Fortune-telling games help us fumble toward deeper truths, at the junction of technology and mysticism

Ian Bogost argues we need more games that focus not on characters, but on systems — like cities, economies, language, or physics.

Writing to us from the distant future, Ian "Cow Clicker" Bogost describes our modern games industry and the role it will play in the coming downfall of civilization: "Working long before sustenance powders, developers were easily seduced by appeals to their physical urges. — Read the rest

The English have a coy euphemism for addiction: "moreish." It summons the delightful anxiety in surrendering your control to something else, the ambivalent cocktail of desire and guilt. We feel it flickering in the periphery, and we feel our smartphones in the middle of a restaurant dinner. — Read the rest

Nick sez,

Remember those BASIC programs you typed into your C64?

Now there's a book written about one.

And the program is only 1 line.
And 10 people wrote this book. As one.

And they're not lunatics but teach at MIT and USC and other fancy places.

At Gamasutra, Ian Bogost takes us through a recent flap over Electronic Arts' forthcoming Medal of Honor game, set in modern Afghanistan. Though similar titles tend to avoid geopolitical specifics, here gamers were promised the option of siding with Taliban militants against U.S. — Read the rest

Still the best temperature gauge of What The Indie Game Development Scene Is Up To This Year, this year's Independent Games Festival brought in yet another record number of entries (306 to last year's 226), and its just-released finalist selection has brought another round of some of the most innovative and finely crafted games due for release in months. — Read the rest

Over on Offworld, our Brandon's spotted step-by-step instructions for carving Mario mushrooms from radishes!

Someone at the Food Network is asleep at the wheel for not giving reigning bento champ Anna The Red her own games-related cooking show. The latest: this step by step tutorial to turn your ordinary radishes into Mario mushrooms, with the help of two bits of seaweed.

UPDATE: The episode will air! Details soon.

Two of the coolest guys in the world, Sir Richard Branson and Stephen Colbert, apparently poured water on each other's heads in an unfriendly manner during a television segment taping that will likely never air. — Read the rest

Game companies continue to withdraw their titles from the Slamdance Festival in protest. The Festival unilaterally dumped a critically acclaimed game called "Super Columbine Massacre," prompting other game makers to walk away from the competition in disgust.

Wow. First up was Jonathan Blow, who withdrew his game Braid from the contest.

Earlier today, I posted that game researcher/prankster Jane McGonigal was included in Technology Review's prestigious 2006 TR35 list of "Young Innovators Under 35." Jane just emailed to tell me about the latest game she and collaborator Ian Bogost are premiering later this month. — Read the rest

A hoax presentation from "McDonald's Interactive" brought the house down yesterday at the UK Serious Games Summit, where game developers met to discuss games that are intended to have positive social outcomes. The pranksters — widely believed to have been the notorious Yes Men — gave an increasingly provocative, funny and weird deadpan PowerPoint presentation (Coral Cache mirror) on McDonald's putative interactive strategy. — Read the rest