Dark Souls
byIt is said there exists, somewhere in the world, a Dark Souls bible. The primeval design document for From Software’s opaque opus. It may be kept in rotting cell, or a locked chest. It may be stashed in the cavernous hollow of…
March 25th
byZoya is 20,000 ft in the air on a plane flight at the moment, so you’re stuck with me as your stand in for this week. This is This Week In Videogame Blogging! Guns Videogames are once again the ever present deflection…
March 18th
byResponses to the Trump administration’s meeting to discuss links between videogames and violence feature prominently This Week in Videogame Blogging – but this roundup starts with some art history. Bad art Two Unwinnable articles this week argue for aesthetic reclamations of bad…
March 11th
byGames critics are always exploring new ways to talk about digital media, be it genre, narrative structure, architecture or the material thinginess of computers themselves. The latest This Week in Videogame Blogging features artists, journalists, and historians trying out new perspectives on…
March 4th
byThis week, critical writers in games were moved by the final moments of Demon’s Souls, disturbed by the empty lives of non-player characters, and concerned by xenophobic portrayals of history. We round up the most original writing of the week in the…
Critical Distance Awards 2018
byWho has been forging new paths in criticism, highlighting untold stories, and sharing the most interesting lenses on games? It’s time to announce this year’s Critical Distance Awards. This is the second year that we have run our Awards separately to our…
February 25th
byWhat kind of people do we want to be? What kinds of people do we become when we play games? And how are our gameplay experiences shaped by who we already are? This week, critics, journalists, and video essayists discussed morality, identity,…
February 18th
byDoes it matter what console you play a game on? This week a number of writers look at the significance of platforms and ports, and how games deal with their cultural context. This roundup starts with reports on the conditions in which…
February 11th
byHow can interactive systems subvert the way we normally think things are supposed to be done? This week’s roundup features a number of articles on designing games for different ways of being, as well as examinations of how visual design can make…
February 2018: History
byThe month of chocolates and stuffed bears is upon us! But the celebration of such things doesn’t come out of nowhere. This month at BoRT we’re interested in where things come from, how circumstances align to make something happen, how stories of the…