This week’s roundup is (almost) all about failures: failures of game design, failures of fandom, the failures in the material world which are in turn reflected by the games we produce and consume, and more. I find it’s the kind of writing I’m in the mood for–I just picked up the newest Super Smash Bros., and I’m struggling to even complete the single-player story mode.

Contrary to this theme, however, this week’s writers very much succeed in exploring the nuances of failure in all its permutations with respect to games, leading to a week of discourse as strong and engaging as any. Read on and see for yourself!

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

Productive Failures

This week’s first four pieces explore the different ways in which games can fail to follow through with the ideas they promise, both narratively and mechanically.

“It gradually became clear to me that the theme that unites Dead Cells as a text is insecurity and overcompensation; scared of being seen as weak or too serious, it presents itself as rough, rude, badass and ironic.”

Dread on Arrival

Three articles this week look at games which, rather than being failures unto themselves, reflect upon wider themes of destruction and cyclical futility.

“The women save their men, but not forever, just as humanity’s wisdom gives only fleeting comfort before history’s monsters reappear, pen in hand. True to form, when we explore Alfheim, we witness a civilization split in two, at war with itself for so long, conflict is the only value left. Midgard is not so far from Greece.”

Problem-O-Matic

What do we do when the games we love make a hard bank from off-key-but-redeemable to willfully ignorant? What, then, when writing about these games requires complicity in the market forces that not only produce them but perpetuate their ideological ilk? Two authors this week grapple with these questions.

“There is only so much compartmentalization you can do in separating a game from its production process and the worldview it espouses before you, as a writer, become morally compromised.”

Git Better

One author this week peels back the layers of toxic fandom to offer some compelling character analysis.

  • Not Your Wife | Unwinnable 
    Melissa King looks at the underappreciated women in the Soulsborne series and prods the misogynistic fan culture built up around them.

“Don’t underestimate the woman who levels you up.”

Virtuosic Realities

This week’s selection offers a critical look at a much-maligned topic, opening the door for future critical work.

“The enhancement and the alteration of the human senses is nothing new, and the technological realm has not escaped the trends to alter our state of consciousness. To me, this seems like a turn in history, a push toward a positive acceptance of hallucinations.”

Just for Fun

With deepest sympathies.


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