"Where is all the good writing about games?"
New years’ month is always a little unsettling in how quickly it seems to go. The cold weather is overstaying its welcome, but the days seem to slip away without much regard for productivity. Surprisingly brief, then, is the second theme to…
In this week’s roundup of the latest critical writing on games, critics delve into fantasy worlds and explore unrealities, bringing back insights into how fiction and truth intersect. Brains First, two critics use ideas from psychology to look at how games affect…
This week, critics discussed topics such as trans representation and the politics of the undead in horror and strategy games. This week’s roundup starts, however, with writers bearing witness to excellent visual artists. Image The passing of a celebrated artist prompts some…
This week, a number of games critics looked at the agencies and capacities of female characters, and examined stories that center women. We’ve also got some discussions of cops and hackers, and puppets! Resurrection Reforms to a character’s abilities and the launch…
Critics enumerate videogames’ hyper-quantified powers, whisper their unspeakable horrors, and dig through the catacombs of their less-known histories. This roundup brings you the week’s most insightful and original writing on games from around the web. Overcoming demons First, a quick look at…
Happy New Year! Or maybe not so happy. 2018 has begun, and it has already brought some powerful games criticism that puts playful interactive media in dialogue with decline, decay, and the death of civilisations. Lighting up the darkness are examinations of…
Another year done and dusted—it’s time to take the old calendar off the wall, and hang up the new one. Newness being one of the things we value in our daily life. We’re often so married to our patterns and routines that…
It’s time for our year-end mega-roundup of games criticism! The purpose of this feature is to create a representative snapshot of the year, curated from the links we shared. I have been doing this for several years, and every time I have…
We are in the final week of the reader submissions period for Critical Distance’s end of year feature, the mega-roundup This Year In Video Game Blogging. This is a reminder to everybody to get your suggestions in for the feature – you…
Games history went off the beaten track this week, with pieces of writing and video on alternative and even unsanctioned aspects of the medium’s heritage. Meanwhile, genre-bending analyses and challenging calls for better artistic dialogue abound, as writers unpick the critical issues…