19/3

§SPECIFIC GAME GAME CRITICISM
Unrest has a point to make. The game takes place in a kingdom that is suffering drought, and food has become scarce. You play as several individuals in the kingdom, from peasants to diplomats to commanders and queens. The point of the game is: individual actions can not change the course of systematic problems./.../
The consequences are simpler, and so the decisions are guided more by what “feels right” instead of what is “correct”. By choosing what “feels right”, you are more in tune with the character you are playing, and as such the consequences have more personal meanings rather than systematic ones.
http://therealicepotato.tumblr.com/post/106568454544/unrest
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Jazzpunk feels different than Schafer’s games. It isn’t a game that solely tells jokes in cutscenes and through dialogue. It more often involves the player in the jokes and depends on the player to complete actions necessary to complete those jokes. It is a comedy that hinges on the fact that games are more interactive than other media. The comedy becomes a collaborative act between the game and its player.
/.../
In Jazzpunk, we don’t laugh at the clown, so much as we laugh at our own clowning around.http://www.popmatters.com/post/189726-jazzpunk-a-collaborative-jack-in-the-box-comedy/

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Interestingly, the lamp on the cabinet begins the game turned off. This seems contrary to the received wisdom of level design: use light to guide the player. In this case, having the light begin lit would draw the your eye and encourage you to interact with the cabinet. With this guidance specifically absent, you are more likely to fumble around, unsure what to do. However, this “fumbling” serves a didactic purpose. http://ludusnovus.net/2015/03/10/the-first-cabinet-in-gone-home-a-close-reading/

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There’s a pervasive idea that procedural storytelling and arts are somehow less “authored” than linear narrative, which is bullshit. I love Transistor because it skewers this idea mechanically and thematically, and while many games ask us to question what we consume (a la Spec Ops: The Line), Transistor asks us to question what we make.
http://clairehosking.tumblr.com/post/94313334088/city-beautiful

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The Bestest Best Being Pleasantly Lost Of 2014: Bernband
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/19/best-being-pleasantly-lost-bernband/

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... if I had to draw a conclusion here, it is that what I failed to really see was how utterly trivialized gender is by standard games, and how it would never occur to any given male player that playing as a woman might actually make a difference in what (or how) a game makes meaning.  Instead of explicitly deconstructing the privilege I set my sights on, I sorta feel like I gathered my firewood and forgot to strike the match.
http://correlatedcontents.tumblr.com/post/100357151149/hey-i-just-wanted-to-say-that-i-really-enjoyed

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if the S3 plan is a crucible through which the Patriots are recreating Snake as embodied by Raiden (or at least doing so as a benchmark for the *real* S3 plan), I was not only a participant due to my connection as a player to Raiden as an actor, I was now an active collaborator with the Patriots.
/.../
And sure, my will overlapped with Raiden’s character goals but the way in which they overlapped was perverted by the nature of ranked play. Both Raiden and I want to defeat Vamp. However, I want to do this to assert my technical mastery as a player while Raiden actually wants to do this to save lives.
/.../
I want to complete the game according to the simulation mapped in my head. The one where Raiden achieves perfection. My emotions threaten to distract me from that. I need to pull back. Like the Patriots, I cannot choose to see Raiden or any other character as anything other than things I can manipulate to get a result. Austin Howe pointed out to me that the Big Shell is shaped like an infinite loop. Each Shell is a circle. Combined, they form a lemniscate. I run around and around, repeating simulation after simulation. Mr. Howell notes that the level design of Shell One is a reaffirming myth space where Raiden fallaciously continues to enact his fantasy of being Solid Snake. A hypnotic mold.
/.../
If the Big Shell is about affirming my control as a player over the simulated space of the game, Arsenal Gear is where the simulation starts to run wild.
/.../
This specifically is because there is an rogue factor in the program that I cannot afford to ignore any longer: Snake.
/.../
What was I not engaging on if not my own S3 plan? Both to mold Raiden into the perfect actor but also to control the flow of the digital information that made up the game. I wanted to censor anything that didn’t fit into the narrative of “my playthrough”. I wanted everything that the villains wanted. Perfect data, perfect control. In the end? I got what I wanted. I “won”.

And I’m not going to lie: I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
http://transgamerthoughts.tumblr.com/post/110792352797/according-to-simulation-metal-gear-solid-2

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This video is my explanation why I am leaving MGS criticism due to the series' sexism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEX1vU1-9I8






§MISC
When we grasped this new dual-grip controller we did something that Goto might not have ever imagined: We placed our right thumbs solidly over the X button. Without the benefit of so many years of cultural reinforcement we didn’t know that the X was not the affirmative button. We couldn’t have.
http://killscreendaily.com/articles/semiotics-controller-design/

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I spent most of my life religious—Christian, to be specific. Semi-recently, however, that small part of me died. Or maybe I killed it myself. I know one thing for sure, though: video games had a hand in it.
http://kotaku.com/the-game-that-let-me-mourn-my-lost-faith-1688465653

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Extra Credits - What Makes Us Roleplay? - When Game Worlds Feel Real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJCEQaSlvHE

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Extra Credits - Asymmetric Play - Can One Game Cater to Many Playstyles?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQhxtfKH1f8