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gamingGaming1/123125/2202562/Gaming.jpg4242http://img.slate.com/mediafalse200952773450AMWednesdayMayMay75/27/2009 11:34:50 AM633790064902241403200952773450AMWednesdayMayMay75/27/2009 11:34:50 AM633790064902241403200952773450AMWednesdayMayMay75/27/2009 11:34:50 AM633790064902241403false2008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM6335984700700000002008101713007PMFridayOctOctober1310/17/2008 5:30:07 PM633598470070000000The art of play.3NA=1154&NC=1222&DI=4098&PS=72344&PI=7315gamingfalsefalsespacernotembeddedgamingThe Slow Video Game MovementChris SuellentropThe Path asks gamers to stop shooting and start soaking in their surroundings.noThe Slow Video Game MovementThe Path and the slow video game movement.no"The Path is a Slow Game," its makers warn, and perhaps that should have scared me off, for I am a Slow Gamer. It's not merely that I'm dunderheaded. I'm also a plodding, open-mouthed, rose-smelling completionist. Games that others play through in five, 10, or 40 hours routinely require 10, 20, and 80 hours of my time. So when The Path's designers, Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn of the Belgian game company Tale of Tales, predict that players will need "about six hours" for "a satisfying experience," I should have anticipated that I would need more than 12 just to get an alternately frustrating and curious one, and that it would take me seven hours just to figure out what in the name of all that is holy I was supposed to do.truenotochyperlinkno200952665311AMTuesdayMayMay65/26/2009 10:53:11 AM633789175910000000200952665311AMTuesdayMayMay65/26/2009 10:53:11 AM633789175910000000gamingAnd You Thought Grand Theft Auto Was BadLeigh AlexanderShould the United States ban a Japanese "rape simulator" game?noAnd You Thought Grand Theft Auto Was BadShould the United States ban RapeLay, a Japanese "rape simulator" game?noFor a brief window in the mid-2000s, video games became politicians' favorite piñata. Joe Lieberman and Ted Kennedy spoke out against 2004's JFK Reloaded, a game that let you re-enact the Kennedy assassination. The "Hot Coffee" modification to Grand Theft Auto—which allowed players to (poorly) simulate intercourse with in-game girlfriends—left Lieberman and Hillary Clinton in a huff in 2005. That same year, the Illinois Legislature (among many others) banned the sale of violent games to minors, with then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich sending a message to "the parents of Illinois" pointing out that "98 percent of the games considered suitable by the industry for teenagers contain graphic violence."truenotochyperlinkno200939121448PMMondayMarMarch123/9/2009 4:14:48 PM633721976880000000200939121448PMMondayMarMarch123/9/2009 4:14:48 PM633721976880000000gamingIn BloomChris SuellentropFlower is the only video game I've played that made me feel relaxed, peaceful, and happy.noIn BloomFlower is the only video game I've played that made me feel relaxed, peaceful, and happy.noLast week, when the hard-core gamers of the world were supposed to be firing up the Lost and Damned, a new, downloadable episode of Grand Theft Auto IV, I instead decided to spend more than $400 for the privilege of playing a $10 game. I bought a PlayStation 3—a system I had consciously avoided to date in favor of the Xbox 360 and the Wii—so that I could download Flower, a little marvel of a game that casts the player as a series of petals floating in the wind.truenotochyperlinkno200922554917PMWednesdayFebFebruary172/25/2009 10:49:17 PM633711809570000000200922554917PMWednesdayFebFebruary172/25/2009 10:49:17 PM633711809570000000gamingI Was Told There Would Be No MathMatt GaffneyWill KenKen be the next Sudoku or a passing puzzle fad?noI Was Told There Would Be No MathWill KenKen be the next Sudoku or a passing puzzle fad?noYou are powerless to stop KenKen. Perhaps the new Japanese arithmo-logical challenge, which debuted in the New York Times on Feb. 8, will burrow into your brain on account of a significant other, who will plead for your help as she softly coos the game's tantalizingly simple rules. Or maybe a boring subway ride will leave you staring at a discarded newspaper, from which an unsolved KenKen will silently beckon your understimulated brain. However it goes down, don't try to resist. The marketing wheels, greased by the promise of Sudoku-style riches, are already in motion. New York Times puzzle maven Will Shortz calls it "the most addictive puzzle since Sudoku." He'd better hope so, as Shortz has already put out a slew of books of this computer-generated brain-mangler, with titles like Will Shortz Presents KenKen Easy to Hard Volume 3, Will Shortz Presents: I Can KenKen! Volume 1, and Will Shortz Presents the Little Gift Book of KenKen.truenotochyperlinkno200922070354AMFridayFebFebruary72/20/2009 12:03:54 PM6337071023400000002009220102400AMFridayFebFebruary102/20/2009 3:24:00 PM633707222400000000gamingWhat's Killing the Video-Game Business?N. Evan Van ZelfdenHint: It's not the economy.noWhat's Killing the Video-Game Business?What's killing the video-game business?noLike pretty much every industry these days, video-game publishing is in some financial trouble. Electronic Arts, the world's largest game publisher, best known for Madden and the Sims, lost $641 million in 2008's fourth quarter. Activision-Blizzard, owners of the cash cows World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, reported losses of $72 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. (They lost $194 million the quarter before that.) THQ, the third-largest publisher in the United States, and known for lucrative licenses ranging from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to Pixar, had $192 million in losses over the holidays and is laying off 24 percent of its work force.truenotochyperlinkno200921632710PMMondayFebFebruary152/16/2009 8:27:10 PM633703948300000000200921632710PMMondayFebFebruary152/16/2009 8:27:10 PM633703948300000000200431714221PMWednesdayMarMarch133/17/2004 5:42:21 PM632151277410000000200431714221PMWednesdayMarMarch133/17/2004 5:42:21 PM632151277410000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue200431222900PMFridayMarMarch143/12/2004 7:29:00 PM632146985400000000200431222900PMFridayMarMarch143/12/2004 7:29:00 PM632146985400000000