May-June 2022

Hi there, readers.

It’s time to roundup some vods! This crop comes from May and June, months that definitely happened very recently, and are not just a fading memory from a bygone season!! Fortunately these videos have all aged like fine pine and it’s my pleasure to spotlight them for you in this little time capsule.

Those Months In Videogame Vlogging highlights the most compelling critical videos about videogames from the specified calendar month/s.

Inhabitation

A dominant theme among many of this roundup’s vods is a focus on the mechanisms through which players connect to the characters and places in game-worlds, and how this connection impacts player enjoyment and the meaning taken from the experience.

• How Fast Does Citizen Sleeper Get Good? – First Five (13:46)

  Alex talks up the mechanical nuances and community warmth inhabiting spacey-punk RPG Citizen Sleeper. (Autocaptions)

• Steering the Roller Coaster: Games as Thrill Ride, Thrill Ride as Art – CSL (5:47)

  In this effective mini-essay, Chuck Sebian-Lander thinks about the participatory thrill of difficulty in Elden Ring and F1: 2021 against the notional passive enjoyment of a rollercoaster ride. (Manual captions)

• How Switch Sports Failed Where Wii Sports Succeeded – eurothug4000 (18:22)

  Maria laments Nintendo’s departure from Miis and a parallel lack of attention to world-building in Switch Sports in comparison to its Wii predecessor Wii Sports Resort. (Manual captions)

• Hotline Miami And The Fantasy Of Violence – Talen Lee (23:12)

  Talen Lee ponders Hotline Miami’s violence, role-playing, and what can be understood by the schism between player and character. (Autocaptions)

• Making Sense of VRChat, the “Metaverse” People Actually Like – People Make Games (37:35)

  With the help of several thoughtful interviewees, Quintin Smith explores the social and self-expression possibilities in VRChat. (Manual captions)

• Blood on the Clocktower and the History of Mafia and Werewolf – No Pun Included (1:01:55)

  Efka delves into the history of social deduction games and discusses how Blood on the Clocktower makes some vital changes to the formula that may help mitigate some of the genre’s more toxic elements. (Autocaptions)

Nostos

This following trio of vods are all about mining the past, in one way or another.

• A Love Letter to Video Game Oceans: From Banjo-Kazooie to Subnautica – Pixel a Day (23:32)

  Kat finds her love of diving into the ocean well-represented by moments in various N64 titles (Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask) and the era’s tendency toward soundtracking waterscapes with particular synth textures. (Manual captions)

• How Nostalgia Is Holding Games Back – Adam Millard (22:56)

  Adam Millard looks at how the ever-ripe temptation for game developers to lean into nostalgia can inhibit innovation. (Autocaptions)

• A Silent Film Horror Game!? – Errant Signal (16:11)

  Chris Franklin discusses the effectiveness of the 1920’s German expressionist silent film aesthetic applied to Christoph Frey’s Letters to a Friend: Farewell. (Manual captions)

All Sims

This last little section is really a continuation of the first, only slightly more sim-specific.

• The Refined Tragedy of The Sims – Bram de Groot (1:00)

  The enslavement of The Sims’ titular sims to capitalism mirrors our own, points out Bram de Groot. (Manual captions)

• How Fandom Makes Or Breaks Gaming – Waypoint (29:30)

  In a wide-ranging essay and follow-up panel discussion, Dexter Thomas looks at how white male adolescents became the assumed audience of game companies in the 90s, and conversely how Black content-creators and fan communities have helped make games such as The Sims more enjoyable for a wider range of players. (Autocaptions)