September 4th
byAfter a week of taco trucks, it’s time to settle down and digest the meaty issues in games criticism. A quick note before we continue: Critical Distance is just $40 away from the Patreon goal that allows us to stay afloat and…
sociality
How do people involved in interactive media interact with each other? What kind of social structures are we designing when we design games? This is a topic of interest to sociologists, community managers, and anyone with a stake in multiplayer gaming.
August 28th
byThis week’s blogging has me thinking about how developers manage the expectations of others, the roots of protagonists’ personal ethics, and how players’ morality is shaped by the expectations of people around us. Blame, shame and guilt chase each other around the whole of this roundup, as writers…
July 24th
byMany have said this week that all public discourse seems to be about one of two topics: on the one hand, viral anger, collective outrage, and bigotry; and on the other hand, Pokémon Go. No man’s land Much of this week’s writing is in some way…
June 26th
byI am spending a few days staying in a cheap Bed and Breakfast in an run-down Victorian seaside resort in the North of England. It is a spooky place where nothing seems to make sense. At one point I saw a white…
June 12th
byThis week, I’m at Doc/Fest Sheffield, watching documentary films, trying out some exciting new VR projects, and listening to people talk about truthful storytelling in screen media. So far I’ve seen software allowing a holocaust survivor to keep answering people’s questions long…
April 17th
byThanks for checking in for another round-up of the week’s videogame blogging! Once again, there’s a chunk of potentially triggering material at the bottom of this post, so in case you choose not to venture into those depths, I will promptly issue…
April 10th
byOne thing that most games share in common is the sense that they are a world apart from the lives that we ordinarily live. This week’s round-up of some of the most provocative writing on games is organised around ideas about separation…
January 31st
byThis is my first post as the new Senior Curator! It’s been an absolute delight to start the role on such a strong week. While a lot of the active discussion has been about The Witness, I’m going to start this roundup…