This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Johnny Kilhefner on topics ranging from black and queer representation in games to what it means if Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard was originally a woman.
Reference This
Our own Mark Filipowich likes Brendan Keogh’s book Killing is Harmless more than Spec-Ops: The Line, even though it’s totally Coppola’s seminal film Apocalypse Now and by extension Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness novel.
Wait, that’s it for this section? OK, moving on!
Identity Report
Jessica Conditt offers a multi-faceted look at the representation of black gamers, from the troubling lack of prominent black voices…
…to the disheartening lack of positive black characters in games:
Over at IGN, Jesse Matheson discusses a project in an isolated mining town in Western Australia providing indigenous youth a digital space to preserve their cultural identity.
Gil_Almogi of Game Revolution looks at the dating sim Coming Out on Top:
Robert Yang’s Succulent makes for a particularly tasty social commentary for Jess Joho to deconstruct gay male culture:
Finally, Alisha Karabinus wonders where we might be if Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard had been exclusively a woman:
Form and Politics
Stephen Beirne expresses his thoughts on ludo-fundamentalism and ludocentricism, offering insight on how we use language to mean, but also how the application of concepts can become a prescriptive de-valuing of aesthetic experience in digital spaces:
Brendan Keogh stepped out to toss the ol’ formalism ball around, calling out himself and other “humanities based videogame critics” for a lack of interest in form:
Elsewhere, Jake Muncy plays Metro 2033 and discusses the poetics of urban agoraphobia:
And Gamasutra’s Leigh Alexander attributes 80 Days’ success to an avoidance of preconceived notions surrounding text games. Still, even the developers felt the pressure of an ever-present exclusionary mechanic-centric discourse:
An Inquisition into Meaning
Our winner of 2014’s Blogger of the Year, Austin Walker, writes about choice and meaning in Dragon Age: Inquisition, while Todd Harper pens a weepy confession to the narrative beats induced by flirting in Dragon Age: Inquisition:
Jorge Albor doesn’t cry (in this case –ed), but he does wonder about the ontology of meaning created through mechanics centered around choice:
Over at Tumblr, TransGamer Thoughts gives some thought to “The Meaning of Meaning” while also making us curious about a multi-verse reality branched off from a really fucking hungry Isaac Newton:
Lost to Time
Over at Gamasutra Lena LeRay’s reality gets shattered by the historical perspective of Dragon Age: Inquisition’s lore:
Simon Parkin reveals how lackluster curating efforts is a death sentence to contextual experience:
Reality is Artificial, Survival is Insufficient
G. Christopher Williams talks Jazzpunk and its achievement of comedy through reference, abstraction and interactivity:
Meanwhile, in Kill Screen, Chris Priestman discusses how The Stage removes the player from center stage in favor of the artists:
And Hannah Peet of Videodame, in a review of Ian Bogost’s How to Do Things with Videogames, reflects on a better reality where games are the “cornerstone of media conversations and artistic reflection.”
Douglass F. Warrick provides an account of forfeiting his autonomy to fall in love with a sex ninja in Apocalypse World:
If you’re still wanting more, ask Emily Short about games of co-authorship, she’s got what you need.
Whew, we’re almost there! Now let’s wind down with a touching poem from Dalton Day exemplifying experiential interplay. And while you’re at Cartridge Lit, check out this preview of their forthcoming Chapbook, “An Object You Cannot Lose” by Sam Martone.
It’s Been Real: The Existential Crisis
Now that you’ve had your weekly dose of reality-reaffirming criticism, we won’t be mad if you take a break from reading and sharing our findings to read and share with us via Twitter mention or email.
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Until next time!