Search Results for “history” – Page 41

January 29th

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Power fantasies

Next, a pair of pieces that both raise similar points about the arrogant conceits of gameplay and how they map onto the character traits of America’s President, during what has been described as one of the most alarming weeks in US history.

The Unsettling Political Power Fantasy of Dishonored 2 – Waypoint Duncan Fyfe makes a broader point about the videogameyness of Donald Trump’s attitude towards leadership.
Play, Nihilism, and the Magic Circle: Something I Missed – Not Your Mama’s Gamer Alex Layne recognises another connection between Trump-ism and game-isms.

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March 5th

…connections are vital: reflections on GDC | Memory Insufficient Danniele Livengood looks at the recent history of GDC and inclusivity. (Disclosure: Critical Distance Senior Curator Zoyander Street is Editor-in-Chief of Memory Insufficient, but he wasn’t involved in selection this week)

‘We Know The Devil’ Taught Me To Be Proud – Waypoint Jennifer Unkel recounts struggles over trans pride and the helpful releases found in We Know the Devil.

What we talk about when we don’t talk about native peoples Dia Lacina talks about the lack of awareness when using terms about native peoples, particularly in Horizon Zero Dawn.

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March 26th

…individualism.”

The Exploded Encyclopedia | Everything | Heterotopias Gareth Damian Martin examines how the surrealist narrative techniques of a game concerned with cataloguing the inanimate relate to a longer history of philosophy and art.

“At the heart of Everything lies a contradiction. Though the narration dotted around this seemingly infinite universe—cherry-picked from the archive of philosopher Alan Watts—speaks of “interconnection”, of life being “one organism,” the game itself is obsessed by the idea of discrete, separate, identifiable objects. “

Jail

Two stories about educators in prisons came out this week, both…

April 2nd

…the art in character animation is enlightening, putting players’ disappointment in perspective.

Radiator Blog: Lighting theory for 3D games, part 5: the rise and fall of the cult of hard shadows Robert Yang’s history of shadow casting technology is deeply engaged in the technical reality of graphics engines, but refuses to be seduced by them.

[W]e sacrificed entire levels, rooms, and hallways, to feed the shadows and our notions of high craft and perceived production value. But let’s not stop there! What if you sacrificed an entire game just to render cool-looking hard shadows?

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June 11th

…Tragedy of ‘The Order: 1886’ and Its Wasted Setting|Vice Waypoint Rob Zacny revisits The Order: 1886 and its treatment of history that is “seductive for all the wrong reasons.”

A Curated List of Recent Writings on Games and Narrative|Gamasutra Pietro Polsinelli culls together a list of narrative, dialogue and story design in games as he works on his own “unlikely narrative” football game.

In the Shadow of the Holodeck|Medium Charles J Pratt recalls Ian Bogost’s controversial article for The Atlantic, including a round table of responses, interpreting Bogost’s piece to mean that “even the successful cases of storytelling…

June Roundup: Time

…in Night in the Woods, time is as much an economic influence as it is an intellectual one.

Read it now

Seth Tomko

Perceptions of Time in Fallout 4

At Level Skip, Seth Tomko compares the protagonist of Fallout 4 to other characters forcibly removed from their moment in history like Captain America and Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse-Five. For Tomko, Fallout 4 reworks notions of time as a linear process by displacing the player in several key moments. Like other stories featuring an “out of time” protagonist, Fallout 4 humanizes the player character by removing…

August 6th

…Mafia III and the Soundtrack of History | Ontological Geek Harry Mackin talks the subversion of music on cultural and historical context, and how Mafia III uses music in a way no videogame has before.

“In a postmodern, media-dominated world, it can feel as though cultural memory is history – or at least, it’s replaced history. Historical truths are fluid and complicated; hard to pin down. Narrative isn’t nearly as difficult: America’s lost innocence, the end of an era. Juxtaposed with the dramatic imagery and music of the era, the symbolism becomes so tempting that it’s difficult…

August 20th

…personal history against your working expectations. In an age where we’re doing more re-releases, maybe incorporating classic moments into newer projects is a better choice.’

Why Hard Work Gets You Nowhere in Assassin’s Creed | Kotaku Games reinforce capitalist ideas that work is good and rewarding. ‘Grinding’ in MMOs is repetitive, and games often subject players to ‘work-like activities’ under the guise of freedom and control. Assassin’s Creed I subverts this. How? Altair’s killings do not improve life in the cities, guards still harass civilians regardless of how many times he intervenes. The article is a deep…

September 3rd

…explanations dating from the 19th century. This is, they focus on the tale of great men and great nations that prove their right to rule by defeating their enemies through the use of violence (Venegas Ramos, A., 2016). However, nowadays the video game medium is mature enough to write the history of Humanity, and the Spanish Conquista in particular, by leaving the myth of the mounted musketeer back in the Iberian Peninsula.”

A kind of co-optation

The ongoing conflicts occurring in digital space, both fictional and real, are discussed in these two pieces that both offer takeaways…

October 8th

…interesting pieces on strategic design decisions made by games companies, two critics investigate the compromises and bargains made in order to seduce the right developers and players.

Why ‘Rocket League’ Killed All Its Weird Maps – Waypoint Andrew Hayward examines how level design priorities shift as a game becomes a sport.
How Sony’s biggest failure led to an indie renaissance | ZAM – The Largest Collection of Online Gaming Information Matt Suckley reports on the history of how indie-friendly business practices developed out of a desperation to attract developers.

“The formal approval process at

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