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July 21st

Welcome back, readers.

So a delightful trove of documents and materials have surfaced this week detailing the early development history of the The Sims and how queerness was an integral–and subversive–inclusion from the beginning. And of course, it largely comes down to the efforts of a lone programmer: one Patrick J. Barrett III. To invoke Bo Ruberg, “Video Games Have Always Been Queer.”

Rad.

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

Best Practices

We’re opening this week’s roundup with five

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September 22nd

…explored furtively, only to be abandoned and buried in favour of repetition and cyclicality. What games and ideas are left behind? And how do we keep a record of them? Two writers this week respectively discuss each of these questions.

  • The Platforming Genre That Might Have Been | Unwinnable Jeremy Signor excavates an alternate history of non-linear 2D platformers beyond the Metroidvania canon.
  • Curation of Creation | RE:BIND Catherine Brinegar discusses the value of digital curation in an age where there’s so, so much art and so many spaces and platforms in and on which to access

…

October 20th

…rich and fufilling lives, and we have many things to share about ourselves outside of the pain we find visited upon us.”

Jank to the Past

Two popular narratives in gaming history are preservation and nostalgia, and they definitely inform and influence one another. What about the off-beat games of yesteryear, the bold experiments that didn’t quite land? Two authors this week discuss jank in games past and present.

  • Even the Mediocre | Unwinnable Jeremy Signor implores we spare a thought for weird, wonderful, and janky games in the conversation on preservation.
  • Spyro the…

October 27th

…behind and in front of the scenes.”

Contextual Crit

Gathered here are three excellent pieces, each focusing on a particular intersection between games and one other external discourse–be it food, climate change, or the wider body of culture writing.

  • There Should Be More Food in Video Games – Eater Soleil Ho chronicles the history of food in games, examining its parallels to diversity initiatives in games as well as critiquing its potential as a surface-level marketing ploy.
  • BUY ONE GET ONE-‘st – DEEP HELL Skeleton meditates on the design (and attendant privilege) of the…

November 3rd

…towards form that emphasize materiality and intimacy.”

Untitled Labour Discourse

There’s been a bump in discussions of labour in games over the last few weeks for. . . a few reasons. Here’s a pair of quality pieces, alternately examining labour-as-mechanic and the ongoing out-of-game labour of media preservation.

  • The Joy of Labor in Wilmot’s Warehouse | Unwinnable Jeremy Signor examines a game that refutes the work-as-tedium argument.
  • The race to save Japan’s incredible ’80s PC gaming history before it’s gone forever | PC Gamer Wes Fenlon looks in on a preservation group’s efforts to…

November 10th

…New Horizons Will Be Filled With Regret and Guilt | DualShockers Ben Bayliss thinks through how the warmth of nostalgia is ultimately obliterated by the inevitable lurch of sequelization.

  • What Have We Got Left? Gears of War and Cyclical History – Grace In The Machine Grace and Cole Henry discuss the ways in which Gears struggles against the cynical cycle of its own business model.

    • “The pressures of console exclusivity and the stakes of franchise making ensure that Gears will remain familiar, but that it will also escalate. In the age of Disney owning Star Wars…

    November 24th

    …or don’t nuke” question.

  • A Spectre is Haunting Martinaise — Detective Fiction and Disco Elysium’s Disappointing Ending PJ Judge investigates the history of the postmodern in detective fiction to arrive at an understanding of the uneven ideological playing field of Revachol.

    • “Communists and fascists do not do battle in Disco Elysium. Why would they? Power lies within the hands of the moralists and the ultraliberals. Neither the communists nor the fascists are relevant enough to upset this balance of power. The neoliberal grip on the world is too strong, and the historical moment that allowed for…

    December 8th

    …protagonist – Gayming Magazine Aimee Hart delves into Fallen Order‘s supporting cast and describes how they are limited by being put in orbit around a far less compelling player character.

  • How character creators help us explore gender identity and expression – Gayming Magazine Caleb Wysor charts a history of avatar creation and identity expression through Habitat, Ultima Online, Saints Row II, Cyberpunk, and more.
  • Gay Monster Kiss Club | RE:BIND Catherine Brinegar explores identity construction and play in a very queer indie VN.

    • “It’s so much more than simply being a “queer narrative” acting as…

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    December 22nd

    …Chaos of History – Uppercut Grace Benfell studies how both Jedi Fallen Order and Sekiro Shadows Die Twice examine ritual and spirituality, through both their pitfalls and possible redemptions. SHIT this was good.

  • How Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II Made The Force Interesting | Fanbyte Bren Price studies how KOTOR 2 understands the power of the Force in all its aspects–no, really, Foucault gets involved, it’s a whole thing.

    • “KOTOR 2 is one of the few pieces of Star Wars media I’ve been exposed to that recognizes how fucking terrifying it must be…

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    January 5th

    …much every stripe of bigotry).

    “If the games industry had taken a bold stand during GamerGate then subsequent events may have taken a different course. Maybe the later alt-right campaigns would have felt less emboldened or been less successful. Maybe major players in the realms of social media would have felt obliged to make real changes and take real substantive action. Maybe it could have all been different. But that isn’t the reality, and we can now say for sure that the games industry was on the wrong side of history for this one.”

    Giving…