"Where is all the good writing about games?"
How do people involved in interactive media interact with each other? What kind of social structures are we designing when we design games? This is a topic of interest to sociologists, community managers, and anyone with a stake in multiplayer gaming.
Trauma, abuse, hell, and postmodernism are just some of the stops on this week’s journey through critical writing on games. Yet somehow, it’s a fun ride, with high-quality prose, a wide range of voices, and clear takeaways for anyone creating things in…
Worlds are created and destroyed within computers. Spaces are created through code and protected through play. Many videogame critics take on the role of observing and examining these new and fascinating modes of being. This Week in Videogame Blogging brings you a…
Are you so bloody bored of E3? Well, this roundup of the week’s insightful critical writing is pretty much an E-zero. No consumer hype here, just earnest, authentic examinations of games that already exist. Fanfare First, a lovely little piece about music!…
True to fashion, first day on the job and I’m late. Hey everyone, I’m Austin, I’m a new contributor filling in this week for Zoyander, if you wanna know more about me, click on some of this stuff! But we have no…
This week’s writing on games picks up on gendered dynamics, dad games, and religion. Settle in for another roundup of This Week in Videogame Blogging. Ad hoc In writing on games and history, we have on piece on how to keep games…
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…
What kind of people do we want to be? What kinds of people do we become when we play games? And how are our gameplay experiences shaped by who we already are? This week, critics, journalists, and video essayists discussed morality, identity,…
Sometimes I get nostalgic for the era of “personal writing on games”, “confessional critical essays”, or “gonzo games journalism”. A few years ago, it seemed like the best way to start writing critically about games was to tell personal stories about how…
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…