This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from race politics of The Witcher 3 to a philosophy of local level design.
This week, our partnership with game criticism site Critical Distance brings us picks from Kris Ligman on topics ranging from race politics of The Witcher 3 to a philosophy of local level design.
The Things We Don't Talk About Enough
Over on Gamasutra's Member Blogs, Felipe Pepe raises a good point: for every lost game like P.T., there are countless other game histories that are being lost without apparent outcry. In particular, Pepe calls out the dead archives on game sites of days gone by as well as a lack of interest in interviewing some of development history's smaller (but no less significant) names.
As if in answer, David Wolinsky's audience- and developer-focused Don't Die has just released an interview with Purple Moon founder Brenda Laurel which is as enlightening as it is bracing:
I remember when we showed our website to [Microsoft co-founder] Paul Allen he said, "Oh, this is cool. Can you make this for boys?" Now this is after $4 million and four years' worth of research on girls he says this. I don't think they ever got it, honestly. And that was true of Atari, as well. Investors in those days, they rarely understood what they were doing. And those of us who were doing the work were trying to do stuff that mattered.
Turning from developer histories to the current state of the industry, Brendan Sinclair has been doing some important legwork following up on game hardware manufacturers' use of conflict minerals -- another aspect of the business which could benefit from more active discussion.
Design Notes
At his Radiator Blog, Robert "Cobra Club" Yang has adapted his recent GDC presentation on level design and architecture to point to a philosophical disconnect in how large studios approach matters of design, instead advocating for what he calls "local level design":
The idea here is that these gray boxes ARE the soul of the level, and art assets and detail are just "ornament" -- and according to the high modernist architects of the early 20th century, ornament is not "real" architecture. This is VERY different from ideas of early level design [...] Industrial level design views every design problem as a problem of production time, dependent on the ability to scope and plan and manage human labor.
In contrast, local level design views every design problem as a problem of dialog and methodology, it is a "compassionate formalism" that tries to collaborate on conceptual frameworks rather than imposing them. I hope these already existing examples of locally-oriented practice across architecture and level design demonstrate that it is something possible, important, and real.
Also from a past GDC, the good folks at Gamasutra have revived this 2012 design talk by Timothy Cain (video) about the development of the first Fallout.
Meanwhile, at Play the Past, Gilles Roy has published an interesting two part interview with developer Jos Hoebe, developer on the recently released World War I-themed game Verdun. From the interview's first half:
Hoebe: All the studios were mainly driven by a commercial agenda. [You] just take the biggest subject, like World War 2, with a clear narrative of Good versus Evil, which doesn't exist in World War 1. There are reasons why there have not been World War 1 games made, especially from a first person perspective, which at bottom is the lack of Good versus Evil narrative, which is better for selling games to a broader audience, etc. [...] [There] are other titles which have something to do with World War 1, like time travel, and zombies, etc. But we wanted to take a realistic approach, in a similar fashion how the Red Orchestra series -- and to some extent the earlier Call of Dutys -- went about it.
The Play's the Thing (Or Sometimes, Isn't)
Gamasutra columnist Katherine Cross sings the praises of Darkest Dungeons' minimalist characterization, which acts on the player's tendency to create closure out of the elements presented to them. And over at The AV Club's Gameological Society, Jake Muncy takes a turn at Republique and muses on the omnipresent voyeurism of games.
Paste's Maddy Myers wonders why so few women protagonists are given love interests and interrogates a few of the reasons developers have offered in the past. And on his Worldmaker blog, Max Battcher challenges the idea that a "skip combat" feature is either novel or, in any sense of the word, "cheating."
It's Not About The Witcher 3
Much has been written in the last few weeks concerning the disproportionate whiteness of the game industry and its resulting products, versus the increasing racial diversity of its players. But Tauriq Moosa's opinion piece on Polygon turned the flame into a firestorm when he called particular attention to the all-white cast of The Witcher 3:
The Witcher world itself features Zerrikania, whose inhabitants seem very much inspired from the Middle East. In the first Witcher, a prominent Zerrikanian character is named Azar Javed, an Arabic name. Like mine! Culture and names are welcome, but skin color, it seems, is not.
You'll often hear "based on mythology" as well as "historically accurate," in the same breath, even though it can't be both. If it's based on mythology, then it's fiction. If it's historically accurate, then we must talk about our ancestors' legendary fights with sirens on shores of [the game's] Arg Skellige.
It is incredibly unwelcoming to be shown the door by the same people who open it for fantasy creatures.
(If you're not yet swayed, consider this breakdown of the "it's based on Slavic mythology" defense presented by Actual Slavic Person Luke Maciak.)
But this extends far beyond The Witcher, as highlighted by the #GamesSoWhite hashtag which saw a revival in response to Moosa's article. Jelani Greenidge provides a great overview of #GamesSoWhite as well as why racial representation matters in games. Quote Greenidge:
American society has so traditionally catered to the needs, whims and desires of white people that often people of color feel like we are invisible. So when teams of exclusively or mostly white people assemble to develop a video game, even if none of those people have racial animus in their hearts, they inadvertently perpetuate white supremacist norms by filtering their narrative through white lenses. They think only of the stories, issues, foods, clothing and other cultural signifiers that matter to them. The reason why the #BlackLivesMatter movement has gained so much steam is because PoC in general and African-Americans specifically are told, again and again, through examples from popular culture, that their cultural priorities, tastes, or experiences are at best tangential and at worst completely irrelevant to the American story.
It goes further. At Houston Press, Jef Rouner did some digging and managed to find only 14 playable black women in the entire history of videogames, discounting avatars whose skin color can be chosen by the player. And at RH Reality Check, Shonte Daniels reflects how recent pushback on this topic together with current events have turned videogames from a hobby into a source of distress (Content Warning: discussion of violence, racism, mental health).
Virtual Bodies
At his blog Arms Folded Tight, Daniel Parker muses on the aesthetics of games' "power fantasies," many of which go beyond our conventional understanding of the term. In doing so, Parker surveys several recent articles on the subject of avatars and how these writers engage in a "power fantasy" of embodiment.
Elsewhere on the subject of virtual bodies, Kat Hache opens up about their childhood affinity for Legend of Zelda's Link and how it continues to influence their self-image.
Meatspace Bodies
And at last, we come full circle, back to the subject of the faces behind the screen. On Gamasutra's Expert Blogs, Laralyn McWilliams writes bracingly on the "culture fit" of the tech world and the creative diversity this mentality has helped suppress. Speaking as an educator, Not Your Mama's Gamer's Alex Layne reflects on the games brought into the classroom and how they may influence the next generation of young developers. And finally, we find The Mary Sue's Emma Fissenden interviewing Catt Small, game developer and co-founder of Tech Under Thirty and Code Liberation.
Further Reading
Want more? Of course you do. Co-editors Reid McCarter and Patrick Lindsey have just released SHOOTER, an ebook collection of essays on the first-person shooter. The book is available on Gumroad and Amazon. If you're interested in a preview, McCarter and Lindsey have a feature in the most recent issue of Unwinnable Weekly which should be right up your alley.
Further Listening
But wait! There's more. Paste's and Offworld's Gita Jackson has been on a bit of a podcast high of late, not only appearing on the (fantastic) Spawn On Me podcast but also launching a new, Chicago-based podcast with Kotaku's Patrick Klepek and former developer Sam Phillips, Match 3. Both are very much worth a listen.
Did I Forget Anything?
If so, let us know! We greatly appreciate your recommendations and self-submissions, so please keep sending them in over Twitter and email!
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See you next time!
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