Episode 37: The Power Of Positive Larding Is LIVE!

Ep 37: The Power of Positive Larding

https://soundcloud.com/user-989538417/episode-37-the-power-of-positive-larding

Nick Skinner, Richard Clarke and I talk about What a Tanker and all things Lard.
Join the conversation at https://theveteranwargamer.blogspot.com, email theveteranwargamer@gmail.com, Twitter @veteranwargamer

Follow Nick @dozibugger and Richard @TooFatLardies on Twitter! The Too Fat Lardies Website Blog and Forum https://toofatlardies.co.uk/

What a Tanker Pre-Order
https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product/what-a-tanker-complete-advanced-order-bundle/

Sailor Malan's 10 Rules of Air Combat
http://ww2today.com/27th-august-1940-raf-ace-sailor-malans-ten-rules

YouTube Crack That Tank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PL2HFLRMI0

US Army professional wargaming https://www.army.mil/article/202457/cgsc_tests_board_based_strategy_game

S.L.A. Marshall Men Against Fire
https://www.amazon.com/Men-Against-Fire-Problem-Command/dp/0806132809

M40 105mm Recoilless Rifle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M40_recoilless_rifle

TFL Kriegsspiel
https://toofatlardies.co.uk/product-category/kriegsspiel/

US Army professional wargaming https://www.army.mil/article/202457/cgsc_tests_board_based_strategy_game

Music courtesy bensound.com. Recorded with zencastr.com. Edited with Audacity. Make your town beautiful; get a haircut.

Hiring: Tools Programmer

Title: Tools programmer
Focus: Engine
Type: Full-time, permanent
Last day to apply: 30th of October 2018


Tired of the constraints of Unity, Unreal and other big engines? Want to be in control and get down into the nitty gritty of engine coding? Come join us at Frictional Games, one of the few companies that still makes their own tech, and get all up in our HPL engine!

We are now expanding our tech team and looking for a tools programmer who will help make the HPL engine better, prettier, and more intuitive. Your work on the engine will be crucial to the rest of the team, but it will also be seen by our modding community.

The position is full-time and permanent. Ideally we would help you relocate to Malmö, Sweden to be close to our core team, but this is not a necessity.


What will you work on?

As a tools programmer, you will be working together with a small tech team that is mainly responsible for our HPL engine, but also tech support for the games.

Here are some of the things you will find yourself working on:

• Creating and maintaining the level editor for our proprietary engine
• Making intuitive user interfaces
• Creating small specialised tools
• Working with low-level systems such as IO, AI, rendering, sound, and physics
• Working with Xbox and PlayStation versions, as well as possible future platforms
• Internal support for a team of developers
• Post-launch support.

We also encourage working outside of your area of expertise, and always learning new things. The more areas of development you are willing and able take part in, the better!

If you want to know more about Frictional work practices, you can check out the introduction posts of Peter and Luis, who will be your closest teammates.


What are we looking for?

You have to be a EU/EEA resident to apply.

The person we're looking for is creative, driven and self-sufficient.

Here are some essential skills we require:

• Well-versed in C++, C#, Java, or similar
• Knowledge in AngelScript, Python, Lua, or similar
• You have created an engine or tools for development for at least one game
• Strong low-level programming skills
• Familiar with linear algebra
• Knowledge in working with Widgets / Custom GUI
• Fluency in English
• Skills in team communication and support
• A Windows PC that runs recent games (such as SOMA) that you can use for work (unless you live in Malmö and will work from the office)
• A fast and stable internet connection.

These will be considered a plus:

• Experience in engine development
• Skills in 3D modelling or texture applications
• Knowledge in UX design
• Lover for tech and messing with the low level parts of the engine
• Excitement for creating fast pipelines and making it easy to create awesome art
• You live in Sweden.

What do we offer?

We are a small team, which means you will be able to work on a wide variety of things and contribute to our future games in a meaningful way.

We also believe a healthy balance between work and life reflects positively on your work. We offer a variety of perks for our full-time employees, especially who live in or relocate to Sweden. We also don't encourage crunch.

Here's what we offer:

• Flexible working hours
• Opportunities to influence your workflow
• Variety in your work tasks, and ability to influence your workload
• Participation in our internal game Show & Tell sessions, so you'll have input into all aspects of the game
• Social security and holidays that are up to the Swedish standards
• An inclusive and respectful work environment
• An office in central Malmö you can use as much as you please
• Fun workmates, game and movie nights, and other outings!

