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April 3rd

…like Fez, Braid or Super Meat Boy had been released in 1999, the hardcore set of the time would have hailed them as the future, likely much to the confusion of their peers.”

Loving Lookbacks

I wasn’t willing to make a tag called games-from-the-past-that-did-one-thing-ridiculously-well, but that’s more or less the vibe on this one.

  • Mirror’s Edge is still the undisputed queen of parkour | PC Gamer Natalie Clayton looks back at the original Mirror’s Edge and its undefeated mastery of movement.
  • Game Pile: Total Annihilation | press.exe Talen Lee looks back at late-90’s real-time…

Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans – Paratexts | Keywords in Play, Episode 19

…fundamentally looking at these moments of kind of very specific history in the campaign of a particular project, of a particular text.

Bettina: Thank you so much to both Regina Seiwald, and Ed Vollans for this super insightful conversation. Where can people find out more about your work?

Ed: We have both through, through chance, I think we both got contributions to a recent publication, also with the greater paratextualising games. My own chapter now is exploring the shift in advertising rhetoric as we go through the lifecycle of a game platform. So, how we moved from introducing…

Jaroslav Švelch | Keywords in Play, Episode 20

…and otherness. So, it’s a bit of a departure, but it’s also you know, kind of one of mine, one of the topics that are very dear to me, so I’m hoping that I will finish it and it will be published soon. It should come out next year on MIT Press.

Emilie: All right, great. That was super interesting! Thank you so much!

Jaroslav: Thank you.

Darshana: We hope you have enjoyed this episode of Keywords in Play. For more great ideas around games check out criticaldistance.com. Or take a dive into the DiGRA archives…

June 19th

…the toxic fandom which has plagued Star Wars in recent years.

  • In Card Shark, The Devil Finds Work For Busy Hands | Unwinnable Ruth Cassidy contemplates life or death on the draw, cards on the table, or under it.
  • Dreaming of Dream Land | Unwinnable Alyssa Wejebe reminisces about Kirby Super Star as the paradigmatic Kirby game in her memory.

    • “Kirby exists here in this particular boxy cartridge for me. I’ve dabbled with some other Kirby titles, but this slumbers cozy on a cloud in my mind. Cliche or just simply true, this old title…

    August 7th

    …be “proven” by other methods, rather I feel there is no need for methodological divisions when it comes to feminist intervention—we should use whatever tools we have to communicate with the public and dismantle oppressive systems.”

    Time and Place

    Next up, two lookbacks at games from the 2000s where context is key, and understanding the movements both in the industry and wider popular culture at the time is vital to really getting them.

    • “Ladders are a socially acceptable way to reach a roof” – Assassin’s Creed | Super Chart Island Iain Mew revisits the original…

    October 9th

    …next, two reflections on games, both general and specific, in play and in execution, as they weave into the fabric of our late-capitalist existence.

    • The Steam Deck Hasn’t Helped Me Tackle My Backlog But Touching Grass Has | TheGamer Lex Luddy interrogates who, or what, she has been playing games for under pandemic conditions where discourse has all-too-often been the only available stand-in for human interraction.
    • “The golden twilight of Western civilization” – Grand Theft Auto IV – Super Chart Island Iain Mew looks back, from across recessions, at GTAIV‘s narrative ambitions.

    “The driving

    …

    December 4th

    …alternative history for games Amr Al-Aaser explores the history, legacy, and patchwork localization history of Chunsoft’s sound novel games.

    “One day I hope to see fan translations of these Super Famicom Sound Novels, their imitators, and maybe even the titles that followed on the Playstation. For now, I stay grateful to the remake’s translators, and the video creators who make it possible to experience, at least in some part, these moments in history.”

    Critical Chaser

    We close out the week with some solemn advice for Snappers everywhere.

    • Using your phone on the…

    February 26th

    …Hogwarts Legacy tries to anticipate every type of player, but Rowling didn’t want her world to be for everyone.”

    Old School

    Now that I think of it (and really, I try not to think of it too often), the early 2010s are now often considered old school in many regards from a game design perspective. These two fine selections about games from 20 years before that will still be here when you’ve recovered from the psychic damage.

    • The Indie Pop Legacy of Super Mario Land 2 | Thrilling Tales of Old Video Games Drew Mackie…

    April 16th

    Welcome back readers.

    While we’re running a slightly smaller issue this week, we’ve still got seven polished and provocative selections for you to dig into. Let’s get right into it.

    This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

    Box Offices and Block Busters

    This week we’re opening with a pair of adaptation-focused pieces, with the Mario Movie newly released and The Last of Us TV series still fresh in memory.

    • The 1993 Super Mario Bros. had the guts that the

    …

    Stephanie Harkin | Keywords in Play, Episode 29

    …and both of them super hyper-feminine, pink, sparkly graphics and they’re calling… they were made sort of in the late 2010s, but they’re both set – one is set in 1998 or 1999, and the other is set in 2004. So they’re recalling this early period of the internet and they’re both about these two teenage girls who are engaging with these online webpages, think GeoCities, LiveJournal, Angelfire, even MySpace to an extent, if a little bit younger, when people were making their own webpages. And this was a massively popular area for teenage girls, they were writing these blogs,…