Greetings, the Internet. I have come here to chew bubblegum and curate games writing. Fortunately I have plenty of both so let’s not draw this out. Welcome to another edition of This Week in Videogame Blogging!
Economics and Faerie Magic
On The Mary Sue, Victoria McNally reflects on Neopets’ economic history since its 1999 release:
In Neopets, the rising rate of neopoints got particularly bad as it expanded. The trend didn’t gounnoticed, either; as early as June 2001, many economically savvy users noted in the Neopian Times that inflation was occurring and might need intervention to balance itself out… [suggesting] the site is now “a horrifying and disturbing look into the faults of late capitalism and the unfettered exploitation inevitable in unregulated economic systems[…]”
Zombies Ate My Culture
At Paste Maddy Myers reflects on the pre-9/11 anxieties represented in the original Reisdent Evil along with what would now be considered its genre-defying message of cooperation, “Most strikingly, however, the original Resident Evil differs from post-90s-era zombie videogames because it does not have a libertarian message.”
To compare how zombies have changed, take a look at Reid McCarter’s analysis of The Last of Us as a conflict between “the Apollonian virtues [of Joel] (logic, individuality, denial) and Ellie the Dionysian (chaos, universality, acceptance).”
Lastly (and not technically involving zombies), Dan Whitehead of EuroGamer hopes that Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro’s collaboration on the next Silent Hill will bring back the weirdness of Silent Hill 2.
First-Person Whistleblower
Kill Screen’s Christ Priestman talks to Nicky Case about Israel aggression in the Gaza strip and police brutality in Ferguson, Missouri and how they relate to his upcoming game about citizen journalism.
Case hopes that his game will illustrate how controlling the narrative of something like escalating police violence in Ferguson controls how people understand the event: especially given how mainstream news outlets failed to broadcast what went on.
Battlefield: USA
Speaking of Ferguson, EA’s upcoming first-person shooter, Battlefield: Hardline has been scrutinized by a number of writers for its indifference and outright enthusiasm for the “warrior cop” figure seen in so many images of Ferguson over the last week.
Mike Williams of USgamer warns that “Life Imitates Art“:
Battlefield: Hardline plays on the growing militarization of the police, showing scenes of all-out war between heavily-armed police and criminals. It’s a war game in a different skin, something that should probably disturb us more than it does.
His concern is that Hardline equates police with soldiers and cities with warzones.
Meanwhile, in an article for the Paris Review, Kevin Nguyen is disquieted by how nonchalant the game appears to be toward police violence: “Simply put: as a cop in Hardline, you have the choice of killing people or not. The decision is entirely dependent on your mood.”
More Conflict
Mike Joffe investigates the relationship between conflict minerals and electronics on his blog, Video Games of the Oppressed. It’s well researched piece covering a topic that often gets ignored in both gaming and tech circles (Content warning: discussions of rape and slavery):
The current climate of phone consumption encourages people to upgrade and replace phones as often as possible. This is mirrored in the video game industry, where the lifespan of consoles is ever shrinking in favor of increasingly incremental upgrades. Even activist groups admit that recycling, even on a colossal scale, can not approach meeting the current demand.
Won’t Someone Think of the Gamers?
(Content warnings for this section: sexist language, harassment, stalking.)
Zoe Quinn (you might remember her as the woman who helped create Depression Quest, a free resource designed to help people through mental illness) is under attack for an alleged professional transgression.
For the last week a hate campaign including a number of prolific videogame personalities has coordinated harassment of both Quinn and her friends and colleagues. In Quinn’s own words:
Suddenly I don’t have any right to privacy or basic dignity. Suddenly I don’t get to live out normal parts of life, like going through a bad and ugly breakup in private. I have forfeited this by being a blip in a small community, while those who delight in assailing me hide behind their keyboards and a culture that permits it, beyond reproach.
My life and my body are not public property. No one’s life and body are public property.
In response, Liz Ryerson sifts through the 4chan forums where Quinn’s harassers lurk and analyses the conservative extremism behind their thinking.
the idea of trusting the word of a frighteningly narcissistic ex who’s out to ruin her reputation is fine with them, because it meshes with their worldview. suddenly they have a convenient situation that explains away all their disillusionment and misgivings with themselves and game culture.
At The Border House, Zoya Street dissects how TotalBiscuit, one of the aforementioned videogame personalities involved in harassing Quinn, has leveraged his privilege to deflect criticism.
Luke Pullen, on the other hand, looks at how gamer culture at large has taken literal fascist leaps of reasoning to protect the purity of videogames as an institute.
(End content warning section.)
Rules of Engagement
Lana Polansky pens a reminder that harassers are not entitled to a place in the conversation, adding that comment sections do less to democratize discourse and more to distract people from making a point of their own.
Elsewhere, Mattie Brice offers some practical advice to those wishing to help:
Instead of ‘how can I solve oppression for every person on the planet,’ start close to home; are you doing things for your loved ones? Have you sat down with the people in your life you know are minoritized and had meaningful conversations about these topics and how you could contribute to their safety? Do they even know they can come to you in the first place about these sorts of issues?
A Culture Fit
David Mullich, a long-time game developer, writes on Gamasutra about his experience with ageism in the industry, dispelling many of the myths associated with older developers and pointing out the ridiculous anxieties that prevent older devs from being hired.
At The New York Times Chris Suellentrop salutes a number of women who are a neglected part of game development history.
Things I Couldn’t Connect with a Bad Pun
Mathew Burns uses an analogy of a consumer-king and his board of advisors to break down the consumerist logic behind the gamer-reviewer relationship.
Wendi Sierra examines Always Sometimes Monsters, cautiously applauding it for “attempting to tackle serious issues” while critiquing it for “coming off as too exaggerated to be relatable.”
Dennis Scimeca praises the educational value of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago and Oregon Trail.
~Fin
So as you can see this week has been a bit of a downer. But if you’re looking to lighten your mood you can submit a humorous takedown of your favourite game for Patrick Lindsey’s Crit Roast.
Or you could get involved with our Blogs of the Round Table for August and September, where the theme is Catharsis.
As ever, Critical Distance depends on its readers to submit links to critical writing by email or by Twitter! And if you’d like to support us further you can help us keep growing by contributing to our Patreon. Thanks for stopping by.