How to apply?

Did the position pique your interest? Are you the person we're looking for? Then we would love you hear from you!

We will be looking at applications until 30th of October 2018.

Please send us your:

• Cover letter (why you should work with us, what do you bring to the table)
• CV
• Portfolio (or links to your works)

Send your application to apply@frictionalgames.com!



Privacy Policy

By sending us your application, you give us permission to store your personal information and attachments.

We store all applications in a secure system. The applications are stored for two years, after which they are deleted. If you want your your information removed earlier, please contact us through our Contact form. Read more in our Privacy Policy.

Jump Rope For Heart, 2018

I am so happy to report that we surpassed our goal of raising $10,000 for the American Heart

Playing Bronze, Silver & Gold with the long rope!

Association through our Jump Rope for Heart event!  I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all of our families!  I am truly amazed by your generosity!  I would also like to thank the parent volunteers who came to the event to help twirl long ropes, count jumps, and use the stopwatch!  The JR4H "thank you gifts" should arrive in March and be sent home with students.

Check out the pictures and videos below.  The students had a blast!  They participated in a variety of jumping and running activities.  I am so proud of them for their hard work this past month. 

Switching handles partner trick.

They have become outstanding jumpers!

Click on these links for cool jump rope videos:

1. 5th graders JR4H
2. 5th grade (practicing in PE class)
3. 4th graders JR4H
4. 2nd graders (practicing in PE class)
5. K-2nd grades JR4H
6. Continuous Criss Cross Trick
7. Doubles Trick
8. Assembly performance practice (more on previous blog post)!

Long Rope Jumping

Long Ropes

Waiting a turn to play "Bronze, Silver & Gold"

Hurdles

Parent counting jumps for students.  

Long rope fun!

Happy!

What a fun day!

The Imitation Of Motoko

SPOLIER ALERT: Plot details for Ghost In The Shell new and old follow.

America's Ghost In The Shell film would be an otherwise forgotten reboot, like Robocop or Total Recall, were it not for the controversy around its casting. Ghost In The Shell, like the recent Ghostbusters remake, will be remembered more for the discussion around its casting, than for anything in the film itself. Not that the remake merits such discussion, but as far as live-action anime adaptations go, it's an important milestone.


The greatest enemy of this film is time. The original Ghost In The Shell anime movie came out in 1995. At that time, the idea of cybernetic bodies, sentient A.I., and manipulated memories still seemed shocking and prophetic, but now, after movies and shows like The Matrix, Westworld, and Ex Machina, anime like Macross Plus, Tehxnolyze, Serial Experiments Lain, and Psycho Pass, and video games like Persona 3, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Final Fantasy VII, these same ideas, presented in such a standard, deflated fashion, seem stale and oudated to a modern audience. Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima made this point in an essay for Rolling Stone, "In 2017, one cannot simply whisper, "The net is vast and infinite" and hope for the same impact that such as statement had 22 years ago when it was uttered by Motoko Kusanagi to such great effect. In 1995, the internet was a mysterious, brave new frontier; today, it's a known quantity. Smartphones are glued to our hands and we are constantly connected. For us, the net doesn't feel vast or infinite."

This is why the Ghost In The Shell television show, Stand Alone Complex, succeeded in keeping the series fresh. Instead of retreading old ground, it explored all the elements of society and humanity that would be affected by advanced cyborgs and sentient A.I. The American adaptation breaks no new ground in delving into the implications of a future we're already halfway towards. It's instead a washed out version of a more ambitious and striking film. We all know the famous scene of the garbage man who learns that his memories of a wife and daughter were implanted by the Puppetmaster. The film took its time to establish his memories and took its time in revealing them. After the initial shock of learning this man had no family, there's another, subtler shock of knowing how vulnerable cyberbrains are to hacking. In the remake, the scene is played by rote, but the garbage man isn't established as well prior, so we have less sympathy for him. Also, due the film's new priorities in direction, we don't think much about the implications of it.

Now, this isn't say one couldn't feasibly remake Ghost In The Shell. After all, while the original film has aged better than other anime classics like Akira or Perfect Blue, it isn't without room for improvement. The two major flaws of the original Ghost In The Shell are character development and the lack of Internet. Characters aren't fleshed out in the original film because that film was more about ideas than characters. We're more interested in the possibilities of Ghost In The Shell than in any of the individuals who inhabit it. The film also failed to see the supremacy of the Internet, which as absorbed so much of man's modern life. Lain, with its Net obsessed plots, feels far more relevant to our social media smartphone age. Even The Matrix, which took Ghost In The Shell as an inspiration, delved into the allures of virtual reality.

