GDC 15: Advancing the genre of comedy games with Zoe Quinn

hile the concept of a video game striving to be funny is far from groundbreaking, titles that veer more towards everything humorous has yet to be recognized as its own genre, and some developers are aiming to change that.

Zoe Quinn took to the stage as she campaigned that the science of comedy can be adapted into the format of interactive media like video games successfully if given the right attention to the details that compose the humor.

While the irony of an independent developer who’s primarily known for releasing a title simulates depression wasn’t lost on her, she muses that the struggle of her emotional conditions have helped her to appreciate the nuance of comedy, and she presses forward with some ideas that can help this budding design of gameplay flourish in today’s market of indie games.

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Defusing Gamergate: From one Soapbox to another

isten, I honestly want to save a lot about what I have to say about #Gamergate in our upcoming podcast, but for now; I'd like to shoot on one particular video, and use it as a launching point for some of my opinions.

I don’t want to say too much as to not take away from our upcoming show, but I’ll spoil this much; I’m not advocate of Gamergate, in the slightest. So far, all I’ve I’ve seen is a poorly veiled push to justify harassment of my colleagues and peers of whom I respect, and aspire towards in the field of games journalism.

I'm going to try really hard not to get mean, and this piece is meant to support one side of an argument, so yeah, it is meant to be defensive, but that doesn’t mean that I’m blind to any of the good points from Gamergate.

I just hate that they’re being used as nothing more than strawmen to substantiate bull shit harassment.

To be honest though, all of it is just the march of straw men; crass and nebulous, semantics that Gamergate wants to supply in order to validate the existence of their campaign.

So without further ado, here's the video, watch it, soak it in, and then get ready for a whole bunch of words and shit, because I’ll be coming to this party stocked.

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