[This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics including the algorithmically ideal game of Battleship, the lowest difficulty setting for life in the U.S., and more.] Are you ready? You'd better be! It's time for This Week in Video Game Criticism and I'm not going to hold back! We start with Leigh Alexander's recent essay for Gamasutra on the resurgence of the text adventure as an indie genre, supported by crowdfunding resources such as Kickstarter. On the subject thereof, Jay "Rampant Coyote" Barnson evangelizes on why indie matters, while Nightmare Mode's Ethan Gach proposes a neurobiological basis and industrial precedent for independent production. More broadly on the subject of industry, Michael Thomsen's new essay for Kill Screen aims to identify some of the 20th century industrialist underpinnings of free-to-play models, saying:
"As videogames have been added to the list of professional pastimes in the 21st century, we see the same essential values favored in them, with the added perversity of requiring their audience to spend money to buy into them. That the high cost of the disc and cartridge has been circumvented by the "free-to-play" model only amplifies the nature of videogames as non-productive labor."
On the other hand, several authors this week gave us a different take on the past. Charles Wheeler's "Rules on the Field" blog, which we made mention of last week, ventures into the analog world of Japanese obstacle course game shows and their "level" designs:
"One of the core fundamentals of any game design process is iteration. […] [T]hat's exactly what the history of the Sasuke obstacle courses gives us. We basically have a record of each of iteration that the course design in Sasuke went through. And, because each season was televised, we can also get a sense of why each change was made."
Meanwhile, in reference to Hasbro's latest board-game-turned-blockbuster stunt, io9 reminds us of this fascinating study in search of the algorithmically ideal game of Battleship, courtesy of Nick Berry. Yes, there are diagrams. And speaking of diagrams, Patrick Stafford waxes nostalgic this week at Unwinnable about player-created extragame materials such as maps and shorthands, noting in particular their reappearance with fan blogs dedicated to recent games such as Fez. Kill Screen's Darshana Jayemanne also provides us with a retrospective this week with another fond look back at Planescape: Torment:
"Planescape: Torment points to why we subject ourselves to these strange disciplinary apparatuses, innumerable tiny calamities, odd temporal lariats and ergonomic heresies: to find ourselves at the end of play."
RockPaperShotgun's Adam Smith takes issue with the term 'cinematic.' Meanwhile, throwing ludology to the wind, Eric Lockaby stomps back in from the cold this week with the first chapter of his 'playable critique' of The Great Gatsby. While his design is still a little rough, Lockaby's work is, as always, worth investigating simply for the strangeness of it. Cody Steffen breaks down the portrayal of sex and gender in The Witcher 2 and finds it wanting. On a more high profile subject, we could not go this week without mentioning Brandon Sheffield's interview with Jon Cadice, developer for controversial (and cancelled) Kickstarter card game Tentacle Bento (trigger warning for discussion of rape). And kudos (?) to our old friend John Brindle for pointing to this video rebuttal by Shane Duarte, the name for which should be warning enough: Lynch Mob Kawaii. Speaking of John Brindle, did you know he has a Twitter now? Because he has a Twitter. He also went to GameCamp last week and has brought us back treasures:
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