The American remake fails in both of these areas. Being a paint-by-numbers rehash of the original film, it decides not to take advantage of all we know about the Internet, smartphones, and social media. So it already feels dated-on-arrival. The other members of Section 9, outside of Motoko, Batou, and Aramaki, are given little more than cameo roles, with some like Togusa being near unrecognizable. Again, this isn't a far cry from the original, except that the remake is now a Bourne Identity knock-off, with Motoko trying to discover the truth about her past. This, again, doesn't work, because Motoko's past isn't why people like Ghost In The Shell, and Motoko's character is too poorly written and acted in the remake to make us care.

One would expect Scarlett Johansson to fit naturally into this role, having played Black Widow in the Marvel movies. She would just need to mime that performance here, as it had the right amount of iciness, humor, and camaraderie befitting Major Kusanagi. For some reason or another, her performance is dull and uninspired. The intent here may been to mimic Motoko's doll-like demeanor in the original film, but such a performance in live-action requires a subtlety and intrigue clearly out of ScarJo's range. Ghost In The Shell also runs a great deal on sex appeal, the original manga creator does hentai now (sadly none of it of the Major). Needless to say, ScarJo is the right actress for the job. Her sexiness, however, is undercut by the skin suit, which looked really hot in the anime, but looks really silly in live-action.

While we're on the subject, of ScarJo, we may as well get to the casting controversy that has dogged this film since its announcement. Many accuse the remake of whitewashing, saying that the role of Motoko Kusanagi should've gone to a Japanese-American actress. On the surface, this makes sense, given that Ghost In The Shell is a Japanese story set in Japan. Yet the remake is an American film, so the casting of someone of Japanese descent isn't necessary. It is common thing to take foreign stories and adapt them to your own culture. Throne Of Blood is based off of Macbeth, but Kurosawa didn't cast Scottish actors and set it in feudal Japan. Ponyo is based off of The Little Mermaid, yet is set in a Japanese coastal town and not Denmark. The British novel Fingersmith set in Victorian Britain was adapted in South Korea as The Handmaiden, set in Japan-occupied Korea. Bollywood has also remade god knows how many Western films and recast them with Indians. The West has also done this before with Japanese films. America remade The Seven Samurai as The Magnificent Seven, while Italy remade Yojimbo as A Fistful Of Dollars.

Now it could be argued that America has a more racially diverse population than either Japan, India, or South Korea, and thus, more of an obligation to be diverse wherever possible. Unlike The Magnificent Seven, there is little distinctly "American" about Ghost In The Shell, thus not casting a Japanese woman carries less justification. In any case, even if this remake had a more "American" context, "American" doesn't equal "white." So it behooves us to show that the Japanese are also a part of America, whenever their culture is concerned.

However, there's good reason to believe that ScarJo was cast for more economic reasons than racial ones. Anime is still something of a niche medium, and few outside of it know Ghost In The Shell. To sell science-fiction on film these days, star power is needed. Do you think anyone would've gone to see Minority Report if it didn't have Tom Cruise? Would as many people have turned out for Looper if Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis weren't in the starring roles? ScarJo is a sexy action star with a history of sci-fi roles, so it made sense from that perspective. I've no doubt that there are plenty of capable Japanese-American actresses working in Hollywood today, but would they attract the same numbers to the box office? With a niche anime product like Ghost In The Shell, Paramount Pictures wouldn't take the risk. Maybe they should have, maybe they should've worked harder to court Asian-American audiences, but one can't help but understand the underlying calculus.

I would not refer to Ghost In The Shell as a case of whitewashing, especially when you consider the subject matter. Ghost In The Shell is set in a more globalist future, where you could get a Caucasian named Kusanagi or a Japanese named Killian. The director of the original film, Oshii Mamoru, echoed this sentiment in an email to IGN, "The Major is a cyborg and her physical form is an entirely assumed one. The name 'Motoko Kusanagi' and her current body are not her original name and body, so there's no basis for saying that an Asian actress must portray her. Even if her original body (presuming such a thing existed) were a Japanese one, that would still apply." However, a lack of diversity is still an issue in Hollywood, and let's not pretend that whitewashing of Asians still isn't a problem. The film 21 based on the true story of Asian-Americans who made millions off of casinos by counting cards, cast white actors in the leading roles. This is a gross disservice to history that misleads audiences about the basis of the story. The film The Last Airbender cast Aang, Katara, and Sokka as white, even though in the original cartoon, Aang refrenced either Chinese or Tibetan origin, while Katara and Sokka refrenced Inuit origin. The solution is two-fold: get more Asian-Americans involved in the film industry, and criticize whitewashing whenever we see it. We might not always agree, but debate on these matters is preferable to silence.

