News

Bioshock and Bertrand Russell's Authority & the Individual

Many commentators and reporters have ascribed the downfall of BioShock’s Rapture – the Adam addicts, the horrifying cruelty and the shocking race towards self destruction – to the game’s desire to satirise the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

On December 2nd, Drs. Brianna Wiens (English Language and Literature) and Daniel Harley (Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business) presented their work and research in areas of feminist and responsible design.

Canadian Cap and Trade Simulation (CCTS) is a serious game/simulation designed to teach undergraduate Chemical Engineering and Environmental Studies students about carbon tax and trade systems in Canada created by PhD candidate Alex Fleck and Dr. Jason Grove.

Dr. Kevin Harrigan is a founding member of the Games Institute, the director of the Knowledge Translation Stream at UWaterloo, and contact person for the Gambling Research Lab. Dr. Harrigan's present research focuses on promoting healthier gambling by developing methods to make gamblers aware of their statistical odds.

This week  on FPS, we have a commentary from Matthew Schwager that approaches Silent Hill 2 as a game about mapping and uses that lens to explore its themes of trauma and the influence butoh, the Japanese dance of shadows, had on the game's design.