Search Results for “history” – Page 40

Support Us

…We’re committed to fighting link rot and preserving the history of games criticism. Since mid-2016, Critical Distance has been automatically creating a back-up archive of every link that we include in any of our features. This means that when sites go down, we still have a snapshot saved for the benefit of readers, researchers, and game developers in the future. Sadly, not everything that we have linked to in the past has been saved in the Wayback Machine, so ongoing conservation efforts are vital if our curated collection will remain as helpful to people in the future as it is…

Fundraiser

…stuff we haven’t finalized yet.

$10 per month

Seasonal special – only available until 16th December

We’ll create a unique e-card for you or someone you love, featuring a link to an article we have archived as part of our preservation of games criticism. Give someone a unique little piece of games history.

Update! Seasonal special pledges now include free help from the Haywire Magazine team. Improve your writing, pitching, editing, and more!

(Existing) Caturday

In addition to being included in our Supporters Club, each month you’ll receive an exclusive photo…

December 11th

…feel strong that arises when you don’t feel like you have any power.

Slaying Dragons – Haywire Magazine Jesse Porch opens this piece with the familiar problem of “fun”, but goes on to consider different kinds of emotional authenticity that can be found outside of the search for catchy game concepts.

15 years on: The story behind one of Xbox’s most notorious TV ads | GamesIndustry.biz Christopher Dring brings us a slightly unexpected lesson on the history of nihilism in videogames marketing.

“Microsoft defended its position, insisting the ad was supposed to be…

Give the gift of games criticism – final week!

…

$10/month pledges also get you a special seasonal e-card, created uniquely for you (or the person you want to give the card to). Each e-card includes a link to a piece of writing we have archived and preserved for posterity. It’s a little sample of the games history that you’ve helped us to preserve, and a great gift to show someone involved in games that you value their work.

In addition, we have a lot of higher reward tiers that get you access to support from the Critical Distance team. These rewards are perfect for games studios and

…

February 14th

…to to make the same environment evoke different emotions, stating that “the same stand of trees can be sunny and inviting in one scene, and a milestone of terror in the next.”

ZAM’s review of Firewatch praises its naturalistic yet intuitive environmental design, and over at Eurogamer, Oli Welsh presents the game’s environment as a metaphor for nature itself.

Another aspect of the game that stands out to reviewers is its major characters, who make mistakes in spite of gaming’s history of successful video game protagonists.

Emily Short contrasts Firewatch’s main character to that of…

January 29th

…

Power fantasies

Next, a pair of pieces that both raise similar points about the arrogant conceits of gameplay and how they map onto the character traits of America’s President, during what has been described as one of the most alarming weeks in US history.

The Unsettling Political Power Fantasy of Dishonored 2 – Waypoint Duncan Fyfe makes a broader point about the videogameyness of Donald Trump’s attitude towards leadership.
Play, Nihilism, and the Magic Circle: Something I Missed – Not Your Mama’s Gamer Alex Layne recognises another connection between Trump-ism and game-isms.

…

March 5th

…connections are vital: reflections on GDC | Memory Insufficient Danniele Livengood looks at the recent history of GDC and inclusivity. (Disclosure: Critical Distance Senior Curator Zoyander Street is Editor-in-Chief of Memory Insufficient, but he wasn’t involved in selection this week)

‘We Know The Devil’ Taught Me To Be Proud – Waypoint Jennifer Unkel recounts struggles over trans pride and the helpful releases found in We Know the Devil.

What we talk about when we don’t talk about native peoples Dia Lacina talks about the lack of awareness when using terms about native peoples, particularly in Horizon Zero Dawn.

…

March 26th

…individualism.”

The Exploded Encyclopedia | Everything | Heterotopias Gareth Damian Martin examines how the surrealist narrative techniques of a game concerned with cataloguing the inanimate relate to a longer history of philosophy and art.

“At the heart of Everything lies a contradiction. Though the narration dotted around this seemingly infinite universe—cherry-picked from the archive of philosopher Alan Watts—speaks of “interconnection”, of life being “one organism,” the game itself is obsessed by the idea of discrete, separate, identifiable objects. “

Jail

Two stories about educators in prisons came out this week, both…

April 2nd

…the art in character animation is enlightening, putting players’ disappointment in perspective.

Radiator Blog: Lighting theory for 3D games, part 5: the rise and fall of the cult of hard shadows Robert Yang’s history of shadow casting technology is deeply engaged in the technical reality of graphics engines, but refuses to be seduced by them.

[W]e sacrificed entire levels, rooms, and hallways, to feed the shadows and our notions of high craft and perceived production value. But let’s not stop there! What if you sacrificed an entire game just to render cool-looking hard shadows?

…

June 11th

…Tragedy of ‘The Order: 1886’ and Its Wasted Setting|Vice Waypoint Rob Zacny revisits The Order: 1886 and its treatment of history that is “seductive for all the wrong reasons.”

A Curated List of Recent Writings on Games and Narrative|Gamasutra Pietro Polsinelli culls together a list of narrative, dialogue and story design in games as he works on his own “unlikely narrative” football game.

In the Shadow of the Holodeck|Medium Charles J Pratt recalls Ian Bogost’s controversial article for The Atlantic, including a round table of responses, interpreting Bogost’s piece to mean that “even the successful cases of storytelling…