"Where is all the good writing about games?"
This week we continue a look at industry and cultural practices in videogames while several authors offer critical approaches to their favourite games. Visual Essays Let’s start this week with a pair of visually based pieces of criticism about turn-of-the-century JRPGs. Chrono…
This week’s roundup is overshadowed by questions about what happens when we die, as well as what kind of work we do during our short time here. Take a moment for some quiet reflection as we look at some of the most…
Direct Download This month on the Critical Distance Confab we welcome Alex Carlson from the YouTube channel PostMesmeric. Alex Carlson is a relative newbie to the world of YouTube video game criticism. He had some experience with written criticism, most notably on…
The big discussion of the week is loot boxes – also known as gacha mechanics – or, in-game microtransactions with randomised contents. A long-controversial aspect of free-to-play games, these items have featured prominently in recent AAA game releases, provoking a wave of…
What kind of futures can we imagine for game design and storytelling? This week, critics take on the contemporary context of games from a number of perspectives, thinking about how games make us feel, and how it feels to make games. Coordinating…
Greetings all to the spookiest month of the year. As much as we love horror, costumes, pumpkins and their associated spices, we decided we wanted to be a little more welcoming. This October, we invite you to do more than just trick…
Ahoy! Don’t tell me you thought we weren’t going to make landfall. Ba ha ha! I’ve been around this sea as many times as I can force these analogies. As you’re no doubt aware, we’ve come upon another round up for the Blogs…
Sometimes I get nostalgic for the era of “personal writing on games”, “confessional critical essays”, or “gonzo games journalism”. A few years ago, it seemed like the best way to start writing critically about games was to tell personal stories about how…
Games critics are looking closely at messes at the moment – messes that are oddly beautiful, messes in which we get entangled through human relationships, as well as messes that threaten to engulf the world whole and destroy its vital ecosystems. A…
Direct Download This month on the Critical Distance Confab, all the way from New Zealand, is YouTuber Mitch Cramer. Mitch Cramer, aka HeavyEyed, is a relatively new to the world of YouTube video game criticism. Starting off as a band manager, he…