This Week in Videogame Blogging

November 25th

by

It’s been a busy week for games criticism, and that’s rad.

Fallout 76 and Pokémon: Let’s Go! are among the big recent releases making their way through the critical circuit, and while there’s plenty of writing out there on each, the discourse as a whole remains much more varied and far-reaching. For example, I’ve noticed an uptick in writing on trans perspectives in games, and that’s just awesome. On a partially-related note, writing on cyberpunk games is on the upswing as well, and I’m pleased to see the discourse expanding beyond the seemingly-doomed-to-heteronormative-banality Cyberpunk: 2077.

I rambled a bit last week, so this week I’m going to keep my own commentary brief. Read on for some very cool writing on reclaiming feminine sexuality in fighting games, music design in games, the absurdity of Agent 47’s half-assed disguises, weird edutainment games from the 90’s, and much, much more. This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

Video and Games

This week’s headlining pair of articles each look at intersections between sociality and inclusivity in play communities. What role does social media play in which identities gain acceptance or are excluded in play communities?

“What is the relevance of authenticity on Twitch, when the goal is ultimately to entertain? And what does it mean, in an age when technology can facilitate real-time access to another person while concealing as much as it reveals, to ask who someone online is?”

Main Theme

Two authors this week examine topics which are often simplified and trivialized for ludic convenience–alcohol and death, respectively–offering counter-examples which break from these trends.

“In What Remains, the escapism is representative of the allure of romanticising death, but the commentary of the game acknowledges that escapism for what it is, reminding us that fetishising death is us stepping away from reality instead of engaging it.”

Body Paragraphs

There was lots of great writing this week about bodies of all kinds: how they are included, excluded, policed, queered, and more in games. These three examples are among this week’s finest examples.

“I like seeing my female peers reclaim Soulcalibur’s characters without shame—characters who weren’t created “for” them but who became weapons in their hands. The most recent time I played Soulcalibur VI at a party, the room was full of my queer friends, all of us hooting and hollering at Ivy’s slow-motion breast jiggling. “My girlfriend! My queen!” we screamed in delight every time she stomped. She was part of us, one of us.”

Fallout from Fallout

Fallout 76 is a thing you can buy now, and critics and players alike are trying to sort out its intentional disasters from its unintentional ones. One author this week offers a illuminating contrarian take on the game itself, while the other offers an illuminating contrarian take on, well, the takes themselves.

“Look: we shouldn’t be in love with brands. Brands are built and maintained by inspiring us to associate them with part of ourselves. Videogames are art, but the videogame market is one where products are created to live and die based on how they resonate with us. Fallout is no exception and in the sense of the more modern games, it’s arguably driven everything about the original titles that was compelling out in the hunt to make the whole concept of a Fallout game the most marketable thing it can be.”

Iron Sights

Two different shooters go under the microscope this week: one popular and rising, one old and forgotten.

“Not only does it dissect the rot of late stage capitalism by exposing how workers suffer under unchecked oppression, but it also reaches the only logical conclusion in the way it tells the story of the Solaris: an emphatic call to arms for unionisation.”

Sound Principles

Two authors this week offer thoughtful examinations of music design in games–one via in-depth analysis, the other via detailed interview.

“When I discovered my first cave in my playthrough of Breath of the Wild, I was struck by how cinematic the moment felt, without the game having to resort to any sort of cutscene—accomplished simply by transitioning to this track as I entered. It’s the game’s ability to create memorable moments like this with music that make the exploration aspect of this game so strong, and a large part of it the soundtrack’s willingness to dial back the melodic writing and focus instead on timbre and harmonic color.”

Built Experiences

Three authors this week offer very different perspectives on the ways in which games are put together–be it their styles, their worlds, or their business models.

“For as much as it experiments with gameplay, Artifact feels like three steps backwards – aggressive pricing on a game with just a single set on offer and barely any game modes feels like pure arrogance no matter how good the game itself is.”

Timed Exclusives

Each of these three articles offers, in its own way, a sobering reminder of how fleeting games can be, whether by design choices that fade from popularity, franchises that end abruptly, or titles that disappear from availability entirely.

“It was 1995 – I didn’t really want to learn world history or geography; I wanted to break curses and hang out with witches. I’m just a sorceress who happens to be a millennial.”

Just for Fun

Possibly my favourite writing to come out of the release of Pokémon: Let’s Go!

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