This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from fighting game community slang to a look under the hood of Tale of Tales' Sunset.
This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from fighting game community slang to a look under the hood of Tale of Tales' Sunset.
It's (Still) Not About The Witcher 3
The discussion on race representation in games which reached a fever pitch last week is still going strong. First, Austin Walker blogs a bit on Giant Bomb, noting any criticism of a game like The Witcher 3 must take into account its country's history as well as its present social politics:
It's not that the game isn't aware of this stuff. It's that despite its engagement, despite the greater context of race in games right now, despite the fact that the game is not a pure replication of Polish history and myth, and despite what Ian Williams calls its "relentless humanity," it misses this one opportunity. And some fans want to lay on a sword over this. And whether its intentional or not, when those fans say "Why should they include a person of color?" it ends up sounding a lot like "I'm glad they didn't include people of color. It was right of them not to. The game would be ruined otherwise."
And would it? What would be ruined? It's can't be their escapism, a fear that they'd suddenly have to care about ethnic and racial politics -- because again, the game already touches on those. Would their "immersion be broken" the first time a brown or black face walked down the street or into a tavern? I have my doubts.
Walker later expounded upon his points in a full-on editorial, challenging the argument that criticisms such as his "force" an agenda on developers:
Those of us who write about things like race, gender, class, and sexuality in games do so because we fucking love games. [...] We want to figure out how a game might fit in a larger cultural context or try to communicate how it fit just so into our lives. We often see the faults in these games we love because we're so close to them. And sometimes, pointing out those flaws doesn't mean we love them any less. Even our most brutal critiques–the ones that come closest to head shaking and dismissal–are rooted in a broader love for the medium.
On Gamasutra, Katherine Cross echoes Walker's sentiments, questioning the premise that a series like The Witcher is bound by cultural influence -- or that any game should be:
Being influenced by something should not mean being shackled to it; that’s the opposite of creativity. Influences are merely that: ways to flavour your creation, expressions of what you have learned over the course of your life, the threads that comprise your unique creative fingerprint. But they are not a prison, and they most definitely do not demand prejudice.
Finally, inspired by these recent discussions, the writers for FemHype recently together to list off their recommended games featuring non-white protagonists. While the list is admirable, it should also be observed how often the same titles are repeated -- which is just what cultural critics like Cross and Walker are getting at.
Moving on:
There Will Probably Be Blood
At Vice, Javy Gwaltney argues not for less violence, but for more realistic consequences for violence in games. Meanwhile, at IndieHaven, Joe Parlock criticizes Life is Strange's stigmatization of disability as tragedy and poetic justice.
Design Notes
In reviewing Puzzles & Dragons Z + Super Mario Bros Edition for The Washington Post, Michael Thornsen strikes upon a difference in design philosophy between console and free-to-play mobile games which should ring true for many developers straddling that divide:
Free-to-play games are designed around creating conflict between short-term desires and long-term plans, inducing purchases on essentially useless in-game goods. If you die mid-level in the free-to-play versions, you can buy Magic Stones that allow you to continue without having to lose all of the items and upgrades you have collected. But in the 3DS version you simply collect them as in-level treasures. Stripped of their real monetary value, these stones and the systems they connect to, feel strangely disruptive.
[...]
[T]he design ethos of Mario games isn't the threat of loss, but delight in variation and discovery, games designed to engineer success rather than failure.
At ZedGames, Jody Macgregor lays out an analysis of Akira Yamaoka's compositions for landmark survival horror series Silent Hill. At Paste, videogame critic cum fashion blogger Gita Jackson takes aim at the historical inaccuracy of the costume design in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. And writing for Offworld, independent developer Anna Anthropy contends that game design can learn a lot from the simple playfulness of children's books.
Over on Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, Michaël Samyn pops the hood on his two-person studio's newest title, Sunset, to show some of its inner programmatic workings. Meanwhile, Don't Die has just released their latest interview with lesser-known industry voices, this time with producer Maxwell Neely-Cohen.
Also, a blog recommendation for any and all designers: Tiny Design is a fantastic Tumblr dedicated to "an in-depth look at the smaller bits of game design."
Beyond the 'Single Story'
Latoya Peterson delivered a powerful one-two this past week, first showing up on ESPN to question the relentless focus on harassment narratives when we talk about women and girls in games. Instead, Peterson argues, we should celebrate the diversity of these stories, and has announced a new series for Fusion dedicated to just that.
The Steam Refundpocalypse
Valve recently introduced system-wide refunds on its industry-dominating distribution platform, Steam. That this also landed around the same time as Steam's annual summer sale got a lot of developers talking about the economics of Steam and how it helps or harms the business.
One dev, Rob Fearon, is particularly concerned with modern sales practices like bundling and frequent Steam sales, which he argues may move copies in the short term but don't build and retain an audience. Meanwhile, Craig Bamford contends that while Steam refunds have the potential to be a boon for indies (for example, by reducing the amount of post-purchase customer support for technical issues), without facilitating in-depth feedback, Steam refunds don't really help a developer understand what they need to improve.
I Don't Know Where To Put This
This didn't exactly fit within any of the sections above, but it's so good I can't not include it. At Videogame Heart, Grayson Davis provides a complex breakdown of the emotional stakes of getting "salty." While he notes the slang precedes games by decades, its particular inflection in the competitive game scene is pretty engrossing:
The driving thesis of salt is not "I should have won" nor "you should have lost." To be salty is to believe that there is a "should" at all, that competition has a moral arc with a rightful conclusion.
[...]
One match from a 2013 fighting game tournament perfectly summarizes the problem of salt and the plateau it can represent. FSP, a talented Street Fighter IV player, squared off against a random competitor named, in a delightful irony, Gandhi. Gandhi played in a spectacularly terrible fashion, making random, sometimes bizarre choices. He played the game at an astoundingly low level for someone attending a major tournament. [...] The problem is that FSP is trying to play well, but Gandhi doesn't behave like any rational player. You beat such players by playing patiently and defensively, two qualities compromised by frustration. FSP is visibly upset on stream, but you hardly need to see his face to recognize his anger. The commentators state that he shouldn't lose, but that doesn't change the fact that he does.
(The link above contains video of the match in question, if you're curious.)
End Notes
Did you enjoy this week's roundup? Many of the links we feature here come from readers just like you! If you find or create a piece of writing (or a video, podcast, or virtually anything else to be honest) you think would suit these pages, please send it in to us! We take submissions on Twitter and through email.
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See you next week!
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