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Example Post 1: Critics are good for your game

Jason Della Rocca, outgoing head of the Independent Games Developers Association, wrote a mini-rant for the GDC developer’s rant which he then posted to his blog. While it’s been described as a ‘back-handed apology’ he addresses an issue that is very relevant to the Critical Distance project and videogame criticism in general. He apologises for

…not bringing critics under the tent and getting them to work at improving things.

Which I think hits on an important point: we criticise because we love, and because we actually want to see things change.

It’s almost

Example Post 2: Critics are necessary for your art

Khoi Vin has written an excellent post calling for more criticism within the field of graphic design. The entire piece is surprisingly relevant to the current state of video game criticism:

Like it or not, you can’t have a serious discourse about an art form until you have people whose sole involvement in that art form is criticism. You need, in effect, an independent press. Actually, to be clear, what you need is an economic model that can support a corps of passionate, clear-thinking individuals who are dedicated to vigilantly watching over the progression of the medium.

Mission Statement

Back in 2009, Critical Distance was founded to answer the question: “Where is all the good writing about games?”

Our goal for the last 10 years has always been to facilitate dialogue. Through roundups, roundtables, podcasts, and critical compilations, we provide one place where all the most important discourse is collected together.

We aim to build a foundation for ongoing conversations between developers, critics, educators and enthusiasts about critical issues in games culture.

We are a compendium of the most incisive, thought-provoking, and remarkable discussion in and around games, keeping it archived for years to come.

Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

Cory Doctorow’s Observations on Real Money Generation in Games

In his column at The Guardian today, blogger, novelist and technology activist Cory Doctorow claims that the ability of a player to make money from the time they invest in an MMO has become not only a key marketing point for the developers of such games, but an important part of the realisation of a virtual world. In his own words:

Many games are structured to reward time spent playing with virtual gold stars that act as decoration and play aid, and confer virtual bragging rights. So it’s a sign of a game’s success when one player

Narrative Synthesis at Girish Shambu

A piece at Girish Shambu’s blog dealing with film criticism for the 21st century raises the issue of there being two separate crowds who consume writing on cinema and looks for examples of critics who can build bridges between the camps:

For Ray, film studies resembles the Civil War in having at least two distinct audiences: academic scholars who only or largely read books and articles written by other scholars; and a non-academic cinema-interested audience of readers who typically don’t read academics. Ray proposes that we need scholars who can devise a “”narrative synthesis” that will “propagate

No More Feminism: Post-Feminism and No More Heroes

Matthew Gallant wrote to me the other day and said, “Argh! Exams! I’m freaking out, no time, so hard, need sleep! HALP!” and apologised for not being able to do a proper summary himself up for this link-out. Actually, he didn’t say any part of what I just quoted, but he did say he had exams and was terribly busy, so here’s an interesting little blog post that you can be sure Matthew Gallant thought was interesting.

On the ‘Press Start to Drink’ blog, they’ve been talking about No More Heroes, a game which came out at the

Limited by design: history through games

Luke Plunkett, Associate Director at Kotaku, wrote a Feature column discussing how video games present history. He spoke with Dr. Cliff Williamson, who teaches Modern British and American history at Bath Spa University in Britain – as well as communications manager Kieran Brigden, from Total War developer The Creative Assembly.

“There is the potential for games to mess it up as badly as the film industry has at times, because for every Das Boot made there is a U-571 just around the corner”, he says. “The tension is always there”.

Knowing how to navigate the

Amnesia Alternatives

I was searching my long list of bookmarked webpages earlier today and came across this entry from Corvus Elrod’s Man Bytes Blog. In ‘Amnesia Alternatives’ Corvus outlines two ways that a storyteller (read: anyone setting up their game) can overcome the initial barrier to a players knowledge that a brand new world they’ve never experienced presents.

It’s unreasonable to expect every player to read a hefty manual explaining their character’s back story, or worse—to subject them to a lengthy game intro which delays their entry into the game itself.

So dumping the player into a situation

The Danger in Cloud Computing

In his ‘Ragdoll Metaphysics’ column for Offworld, Jim Rossignol mulls over the tradition of science-fiction to predict the next great technical/social revolution. The Cloud-sourced service that OnLive is offering has been speculated upon in the past. We’re even seeing the first few attempts climb out of the primordial pool to lie gasping on dry land. Digital Download services such as PSN, XBLA, Steam and Impulse are becoming ubiquitous and irreplaceable and Cloud-gaming is the next evolutionary step. Though the implied dangers for the consumers are a huge step backwards in terms of digital intellectual copyrights.

Cloud-computing values the

Is Legitimacy Irrelevant?

Leigh Alexander, News Director at Gamasutra, has an opinion piece which attempts to mellow out the masses. As the influence of video games continues to grow, so does the desire for cultural acceptance. She quotes Ian Bogost’s thoughts on the topic, who frankly thinks we have more important things to be worrying about.

According to Bogost, legitimacy simply can’t be judged in the current era in the same way it could when we had few radio stations and fewer television channels, and all art and entertainment existed in individual walled gardens.

“Legitimacy has become distributed, a