I’ve been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic lately. World of Warcraft pretty much burned me out on MMOs forever, but I had some old guild buddies who managed to talk me into it. We’ll see how long it lasts. It’s pretty much a stock MMO affair, with a few minor twists, one of which is the ship missions. Somehow, inside an MMO, they managed to cram old style arcade space-shooting – it’s like Starfox: stay on the rails and gun down ships while accomplishing your objective. You can upgrade …

Recently my debit card number got jacked. Some place or retailer I legitimately spent money at was breached. The place found out about it and sent a list of numbers to the credit card company that backs the card. The credit card company contacted my bank, which cancelled my card. They did this before any weird charges were racked up, so I suppose I should be grateful, even though I use my card so rarely it was three days before I noticed (my card was suddenly denied).
When I called the …

Maybe you’ve seen the Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim trailer by now. Maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t taken the three minutes it takes, I’ve embedded it here for you. The trailer inspired this post, so it’s best you see it first.

Okay, with that out of the way, I want to talk about game immersion and use that to make an argument for vocal interaction with video games. I want you to see the Skyrim trailer first, because I plan to use that game as a touchstone for this post.
Even if …