This Week in Videogame Blogging

December 13th

by

Welcome back readers.

Lots of reading to share this week. But first, since this issue is actually going out closer to December 14th (like I said, it’s a long one), by my count you’ve got about a day to get your submissions in for our annual recap.

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

Skate Story

I’ve spent a little time with Skate Story myself this past week, and I’m delighted to report that I haven’t gotten past the first main area because it’s simply too fun to just hang out there. Here are two picks from writers who got a little further in.

“If aimless walking (“drifting,” to be precise, but Frenchly) was considered an act of rebellion when psychogeography was first born, skating to eat the Moon amplifies that insurgency tenfold. Throughout it all, there is pain – a lot of pain, since the Skater is glass and the game never lets you forget that it hurts – and a fierce sense of regenerative violence whenever the Skater reconstitutes and tries again. And above it all, Sam Eng is funny. This guy knows the power of levity in the face of meaninglessness, and it means everything in a game that runs on loops.”

A Horse, of Course

Two picks this week on Santa Ragione’s Horses. Harper’s article would also fit just as well in the next section, so I’ve placed it to serve as a kind of bridge.

“the people who railed against itchio’s payment processors missteps a while back seem fine with Valve axing Horses because it at one point contained something they maybe thought was icky which doesn’t even exist in the text anymore. a former games writer defends to the death the decision simply because stores have the right (they’re not doing anything illegal maaaan!) to remove whatever they want from shelves. a university professor aligns because this is happening not to people like him but people he doesn’t respect. these are not villainous or “bad” people but they all reached the same bad conclusion”

World Premiere

The Game Awards happened this week, and don’t you worry we have something for that, but I’ve also arranged this week’s industry-minded section to take a wider view of genre, discourse cycles, and the changing landscape of indies.

“This is not a show made for humans. It thinks very little of the people who make games, and it thinks even less of the people that play them. And I think every little thing done to give them credence — every podcast discussion or article about its trailers and winners and column chronicling that awards horse race — has worked to cement the place where it all sits. Yes, The Game Awards are here because Keighley has the resources and stubborn will to insist on them, year after year. But they also endure because on some level, we want them to. We don’t actually want something better. We want what Keighley is selling.”

Finding Joy

We have two sections this week that focus mostly on single-game reads. This first section draws more explicit connections between games, players, and the world that shapes–and is shaped by–both. I think I’ve hit upon a suggested reading order with this arrangement.

“The point is not that games replace real-world action – it is that they deliver joy and create the conditions for action to emerge. By turning anxiety into engagement, by rewarding persistence and showing the impact of care, games offer a rehearsal space for hope.”

Ninjas and Guys

Let’s circle back (but not backtrack!) to talk about design.

“The game activates the battle cam and the realization hits you just a second too late. You messed up. An alien gets an unreasonably lucky shot and mows her down; you scream at your screen in anger and frustration. A character in your crew, this entirely fictional agent in a game you may have spent a little too much time on, is dead. You feel the loss. And not just because you just lost an important asset for your team.”

That Tracks

Let’s keep the design theme going, but zoom in a bit to focus on game soundtracks.

“Much in the way that the musicians move collectively, your journey with the Calicorns is one of careful choreography. You direct the animals not with a conductor’s baton, but a shepherd’s staff, setting the pace and steering them away from danger. As you travel together, the soundtrack gives voice to your budding relationship.”

HD, 2D, 3D, 4K

We’ve got two pieces about remakes this week, and as a pair I think these authors have found in their object texts fundamentally opposite theses about what the videogame remake really is.

“Metal Gear Solid Delta has no blood. It is devoid of life. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater looked (and still looks) like nothing else, but it has been revived into a game that resembles every other one out there — a product of an industry-wide hyperfixation on graphical realism. Gone are the angular and geometric character designs born from hardware limitations, replaced by amalgamations of flesh shellacked with a shiny coat that peels at the corners. Everything looks like it’s made of plastic — artificial and inorganic.”

Origin Point

How about some histories? Both of these articles nominally cover space shooters, but in practice talk about developers as much as they do any specific game.

“Few people have ever stretched so thin a thread of actual creative talent so far as has Chris Roberts. In the process, he’s amply demonstrated that his larger talents are for failing upward, and getting people to give him flabbergasting amounts of money while he’s at it. I’m not yet prepared to call him a conscious grifter, mind you, but I do think that there is a lot more plotting going on behind that seemingly guileless chipmunk smile of his than we might first suspect.”

A-Z

Here’s the second set of game-specific picks, ranging in topic and approach from ecocriticality, feminist theory, literary analysis, and more.

“I’m fascinated by how much of the development and gameplay experience of Blue Prince is influenced by an intentional focus not just on hidden spaces, but on negative spaces and what they do to our speculative minds. You search for room 46, but also for the ephemeral legacies of your family and its place in the wider world. You search for your place in these legacies. Since Tonda Ros chose to play less rather than more games during the development of his debut title, he allowed his more subconscious influences from his personal history to influence his designs.”

Critical Chaser

Keoff Geighley.

“Something terrible and insidious this way comes. He glues a cookie-cutter short back and sides hairdo to his usually bald bonce. He cries out to the great corporate entities for money and wares to show off. He dusts off a tombstone engraved with the words ‘please wrap it up’. He howls at the moon. AWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Adrian Edmondson? “NO,” he yells, jumping on stage. “IT IS I, KEOFF GEIGHLEY.” You gasp in horror.“

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