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The Game Critique

A Critical Assessment of Video Games

An Act of Non-ConsequenceMarch 19

I’ve been on a documentary binge as of late (Thank you Netflicks) having watched 6 in the last 24 hours at the time of writing. As it so happens while watching them I noticed a correlation in the behavior of the subjects of the majority of the documentaries and players of video games. The documentaries in question, or rather the aspects of the documentaries I’m going to talk about, all deal with the idea of responsibility. Of course it’s very easy to point to who is responsible, but then the question becomes ‘why did/do these things happen in the first place?’ The subjects, Corporate America, are similar to video games in that they abdicate responsibility by enduring none of the consequences of their decisions.

For those of you who do not follow my twitter feed, the documentaries in question are:
-Maxed Out
-Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
-Food, Inc.
-Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

Each of these films at some point spotlight companies looking out for their profit margins to the detriment of their customers and employees. One of them pointed out, I think it was Food, Inc., that companies make these decisions because their decisions do not affect anyone making them. Sometimes it is insidious and one has to wonder why anyone could make these choices. Sometimes it’s about unintended consequences, such as rampant lethal bacteria in our food due to an effort to sanitize the animals by overusing antibiotics.

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My Stint at TWIVGB is OverMarch 16

Well I did my two weeks at Critical Distance writing the This Week in Video Game Blogging feature. I can honestly say that I have even more respect for Mr. Ben Abraham. How he can keep that up week after week is beyond me. Maybe it had something to do with I was new and hadn’t gotten used to it. Maybe it had to do with the first time I did it was the most prolific week ever in quality video game criticism. I don’t know, but hats off to you man. And if you ever need a fill-in (hint hint) you know where to go. It was a lot of fun and I learned alot. Now to get back to my own site.

Here are the two weeks I did if you haven’t read them yet:

TWIVGB: March 7th

TWIVGB: March 13th

and for good measure, a great summation of what it takes.

Working for the Weekend on Critical DistanceMarch 1

As some of you may know, or care, Ben Aberham will be gallivanting off to GDC thanks to the generous contributions from around the blogosphere, proving once more that some people have way too much time on their hands. All kidding aside, I’m sure Ben will do a bang up job covering the event. For those of you who don’t know him and will be going, he’ll be the one introduced as the Permadeath guy.  He will also have an Australian accent and probably be the only one with a tan.

“What does this have to do with me?” the man at the back of the room says. I’m glad you, not a plant, asked me that. Ben Aberham, among his many ventures, posts the TWIVGB (This Week in Video Game Blogging) feature over at the Critical Distance blog. Due to the fact he will be out of the country, his country not mine, he has decided to loose his senses and ask me to fill in for the next two weeks.

So if you follow Critical Distance and notice a slight drop in quality of your quick perusal of video game criticism, you know who to blame. If however you don’t want that to happen, please @ reply any links you might find over the course of the next two weeks to the critical distance twitter feed: critdistance.

Critical Distance is a community effort to up the thought surrounding our medium. Please do your part in making my job that much easier.

SLRC – So Long Righteous ComradeFebruary 19

SLRC is dead Long Live SLRC

So reads the title of the ever changing acronym SLRC blog. Ben Aberham if not the most prolific internet critic is definitely one of the most important. Besides is own blog he was the creator of Critical Distance blog, trying to bring all the best of game criticism under one URL after the game has had time to be digested. Probably the most ambitious project in the ludodidecahedron. Ben is the reason Far Cry 2 is recognized as much and taken as seriously as it is. He is the connected critic from down under. And now he ends his personal blog.

As Ben moves on to his thesis project, on internet criticism. Whether it’s solely based on video games or not I don’t know. He is not removing himself from the field, just away from the formal essays and the like. His new blog can be found here: http://iam.benabraham.net/

Though man did you have to make your last post that depressing to the rest of us.

Well I have only one last thing to restate. So Long Righteous Comrade.

The Nature of Reading: Interpretation and Auteurism using Final Fantasy VIII and Mulholland DriveFebruary 19

Recently on twitter I was pointed to an essay on Final Fantasy VIII that differs from the more generally accepted reading of the game’s story. If you have not read it yet, before you proceed with this post, please do.

First let me speak on the essay itself. I think it’s a beautifully argued and supports its position admirably. The Squall’s dead theory hadn’t ever occurred to me. Never once did it enter my mind that discs 2-4 were a death dream. I think it’s somewhat the problem of video games where we are used to these crazy and fantastical elements that we are never able to question their validity, whether we are supposed to or not. They are par for the course and we just accept them. On thinking about it I prefer this reading of Final Fantasy VIII, than what you see is what you get.

Having said that there is a mistake that goes into thinking how to read a creative work. Part of it stems from the idea of authorship and part of it comes from the idea that works have a single message or single point they want to drive home. This is a mistake, but it does not mean it’s wrong.

I bring up Mulholland Drive for two reasons. One because it embodies what I want to talk about probably better than any other work that springs to mind. And two, because I took two bloody classes on the movie and I’m damn well going to show off.

I called Final Fantasy VIII the Mulholland Drive of video games on twitter the o