"Where is all the good writing about games?"
The history of literature and politics blends with the history of games this week, as a number of critics examine games’ relationships to cultural works from across time. Meanwhile, God of War continues to inspire critical reflections, and developers are finding new…
How does sound affect videogame storytelling and the effect that games have on our emotions? This latest roundup features a fantastic section on soundtracks, as well as writing on sexism, social movements, and criticism itself. Yakuza This week brought a slew of…
It’s been a good week for analyses of how gender is portrayed in games, with critics looking closely at stories with female protagonists as well as critiquing toxic masculinity. It’s also been a remarkable week for discussions that don’t often appear, such…
This week’s games criticism offers insights with implications that go far beyond game design, touching on how we imagine ourselves, our models of morality, and how we organize our arguments and ideologies. Plus, critics offer some much-needed clarity on some of the…
This week’s critical writing on games sheds light on the different cultural contexts that influence how games are received – from the problems that arise when showing art games in commercial environments, to how we can process our painful history through interactive…
What can the most recent games learn from their own predecessors? And what kind of futures do games point us toward? Questions of past, present, and future pervade this week’s roundup of the most insightful games blogging. Pattern-making Three pieces this week…
The big discussion of the week is loot boxes – also known as gacha mechanics – or, in-game microtransactions with randomised contents. A long-controversial aspect of free-to-play games, these items have featured prominently in recent AAA game releases, provoking a wave of…
Games critics are looking closely at messes at the moment – messes that are oddly beautiful, messes in which we get entangled through human relationships, as well as messes that threaten to engulf the world whole and destroy its vital ecosystems. A…
This was a week of controversies. Since one of the most significant issues this week was a famous Youtuber’s racist outburst, the final section of this roundup comes with a general content warning for discussions of harassment, abuse, racism etc. In the…
A critical game, a video essay with limited narration, and in-depth interview pieces – this was a week of experimentation in games criticism, and this week’s roundup is all the richer for it. Burning We start with two pieces of criticism that…