August 31st

Welcome back readers.

It’s the last week for Queer Games Bundle over on Itch. Good cause, good games, good deal!

I just checked the numbers and in my time with Critical Distance I have collected roughly 5475 articles in these weekly issues since I began my time here in August 2018, provided I count the thirteen selections presented this week. Big number! The number over on our Patreon doesn’t need to be quite that big (ha ha ha unless. . .?), but making it a little bigger does help us keep making that first number bigger, so check it out!

This Week in Videogame Blogging is a roundup highlighting the most important critical writing on games from the past seven days.

For the Record

Let’s start things off this week with some fresh interviews, featuring conversations on activism, craft, and the place for games in a sustainable future.

• “A culture of intimidation, retaliation and oppression”: How Microsoft’s Gaza stance fuelled an industry-spanning boycott | Rock Paper Shotgun
  Edwin Evans-Thirlwell talks to developers and engineers inside and outside of Microsoft about the growing grassroots pressures against their collaboration with the IOF (Further Reading: Wallace Truesdale on the state of the BDS action against Microsoft).
• Cutscenes | A Hit of Pure Videodrome: Sam Barlow and Natalie Watson on Full-Motion Video Games on Notebook | MUBI
  Matt Turner discusses editing, cut-scenes, and the history of FMV games and interactive cinema with Sam Barlow and Natalie Watson (Further Reading: Kamiab Ghorbanpour on the state of FMV games in China).
• A Videogame Politics for A Burning World: An Interview with Ajay Singh Chaudhary | Unwinnable
  Luis Aguasvivas and Ajay Singh Chaudhary chat about the place and potential for videogames in a realistic and sustainable future (Further Reading: Phoenix Simms on grounding the games industry).

“I don’t know how much awareness there is in the larger games community, but I think within the engineering design and artist community there is a really growing consciousness of ‘why do we need this shit? Why do I need this amount of teraflops [I laugh] – power that is so destructive?’ We don’t have to buy a new graphics card to enjoy videogames as an artistic medium.“

Affective Play

Our next section brings together thoughts on affective storytelling and how to talk about it.

• Puzzles and Motherhood – Leila Review | Gamesline
  Franny finds a lot to like in this puzzler-portrait of a young woman.
• Repeat the Ending: Where Do Personal Games Go? | TIER
  Kastel argues for a critical tradition that appreciates the personal as important.

“As the player learns how to interact with the world, they may learn that D has something to say about his body, his life, and his worldview. However, the text does not explicitly outline this message: it is up to the player to decide if this work should be classified as “outsider art” or meaningful and personal art that struggles to express something beyond how we typically discuss games. The latter would require players to abandon the vocabulary of academics and Steam reviews for a more appropriate way to discuss D’s perspective on life. There isn’t a space that allows for that kind of discussion yet, but we have to try.“

Effective Play

Now let’s turn to the thrills of arcade action, flow, and vibe.

• Star Ixiom: Simple until it’s not | Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster
  Kimimi has a great time with an action-strategy space-shooting mash-up in the Namco lineage (Further Reading: Kimimi’s own previous writing on the PlayStation port of Galaxian 3).
• How Tetris Effect permanently changed my brain chemistry | Medium
  Malindy Hetfeld unpacks the design of the Tetris Effect effect as a function of feeling (Further Reading: Art Maybury on Tetris).

“Game design is a lot about feeling. While some design principles are underpinned by psychology, it wouldn’t be game design if we didn’t end up taking even the few established facts we have and tried to play with them. To me, good game design breaks things and puts them back together. To me, the interesting question isn’t whether games are art, but how they can evoke the same strong feelings great pieces of art do.“

Miro Board

There’s lots of topic exchange between sections this week, but I’m calling this section the most design-minded one, with two picks that unpack triple-A pitfalls and character writing, respectively.

• Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Feels Like a Haunting from Game Design’s Past | Medium
  Kat makes a case study of a game with hints of narrative promise weighed down by all the usual triple-A open-world cruft.
• Promise Mascot Agency Is A Lesson In Writing A Realistic Teacher | Endless Mode
  Wallace Truesdale talks to Oli Clarke Smith about capturing the struggle and spirit of a fully-fleshed-out teacher in PMA.

“When asked about how he believes games depict teaching as a profession generally, Smith also noted how infrequently he saw realistic teachers (“Maybe I just haven’t played them, or maybe they don’t exist?”) and mentioned only the Persona series by name. He then went into his thoughts on how developers can approach depicting teachers, emphasizing the importance of communicating their struggles and those of the larger system—ones he wouldn’t want to deal with himself.“

Beach, Summer, School

Three fine pieces on how games past and present intersect with our world and our lives.

• Should We Have Connected? | Bullet Points Monthly
  Carli Velocci compares Death Stranding‘s techno-optimism around the internet and connection to the sequel’s comparative ambivalence.
• School’s Out Forever For Roxas In Kingdom Hearts | Endless Mode
  Madeline Blondeau contemplates Roxas and Sora as paired ciphers responding to the paradox of life under capitalism (Further Reading: Latonya Pennington on nobodies and transition).
• In Danganronpa, Hope Lies in the Next Generation | Endless Mode
  Diego Nicolás Argüello thinks about coming of age and the legacy for the future that comes out of Danganronpa‘s traumatic crucible (Further Reading: Eli Cugini on Danganronpa and clumsy queer rep).

“Suffering is an inherent part of living. Danganronpa knows this too well and takes it to an extreme. Yet, Danganronpa‘s biggest trait is culminating in kindness. Despite everything that characters get to witness, they still cling to hope. It’s a hope manifested in believing in oneself, in borrowing strength from others and remembering that you’re not alone, in the responsibility of honoring those who have passed away, fighting for the future entrusted by the ones that came before, and leaving a version of this world that is, even in a small amount, kinder to future generations.“

Critical Chaser

Congrats, Willa.

• Is This Seat Taken? Is A Great Puzzle Game… If You Aren’t Planning A Wedding | Endless Mode
  Willa Rowe leans into the stress of the recent people-pleaser-puzzler.

“Behind its clever design, Is This Seat Taken? It is a game meant to remind us that everyone has some sort of anxiety about where they fit in. What I’m saying is that you probably have more in common with those around you than you realize, so if you are ever at a wedding just sit down in the nearest goddamn seat.“