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killing

January 16th

…because it doesn’t have to. It simply lets you object to the whole of the system by killing its agents in the name of Allah and by the strength of Ogun. This is not something I get to do in most media, particularly not video games. Not only do these Black men have interiority as characters, but their interiority is defined primarily by faiths that are routinely disrespected by the white supremacy that existed then and that we live in today. For six hours I was able to invoke the name of Allah down the barrel of a gun aimed…

March 6th

…seven days.

Empires

First, a pair of meditations on play and the production of play in different contexts of colonial Empire.

  • Killing My People | Unwinnable Yussef Cole reflects on Othering, assimilation, and SOCOM.
  • Awake on Foreign Shores | Bullet Points Monthly Molly Zara-Esther Bloch situates a game of Empire in its wider aesthetic and material contexts.

“The forever wars seen in AAA mainstays like Halo exist—at least partly—to compactify the stocks and flows of global capitalism into the simplicity of three dimensions. In its current state, the grind of modern industry

…

May 22nd

…the ether, Margit, you coward, and know that if by some circumstance we ever cross paths again not even your status as tarnished will keep me from killing you. If you were to leave a message for others, tell them there is only a future full of blood.”

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May 29th

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  • The Video Game City Week: on the vivid authenticity of Midgar’s slums | Eurogamer.net Nic Reuben examines the culture and context behind the bricolage of the Sector 7 slums.
  • The Video Game City Week: Yakuza’s arcades are clean, oddly studious, and a delight | Eurogamer.net Grace Curtis celebrates the dreamlike pleasure of Kamurocho’s arcades.

    • “There’s something a little perverse about sitting alone at home with your console plugged in, walking around simulated streets, and killing a few hours on a simulated device in a simulated room, playing at the experience that machine under your TV

    …

    June 19th

    …corrupt power structures and reassembling them in new and provocative ways.

    • Killing Our Gods: Imperial Icon in Silence and That Which Faith Demands – Uppercut Grace Benfell discusses the dismantling of gods and icons, in games and film, under colonialism and capitalism.
    • Power Fantasies in RPGs, by Sharang Biswas – project NERVES Sharang Biswas expands the conversation on imperialist power fantasies in RPGs to explore different meanings of power and ask what power fantasies can mean for historically marginalized groups of players.

    “For historically oppressed folks, imagining worlds in which we are not just

    …

    October 9th

    …an upswing in more straightforwardly Wholesome games.

  • Acquiring Phantomilian | Unwinnable Phoenix Simms wends through the ontological implications of Klonoa‘s dreamworld artlang, Phantomilian.

    • “Perhaps the reason this artlang, for all its silly babble, stuck with me over the years is because it perfectly reflects how ephemeral and changeable our dreams and our relationships to others can be. Or how dreams and reality are intertwined, like Huepow and Klonoa once were.”

    Critical Chaser

    This week we close the issue with a pair of reflections both meditative and melancholic.

    • Killing the Mystery –…

    October 30th

    …desperate climb into bunkers and make plans to pay security guards. Letting the world burn around them, while killing anyone who’d attempt to interrupt the private world they maintain must go on among themselves. Peppered throughout the overworld are small references to it: Old Lords hunker down in silent towers, waiting for opposition. Fields of mercenary soldiers do battle like only they know how. There’s so much about class in Elden Ring that comes out here first, setting the stage for the rest of the game afterwards.”

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    This Year in Videogame Blogging: 2022

    …be touched by any institution of man. As hard as colonial Brazil, the Papacy, and white supremacy more broadly may have tried for centuries to erase the breadth and depth of what belief means for Africans and their descendants, they failed. Mandinga is the result of why that is important not just to Black people but important to the historical record of the planet itself.

    • Killing My People | Unwinnable Yussef Cole discusses Othering, assimilation, and SOCOM.
    • Remember Me and gaming’s most overlooked Black protagonist | Metro News Luna Reyne remembers back to a compelling character…

    February 12th

    …Wizard Game!

    • JK Rowling’s Anti-Transgender Stance And Hogwarts Legacy | GameSpot Jessie Earl offers an expansive explainer on JK Rowling’s slide into transphobia and its unavoidable impact on Hogwarts Legacy. This piece is especially well-suited to readers unfamiliar with the topic.
    • On the prospect of “joylessness” | No Escape Kaile Hultner offers a punk perspective on eating well and killing your idols.
    • Games Media Has Failed The Hogwarts Legacy Test | TheGamer Stacey Henley expresses understandable disappointment at journalistic cowardice.
    • Hogwarts Legacy does not deserve to be reviewed on its own merits | GamesHub Percy

    …

    March 19th

    …

    Critical Chaser

    The “M” in E1M1 stands for Myst, actually.

    • Myst Is Now An FPS Game | TheGamer Stacey Henley contemplates a minor–but funny–ontological crisis in what games aspire to.

    “When the devs emailed me about their game, as devs, studios, and publishers often do, there was no long winded press release, no fake friendly PR speak, no fancy gifs. Just ‘we made Myst into an FPS because we thought it was funny’. And I mean, it is – Myst was designed around the idea that games could be more than arcadey killing

    …