Breaking Through The Fourth Wall in Dragon Age

For me, the appeal of video games has to do with escape and immersion. It isn’t just about gameplay. It’s about story, about investment, and about character. From the very beginning I’ve been drawn to video games that tell stories and introduce me to characters. And in the last 10 years video games have changed […]


To Tweet or Not to Tweet: The Lingo of Social Media and the New York Times

The New York Times—or more specifically their standards editor Phil Corbett—has decreed that the use of the word “tweet” is no longer welcome in the pages of the famed newspaper. His reasoning? Some social-media fans may disagree, but outside of ornithological contexts, “tweet” has not yet achieved the status of standard English. And standard English […]

Christopher “moot” Poole: The Case for Anonymity Online

In the following video, the founder of 4chan, a controversial, uncensored online imageboard, describes its subculture, some of the Internet “memes” it has launched, and the incident in which its users managed a very public, precision hack of a mainstream media website. The talk raises questions about the power — and price — of anonymity.

World Cup Forecasting the Analysts Way

The FIFA football World Cup begins this Friday: but don’t worry soccer-haters, this isn’t an article about the game itself. Instead, we’ll be taking a look at attempts to predict the outcome using facts and figures. Most people, let’s be honest, predict the results through a combination of guesswork and gut instinct. While there’s a […]

Darth Vader Diagnosed: Borderline Personality Disorder

Following a long tradition of providing vaguely pointless diagnosis to fictional characters, a group of French psychologists have determined that Anakin Skywalker may have suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder – which is, according to the DSM, “a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and affects, as well as marked impulsivity, beginning by early […]