Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) is an interdisciplinary centre for research/ creation in game studies and design, digital culture and interactive art

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TAG Pandemic Game Recommendations

Posted by michaeliantorno

Month three of the pandemic is upon us, and many of us have already burned through our videogame backlog and are hunting for new titles to play during these strange times. Luckily, TAG’s roster of games researchers are here to help! Below is a collection of games recommended by TAGsters, grouped by category and accompanied with short “elevator pitches” describing what they’re all about. Thanks to all the folks on the TAG Discord for sending …

Locative Gaming in the time of COVID-19

Posted by jessie

When the pandemic hit Canada, I had just begun the process of writing my Master’s thesis, and though I did not realize it at the time, COVID-19 would not only impact how I am writing but also, to an extent, what I am writing about. The working title for my thesis is “Casual Play, Hardcore Community: The Social and Spatial Dynamics of Locative Gaming” and for this project, I interviewed fifteen active members/players of both …

Doing Games Research with Walkthroughs, Wikis, Cheats, and Hacks

Posted by michaeliantorno

I’m not very good at videogames. This, in and of itself, is not particularly noteworthy. However, as a game studies scholar, playing through videogames and documenting them is often a key part of my research process. When games skew a bit towards the difficult — such as with platformers and old-school action titles — gaming prowess can become a prerequisite for progressing and reaching certain objectives. This raises some interesting questions for game studies scholars: …

TAG Home Office Check-ins

Posted by michaeliantorno

As the second month of the Covid-19 lockdown lurches forward, scholars find themselves entrenched in a strange environment of physical isolation and online communication. Although many of us have been staying in touch through Facebook chat, Discord servers, and an avalanche of Zoom meetings, working from home remains a challenging (albeit necessary) paradigm. This is especially true for TAG members, who have traditionally relied on the lab as a co-working space, a workshop, and a …

New TAG Server – After the Consequences

Posted by michaeliantorno

TAG has just launched a new Minecraft server with a custom modpack, ominously titled After the Consequences. Adopting post-dystopian themes, After the Consequences invites players to explore an infinite landscape in which sprawling cities lay empty and overtaken by lush vegetation and dangerous animals. Choreographed by Bart Simon, with input from TAG’s team of grizzled Minecraft veterans, this is the latest server in TAG’s long history with the game.
A screenshot from After the Consequences
After the …

Embracing the Demake

Posted by michaeliantorno

In recent years, videogame companies have demonstrated an insatiable appetite with remakes. Every industry event is peppered with promises to bring back old classics, brighter and shinier than their original hardware could have ever allowed. These resuscitated games range from one-to-one remakes, such as The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, to complete overhauls, such as the impending Final Fantasy VII remake series. By picking and choosing the best (or perhaps, the most marketable) elements from …