"Where is all the good writing about games?"
Do you feel like garbage right now? Well then I have a treat for you. Games critics this week have gone searching through the detritus of the city for hidden treasure, and created archives of material for others to enjoy. Along the way,…
We all participate in constructing social structures, though in the real world most people don’t have a whole lot of institutional power. As many look at 2017 as a year that will demand strong resistance, some writers consider how games teach us to…
Is there a lot of nihilism in the subcultures that have grown around videogames? Many of the writers featured in this week’s roundup are considering interactive media in relation to their own feelings of disempowerment and alienation. How do we use this medium…
I don’t want to callously overstate the importance of games at a time like this. There’s so much to be done to change the conditions that have led to Brexit, Trump, and right-wing gains in other Euro-American countries, and speaking personally, I…
Hello, dear readers! It’s time for a special Halloween edition of TWIVGB. While the last time I covered the weekend roundup was Valentine’s Day, I assure you that I’m not just here for the chocolate. Tricks and treats from the game industry…
I’m blown away by the volume of high-quality writing this week. All the great stuff seems to be coming out at once! It’s overwhelming. To make it all a little easier to digest, I’ve broken this week’s roundup into four parts. Take…
Welcome to this week’s late summer feast of writing on games, semiotics, and dogs. Morality First we address the moral questions explored in interactive fiction, as two critics play the politics of enlightenment. Pigmote Isle | Problem Machine The Problem Machine blog…
After a week of taco trucks, it’s time to settle down and digest the meaty issues in games criticism. A quick note before we continue: Critical Distance is just $40 away from the Patreon goal that allows us to stay afloat and…
This week is all about those big, open spaces: the endless expanse of a procedurally-generated universe, the mysterious depths of the ocean, and the reimagined streets of a Pokemon-enriched city. Battlefields We start with escapism and its opposite. How do we cope…
After a troubling set of weeks, it seems a lot of games critics are thinking about how escapism is more than it appears on the surface. A major theme of this week’s blogging is how games can provide a sense of release…