January 22nd
byI love it when critics find ways to get a point across without words. Images can be just as valuable a critical tool as writing; they offer a different set of techniques for demonstrating what a game is doing or what it…
narrativity
December 18th
byWhat strategies and techniques do people use to navigate the systems of industry, politics, and computers? This week has brought us some fantastic articles about power structures, business, and justice, all in connection with games and play. “It was just business” Some great…
December 11th
byIs 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…
November 13th
byI 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…
November 6th
byIt’s a new month and a time of shiny new treats for games writing. This week saw the launch of Waypoint, which seems to have allowed the Vice Gaming crew to grow a bit and build their own set of interests and…
October 23rd
byWith just one week to go until All Hallow’s Eve, many games critics are considering the scariest thing of all: our Kafkaesque relationship with institutions of power. Mwahahahaha. Opponents by chance Starting this week’s roundup are three pieces on randomness, chance, and…
August 21st
byWhew! There was a LOT of great writing on No Man’s Sky to get through this weekend. Pretty soon the number of pieces of writing on that game will rival the number of planets it contains. Nobody can explore them all, so I’m here…
July 4th
byAfter 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…
June 26th
byI am spending a few days staying in a cheap Bed and Breakfast in an run-down Victorian seaside resort in the North of England. It is a spooky place where nothing seems to make sense. At one point I saw a white…
June 12th
byThis week, I’m at Doc/Fest Sheffield, watching documentary films, trying out some exciting new VR projects, and listening to people talk about truthful storytelling in screen media. So far I’ve seen software allowing a holocaust survivor to keep answering people’s questions long…