Posts By: Odile Strik

About Odile Strik

Odile A. O. Strik is editor-in-chief of The Ontological Geek. She is also a linguist from the Netherlands. She occasionally writes in other places, such as her own blog Sub Specie. You can read her innermost secrets on Twitter @oaostrik.

While I plowed through *Dragon Age: Inquisition*’s single player campaign shortly after release, its multiplayer segment left me relatively cold, unlike that of *Mass Effect 3*. That comparison was unfair, however. With the latest expansion, the *DA:I* multiplayer finally seems to be coming into its own.

Why Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Multiplayer Is Growing On Me

9 May, 2015 in Reviews by Odile Strik

*Planescape: Torment* opened a door for me: the door to Sigil, the grimy, sharp, beating heart of the Planescape setting. It is also a door to new possibilities: the realisation that a fantasy setting could be so much more than what has become 'the standard' over the last few decades. When you set foot in the game, everything is different.

Walking The Planes 3: Pluralities

26 Feb, 2015 in Columns / Features by Odile Strik

Before properly setting out on our planar adventure, it is worth exploring what significance the concept of the planes has had in the history of Dungeons & Dragons throughout the years. As we’ll see, the planes have been present almost from the very start of the game, and have remained part of it ever since.

Walking The Planes 2: A History of the Planes in Dungeons & Dragons

6 Nov, 2014 in Columns / Features by Odile Strik

Walking the Planes is a series of articles in which I explore the philosophy of the planes of existence in Dungeons & Dragons from a personal (retro-)perspective. Most of it will focus on the Planescape campaign setting, which was published between 1994 and 1998 and which is to date still the most detailed exploration of the planes in the game. I’ve always had a thing for the planes, different places and worlds beyond and above our own, hidden behind portals. The metaphorical speech is strong here. A plane is a level surface; something that happens on another plane is situated on a different ‘level’ of existence from ours, usually […]

Walking The Planes 1: Introduction

1 Sep, 2014 in Columns by Odile Strik

The arrival of a long-awaited ship can signify the fulfillment of a great many promises: the return of an expedition, a trade mission, or of loved ones. The incoming vessel bridges the vast divide of the ocean, if only momentarily. A moment full of potential. That potential is full of uncertainty. We think we have an idea of how events will play out, but we are not sure of anything in life. We have to make do with that limit to our control, however much we may dislike or fear it. On August 11, A Ship Sailed into Port, a recent game by Cameron Kunzelman, is […]

When My Ship Comes In

15 Aug, 2014 in Features / Reviews by Odile Strik

In many memorable games, it’s the places and people that stay with me long after I finish playing. But today I want to talk *objects (or items, things).*

An Ode to Objects

8 May, 2014 in Features by Odile Strik

Considering the practically unending amount of locales our universe has to offer, it is perhaps surprising that few games really make use of that limitless expanse.

A Guest Beyond the Final Frontier

21 Jan, 2014 in Features by Odile Strik

How can games tap into this tradition of serving up close encounters with the uncanny? How can they create fear and disgust?

The Possibilities of Horror in Games

17 Oct, 2013 in Features by Odile Strik

Time. And Stories. These are the things that struck me while playing *Papers, Please.*

Time for a Story

29 Aug, 2013 in Guest Articles by Odile Strik

Games frequently talk about religion, but rarely interact with the transcendent ideas of deities and the holy that religion is about.

Sanctifying Games

1 May, 2013 in Features / Guest Articles by Odile Strik