https://smudo.org/ Long-form video game commentary and culture writing. en-US Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://smudo.org/breath-of-the-wild-once-again-proves-that-the-zelda-timeline-makes-no-sense.html https://smudo.org/breath-of-the-wild-once-again-proves-that-the-zelda-timeline-makes-no-sense.html Fri, 10 Mar 2017 08:00:00 +0000 Hyrule Historia tried to fix the chronology in 2011. Breath of the Wild broke it again in 2017. A reading of why the official timeline was never a coherent organising frame. Zelda https://smudo.org/breaking-news-konami-is-still-the-worst-gaming-company-disappoints-fans-for-the-gajillionth-time.html https://smudo.org/breaking-news-konami-is-still-the-worst-gaming-company-disappoints-fans-for-the-gajillionth-time.html Fri, 19 Aug 2016 08:00:00 +0000 A reading of Konami's decade-long pachinko pivot, the Kojima firing and the institutional choices that turned a top-tier publisher into a catalog manager. Industry https://smudo.org/random-encounters.html https://smudo.org/random-encounters.html Thu, 26 May 2016 08:00:00 +0000 The mechanic that defined a generation of JRPGs has been quietly retired by the genre that invented it. A short reading. RPGs https://smudo.org/artificial-intelligence-and-minecraft.html https://smudo.org/artificial-intelligence-and-minecraft.html Fri, 01 Apr 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Why Minecraft became the most-used benchmark in AI agent research — from Microsoft Project Malmo through OpenAI VPT to NVIDIA Voyager. Technology https://smudo.org/is-far-cry-primal-part-of-the-ubiverse.html https://smudo.org/is-far-cry-primal-part-of-the-ubiverse.html Sat, 05 Mar 2016 08:00:00 +0000 Ubisoft's UbiVerse is a shared canon stitched out of Easter eggs. Far Cry Primal supposedly fits via a Beastmaster ancestor. The case for and against. Far Cry https://smudo.org/arcade-games.html https://smudo.org/arcade-games.html Sat, 21 Nov 2015 08:00:00 +0000 How the largest indoor arcade in North America preserved the quarter-eater format through the home-console collapse. Arcade Games https://smudo.org/dont-wait-for-half-life-3.html https://smudo.org/dont-wait-for-half-life-3.html Thu, 15 Oct 2015 08:00:00 +0000 Why Valve chose silence and VR (Half-Life: Alyx) over a Half-Life 3 sequel — and what that decision says about the modern franchise. Half-Life