Life is Strange is one of the stand-out games of the last few years. What makes it work so well, though? And what’s going on under the surface? Is there a difference between raising issues under-represented in gaming and actually dealing with those issues? We take a look at the subtext, the mechanics, the characters and the games it sits alongside.
Spoilers for the whole of Life is Strange, natch.
Cited works (in progress):
https://mrpootler.wordpress.com/2016/11/11/life-is-strange-the-secret-to-its-success/
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In which our heroes discuss the way parents are represented in recent games . . . or not represented most of the time, if they’re mums. Questions on our minds were: how do divorce rates and single-parent families affect representation in games? Does the in-game patriarchy reappropriate ‘female suffering’? Daughters, hot or not? Do daughters sit in judgement on the decline of patriarchy, or inherit the power-baton from dear ol’ Dad? What’s progressive about these games and what might they be saying about the role of women in hyper-masculinised landscapes?
It’s here! The very first episode of your favourite new videogaming podcast, presented by a pair of narrative junkies.