That being said, Paramount and Dreamworks should've stuck by the new casting and moved on. Instead, they tried to appease the critics, and reshape ScarJo as a Japanese woman. The first shade of this came with reports that the studios considered digitally altering ScarJo's eyes to make her look more Asian. In a word, yellowface, but gratefully this never materialized. The filmmakers did something far worse, when they revealed that ScarJo's Major was originally a Japanese woman put into a Caucasian cyborg body. This half-hearted attempt at appeasing Asian-American critics feels more like a slap in the face with a wet fish than an olive branch. As Japanese-American actress Ai Yoshihara told The Hollywood Reporter, "Major's backstory is white people trying to justify the casting" (Sun). Further, the film missed out on a great opportunity. The concept of switching races by technological means is a titillating one. Rachel Dolezal aside, if we get to the point where racial skins can be put off and on like clothes, it raises a number of difficult questions about the idea of race itself, and how both society and the individual would approach. Of course, no such questions are explored in this schlock, because apparently Americans are too stupid for such things.

Many have praised the special effects in this film, which is warranted. The special effects, for the most part, are serviceable, with highlights being the robo-geishas and the lively city. And yet it fails to be awe-inspiring. The original anime film thrived on detailed realism, while this one often devolves into the realm of video game cutscenes. The city, even, is miniscule in comparison to the metropolis of Blade Runner 2049. Indeed, I thought a great deal about Denis Villenue's worthy sequel throughout my viewing of this oatmeal. They were both released in the same year, and deal with many of the same themes: the disappearing boundary between man and machine, the unreliablity of memory, and the persistence of inhumanity amidst technological abundance. The difference is that Blade Runner 2049 treats these concepts with the nuance, depth, and ambiguity they deserve. In any case, star power saved neither film from losing money at the box office, but only one will be remembered by future generations.

We get complaints about all the superhero films that come out nowadays, but little appreciation for how consistently decent they have become. In this decade alone, The Avengers, Captain America: Civil War, Logan, Wonder Woman, Black Panther, The Guardians Of The Galaxy, and Deadpool, rank among the most entertaining, imaginitive, and talked-about films of their respective years. Even the bad comic book films, like Suicide Squad or Iron Man 3, at least carry some visual resemblance to the source material. It took a lot of failures before we got to this point, and likewise, I think it'll take a long while before we can get consistently decent anime films.

Three major Western anime adaptations that come to mind are Dragonball Evolution, Speed Racer, and Death Note. Dragonball is such an off-the-wall anime with magic, aliens, androids, and super-powered fights, that a live-action adaptation would either look ridiculous or detached. The latter was the inevitable result, in a film that was little like the anime, had ugly special effects, and cliche-ridden plot that can't stand on its own. The film's writer, Ben Ramsay, even apologized to fans. I'd like to think that a proper live-action Dragon Ball would look like Kung-Fu Hustle. Speed Racer isn't much more engaging than its cheesy source, but the heavy amount of ice cream color CGI can certainly make it garish to viewers. The film has its fans, but the material is too extravagant to cull most anime fans to its side. Netflix's Death Note has camp value, for sure, with so much emo angst that I expected a cameo from Gerard Way. This film, like the live-action Ghost In The Shell, fails to utilize the core concepts within an American context. Further the rivalry between Light and L that was the meat of the original series is sloppily handled here. Lakeith Stanfield gives an interesting, though inconsistent performance as L, while Willem Dafoe steals the show as Ryuk. Death Note also suffered from a casting controversy, since Light Yagami, now Light Turner, is Caucasian. No controversy ensued over L being played by Lakeith Stanfield, because it wouldn't slice to accuse a black actor of "whitewashing" (even though it's kinda the same thing). Keep in mind that before the Netflix film, there already were several live-action Death Note movies from Japan with all-Japanese casts. In that context, is it really so bad for one Death Note film to have a Caucasian Light?

