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killing

November 6th

…tourist gaze, despite being so deeply embedded in local histories.

“In killing his way up the mafia tower, Lincoln never comes across as more than a tourist in his own city, going through the motions of every other open-world protagonist […] Even though Lincoln’s goal is the destruction of New Bordeaux’s Dixie Mafia rather than climbing through its ranks, any sort of pretense of profundity in his revenge-porn rampage gets lost in the numbing patterns of open-world tedium.”

The Little God

Zooming in closer, these articles look at the individual responses of developers and

Now Accepting Submissions for TYIVGB 2016 Edition

…something that would stand the test of time and be remembered and cited long after its was published. Examples from previous years:

  • Ludonarrative Dissonance by Clint Hocking (2007)
  • Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops: The Line by Brendan Keogh (2012)
  • We are not colonists by Gita Jackson (2015)

Which games were talked about the most?

For example, last year that might have included Metal Gear Solid V, Bloodborne, The Beginner’s Guide, etc. We’re looking for example pieces that highlight the discussion around those games, and exemplify the key issues raised…

February 7th

The games blogs are coming in two by two this week. With great discussions of friendships, dualities and Street Fighter II, it felt fitting to arrange everything in pairs. We’re going head-to-head on discursive battlefields from psychology to politics.

Power

We’ll start by looking at the videogame hero from very different perspectives. G. Christopher Williams looks at the exposed torso of Kratos in God of War as a visual signifier of his power, while in contrast to the buff nude killing machine, Fabian Fischer looks at the mortality of roguelike heroes.

  • Undressing Kratos

    June 25th

    …form that are usually left unarticulated and poorly understood.

  • “Heroes of the open (third) world: Killing as pleasure in Ubisoft’s Far” by Christopher B. Patterson In this academic article that recently went open-access, Christopher Patterson argues that the Far Cry games make effective use of ludonarrative dissonance to highlight the cognitive dissonance of neocolonialism.
  • Separate Invisibilities – An Excerpt from Unwinnable Monthly 91 | Unwinnable Yussef Cole’s investigation of 2016-2017 stealth protagonists through the lens of race might be the definitive article on this topic from the past year.
  • Radiator Blog: Some recent conversation on cultural appropriation…
  • Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

    July 30th

    Developers and critics alike have been discussing important games from the past this week, covering the gamut from Flash games to Far Cry 2. Meanwhile, newer cultural hits such as Dream Daddy and 17776 are having a big impact.

    Tend and befriend

    Lots of people are talking about Dream Daddy, but it isn’t the only thing getting games writers talking about queer optimism; in other pieces, games critics use feminist futurisms to find new ways of reading games.

    • Joysticks & Killing Joy – First Person Scholar Adan Jerreat-Poole reads Sarah Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life,

    August 6th

    …with simulations, experimentation and simple step-by-step explanations of even the more complex ideas.”

    • Yes, ‘Wolfenstein 2’ Is About Trump and the Alt-Right -Even If It Was Never Supposed to Be | Mic Meanwhile, Mic’s Jacob Kleinman draws uncomfortable parallels between Wolfenstein 2 and America’s current political climate.
    • The Tangled Mess that is Dishonored’s Morality | Unwinnable Sarah McGill delves into a post-Bioshock morality system in Dishonored, which appears broken at best:

    “You might still decide not killing your enemies is the right choice, but if you’re locked into that decision because you want…

    Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

    February 18th

    Injured horse

    Two writers look at colonialist storytelling tropes used in videogames.

    • Savage Beasts – First Person Scholar Alex Duncan studies how quest design frames the landscape of Skyrim, and finds connections to postcolonial theories about the cultural construction of cities.
    • “Villains” | Unwinnable Yussef Cole critiques the trope of tragic mercy killings, which too often frames women of color as sacrificial lambs.

    “Videogames need to stop asking the player to put down the equivalent of an injured horse, or a rabid dog – especially when it’s an act of cruelly punching

    Dark Souls

    …without Dark Souls, and impossible to imagine Dark Souls without the essential mystery that defines it. Every gap in the fabric of Miyazaki’s esoteric masterwork provides us with an entry for speculation. Every deliberate stitch, some new paradox of design that feels at once innovative and timeless. A nostalgic reminder of where gaming has been, and a glimpse at where it might be going.

    In You Died: The Dark Souls Companion, Jason Killingsworth says:

    ‘Read James Joyce’s Ulysses 100 times, write essays about it, parse it endlessly with strangers on the internet, and you’re a scholar, but

    Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

    April 8th

    …author and professor of psychology and psychiatry Robert Jay Lifton, identified as the modern doomsday cult’s “ideology of killing to heal” or “altruistic murder.””

    Plugs

    • February-March Roundup: History – Critical Distance Mark Filipowich rounded up a fantastic month for BoRT – thanks so much to everyone who contributed!

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    Have you read, seen, heard or otherwise experienced something new that made you think about games differently? Send…

    Abstract image evoking bird silhouette

    April Roundup: The Long Journey

    …including in interacting with his son at a level he’s never had to before. Conflict is part of Kratos’ very being, and coming face to face with conflict he cannot simply kill pins him to the shadow of everything that’s come before, his long years of fighting and killing, and how that reflects now, years later and alongside his son.

    Reid McCarter

    How Realistic is Yakuza 6? Behind Japan’s Long History of Crime Syndicates

    Yakuza 6 puts Kiryu in the inenviable position of once again rejoining the Japan underworld in order to right a wrong done…