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labor

June 11th

There’s a little event called E3 going on this week, and with it comes plenty of new games and rapid-fire discourse. Yet we stand firm in our mission to curate the internet’s most intriguing critical writing and challenging media. This week you’ll find musings on design and narrative exploring emotional labor, trauma, blindness and, for good measure, even amphetamines. Enjoy!

Rime and Reason

There’s plenty to be said of Rime, a small indie game with a lot of heart:

  • Beauty From Ashes: Unpacking Grief in Rime | Gamechurch Joey Thurmond discusses grief in Rime, which

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August 27th

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Motherhood

  • Clone Club: Motherhood and Technology in Orphan Black and Horizon Zero Dawn | Not Your Mama’s Gamer Bianca Batti challenges the intersection of normative motherhood and family against the technology and narratives explored in Horizon Zero Dawn and Orphan Black.

    My question after all this, though, is how do we (re)frame the power of the mother in a way that does not perpetuate essentialist and normative definitions of maternal labor? That is, how do we decenter patriarchal power and (re)claim power in motherhood in a way that does not rely on…

February 4th

…video games demonize fat people | The Outline Anshuman Iddamsetty links nuance-deficient character designs to poor labor conditions and low workplace diversity.

  • Artificial Identities: An Essay – PLAYTIME Katherine Cross explores the ambiguous space of personal exploration that gaming offers queer people.

    • “When you play a game like this, the gulf between who you are and who you want to be becomes painfully evident—and yet it’s the pocket of netherspace you dwell in.”

    Worlds

    In writing on spaces in games, critics wind through dungeons and consider the cosmos.

    • The Doom Mod…
    Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

    April 1st

    …all time, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is anxiously aware that it is a video game, and the writing suffers within those very nervous constraints.”

    Industry on fire

    This roundup ends with a couple of articles about the unfolding developments in labor organizing.

    • After Destroying Lives For Decades, Gaming Is Finally Talking Unionization – Waypoint Ian Williams gives an overview of the situation, contextualizing the disgruntlement with the IGDA as one of the factors leading to calls for a union.
    • The struggle to unionize video games | ZAM – The Largest Collection of…

    April 29th

    …Emad Ahmed explores the literary influences and philosophy of a surreal conversation-based game.

    “If you constantly surround yourself with others, your thoughts will become nothing but theirs,” says the deer at one point. The influence of Emerson becomes unequivocal here, telling us to be self-reliant and independent.

    Parley

    Two writers report on new ways that people have started negotiating for better material conditions.

    • Workers of the Videogames, Unite! | Matajuegos David T. Marchand recounts the labor movement activities that sprang up around GDC this year.
    • Sea of Thieves fans are setting…

    May 13th

    …a frozen utopia of automated physical labor and palliative care. I want story events where civilians reject prosthetic limbs, where they break and malfunction, where their experiences with illness and disability are as disparate as our own. I want complexities.”

    Architecture

    A lovely little piece on videogame architecture also stood out this week.

    • Brick By Brick / Real-world Analogs for Dark Souls 3?s Architecture Focusing on imagery rather than words, Doshmanziari locates the architecture of Dark Souls in its European influences.

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    July 22nd

    Although it’s typical for AAA games to attract the majority of the in-depth writing, in the context of increasing tension around labor exploitation, more critics are considering the power dynamics of big publisher corporations and populist gamer culture. This week in videogame blogging, writers look at impactful mods and bootlegs, the role of games in political protest, and alternative histories.

    Detection

    Three writers look at creepy places and the art of creeping around.

    • Gamasutra: Travis Hoffstetter’s Blog – The Anatomy of a Stealth Encounter Travis Hofstetter gives game developers a guide to common ingredients making

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    August 12th

    Investigative reporting on games culture has had a strong week, as well as histories of game design, development, and criticism. Our weekly roundup of critical writing on games, This Week in Videogame Blogging keeps you up to date with the most fascinating work exploring the medium, the field, and its communities.

    A veil of jokes

    Two pieces consider the practice of writing on games at major outlets – in particular, the kind of emotional labor or work of self-presentation that goes on when trying to portray the right kind of approachable personality.

    • How Giant Bomb

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    September 16th

    …things leave a lot to be desired.

  • My Favorite Final Fantasy Taught Me Some Bad Lessons About Love | Kotaku Monica Uszerowicz reflects on how Final Fantasy VIII genders relationships and romance in an insidiously toxic way.

    • “When I replayed Final Fantasy VIII earlier this year, it became clear that Squall was comically mean to Rinoa, even as she Manic Pixie Dream Girled her way into his life. Their romance was a big, cinematic lesson in unavailability and emotional labor—Rinoa provided endless, giggling support; Squall rebuffed it almost throughout.”

    Queer Play

    Two articles

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    October 21st

    …Collide: Content Creation, Community Building, and Labor – NYMG Samantha Blackmon calls upon readers to be mindful of the human labour–material, emotional, and otherwise–that goes into streaming.

  • The Industry Won’t Change If Reporters Let The Powerful Off the Hook – Waypoint Patrick Klepek emphasizes the responsibility of journalists to hold developers accountable for their labour practices, rather than helping them lionize crunch culture.
  • Steam devs speak: Maximum profits for Valve, minimum responsibilities – Polygon Tim Colwill interviews indie developers who speak candidly of their struggles to survive on Steam, where the algorithm is king and it often feels…