Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

Like a lot of (or all? is this a defining trait?) geeks, I'm pretty obsessive by nature. I focus on things intensely, and work in sprints so I can concentrate my current obsession into productivity (by some definition of "productive"). I work in the tech industry, which also works in sprints, so I'v...

Death is so frequently the lose condition in games that I think you could argue it's a little lazy. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind when a game threatens my game avatar with death. In fact I enjoy it as a threat. Morbid though it may be, I enjoy imaginary over-the-top violence and pretend gore in m...

I'm watching the Interrogator animated series on Warhammer+, and this is my review of it. There may be very minor spoilers, but ideally no more than you'd get from the episode description.

This show is 2D animatation, done only in black and white. It's a lot of computer 2D animation but even w...

Recently, I watched the Iron Within animated feature on Warhammer+, and this is my review of it. The feature is about 30 minutes long, of beautifully rendered by somewhat rigid 3D animation. There may be very minor spoilers, but ideally no more than you'd get from the episode description.

Iron

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With the exception of a handful of pioneering academics and specialist publications, serious critical consideration of gaming as an art form feels, to me, to be seriously lacking. Sure, it's commonly accepted that gaming is now very much mainstream, but it's pretty clear that what most people are t...

I work in the tech industry, so I think I'm supposed to be really excited about 3d printing but I have to admit that actually, I'm not very. It's a cool technology and all, and maybe some day I will be excited about it, but since it started I've never seen a great use case for it (I know, I know, yo...

Most tabletop roleplaying game systems have the concept of rolling dice as a way of determining whether a player character in the game succeeds or fails when attempting a non-trivial task. A die roll doesn't itself have any meaning. A 20 on a 20-sided die is just a number, no better or worse than a...