurd.

Kate (of the excellent but infrequently updated gaming blog Falling Awkwardly) examines the metaphysics of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind as revealed in the copious in-game literature scattered throughout the land of Vvardenfell, and finds parallels between the game’s denizens and the game’s players: “Breaking the rules is just another way of playing the game. Sometimes the best way. Just ask Vivec, the Thief of The World, the ultimate cheat.”
“Metaphysics are an age-old human concern, to poke and prod at them is in our nature. The Elder Scrolls creates characters who are pushing the limits of their fictional world and struggling to come to terms with its rules, with varying degrees of success. In The Elder Scrolls, true agency is not something afforded to just anyone. It must be sought after, fought for, stolen. Whatever it takes.”

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The Story of Boone Nathan Hardisty played Fallout: New Vegas. One of the courier’s companions left a lasting impression on him: “From a simple little scripted story about a broken soldier, a dialogue choice mechanic and that age-old ‘shoot people’ mechanic I have made myself a story of heartbreak, redemption and peace.”

Chain World — Religion or Holy War? Jason Rohrer’s “Chain World” was the overwhelming audience favorite at the 2011 Game Design Challenge. This year’s challenge was Bigger Than Jesus: games as religion. Rohrer’s winning creation is a mod of Minecraft that exists on a single USB drive and is to be played by one person at a time who then passes it on to the next player without speaking of the game. The idea is to explore how human actions in a game world accrete into something very like a mythology. At the game’s debut, Rohrer handed over the USB, more or less at random, to Jia Ji. He would be Chain World Player Two. And that’s where the trouble began.

Todd Howard and Notch interview one another! You like Minecraft! You like The Elder Scrolls! Then you’ll like this!

Gender, Myth and Capitalism: An Academic View of Portal 2 A cautionary tale, slathered in semiotic bullshit.