Another day, another report of a child stabbing another child. On this occasion, it was a 15-year-old girl in the comprehensive school in the former mining valley of Ammanford in Wales. She left three injured, including a fellow pupil, seriously …
My torment as a gamer girl
Until recently, I did not consider myself a “gamer”. I still flinch at the term, probably because the reputation of gaming is impossibly, incorrigibly lame — adolescent, feverish, and with the stale whiff of the teenaged bedroom. I, conversely, am …
The death games of Ukraine
Down in a bunker a little way back from the Ukraine frontline, I am watching a staple of modern warfare: a drone attack in real time.
The command centre is a small room with three TV monitors, two of which …
Is Call of Duty a government psyop?
Even if you’re not into video games, you will have heard of Call of Duty. It’s one of the most popular titles ever made. Fans have devoted more than 25 billion hours to the first-person shooter game — that’s 2.85 …
Why gamers can’t play politics
The barrier between video games and every other aspect of pop culture, already porous, has collapsed utterly. This is not, to be candid, what my pre-teen self expected to happen, back when I was lavishing untold hours on Super Nintendo …