My Best Writing

Writing For Free
Are Social Games taking over? (PC Gamer)
Robotics; the State of the Art (Computer Shopper)
An Interview with Disability Campaigner Gareth Garratt (PC Gamer)
Mnemotechnics and Ultima Underworld II (RPS)
A Difficult Day in the Life of an MMO Studio (RPS)
Is it in his eyes? Colourblind gaming. (RPS)
Portal 2 Writer Interview (IGN)

Blogroll

Interview: Gareth Garratt, disability campaigner.

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To the tune of: Various Artists – A Visit To A Sad Planet

Gareth, gaming

Gareth Garratt is curled up in his wheelchair, his body secured in a bucket seat while his hands clutch at the side of a desktop. His chin is pressed down onto a Toshiba mouse and he’s using that to control a virtual Marty McFly, clambering around the back of a police van. Gareth’s chin is the only part of his body that seems to have fine motor control, due to the cerebral palsy he was born with.

Gareth sprang to prominence earlier in the week [more...]

February 11th, 2011 | Category: games, interview, politics | Leave a comment

What EDMs say about MPs’ attitudes to games.

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A couple of paragraphs I worked up for PC Gamer, for a forthcoming article, but I didn’t end up using.

To the tune of: Tenacious D – The Government Totally Sucks

Prior to the 2010 election, all three national parties had pledged to give UK games developers tax breaks; despite being something the Tories and Liberals agreed upon, it was one of the first things to be scrapped. There has been only one debate focussed on video games since the new coalition came to power, and that was to cancel the tax breaks for UK-based game developers. Though all the [more...]

February 1st, 2011 | Category: games, politics | One comment

On CyberWar

To the Tune of: Jeff Wayne;Richard Burton;Justin Hayward – The Eve Of The War

This is the longer draft of a short piece I did for the just-released Delayed Gratification. Before the Wikileaks stuff happened incidentally, so I was prescient about 4Chan.

Undersea Cable

Missile weapons, phalanxes, military organisation, artillery, ironclads, dreadnoughts, machine guns, submarines, and finally nuclear weapons. These are all shifts of technology that led to shifts in international power, making the ultimate weapons of their time obsolete. Rifled guns eradicated knights, ironclads wiped out galleons, like lightning against tin hats.

Cyberwarfare is the latest technological shift. Simply [more...]

January 29th, 2011 | Tags: | Category: Internet, politics | One comment

The 360-Degree View: Documentaries.

(Panning montage of serious-looking people talking, national institutions, angry fingers being pointed, people walking around and behind things.)

(Tenor voice-over). “It’s a blight on the national psyche, an easy way out for hundreds of people who want easy answers. Politicians condemn it, Doctors say it destroys lives. But what does documentary-making really do to Britain? And is there any way out for the unfortunate addicts who make these programmes – the dealers who consume their own supply?”

“So, what sort of people get into badly-researched, scare-mongering journalism? We spoke to Barry (not his real name), who worked in the field [more...]

December 6th, 2010 | Category: games, Moving Pictures, politics | One comment

Eleventy-One.

To the tune of: Stevie Wonder – Happy Birthday . It was my eleventy-first birthday on Monday. Here’s what I did.

Timestamp: 12.30 a.m. OH, what a night! A quiet drink with several friends ended with me dropping my switch card somewhere and Quintin dunking my phone in his Gulden Draak. The phone didn’t die immediately – but as the heady liquor permeated its innards it gradually flickered out of life before passing away sometime during the night – which meant my alarm didn’t go off, and hence I was late for my dental appointment, so there [more...]

October 20th, 2010 | Category: food, Personal, politics | Leave a comment
 
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