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…Gera interviews Adam Bullied on writing storied, minority characters into Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Meanwhile, at Not Your Mama’s Gamer, Phill Alexander has a detailed take on how Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption subverts the “noble savage” stereotype of its Native American characters.

On Medium, Sidney Fussell has furnished us with a stellar personal account on growing up isolated, nerdy and black — and why, rather than an escape into ‘apolitical’ power fantasy, he found that games, too, need their race politics interrogated:

The image of black masculinity as criminal and terrifying, remarkably uniform across videogames and

…

…sports games can do a better job eliciting “playoff spirit” and over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Adam Smith talks to Shawn Allen about his wicked-looking brawler, Treachery in Beatdown City (whose Kickstarter is 70 hours away from ending and which you should definitely fund now, now, now!).

Our Emergent Phenomena, Ourselves

Mattie Brice answers questions about using play as a tool for anti-oppressive discourse at Model View Culture.

At Kill Screen, Corey Milne considers Irish identity in games through the characterization of a sniper in Valkyria Chronicles.

Lena LeRay discusses the trials and outcomes of using…

…designing truly horrific experiences. Donlan looks at how they both handle pacing, mise en scene, perspective and even UI to suggest horror through design, and where those design styles might actually obstruct feelings of horror by making the player too comfortable.

Casey Brooks recaptures the spirit of GTA V‘s extensive gaming photography subculture with this artful photoseries, which uses the game as context to tell its own stories through the static medium.

I’ll Take “Business Ethics” for 200, Alex

At Twenty Sided, Unrest’s lead writer, Adam “Rutskarn” DeCamp, speaks frankly on the energy, labour and resources required…

…co-host Adam Savage on the anger directed towards woman in tech and videogame fields.

And finally, stand-up comedian Brock Wilbur gives his story of how he was doxxed by the hashtag and how absurd it is as someone who has nothing to do with video games. At one point, he quotes his mother’s reaction to the whole ordeal:

Why don’t they just take away all the Halos until boys learn how to play nice?

#TakeAwayTheHalos indeed.

Lighten the Mood

After all that, I need a laugh. Here’s Conan O’Brien trying and failing to…

…field, especially in China! As the article’s author, Adam Clare, puts so succinctly: “Don’t underestimate the determination of people to leave a room.”

Elsewhere, however, Luke Pullen makes a case for why sometimes, staying put is the better option, rather than braving the nearest ‘great outdoors’:

It’s all very well to speak disparagingly of escapism, with the (completely accurate) implication that there is a grand world out there to be explored if only you could put down the controller and confront your fears. But what happens when you feel that meatspace actively rejects you? When the physical

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