This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics including Dishonored's portrayal of women, accepting criticism from non-gamers, and more. WHO: You WHAT: Reading This Week in Video Game Criticism WHERE: At your computer, presumably WHEN: Right now! WHY: [OUTSIDE SYSTEM PARAMETERS] DISHONORED Joel Goodwin kicks off the week and this ginormous list by addressing Dishonored and the paradox of choice. Rab Florence hypothesizes applying the stealth fantasies of the game to his real life. John Brindle isn't playing Dishonored yet, but reading about everyone else playing it had provided him for a launching-off point in talking about what happens when we bring outside objectives into our play:
"If there is an opposition between 'playing to win' and 'being playful', what does the latter mean? Are those who play in alignment with the goals intended by developers playing any more 'truly' than others, or is their alignment of goals merely incidental?"
Robert Yang finds the game's tutorial lazy and disruptive. Meanwhile, Becky Chambers does a deep read on Dishonored's portrayal of women. KELLAWAY'S FINANCIAL TIMES ARTICLE Apart from recent game releases, this week's major discussion trends seemed to revolve around this article by non-gamer Lucy Kellaway, writing on her (rather critical) impressions as part of the GameCity prize judging panel. Our own Alan Williamson is himself highly critical of Kellaway's article but argues that we shouldn't dismiss outsider criticism, noting that "video games are often unashamedly elitist and obtuse." Jim Rossignol of Rock, Paper, Shotgun counters: "Actually, no, I don't think we really need to worry about what non-gamers think of games. And that is because, in this instance, we are the highly educated elite." Mattie Brice opines that we can't demand cultural legitimacy and then dismiss outside criticism:
"The gaming community, or let's say the ones with voices -- popular developers, media, and maybe celebrities if we have those -- have a cake eating problem. We want to be taken seriously as an artform but don't often value critical analysis."
Luke Rhodes of Culture Ramp, meanwhile, takes the long view:
"If novices like the GameCity panel find it difficult to arrive at meaningful answers to those question, they may find it consoling to know that veteran game critics run up against the same difficulties."
INDEPENDENT GAMES Brandon Sheffield offers his overview of IndieCade and writes on the subject of its remarkable diversity. Michael Abbott covers a particular panel talk from the same conference, a discussion among thatgamecompany's Jenova Chen, Naughty Dog's Amy Hennig and Unfinished Swan developer Ian Dallas. Writing for Wired, Jason Tanz brings us the legacy of Peter Molyneux, including the influence of his parody (and probable looper), @petermolydeux, on his decision to leave Microsoft and go into independent development. BUY LOCAL Information dieting seeks to focus on local issues and direct sources rather than consuming our media through a filter. Ben Milton wonders if he can take that even further:
No tags.
