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Claudia Black

Essay

Well, At Least the Gameplay is Fun: Gender and Storytelling in Diablo III

by Becky Chambers | 12:55 pm, May 22nd, 2012

Let me say this right up front: Diablo III is a pretty great game. It’s a satisfying, decently balanced helping of hack-and-slash, and it will scratch your every dungeon crawling itch. Diablo III is one of those games that just makes you feel cool. My Barbarian hits like a truck, and she is constantly surrounded by the pyrotechnic displays of my friends’ magical abilities. It is not the best game I’ve ever played, nor did it capture me as its predecessor did, but I am looking forward to my continued adventures in Sanctuary throughout the weeks ahead.

The whole point of the Diablo franchise is much less about telling a good story than it is about killing monsters and getting loot, but with the sort of time commitment that a game like this requires (especially to justify the $60 price tag), ideally you want the setting to be a place that captures your imagination, a place that you want to hang out in. So while I had a blast cleaving demons in twain over the weekend, I was nonetheless underwhelmed by a narrative full of uninspired tropes, as well as an otherwise impressive world clinging to some of the most tired cliches concerning women in fantasy. For a game that took twelve years to make, it was disappointing to see how little has changed on those fronts.

Fair warning: Massive spoilers ahead.

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We Can Be Heroes

How Would You Like to Help Strange Frame Finish Production?

by Jamie Frevele | 2:29 pm, November 5th, 2011

This is one of those projects where you seriously wonder where our priorities are as a movie-viewing audience. A pair of sci-fi fans, GB Hajim and Shelley Doty, have been working on a full-length, computer animated feature film called Strange Frame that features an insanely cool cast (Claudia Black of Farscape and Stargate SG-1, George Takei, Tara Strong, Cree Summer, Tim Curry — Tim Curry, you guys) and a $50,000 budget. They’ve completed most of their production, but are trying to gather the cash to invite the cast back for more scenes and finish the animation process at Skywalker Sound. And you can help! Click through for more details.

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