September 18th
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Glancing Back with Fondness
History is often accidental. What we learn from looking at the past was rarely the intent of that piece of history to begin with. The past…
history
October 2nd
…valuable lessons for any of us who write about games.
“Old trailers, screenshots, and gameplay footage from conventions are good resources to start with, but Gill says researchers also need to think outside the box. ‘A few techniques I personally use are timeframe specific searches for interviews, getting in touch with game developers on LinkedIn, and using targeted keywords with quotation marks.’” These two features examine institutions that were concerned with establishing cultural power, in actual-history UK and alternate-history USA.
“We believe in freedom, but…”
February 12th
…chapters
Our understanding of the world is only ever provisional and partial, but when it comes to some of the most shameful aspects of our own history, how do we ensure there’s some sort of consensus about reality? “Kansteiner complains …
August 13th
Follow me as we dive back into gaming’s history to learn something, stand alone against inner demons, and collectively stand together in self sacrifice. Welcome to another installment of This Week in Videogame Blogging!
Hellblade
Ninja Theory’s stealth release, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice released this week and has already made a critical splash.
- How Hellblade’s permadeath works isn’t the point | PC Gamer Right off the bat Hellblade caught controversy with a design decision that Reid McCarter here defends as thematically relevant to the game’s purpose.
- Hellblade’s battle with mental illness is an agonizing story
…
October 1st
…is not an easy-to-digest list of events, it is constantly changing, as it is in our own world. Those who might decry new information coming to light, or our common understanding being challenged as a re-writing of history – as a negative act of betraying canon – fail to understand that history by its very nature is written.”
Cross and come into conflict
These three articles connect games to our personal and social worlds, making compelling arguments for the importance of “meta-textuality” – readings of games that are not just about what’s included in them, but also…
This Year In Videogame Blogging: 2017
…Perversion Subversion – Examining Hentai Sensibility | YouTube – Extra Credits The Extra Credits crew look at two games and see how they engage and subvert the common Japanese tropes of “perviness.” One bad example – Persona 5 – and one good example…
Yakuza 0
October 14th
It’s become something of a cliché at this point to quip that we are living in the darkest of a series of possible timelines. Moving beyond this idea’s (arguably well-justified) cynicism, I think this trend is indicative of a renewed impulse toward collective reflection on our recent history and the choices that have led us to our current political moment.
It was this thought that kept coming to mind this week in my work curating games writing, and I think this is due to both the quality and quantity of writing I have found that reflects on the
…
July 14th
…narrative on medieval history is severely skewed toward white supremacist make-believe.
“Removing women from a game is not the same as turning on subtitles, or changing…
March 29th
…often more of the latter.”
History Makers
There’s quite a bit of spread in this section, but generally the pieces gathered here delve into some kind of historical analysis, either looking at where trends in games got their start, the underlying origins or structures of popular narratives in the industry, or even reflecting on how “history” in games is constructed and framed.
- Who gets to write video game history? • Eurogamer.net Florence Smith Nicholls reflects on the recent auction of the Nintendo PlayStation and asks what smaller, more vulnerable artifacts, texts, and creators are out…
March 2020
…players with regard to experiences of the romantic sublime. (Autocaptions)
An interesting lecture by Chris Klimas on the history of Colossal Cave Adventure (arguably the first popular text adventure game) – how its inspiration was tied into the geography and history of Kentucky, and how it was able to flourish on the (pre-internet computer network) ARPANET of the late 1970s. (Autocaptions) Always a popular topic for video critics, zeroing in on the points of difference that makes certain games stand out from… Novel Designs