Now the Japanese have also made live-action anime films, and they suffer from the opposite problem that the American films do, they're too reverential. The characters all too often look "exactly" like the anime characters, which has the effect of making everyone look like cosplayers. This leads to another point of praise of the modern superhero film. The character costumes never look exactly as they do in the comics, which would be ridiculous. Instead the costumes are adapted to fit a live-action setting. The only great live-action anime films were Death Note: Light Up The New World and the Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy. Light Up The New World, still shamefully without Western release, tells a new story using the basic Death Note concepts. It does so with convincing special effects, inviting new characters who aren't cookie-cutters of the originals, and twists and turns worthy of David Fincher. The Rurouni Kenshin Trilogy is the gold standard of live-action anime, though much of that is due to the original setting, which fits perfectly within Japan's jidai-geki genre. It keeps true to the heart of the story, with over two hours of space to properly develop the characters, and impressive sword choreography. Honestly, anyone attempting to adapt anime into live-action should watch the Kenshin Trilogy.

Live-action anime adaptations need to fly somwhere between the worship of the Japanese and the sacrilege of America. Anime is more popular globally than its ever been, and it's inevitable that Hollywood's going to exploit that niche however it can. While we haven't quite reached the sweet spot, the American Ghost In The Shell is a step in the right direction. Whatever you think of the film, it deserves some credit for faithfully recreating scenes from the original film. Characters like The Major, Batou, and Aramaki look more or less like their anime counterparts. Kawaii Kenji's wedding chant from the original even reappears in the film's end credits. This is far more accomplished than either Dragonball Evolution or Death Note in being faithful to the anime. The filmmakers clearly enjoyed Ghost In The Shell and sincerely tried to adapt it.

Let's get back to that wedding chant. It is haunting and transcendent, but here, it feels woefully out of place. There is no marriage of woman and machine in this adaptation, and here lies the rub. It mimics the syle, but none of the substance. The original could border on the pretentious, but it at least carried some feeling of intellectual engagement. Nothing doing here, where you start to question if the lines were even read over more than once. One such line goes something like, "We are not our memories, but what we do." This line is so insipid because everything we do is shaped by our memories. The line should've been reshaped as, "Your life is less about your past, and more about what you do with it." The live-action Ghost In The Shell is enslaved to the memory of the anime. It replays old memories, but does nothing new with them, dwindling in its own nostalgia.

Far Cry 3 PC Game Download

Screenshots:

Far Cry 3 PC Game Free is a 2013 comedic 1st-person shooter video game developed by the Ubisoft Montreal & published by Ubisoft. It is a stand-alone expansion to 2012 video game Far Cry 3 & the eighth overall installment in the Far Cry franchise.

 The player will find themselves using elevated powered explosives, heavily modified firearms & a large knife in order to kill their way through the main missions. Side missions involve the liberating garrisons, killing rare animals & saving hostages. Stealth is rewarded with additional Cyber Points, the equivalent of Experience Points. 

Minimum System Requirements For Far Cry 3 PC Game:

• Operating S: Windows® XP (SP3) / Windows Vista® (SP2) / Windows® 7 (SP1) / Windows® 8
• Processor: At least 2.66 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo E6700 or 3.00 GHz AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 6000+
• Memory: At least 2 GB
• Graphics: At least 512 MB DirectX® 9.0c–compliant
• DirectX®: Direct X® 9.0c
• Hard Drive: At least 3 GB HD space
• Sound: Direct X 9.0c–compliant

Far Cry 3 Free Download:

Part:1: http://zipansion.com/4qmL

Part:2: http://zipansion.com/4qwq

Part:3: http://zipansion.com/4r0P

Part:4: http://zipansion.com/4r5d

Part:5: http://zipansion.com/4r8M

Part:6: http://zipansion.com/4rHV

Part:7: http://zipansion.com/4rJb

Part:8: http://zipansion.com/4rKl

Part:9: http://zipansion.com/4rMj

Part:10 : http://zipansion.com/4rPS

Part:11: http://zipansion.com/4rQI

Game Camp For Grownups

Axiom Verge

A group of academic colleagues charged me with creating a series of video gaming sessions. Their goal is to understand the merit of games as cultural artifacts, and of game design and analysis as academic fields.

I'm treating this project as you might if someone asked for a master class about any area of study or hobby, such as "what's the deal with 19th century novels?" or "why are you so into cooking?"

