Michael Thomsen

E3: New Super Mario Bros. 2 and the fabricated scarcity of gold coins.

video It’s sometimes said that scarcity is what gives a thing value. Super Mario Bros. levels offered a model of this balance between scarcity and value, both determined by the game’s designers. The 100 coin benchmark for achieving an extra life had such immediate meaning precisely because of the sc

E3: In Halo 4 the (mostly) silent hero finally gets a voice.

video Like many shooter heroes Halo‘s Master Chief seldom speaks. Conventional wisdom says the absence of a specific voice makes it easier to identify with the hero, projecting parts of ourselves into the game. During a short video demonstration of Halo 4 at E3, Master Chief again breaks this genre