This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from tributes to departed Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to what games can still learn from the field of photography.
The Great Balloon Fight in the Sky
The past week saw the untimely passing of Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata, a celebrated game developer as well as an industry leader. It would be impossible to collect all the various written, visual and auditory tributes that have emerged in response to this news, but here are a few highlights you shouldn't miss.
First, Gamasutra wisely took the opportunity to repost the video from Iwata's frequently-quoted "Heart of a Gamer" speech, delivered as a keynote at the 2005 Game Developers Conference. Additionally, Gamasutra's Christian Nutt took an extended dive through past interviews and articles on the man, coming away with an enriched understanding of Iwata's personal and professional philosophy.
Iwata's long-time friend and Earthbound developer Shigesato Itoi also posted an emotional eulogy noting his passing, an unofficial translation of which you can find here provided by Yomuka's Lindsay. And lastly (but certainly not least), Videodame's Sara Clemens rounds up various fanart and animated tributes commemorating Iwata and his work. Bring tissues.
Light Fades
On her personal blog, games critic cum history professor Maggie Greene shares a eulogy of another sort -- that for the ephemeral pieces of games writing that have been irretrievably lost, including some of personal significance. "There is no JSTOR of old games writing," notes. And maybe there should be.
'My Medium is Light'
Buck up -- we've got plenty more to read through yet this Sunday, and much of it is optimistic. At Kill Screen, Tim Mulkerin draws parallels between videogames and photography's struggle for legitimacy within the art world, concluding:
Rather than blast games for attempting to emulate film, we should realize that the imitation of an established medium, regardless of the perceived success with which this is done, is a vital step for any new medium to take as it carves its own space and earns the respect it deserves.
Or, in short: growing pains. Likewise, in a continuation on his series of essays for Videogame Tourism on in-game photography, Eron Rauch also looks to precedents laid out in the art world:
To understand that virtual photography is used in so many different ways by so many different people is important because it ties directly into the entire history of photography. After all, the history of photography is primarily a story of exceptions, mutants, technological quirks, mistakes, and hybrids. 100 years ago most people, museums, and artists didn't even consider any photography art. It wasn't until the 1970s that the first commercial galleries showing photography started up, and even then color photography was considered anything but valid! The various tensions around virtual and screenshot imagery [...] seems like just one more step along the road of photography's fraught story.
That Ever-Important Choice
While echoing an older article on the subject, PC Gamer's Jody Macgregor argues that, rather than presenting big narrative choices, Telltale's games can be seen as responding to and in some cases inverting the themes of their source properties (with a quick caution for spoilers):
The comic book The Walking Dead is based on is overt about its theme. At the end of issue 24 Rick Grimes delivers a speech making it very plain, saying "we already are savages" and then, shouting over a two-page spread, "WE ARE THE WALKING DEAD." It's classic Man Is The Real Monster stuff, fitting for a grim series where survivors betray each other constantly. Telltale's game gives you the option of choosing a different interpretation. Lee doesn't have to become hardened by being forced to make hard decisions; he can maintain his belief in human nature and then pass that on to Clem. He dies no matter what, but whether he dies with words of warning or compassion on his lips -- whether this is a story about hope or fear -- is up to you.
At his development blog, designer and educator Robert Yang takes a close look at Klei's Invisible Inc. and how the game diverges from other offerings of the stealth genre:
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