My role is a mixture of evangelist, educator, ... and someone trying to justify my discipline to friends working with more traditional media.


The average age of this group is 50 years, and most members have not played a game in decades (or in some cases, at all). The group is only available for a few sessions. So, we're starting from zero. I can't survey all genres, mechanics, or even what I'd consider the video game canon. I also can't rely excessively on themes and skills carrying over between sessions because not everyone can attend each.

Pac Man Championship Edition DX+

This group is local to Williams College. However, I'm writing this article on our process for several reasons.

My recent courses and books have benefited from reader feedback to early drafts on this blog. I look forward to the conversations this will project initiate.

I also offer the game camp as a framework for others who might want to refine and repeat the experience for their own groups. The more that teachers share their planning materials, the easier and better it is for all of us and our students.

Finally, this is an experiment of sorts. Scientists should document their experiments, and to keep us objective, ideally set out the methodology and hypotheses before they are are tweaked during iteration due to intermediate results.

Ground Rules

The Last of Us: Remastered

These are the same rules applied to assigned games for students in my courses. There are really just two guidelines to ensure that everyone gets as much as possible from the experience: respect games as you should assigned novels or films, and respect other players as you should other students.

The specific rules implementing those are:

• You must play each game for at least two hours.  Most games spend the first half-hour just teaching you the mechanics and introducing the world of the game. For players new to video games, that "half hour" can stretch a lot longer. You need to push through that so that you've gotten to the game proper and not just done the equivalent of reading the dust cover. 
• For some VR experiences, or in the case of physical illness from the stimulus, you should obviously stop before the two hour point.
• For single-player games, you may also take turns with partners for a two-hour session as long as you are in control for at least 45 minutes across your turns. Those turns should not be consecutive.
• You must try hard to succeed. Games are supposed to be challenging and you are expected to fail a lot at first, and then learn and begin to succeed. It is natural to feel embarrassed or frustrated in the beginning. Don't make a joke about your performance and then give up. Channel those feelings into trying harder.

  

  Mario Kart 64

• You must read the assigned articles or videos, which I specifically chose to be short, and then discuss the game with another person who has played it. It is easy to miss to point of why a game is interesting when focused solely on trying to play it in a short session.
• Support and cheer on other players in a way that strictly enhances their accomplishment and challenge. Specifically: don't tell others what to do very often, and don't ever take the controller out of their hands. I've been observing groups of new players for a decade as a scientist. In about eight out of ten groups of all ages and cultures, males attempt to socially dominate females when playing games, often unconsciously or with noble intentions of helping. It isn't entirely their fault--the males often do that to each other as well, but the females are often too polite to tell them to back off. Bottom line: if you're male and playing with females, I recommend that you sit on your hands and limit your comments to strictly compliments...that's what I do.

Firewatch

I require students to re-play games that they're already familiar with, but for this group it is reasonable to skip a session if you're experienced with a game in the interest of time so that you can play more new games. Note that Pac Man is not equivalent to Pac Man Championship Edition for this purpose.

The Games

My goals in choosing these games are:

1. survey the breadth of video game experiences
2. provide one or two deep experiences, which also requires first building certain playing skills
3. ensure that at least one game actually appeals to each person, so that the players see how it feels to become attached and enjoy the experience as well as gaining academic familiarity

I'm not trying to demonstrate the greatest games, advance a particular theory of games, or favor games that resonate with academics. The games I chose are critically lauded, but they are also all successful commercial products.

The games below are listed in the order that they'll be offered. I include some backups for each that accomplish more-or-less the same thing. I discuss the significance of the games marked with asterisks below.

Tetris*

Accessible, robust, and minimalist gaming. Anyone can pick this up instantly and everyone finds it compelling. It teaches basic gaming literacy in a no-frills fashion, and the design has proved remarkably ageless.

Super Mario Bros.

A carefully-designed learning curve, tight controls, and instant action. The ideal introduction to platforming conventions while still rewarding skill and persistence. The only game on this list that is here for historical reasons as well as contemporary play, SMB arguably was the first modern video game, with large levels, graded mechanic introduction, boss battles, and even nonlinear maps.

Inside*

Playdead's new masterpiece of combining platforming and narrative for an experience that fully embraces interaction as a storytelling medium. This takes what SMB introduced to its logical conclusion, leveraging linear gameplay. The puzzle difficulty and twitch levels are tuned just right to engage both casual and more experienced players. 

