*Warning: some spoilers for God of War, Xenoblade Chronicles and Breath of Fire to follow.

Since Kratos has killed just about everyone else in the Greek polytheistic world by the end of the six game God of War saga, it's perhaps not a surprise that at the end Kratos kills...

Video game violence is back. Again.

It is inexplicable that a crime with clear factors of gun control, mental illness, school safety, parenting and the like instead brought the effects of violent video games into the limelight.

I recently talked with an unnamed journalist who...

In discussing the upcoming Indian festival of Diwali, a festival of lights observed by Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, an Indian colleague asked me why so many Christian themes emerged in video games when rich narratives from other faiths do not?

Good question. But it's worth pointing out an exception...

Even after five seasons, it's still clear why "True Blood" is popular. It's the sex, the blood, the social commentary -- and the sex.

But in a show that's never shied away from commentary on...

They may not be Trekkies, but Final Fantasy fans can hold their own in terms of devotion to the material.

Two years ago, I visited Wolf Trap outside Washington, D.C. to watch a performance...

Media carries culture with it. The narratives and stories that move our culture end up in the discourse of our media. What makes media studies so fascinating is to watch the changes in our culture problematized, challenged and affirmed. Of course there's a...

The soulfulness and evil seen in robots in Xenoblade Chronicles and Mass Effect 3 is an interesting entry into the ongoing conversation of what constitutes a person. In part because we enter into it with what is, really, another machine: the video game system.

Since "Frankenstein,"...

In video games stories, violence is motivated by greed, family, survival and yes, religion.

In the fictional world of Mass Effect 2, the assassin strikes with both grace and extraordinary violence. He takes out the two guards and then kills his target. When she's dead he leans...