Hello readers,

Welcome to a rather delayed August vod roundup. It’s still a bit frosty here on the deep southern side of the planet, but it was a warm month for videogame video discourse, so I took my sweet time sifting through the content. I do hope you enjoy. Thank you again to everyone who sent in recommendations.

This Month In Videogame Vlogging highlights the most compelling critical videos about videogames from the previous calendar month.

Against Stereotypes

We begin with two powerful pieces about videogames and harmful stereotypes.

  • Crime & Humanity in Yakuza – HeavyEyed (20:31)

    Mitch Cramer examines how the Yakuza series succeeds in portraying complex criminal characters, why he personally finds it powerful to find nuanced portrayals of criminals in videogames, and how the series highlights the need to change contemporary prison ‘reform’ systems. (Manual captions)

  • [TikTok] – @bigthighthescienceguy (2:39)

    Sunny D concisely explains how characters in the Donkey Kong universe are coded as Black, and why this portrayal relies on reinforcing regressive stereotypes. [No captions]

Capitalism Ruins Some Things

Next, let’s move on to a handful of interesting pieces showcasing the destructive relationship between games marketplaces, developmental processes and consumer cultures.

The Great Outdoors

Videogame representations of ‘the natural world’ are the focal point for these next four essays.

Us v Them

Broadly speaking, the next couple of videos discuss pile-on reactions to things.

Narrative Creases

The following trio of videos look at the effects of delivering story to players through shifting subjectivities and unreliable narrators.

Complicated Failures

Ah, failure… my favourite topic. ‘But failure isn’t always bad!’ suggest these final few videos to round out August 2021.

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