Check out the first piece from forthcoming issue 8.1–Gin Jackson’s commentary on the video game Alter Ego in the Adobe Spark piece “Ultra-Ego: Agency in Alter Ego.”

Gin’s text examines the way the game offers choices to players to create their own narratives by creating characters with unique personalities and moving through the various stages of life while navigating 5 areas: physical, emotional, social, family and work. The analysis then focuses on the ways the pre-determined choices within the game limits the possibilities for character development and the experiences a character might have. For example, Gin notes that characters can only participate in heterosexual relationships and can only have children once they have reached the game’s definition of adulthood. The commentary concludes with a discussion of how the game’s owners have addressed these issues and the role of the game in the historic development of video games.

Issue 8.1 will be fully available in Fall 2018.