Author Profile on Nukezilla

Profile for Mark

A philosophy graduate and long-time strategy game obsessive, Mark writes reviews and the occasional opinion piece for Nukezilla. He can be found on twitter as @Junglistgamer or on Nerdfit.com co-hosting the Electric Dream Machine podcast.

Recent Comments

Seriously, This Is The Best Hitler Avatar I Can Do?
I tried to make mine look like me...it didn't go well.

Things We Hate About Gaming: Other Gamers
It's true y'know, gays are indeed gay. Also - you ever tried rainbow six vegas 2? I did and i found remarkably little shit-talking, it's not a fantastic game but just being able to co-operate with people that weren't hateful little turds was nice.

Guardian: Mirror's Edge is Just Too Innovative For Reviewers
I definitely agree with the point about the importance of gameplay. Gameplay, by it's very name, defines the difference between it and all other forms of entertainment. I read a really interesting article in the Guardian about the concept of 'pure film', the idea that if you focus too heavily on dialogue vs cinematography you turn a film into a piece of literature and lose the point of having a film in the firstplace. A lot of the games-as-art debate seems to miss this point, focusing too heavily on cinematic or literary games rather than games that focus on pure gameplay. I'd call something like Ikaruga, Gears of War or Castle Crashers a better argument for games as art than something like Mirror's Edge because they don't attempt to be Dickens or Kubrik, they just do what no other medium can - enthrall the player with their gameplay mechanics.

Keith Vaz Brings Up Stefan Pakeerah, Ryan Chinnery and Secret Tea Parties in Commons Debate
I used to think that anyone who brings Hitler or someone's mother into an argument had automatically lost. I am now adding The Sun to that list. I'm a dyed in the wool socialist and even i'm siding with the fucking tories on this one.

Video Games: From Boy's Club to Girl Clique
I think a serious issue with attracting more women to the gaming community lies in marketing. The key to solving the kind of problems you describe is to have more women in the gaming community and playing not just casual or 'cute' games but rather the 'hardcore' genres, FPS/shmup/JRPG/sports/driving etc rather than sim/management type games like the sims, nintendogs etc. Many of the women i know who play games do so for similar reasons to you - they were introduced to games as a child with no sense of 'this is a game for girls' mainly because until recently, games were not marketed to girls. The issue is that just as more women are becoming interested in gaming, they are becoming interested in the shallowest end of the gaming industry. Look at the marketing for the Wii - shallow, fluffy little games being played by women, kids and grandparents. As long as the only independent invitation to women outside of friends/relatives recommendations comes from marketing focused on non-traditional games, thats all they will play and they won't be involved in the more intense aspects of the industry, blogging for example. by involving more female 'hardcore' gamers, you'll see them absorbed further into the community and the shrill attention-grabbing will decline because it won't be seen as being significant. Less condescending, non-threatening marketing. I want women challenged to beat ME not their grandmother. Nice article - really got me thinking.

Recent Reviews

Game	Score
Avatar Racedrome	-7
Batman: Arkham Asylum	-2
Bayonetta	-4
Blur	-5
DiRT 2	-2
Duologue	-3
Mass Effect 2	-1
Modern Warfare 2	-6
Modern Warfare 2	-2
Nomis: Legacy Islands	3
Pew Pew Pod	-3
PixelJunk Shooter	-2
Platypus	-4
Red Dead Redemption	-2
Scare Me	-3
Section 8	-4
Shardscape Assault	-5
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty	5
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty	5
Trine	-1
Tropico 3	-3
Veks and Silence	-4
Wacky Karts	-6
X-Men Origins: Wolverine	-5
Average	-2.54

View all reviews and game stats here

Forum