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David R. Howard
David R. Howard

40 Followers

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Jan 26

Videogames as Collage

Support my writing on Patreon or Ko-fi! I — WAVE (AGAINST THE) MACHINE “SECRETS ARE LIKE WATER WHEN IT COMES TO BRIDGES” -Owl Statue, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening I think a lot about the wateriness of videogames; the way they pool into recognizably repeated forms–like the unspoken but universally abided principle that behind every…

Videogames

16 min read

Videogames as Collage
Videogames as Collage
Videogames

16 min read


Dec 22, 2022

Ludicidal Tendencies: Dying on Purpose in Videogames

[Content Warning: Discussion of death and suicide in the context of videogames] Support my writing on Patreon or Ko-fi! While videogame violence has been endlessly debated in the media, online and within academia, writing on how death actually operates in videogames is comparatively scarce. In what does exist the paradoxical…

Videogames

8 min read

Ludicidal Tendencies: Dying on Purpose in Videogames
Ludicidal Tendencies: Dying on Purpose in Videogames
Videogames

8 min read


Nov 21, 2022

An Ode to Radial Menus

Support my writing on Patreon or Ko-fi! Menuing in videogames is an inevitability, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable in its own right. In fact it’s well known that some games, even entire genres, are almost nothing but menuing. …

Videogames

2 min read

An Ode to Radial Menus
An Ode to Radial Menus
Videogames

2 min read


Jul 14, 2022

Masked in Play

Depictions of Indigeneity from Burgkmair to Rareware — The videogames of my youth are haunted. Not in the literal creepypasta sense, no. They are haunted by a figure who has taken on myriad faces, yet the skeletal structure behind them has remained, for centuries, much the same. I wanted to write a piece about colonialist themes in platformers…

Videogames

10 min read

Masked in Play
Masked in Play
Videogames

10 min read


Jun 15, 2022

The Emergence of Speedrun Studies (2006–2021)

Speedrunning history is at once well-documented and difficult to trace back to its origins. While it’s highly likely that many players in the 1980’s and before attempted to beat games as quickly as they could, it wasn’t until the release of Doom (1993) and the ability to share recordings in…

Videogames

31 min read

The Emergence of Speedrun Studies (2006–2021)
The Emergence of Speedrun Studies (2006–2021)
Videogames

31 min read


May 18, 2022

An Ode to Stunt Racing Games

There is a right way and a wrong way to play with Hot Wheels. The wrong way is to purchase and assemble one of those orange plastic tracks with a loop-de-loop in the middle — for they never quite work the way they do in the commercials as real-world physics…

Videogames

4 min read

An Ode to Stunt Racing Games
An Ode to Stunt Racing Games
Videogames

4 min read


Apr 13, 2022

Endgame Ennui

[Spoilers for Twilight Princess, EarthBound, Mother 3 and Cave Story] “It’s hard to believe that it’s over, isn’t it?” -Old Woman, Celeste It’s a statistical fact that most people don’t beat the games they play. A not insignificant portion don’t even start the games they buy, but that’s another topic…

Videogames

9 min read

Endgame Ennui
Endgame Ennui
Videogames

9 min read


Mar 15, 2022

Emerge Whence?

Defining, Designing and Categorizing Emergent Gameplay — This essay serves as both a review of the concept of emergence in games literature and an elaboration on previous writing in an attempt to categorize various forms of emergent gameplay. The practice of speedrunning — completing a videogame as fast as one possibly can — as a typified form…

Videogames

14 min read

Emerge Whence?
Emerge Whence?
Videogames

14 min read


Feb 14, 2022

Exploding the Economics of Replay Value

Replayability is a concept that precedes videogame culture, or at least the videogame magazine. While the term was used scarcely in the field of audio recording, it gained its foothold in the pages of Simulation/Gaming magazine in the mid-1970’s, where it was used as a metric on a five-point scale…

Videogames

7 min read

Exploding the Economics of Replay Value
Exploding the Economics of Replay Value
Videogames

7 min read


Jan 24, 2022

Incrementing Towards Finitude: Playable Portraits of Late Capitalism Part 3

I Want to Get Off the Ride — In a piece for Paste Magazine Rosy Hearts argues that theme park simulators like Rollercoaster Tycoon (RCT) highlight “the great man” fallacy which “is embodied by the invisible constructor and observer that is the player” adding “there is never a possibility that you will make anything that emotionally harms your…

Videogames

7 min read

Incrementing Towards Finitude: Playable Portraits of Late Capitalism Part 3
Incrementing Towards Finitude: Playable Portraits of Late Capitalism Part 3
Videogames

7 min read

David R. Howard

David R. Howard

40 Followers

David is a writer based in Southern Ontario, Canada

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