Somewhere around the cusp of November-December my one hundredth article of videogame criticism was posted on PopMatters. Shortly after, my fiftieth blog post of videogame/pop culture criticism on this website posted (not including housekeeping stuff). If you look at my Published Work page and read some of my earlier work you’ll see what editors call … Continue reading Thoughts on Games Writing and Community Involvement
Every New Years I get swept up in the same retrospective fever as the rest of the internet. However, I never feel like I have enough to add to the conversation because most years I only have enough money to buy one triple A title a year (this year I haven’t even come to that, … Continue reading GOTY: resembling a goat; in the manner or fashion of goats
(Preface: Most of my interest in games is in how they function as narrative pieces. As a result, most of the writing I do focuses on videogames, single-player games, games with a traditional story structure, games that rely primarily on cinematic and literary narrative techniques and the wide cross-section of all the above. Therefore I … Continue reading The Self-Perpetuating Violence of the Mortal Kombat series
[Originally posted on PopMatters] Video games have a lot of sequels. They have for a long time (Patricia Hernandez, “What’s that? Modern-Day Gaming Has Too Many Sequels? Actually…”, Kotaku, 11 September 2013.). There are plenty of reasons why games lean so heavily on sequels. After all, reusing a successful idea makes for an easier pitch to … Continue reading The Secret to Sequels
Roland Barthes’ “Death of the author” line of criticism has carried a lot of weight in videogame circles. In large part because it’s just an attractive, empowering theory. Barthes was a French literary critic writing in the 1960’s; a time when literary criticism—particularly from French authors—was a new, dynamic and popular discipline. In killing the … Continue reading From Game to Play: Roland Barthes, Videogames and Criticism
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