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+

Classic arcade feel with modern conventions and indie sensibility. Even more than Tetris, this rewards quick reflexes and strategic planning and presents short sessions that demand "let's play one more round."

MarioKart 64* [multiplayer], any other Mario Kart, Blur

The ideal introduction to competitive play. On a racetrack, you can't get lost and miss the action. The controls are simple and the gameplay is heavily stabilized to work for mixed skill levels, but there are still plenty of map secrets and control techniques for advanced players.

Axiom Verge [PC], Metroid Zero Mission, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Legend of Zelda

"Metroidvania" games embrace traversal and make RPG elements accessible. Their sense of atmosphere and loneliness is powerful and matched with the thrill of discovery. These games are also relatively hard, but in a fair way.

Firewatch, Her Story, Gone Home, ADR1FT

Blurring the line between "game" and linear narratives forms, taking on adult themes, and foregrounding character...even though there actually are no characters explicitly depicted.

Monaco* [4-player couch multiplayer]

Introduction to cooperative play. A brilliant reintepretation of Pac Man with light RPG elements. It shows the power of visual abstraction. Monaco is a perfect example of how to translate genre entertainment (here, heist movies) to a new medium. It captures all of the progressive (i.e., linear narrative) elements in an elegant way by allowing them to emerge naturally from the mechanics and level designs.

Aperture Robot Repair [Vive], Core Calibration Slingshot

Compelling VR presence, irony and contextual humor. "Presence" is a technical term for the mind and senses reacting to virtual stimuli in a physical way.

The Night Jar, Papa Sangre II

No graphics can ever be as good as the imagination, and shockingly, no element of video game technology is truly required.

Audio Shield [Vive], Guitar Hero 2, Rock Band 5

Modern rhythm games with physical identity. GH2 achieves a funny kind of presence even in 2D; putting a rhythm game in VR merges flow and presence (I can't wait for RB5 VR!)

The Last of Us Remastered [single player], Uncharted 4, Uncharted 2

Naughty Dog consistently delivers emotionally powerful experiences through completely generic characters, plots, and settings. They demonstrate that classic character and story theory works for games, but that games are about living the story and so innovation must be on the feel side, not plot cleverness. These are also the most cinematic games available, with interesting aggressive camera work, lighting, costume changes, and set pieces. TLUR is also like being punched in the gut (emotionally, at least as a parent) for hours. Although it telegraphs every twist and emotional moment, that dread and anticipation actually heightens the experience.

Portal 2* [single player, PC], Portal

A masterpiece. Technically excellent, sharp design, great writing, great characters, the best example of environmental storytelling...and excellently paced. Portal 2 improved the learning curve for novice players and deepened the story from Portal, so it narrowly edges out its predecessor. 

XCOM [XCOM2 preferred, but any version, single player], Age of Empires III, Rymdkapsel

These are the most accessible RTS games, yet they all retain tight design and depth. XCOM clearly stands out from the pack for its sheer darkness, storyline, and mixture of mechanics. This is as close as accessible games get to the layered complexity of a novel. This also shows how progressive and emergent elements can coexist without one dominating; XCOM is like Groundhog Day after the first playthrough. It is also the rare truly hardcore game that is open to novice and casual players. XCOM 2 takes everything great about the original and doubles down on it.

The Stanley Parable*, The Magic Circle

Post-modern gaming at its finest and most accessible. The game stands on its own, but with some background in other games it creates a metacritical space and mixes scathing and loving references in equal measure, like The Player and Total Recall do for Hollywood. 

I strongly recommend playing Portal 2 and XCOM 2 by yourself instead of with partners. Identifying with the world of the game and solving problems solely by yourself is part of the experience for those games. 

Audioshield

For the other single-player games, I recommend playing with a partner and taking turns having control on ~15 minute intervals (there are usually natural swapping points). Playing with someone else usually enhances the experience. It also makes it a little easier to get through some tougher parts...clears up some confusion for people who don't have a lot of gaming background. 

For most of these games, I recommend using a controller. This is especially true for XCOM, which at first appears to favor using a mouse. For Portal 2, use the mouse and keyboard. It doesn't matter what input you use for The Stanley Parable, but I found mouse and keyboard easier.

