Wagner James Au

The year in games

Developers, critics, gamers and analysts weigh in: What they loved, what they learned, what they worried about.

Wagner James Au Wednesday, Dec 22, 2004 8:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Video Games

John Kerry: The video game

In "Battlefield Vietnam," a new version of one of the most popular games in the U.S., you too can try to win a Silver Star saving your buddies in the jungle.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, Apr 13, 2004 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Iraq, Middle East

Silence of the blogs

Why did the New York Times ignore Baghdad blogger announcements and accounts of a big pro-democracy demonstration?

Wagner James Au Friday, Jan 23, 2004 8:30 PM UTC
Entertainment The New York Times, Gaming, Iraq

The gamer of Baghdad

While missiles crashed around him, Zeyad struggled to keep Crash Bandicoot alive. Today, he continues to play, even as Baathist holdouts rage on and his frustrated countrymen demand a better future.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, Jan 20, 2004 8:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Video Games, Iraq

Deathmatch, Julia Roberts-style

America's most bankable female movie star confesses that she is a hardcore shoot-'em-up gamer. What does this mean?

Wagner James Au Monday, Jun 23, 2003 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming

The real Henry Jenkins

Julia Roberts was my student, and I had to send her to the principal's office.

Wagner James Au Monday, Jun 23, 2003 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment

Masters of “Doom”

David Kushner's new book about id Software calls the company the "Nirvana" of computer gaming. But did John Romero and John Carmack revolutionize the genre, or ruin it?

Wagner James Au Monday, May 5, 2003 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Video Games

It’s fun to kill guys wearing acid-wash and Members Only jackets!

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City goes where no video game has gone before -- into the dark heart of the 1980s.

Wagner James Au Monday, Nov 11, 2002 3:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Video Games

Weapons of mass distraction

A new breed of computer games is teaching today's teenagers how to wage, and win, the war against terror.

Wagner James Au Friday, Oct 4, 2002 10:13 PM UTC
Entertainment Terrorism, Gaming, Video Games

Showdown in cyberspace: Star Wars vs. The Sims

If online role-playing games are ever going to break out of the hardcore gamer ghetto, they'll have to do more than please the geeks.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, Jul 9, 2002 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Star Wars

Playing games with free speech

A federal judge says computer games don't deserve First Amendment protection. His decision is wrong, stupid and dangerous.

Wagner James Au Monday, May 6, 2002 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Video Games

Triumph of the mod

Player-created additions to computer games aren't a hobby anymore -- they're the lifeblood of the industry.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, Apr 16, 2002 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Video Games

Burn down the shopping malls!

A new game for Sony's Playstation 2 invites you to run amok as an anti-globalization anarchist. Is State of Emergency a new low in cynical corporate exploitation -- or consciousness-raising in a box?

Wagner James Au Friday, Feb 22, 2002 8:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming

“We were wrong”

Now when will Nader, Moore, Steinem, Chomsky -- and the other leftists who were monumentally mistaken about the war in Afghanistan -- join me in admitting it?

Wagner James Au Friday, Feb 1, 2002 2:05 AM UTC
News Environment

The return of Lord British

Banished from his own Ultima domains, game designer Richard Garriott is making a comeback, via Korea.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, Dec 4, 2001 8:29 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming

Xbox squared

Microsoft's game-box revolution takes the path of mediocrity, while Sony's Playstation seizes the creative high ground.

Wagner James Au Thursday, Nov 15, 2001 5:38 PM UTC
Entertainment Microsoft, Gaming

Slo-mo gore, John Woo style

In the hit computer game Max Payne, death comes with a cost: Your own tortured soul.

Wagner James Au Friday, Aug 24, 2001 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Business

Boobs and rubes

The soft-porn fixation embarrassingly displayed at computer gaming's biggest convention, E3, is dooming the $6 billion industry to the nerd-geek ghetto.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, May 22, 2001 7:27 PM UTC
Entertainment Sex, Pornography, Gaming

Playing God

The long-awaited game Black & White is everything fans hoped it would be: A state-of-the-art excursion into our own souls.

Wagner James Au Tuesday, Apr 10, 2001 7:30 PM UTC
Entertainment Gaming, Business

Clamping down on high-tech growth is good for high-tech

San Francisco's anti-development Prop L will squeeze tech firms into a battle for survival. And nothing could be better for them.

Wagner James Au Monday, Nov 6, 2000 8:30 PM UTC
Entertainment San Francisco

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