Search Results for “adam%20saltsman” – Page 6

June 5th

…into a philosophy of player agency that prioritises free will.

The Weird Science of Bloodborne | The Ontological Geek (Spoilers for Bloodborne) Adam Krantz looks into Victorian horror themes and the relationship between science and religion.

“Through its role in atrocities like colonialism, ‘scientific’ racism, nuclear weapons, and environmental pollution, science has gone from revealing horrifying truths about the universe to perpetrating them. Bloodborne first links this explicitly to its Victorian setting, referencing breaches of medical ethics closely associated with that period in the popular imagination. Victorian doctors infected children and prisoners with diseases like syphilis,…

…weren’t so sweet in Pokemon Go-land, as Erin Hawley writes her frustration with being unable to enjoy Pokemon Go as intended, imploring us to “dismantle how we view disability, accessibility and technology.”

Fear Not, Pokemon Will Save the Planet | Kill Screen

Adam Kranz writes on how Pokemon creates a discourse of a post-industrial future and the importance of nature.

AR Is an MMO | Raph Koster

If the client isn’t a smartphone, but rather, is you … can the client be trusted? Raph Koster explores what ethical implications arise when reality is an MMO stage:

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August 14th

…from choosing more than a couple of the excellent pieces she has published there. In this one, she reflects on the uncanny fantasy of celebrity life.

Why We Write About Games | Kotaku Gita Jackson, Amr Al-Aaser and Dante Douglas share notes on their journeys into games criticism.

The Custodian #1: DOOM | Orbytl (BETA) Adam Condra talks DOOM, classical rhetoric, and Ebert’s perfect bowel movement.

“Where did games exhibit the utmost of Classical traits, the Trivium: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness? What games would I put alongside Herodotus, Milton, and the Epic of Gilgamesh? Even…

What has been written about the first endless runners?

…Streaming : Internet Archive Archive.org dates SFCave back to a 1995 version for Windows 3.1.

Other things to search for

Finally, you might also want to check out our archives for material on the following:

Flappy Bird
Adam Saltsman
Super Hexagon

This post is part of a new series that we’re calling ‘Agony Auncle’ – it’s like an advice column, where you get to ask for help with critical games writing. Got a question for Critical Distance? Want advice with a games criticism problem, or help finding resources? Get in touch.

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December 11th

…playing a videogame tell you about politics[,] and the real suffering it causes in the world?”

Life is short

Questions about what our values are come up particularly strongly in these last four pieces, which move swiftly between the sacred and the profane.

Content warning: ableist slur in title

The Mad Psychology of Electronic Gaming | Chabad.org Tzvi Freeman discusses how game design has influenced his understanding of Jewish mysticism.

Why Video Games? (Content warning: some discussion of the US election, allusions to violent fantasies) Adam Dorsey vividly describes the desire to…

February 12th

…chapters

Our understanding of the world is only ever provisional and partial, but when it comes to some of the most shameful aspects of our own history, how do we ensure there’s some sort of consensus about reality?

Banished: Towards a Playable Human Ecology | Play The Past Adam Kranz examines how Banished portrays a particular set of historical conditions and ideas about the goals of a settler colony.
Virtual Atrocities — Real Life Linda Kinstler questions the value of introducing player agency to portrayals of history through VR and gaming.

“Kansteiner complains

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April 30th

…In this remarkable essay, Julie Muncy finds a queerness in the alternative temporality of robot life.

“Automata‘s death drive takes on an odd metaphorical resonance. It becomes, in essence, a sort of queerness—a means of rejecting the values of heterosexual reproduction, principle among them the emphasis it places on the future. For Adam, 2B, 9S, and the whole of artificial life that wars over the earth, there is no future. In the absence of that hope, new possibilities emerge.”

Long-restless spirits

Survival, death, and killing remain important topics for games criticism, with a particular

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August 13th

…even worse, never learned. Learning about the past is a necessity and sometimes even fun, but always illuminating about the present.

A Brief History of Game Jams | Gamasutra Sande Chen’s short excerpt from The Game Jam Guide, runs down the events that beget the modern game jam.
Extrapolating Current Design Trends in Escape Rooms | Reality is a Game Adam Clare goes over the growth and evolution of real world Escape the Room games over the past few years and where trends could lead them in the future.
Threats fake names and philanthropy: The untold

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Dark Souls

…explores how the repetitious nature of play captures themes of temporality and cyclical limbo. Matthew Schanuel compares Dark Souls‘ trials to religious asceticism, and play to meditation.

“Engaging in Dark Souls is like engaging in my own mortification of the psyche, submitting myself again and again to emotional and mental punishment”

In “On Dark Souls and Easy Modes”, Cameron Kunzelman looks at arguments to why an easy mode wouldn’t work for Dark Souls. In response to works by Matt Lees, Chris Franklin, and Adam Smith Kunzelman argues that the game’s challenge stands in the way of…

April 18th

…posing as a dumb one”, see what you think [dead link, no mirror available]. And on the subject of Just Cause 2 – Tom Cross writes about the game also, suggesting that, “Just Cause 2 is what I thought everyone in this industry had been waiting for”, i.e. a big, dumb, explosive videogame.

Adam Ruch at his Flickering Colours blog talks about the relative lack of difficulty in both Assassin Creed games [mirror] and proposes a couple of ways to increase the sense of desperation. Coincidentally I had a conversation with a friend about this very subject this week.

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