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Author: dubble

Urbane Scrawl: A Foggy Fortnight in Hull

Urbane Scrawl: A Foggy Fortnight in Hull

The long-frozen liquids of last night’s excitement slumber beneath the sheet of briny vapour which chokes thoroughfare and lung on this windless Winter morning. Savage revellers put respectlessly to rest, the four drift in the still air of Paragon Square – at the choke-point of Hull’s central business district. Beleaguered, bruised and withered, the manured breeze of the Humber Valley won’t be scented for another three days of tentative traipsing, and just as many nights of dealing with the crowds….

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Lower your breeches, or your prices.

Lower your breeches, or your prices.

Though many of the machinations of capitalism seem cryptic to us non-corporate types, something we can understand is that a non-material product costs less to produce than something that involves smelting and a team of dwarves. Whosoever’s responsible for the pricing of Steam games must think we’re idiots, or we’re unfamiliar with the concept of money – cave communists. £39.99 for Empire: Total War! We engineers are shovelling wads of cash into the Steam engine, yet the output seems miserably…

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Think of the Children

Think of the Children

This article is old, oh so old. I promise I’ll stop doing this soon! The Daily Telegraph has embarked on a campaign to ‘Save our Children’s Childhood’. The newspaper claims that ‘Junk Culture’ (which includes gaming) is harming the development of young people. A letter to The Daily Telegraph sparked off what is now an inferno of regular coverage of the issue. The reasoning behind classification of gaming as ‘junk’ follows the regurgitated, simplistic and ignorant arguments of the past,…

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Parsed Masters: XCOM: Terror From The Deep

Parsed Masters: XCOM: Terror From The Deep

This sequence of letters was originally mailed to the Duchess of York and returned unopened. It’s also been on my blog. Apologies for the formatting, I’m too lazy and incompetent to fix it. XCOM: Terror From The Deep is almost certainly my favourite game of all time. Released by Microprose in 1995, the sequel to UFO: Enemy Unknown has captured my heart and mind, taken them back to base, researched them, and discovered my weak-spot for sumptuous turn-based strategy. Terror…

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My Silicon Soul Mate

My Silicon Soul Mate

Are PCs more than the sum of their components? You’ve probably tentatively tendered to the assembly of your rig, slotted soldered joygivers with freshly dis-charged fingertips, repeated the rigmarole until no innard remains unchanged, and yet – hasn’t your PC always had a definite character? Mine certainly does. Yet, I’ve stripped her down, laid her bare, peered into her cavernous reaches – nothing there but dusty detritus – evidence of her lofty age and my dungeon-like habitation’s hygiene. So, where…

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Idea for a Game: Game

Idea for a Game: Game

The pre-gesticular stage of The Reticular Cycle is upon us once more. A time of puffing and strutting and the gratuitous public display of our inner workings. Eligible mates – I implore you – position yourself downwind and ready yourself to receive a warm dollop of DuBBle, for I have another game idea. This is how the menu screen shall display itself – note the wonderful plumage:

Naked War: The Definitive Review

Naked War: The Definitive Review

If, like me, you’ve noticed a definite deficit of interesting or even English posts on The Reticule of late, you’ll, like me, reflexively blame my blogging buddies. I respect you for your ability to avoid self-reflection. This new entry on your RSS feeds is designed to rectify The Reticule‘s recent remissness. It’s a punishment – each of the culprits will be coerced into an analysis of the underlying themes of the text, to be presented in front of class next…

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Adults Only: Ian Tit Appropriate?

Adults Only: Ian Tit Appropriate?

A slightly modified version of this article originally appeared on my blog some time during the English Civil War. Ian Bogost is a sage amongst milder herbs. According to Bogost , we’re all a little to blame for the failure of the original Manhunt 2, Carmageddon, Fahrenheit, and every other game deemed too ‘adult’ for retail acceptability. Bogost, who is the founder of Persuasive Games, conceives a need to critically assess the ramifications of the label ‘Adults Only’ (AO): the…

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NGO Space

NGO Space

I have an idea for a little game, a Flash game perhaps. This might turn out to become a feature, it might be a one-off. I imagine this is what the main menu would look like:

Global Conflicts: Latin America Review

Global Conflicts: Latin America Review

If Serious Games were to take the form of an anthropomorphic animal from an 80s before-church-on-Sunday cartoon, they would be Willy Fogg from Around the World with Willy Fogg. Before I sat down, cross legged, uncomfortably close to the electric heater, with the bowl of Weetabix Mum had conjured, I would press the sticky button for Fogg and contemplate his mission – to complete a full circumnavigation of the world in 80 days, with recourse only to Victorian-era technology, while…

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