Fire Emblem – Games and Culture

God is in the Numbers

Behind all the smoke and mirrors, what are video games but lines of code with high aspirations? Unlike with movies, which for the most part share this relationship with coding to the point of visual representation and no further, video games aspire to simulate living, breathing situations through a responsive world that will change both with and without user interactions. Even if you set down the gamepad without pressing pause to fix yourself a tuna melt during a rousing bout of Super Mario Bros, the Goomba, Koopa, Koopa Paratroopa will all still algorithmically waddle and hop about, all for the sake of simulated agency. … Read the rest

Perma Death

Perma death, or permanent death, is a difficult concept for many gamers. Some series use the death of characters to enhance the storyline, but they then bring the characters back in interesting ways in order to appease the gamers who grow connected to the characters through the story. Games like Demon Souls and Dark souls actually over use death to frustrate the player and allow for more difficult gameplay.

And then there are games like Pokemon that are at such an easy difficulty that it is rather rare for an experienced gamer to “die.” When games like this are created and overplayed, like they are, players get creative in order to enhance their gaming experience. … Read the rest