"Where is all the good writing about games?"
…Invisible Walls | Problem Machine problemmachine reflects on some of the disconnects between game design and real-world social systems.
“If we accept that “gameplay” as an abstraction is made up of loops and repeated parts and this is in part because of how computers work, it’s nonsensical to also ignore the implications this has for everything else about the form.”
Reaching…
…literary origins of some of its representation problems.
“Lead designer and co-founder Carlos Gómez Quintana has said his interest in the Mexica derives from an early encounter with Gary Jennings’ Aztec, a flawed text rife with noble savagery. This is really what binds everything in Dragons Conquer America together.” Critical Distance …
Plugs
Subscribe
…With Justice – Waypoint Cameron Kunzelman identifies narrative and game design choices that emphasize one female character’s agency and autonomy.
“By cultivating rather than ridiculing or avoiding flaccid masculinities, from the queer packy to the homoerotic digital jouster, we can find an alternative to the strong men and hard bodies that…
…Allegra Frank highlights the portrayal of motherhood of this much-discussed game – an aspect that has been underappreciated, as most critical writing has focused on the politics of the story’s setting and the protagonist’s identity.
“[T]he audience often require[s] a pre-existing political alignment with the satirist to recognize the commentary…
…confront the empty reality of millennial capitalism, and calls for games that can help us to imagine an alternative.
“This system of gathering as much social media currency as possible, only for a vague sense of reward, reminds me of the pervasiveness numbness that comes with consumerism.” Three critics highlight games that challenge received genre conventions relating to zombies and the apocalypse.
Normal apocalyptic
…which to imagine alternative cities and political structures.”
Finally, two critics look at visual expression in games, with an eye towards things that feel familiar, whether that familiarity is comforting or creepy.
“FAITH‘s…
…– Haywire Magazine April Tyack reads Monster Hunter: Worlds through philosophical thought about colonialism and the construction of identity.
“It’s vital we think of alternatives that challenge the myth of perpetual growth, instead of uncritically repeating it, not simply to create variety in strategy design, but also because that…
Videogames: where frustration and inconvenience can be enjoyable. This week’s roundup features writing on the design and portrayal of economic systems, emotional loops, and physical structures for human bodies.
First, this week brought us three pieces about dad games, children, and conservative fantasies.
…
…the end we are flawed beings living at the whims of the cosmos.”
This was a great week for reflections on games and the history of art, or art about history.
…game like this.
A game that might follow the logic of Bogost’s procedural rhetoric in a way more relevant to the social gaming system might be something along the lines of a management sim about running a social gaming development company.
David Carlton at Malvasia Bianca looks at ‘Operas, Musicals and Videogames’ and wonders why,
If these well-respected art forms can use a threadbare narrative as a vehicle for glorious set pieces, why on earth shouldn’t we do the same?
Kirk Hamilton on how Grand Theft Auto IV should have ended [mirror]…