"Where is all the good writing about games?"
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…
This was a week of controversies. Since one of the most significant issues this week was a famous Youtuber’s racist outburst, the final section of this roundup comes with a general content warning for discussions of harassment, abuse, racism etc. In the…
A critical game, a video essay with limited narration, and in-depth interview pieces – this was a week of experimentation in games criticism, and this week’s roundup is all the richer for it. Burning We start with two pieces of criticism that…
A guilty pleasure of mine is critical writing that takes things to that meta level. Critical writing about criticism. This week, writers came up with taxonomies, heuristics, and semiotic analyses. I’ve had the pleasure of reading many pieces that reveal something about…
Direct Download After a year-long hiatus, the minisodes are back on the Critical Distance Confab. In case you missed them the first time around, the idea behind these minisodes is for myself and a co-host to highlight some games that haven’t…
This week, we find ourselves peering backward in time, examining the world as it was, as it is again, and as we understand it now because of that we learned before. Part nostalgia, part history, but all This Week in Video Game…
Drama! Intrigue! Chicanery! Lengthy internal monologues, heated Twitter feuds, and much more! No, it’s not a telenovela. It’s This Week In Videogame Blogging. What’s wrong with the industry? There were two pieces this week which articulated, albeit to different degrees and with…
Direct Download Joining me for this month’s interview is author of actual books and YouTube critic Joseph Anderson. Wanting to build up his online presence to attract a book agent, Joseph Anderson began creating YouTube videos to relieve himself of some “petty…