Welcome back readers.

We’re on Wizard Time (Critical Distance is never late, etc., etc.) this week, but thanks for waiting!

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

The Hot Goss

This week we open with reflections on new and popular games and texts, dwelling on both on what has been said and what is all-too-often left unsaid.

“Narratives that center on the collective don’t let us off easy with regards to our individual responsibility to know and care for each other and our plural, interconnected realities. Into the Doomed World aptly gets at how life in the social media age is a complex navigation of being an individual that pivots between micro and macro perspectives. It focuses on the beauty of recognizing the disharmony within a community and how we can work together to reconcile it during times of crisis.”

Memory Card

Our next pairing explores retro games and nostalgia, with old-new and new-old games, respectively.

“The unfortunate reality is that for a game that revels in the simplicity of the 1990s, it also showcases the reality of developers learning how to maneuver through three dimensional spaces, and how every successful game was built on the backs of dozens of flops.”

Flash Friction

How about some crunchy structural analysis of form, narrative, and spatiality?

“To read flash is to take out your fine tooth comb, willfully, and pick something apart. In a good work of flash, each word has meaning and every syllable has a place. It teaches you to read with a more stringent eye, and forces speedreaders to slow down for once. Likewise, each button press in a rhythm game matters. A dropped or delayed input can spell the difference between a high score and your worst run. It can’t be mashed around—you need to be able to sound each input out on your controller, in time, in sequence.”

Seen and Scene

Two new meditations on identity and visibility, both in and out of game.

“To me, John’s story illustrates why Disability Pride and disability representation should matter in gaming spaces: because when you’re battling for your life, whether in terms of illnesses or the legacy of systemic ableism — as Martinez and I are now, fighting against the healthcare policies designed without input from the disabled in our countries, in order to access critical treatments — you need a reminder that it’s worthwhile to live, not least surrounded by people like you.”

Critical Chaser

A short & poignant reflection from Spine sees us out this week.

“As terrible as it sounds, why save a world with nothing left for you?”


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