There are thirteen games on the list, which is way too much time to ask of the group. I probably need to get the list down to five sessions. It already pains me to have cut Wing Commander III, GTA: Chinatown Wars, LIMBO, Papa & Yo, Skyrim, Minecraft, Shadow of the Colossus, Harvest Moon, Half-Life 1 [single player], Jet Grind Radio, Spelunky, Left 4 Dead 2 [multiplayer], and many, many more games to better capture the breadth of the medium.

Portal 2

The games marked with asterisks are the ones that I recommend to those player who can make only five sessions. Maybe those will be the only five that I offer, if nobody is available for more.

The problem in cutting to just them is that all of these games stand on their own, but stand much better together. Imagine if Moby Dick was the only book that you'd ever read...it would still be great, but you'd be unable to appreciate its literary context and lack the experience to tease out why it is so great.

For example, I'm prepared to argue for Portal 2 as the greatest video game of all time (I'm prepared to make that argument for other games, though too!) It would be a shame to hit it as your first game using first-person controls or first puzzle game, however. I've seen smart players lost for an hour in the 5-minute introductory sequence of Portal 2 because they didn't understand the basic conventions of the game due to lack of gaming experience.

Why [These] Games?

Super Mario Bros.

Video games are a popular, commercial art (there are fine art games; but I'm not teaching them to this group). They are also a folk art via modding, game jams, and the less polished side of indie development, but we aren't going in that direction with this group.

I chose games that proved themselves under the brutal constraints of the market. Like serialized novels, Shakespearian plays, and feature films, an audience voted with their wallets that these are undeniably engaging works.

Games need not be "fun" any more than Hamlet has to be fun, but they must engage the player's mind and emotions. They also must be entertaining, again, sometimes in the way that a tragedy or drama is entertaining. They can, of course, be entertaining and engaging in the manner of a summer blockbuster as well.

There are different kinds of value in different games. We admire Super Mario Bros. for its mechanics, controls, and level design; The Stanley Parable for its sardonic humor and reflective insights; The Last of Us for its set pieces and heart-strings; Portal 2 for its puzzles and learning curve, but also its environmental storytelling; Aperture Robot Repair for its technical excellence, and so on.

Games are about relationships and choices, not narratives. They prefer generic settings and narratives to immediately establish a familiar context within which to explore dynamics and choices. That said, what makes some games interesting is that they reach for the narrative ring anyway. Firewatch and Uncharted are about being inside the story, not the genius of the story. Part of Portal 2's greatness is that it contains excellent performances and narrative even though the mechanics are traversal puzzles. Make no mistake, however: while narrative and characters can elevate a game, all of these games work as games first. Overemphasizing their narratives would be like evaluating a novel based on its illustrations or a play based on its scenery. Those just aren't the strength or the point of those media.

Games particularly excel at creating flow and inspiring fiero. Flow is that sense of being in the moment, where you're in tune with the environment and lose track of time, interacting at an intelligent but almost subconscious level. Most people enter flow when reading fiction or watching television. Anyone expert in a complex field enters flow when working, whether a professional athlete, novelist, or mathematician.

Fiero is the sense of accomplishment when you've achieved something challenging through practice and skill. When you punch your fist in the air and shout "yes!" (even if it is vicarious success, as at a sporting event...which is really a game!), that's fiero. While over-the-top action movies sometimes accomplish a light sense of fiero, no other media can inspire this emotion as intensely as games.

The Stanley Parable

Games respond to each other and build on mechanics and themes. You need a certain amount of coverage to appreciate this.

For the games above, Pac-Man Championship Edition revisits the design of Pac-Man as if it had been invented today. Monaco then answers the question, "what would multiplayer Pac-Man be?" (In late 2016, Bandai will try its own multiplayer Pac-Man; I'm happy with Monaco)

Axiom Verge is a direct and reverential response to Metroid, but also to platformers back to Super Mario Bros.

The Stanley Parable primarily criticizes games that are not on my list...but it also questions the lack of free will and corresponding value of success of a game like Portal 2 even as it adopts its framework.

I believe the above selection of games support these points, and that the ground rules will lead the players to be able to debate subtler issues in games.

I look forward to this experiment and appreciate my colleagues' collective interest!

---

Morgan McGuire (@morgan3d) is a professor at Williams College, a researcher at NVIDIA, and a professional game developer. His most recent games are Project Rocket Golfing for iOS and Skylanders: Superchargers for consoles. He is the author of the Graphics Codex, an essential reference for computer graphics now available in iOS and Web Editions.

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