Anyone who’s played videogames like Call of Duty or Red Dead Redemption knows what kind of narratives they tell. Their protagonists are snipers or outlaws ready to fight missions that step outside all legal bounds. Game designers Anna Anthropy, Sebastian Janisz and Michael Molinari choose to tell very different stories. No ambushes, no clandestine ops or full throttle attacks. Brooke talks to the designers about their very personal games.

The video game series Mass Effect has earned millions in sales and near-universal critical acclaim, but the series' conclusion, released this month, was met with howls of rage by gamers. Their gripe? They hated the ending. In response, the game's developers have promised to add additional content that would give fans "more closure." Brooke talks to Grantland's Tom Bissell about whether or not dissatisfied gamers are entitled to a new ending.

Oklahoma lawmaker William Fourkiller introduced a bill this week that would introduce a 1% tax on violent video games. But as Wall Street Journal reporter Conor Dougherty recently reported, a growing number of gamers who play these violent video games do so non-violently. Dougherty calls it virtual pacifism, essentially finding ways to play games that incorporate killing and maiming without engaging in either. Brooke talks to Dougherty about the trend, and also speaks to Brock Soicher, a 16-year-old virtual pacifist.

Boyz II Men - War

The idea that porn drives media technologies has been borne out again and again. And so we look to the adult film industry for clues about where the high-def DVD market is headed. Technology writer Shane Buettner gives us ...

Second Life is not a game, its creators and residents insist, but rather a virtual world, with an ever-growing population. It attracts real-world investors like Harvard University, and real-world performers like Suzanne Vega. Brooke speaks with economists, gamers, politicians and journalists about the lure of reinventing the real-world online. And ...

Unti recently, video games were, you know, games. Not team-building exercises and certainly not propaganda machines. But nothing that engages young people stays pure forever. Eventually, it will be co-opted by those eager to have the attention of the next generation. Video gaming, therefore, was a natural target for such ...