The Game Critique

This is not an essay by me. I’m sorry if you got that impression and clicked your way here. There are a few posts I’ve read recently that articulate the debate very well. As with most posts like this it’s really for me to have them at my fingertips should I ever need the link.

However, with the Supreme Court case coming up soon deciding whether or not video games are protected speech under the first amendment they are good articles to pass around. If you haven’t read them before, I thoroughly endorse them, if that means anything. If you have, well they are all good for a reread.

Why Your Loved Ones Hate Video Games by Micheal Drucker

Column: The Blue Key: The Aggressive Instinct Pt. 1, Violence in Video Games by Connor Cleary

Column: The Blue Key: The Aggressive Instinct Pt. 2, Addressing the Counterpoint by Connor Cleary

I love L.B. Jeffries’ writing. To me he is one of the most eloquent and hardest working in our field. And to my knowledge does it all for free. He has also described himself as the angry young man of game criticism. Last year he turned his critical eye towards the idea of the video game critic. He explored critics from other mediums and then looked back at what we as game critics could learn from them.

Personally I’ve tried to take some of these ideas as base point to work from, but even then I don’t think anyone has gotten a methodology that works to encompass the player’s input. Somehow there is just more to video games that we haven’t tapped into yet. His latest piece does repeat a few things, but it provides some sense or guide to where we should be moving ourselves.

I’ve complied his writings on the subject below. The comments also  have some interesting discussion as well.

Banana Pepper Martinis

Lester Bangs Rant

Pauline Kael – 1

Pauline Kael – 2

Pauline Kael – 3

Pauline Kael – 4

Samuel Johnson and Video Games

PopMatters

Does Video Game Criticism Need a Lester Bangs?

The New YouTube Game Criticism: An Interview with “moviebob”

Does Video Game Criticism Need a Pauline Kael?

L.B. Jeffries is one of the best video game critics on the web right now, in my humble opinion. Back last April through June he wrote a 10 part series on how to critique as oppose to review games. He called it Zarathustran analysis. It is a little dense, but then the subject its working with isn’t exactly easy to work with. These articles are a little old, but are a must read. (Only on the internet is 7 months old.)

Given the symposium going on now and the next part about the idea of reviews and critiques and where they exist in relation to one another I think this is a good time to reread his writings. Okay this is for my benefit too. It’s much easier to have the links here, so I don’t have to go searching every time.

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 2: The Role of Depth

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 3: Plotting the Plot

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 4: Player Input via the Silent Protagonist

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 5: The Four Forms

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 6: Accomodating Nonconformty

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 7: Application of Forms

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 8: The Factions of Gaming

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 9: Flaws in Criticism Today

Zarathustran Analytics in Video Games part 10: The Value of Player Expirience

Zarathustran Analytics Synopsis