Tag: Critical Distance

Eric Swain External Sources

November 10th TWIVGB

I took the reins from Kris Ligman for this week’s TWIVGB feature so she could go on vacation. Enjoy Montana Kris. Usually, I just fill up space here with some anecdote or quick observation regarding the round up. Instead, I want to take this time to address something I’m betting no one has noticed but has really been bothering me regarding the TWIVGBs. Way back when I first became affiliated with Critical Distance, I made a public declaration both here and on twitter, something I’m sure no one actually remembers. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

October 27th TWIVGB

This weekend was not as productive as I would like. Most of that can be blamed on too much sleep. For some reason I just wanted to sleep. Then come Sunday I find my brain not working at full capacity and I’m on call for TWIVGB that week. Thankfully I had all the reading done and was just slow on the writing it up. I started with the little joke of me being the resident librarian of the blogosphere and just ran with it for the theme. If I had more cognitive function I might have done a better job of weaving it all together. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

August 18th TWIVGB

Kris went off in the wilderness and I once again offered my services. This was one hell of a week though. I offered to take the reins at the beginning of the week and only afterwords did I get inundated with review copies and other things I’d have to tackle. It didn’t help that the lot of you decided to write a couple of dozens of posts at the end of the week. Then of course there was Gone Home. I don’t think there has been such an immediate outpouring of critical essays in such an amount that made it into the roundup since Heavy Rain. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

July 28th TWIVGB

Ok, despite how I closed out last week’s TWIVGB, saying that Kris would be back, I did another one. She asked me if I was available and I was actually freer to do things, because I didn’t have to play 6 games over the weekend. One thing I did notice this time around was how the style of criticism has changed since the beginning of the year. What was once popular, New Game Journalism, Personal Writing, Fractured Essays, are all genres that have waned in the intervening months. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

July 21st TWIVGB

Kris needed a break and I took the reins for TWIVGB this past weekend. It went a lot quicker than I remember it being. Maybe it’s because I read nearly all the posts ahead of time. Maybe there weren’t as many suggestions. Maybe the new categorization system just means the work goes faster. Who knows? It was a crowded weekend, what with Steam trading card farming for money and having to play 3 games, two for review and one for podcast. My phone also died over the weekend so that meant more time out of what I had to do. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Deirdra Kiai Podcast Interview

Episode 12 of the CDC podcast went live. I know it was promised back in March, but it was delayed due to the hell that misbegotten excuse for an audio file put me through. I had to edit the thing three times. Originally, I had planned to release it last year in conjunction with Deirdra Kiai’s Indigogo for her newest game. That fell through due to editing problems which caused me to start all over again. So, I’m editing it for release in the second week of March. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance 2012 End of Year Extravaganza

For the third year in a row, I decided not to enjoy my winter break with video games, but drive myself to exhaustion doing the Critical Distance end of year projects. Episode 11 of the CDC Podcast – The Talking Dead and the 2012 This Year In Video Game Blogging round up. Both did not go as smoothly as planned. The CDC podcast this time around was longer than any I’ve done before. Even by cutting the cast down to only 4 people (Myself, Kris, Alan and Ian) it still ended up longer than last year. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

This Turkey Day in Video Game Blogging

It was one hell of a week for game criticism. A new book, a new digital magazine and the biggest week I’ve had yet in a TWIVGB. Though not the largest one. That goes to Kris Ligman and the previous week. This is supposed to be where I say something about the big issue that came up last week, The New Statesman piece. I responded in the comments and talked a bit on twitter, but I honestly am exhausted with the argument and all the related arguments that come with it at this stage. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses

October ’12 Round Table Entry – Thinking on Horror

It’s the end of the month and that means it’s time for BoRT. Being October, this month’s topic suitably fits the season, Fear and Loathing in Game Spaces: “Since their inception, games have explored that most primal of human emotions: fear. Whether it’s shambling zombies, ghosts, relentless killers or arachnophobia, we’ve never been short of scares. Some can’t stand horror games, while others thrive on them. Are games uniquely suited to instil fear in the player, beyond a film or a Stephen King novel? | more

Eric Swain External Sources, Recent Posts

Crit Dist Bit

Let it never be said that opening your mouth at the wrong moment doesn’t get you working on the weekend. I’m always happy to take the reins for TWIVGB and give Kris Ligman a break. Though the day of is usually not the best time to get started on the short list. This week for some reason had a ton of really long pieces. Only 2 or 3 of which made it in the final round up. Apparently fellow contributor Katie Williams thought the motif I used was adorable. | more