As editor of the second edition of “Critical Discourse” for Critical Distance (please hold your applause to the end) on Danger featuring Gita Jackson, Aevee Bee and Nick Dinicola, I was a part of another exciting letter series.1 I’ve never had any direct contact with Dinicola even though he is a colleague of mine at PopMatters but his work … Continue reading Multiplayer, Multispeaker: How We Talk About Games
[Originally posted on PopMatters] The inaugural issue of The Journal of Games Criticism featured an article by critic and author Brendan Keogh that argues for a more eclectic approach to games criticism, one based more on the feedback loop between the player and the text rather than on a strictly formal approach that attempts to create … Continue reading Connectivity Issues: Abstraction, Subjectivity, and “Close-Playing”
[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
[Originally posted on PopMatters] In over two years of writing for PopMatters, I’ve never scored the review of any game higher than an 8 out of 10, and I’ve only reached that plateau on three occasions. Those three games, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams (8 Nov 2012), Expeditions Conquistador (17 Feb 2013), and Hate Plus (28 … Continue reading Missing Objectives
[Originally posted on The Border House] Sturgeon’s Law states that “90% of everything is crud.” If TvTropes is to be believed, there are a number of addendums to the law, such as: “if ever less than 90% of everything is crud than one needs to adjust their standards,” and “90% of people can’t distinguish crud from … Continue reading Sturgeon’s Law, Taste and RPG Maker
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