August 21st
byWhew! There was a LOT of great writing on No Man’s Sky to get through this weekend. Pretty soon the number of pieces of writing on that game will rival the number of planets it contains. Nobody can explore them all, so I’m here…
spatiality
August 14th
byThis week is all about those big, open spaces: the endless expanse of a procedurally-generated universe, the mysterious depths of the ocean, and the reimagined streets of a Pokemon-enriched city. Battlefields We start with escapism and its opposite. How do we cope…
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 5th
byThis week there has been an upswing in articles about mental health and gaming, in no small part because of an excellent series run by Not Your Mama’s Gamer. I’m very glad to see this conversation gaining traction, and it sits well next to…
May 22nd
byThis week sees some fantastic thoughts on role-playing. Which roles are represented in narratives, what it would have been like to play a particular role in its historical context, and how we deal with the pressure to perform in a particular role….
May 15th
byWelcome back! I’m filled with determination after spending three days running a small exhibit of games, talking with artists who are more familiar with work in other mediums about some of the things that make this form critically interesting. I did most of the…
April 24th
byIt seems that class politics’ time has come in games criticism, with labor issues at the forefront of analyses of both the industry and its products this week. Creators Working conditions and practices have been a major topic of discussion, with a…
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…