The Video Game Industry Failed Monolith Productions
The closure of Monolith Productions, an innovative video game developer, shows what’s wrong with an industry in which game publishers have the ultimate power to shut down projects and fire workers.
6 Articles by: Alexander Ross
Alexander Ross is an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Information.
Game Companies Are Throwing Historic Video Games Into the Dustbin of History
Epic Games is shutting down the iconic Unreal series, continuing the games industry’s disturbing trend of turning its own history into abandonware.
How Counter-Strike Helped Shape the Future of Digital Capitalism
Developed as a passion project, Counter-Strike became a video game phenomenon. It also served as a laboratory for the exploitation of video game labor and the commodification trends that dominate the games industry and the broader internet today.
Chuck Klosterman Remembers the ’90s Wrong
The Nineties is, on the surface, a mixture of ’90s pop culture nostalgia and cultural critique. But it also has a political agenda: Chuck Klosterman wants the leftist kids to knock it off.
Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard Acquisition Won’t Save the Games Industry
Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will make things worse for game workers — and entrench some of the most dystopian trends in video games.
The Profit in the PokéStop
Pokémon Go transforms our public spaces into potential sites of exchange and purchase, and its inhabitants into roving profit centers.