Tag: Critical Responses

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

In Defense of Ludonarrative Dissonance

First off, no this is not a retraction of my opinion (which I was apparently the sole defender of) that Ludonarrative Dissonance is a bad thing for a game to have. Instead, this is a response to the growing antagonism towards the term itself. There is plenty of it about, most recently from a post of Corvus Elrod's over at Semionaut’s Notebook. I wanted to write this right away after reading it, but other commitments kept me from doing so at the time. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter – A Book Review

I haven't done video game reviews on this site. I also don't intend to. I have only done video game critiques or criticism. The name in the top banner should be enough of a clue. So it is interesting that the first review I do for a blog about video games is really about a book. faster full movie high quality part I finished Tom Bissell's Extra Lives over a week ago, before E3 started. I wanted to finish those posts on inFamous before I got around to writing on the book. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

The Ebert Response

For those of you are utterly sick of this issue, bear with me. I am with you. I am tired of people questioning whether video games are art or not. Yes they are, now move on. But when someone like Roger Ebert brings it up and declares that opinion loudly to the rest of the world, a world ready and eager to accept that proclamation, then we have to stand up and say you are wrong. You are mixing your facts up. You are missing the point. You are looking in all the wrong places at all the wrong things. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

The Nature of Reading: Interpretation and Auteurism using Final Fantasy VIII and Mulholland Drive

Recently on twitter I was pointed to an essay on Final Fantasy VIII that differs from the more generally accepted reading of the game's story. If you have not read it yet, before you proceed with this post, please do. First let me speak on the essay itself. I think it's a beautifully argued and supports its position admirably. The Squall's dead theory hadn't ever occurred to me. Never once did it enter my mind that discs 2-4 were a death dream. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

In Which I Respond to the Three False Contraints

When I first read Danc's post over at Lost Garden, Three False Constraints, I called it the stupidest thing I read from the critical community. I decided rather than write an immediate response I would wait a few days to calm down and think it over non-emotionally. I'm glad I did, not because I came to any agreement with him, but because I read this piece by Charles J Pratt over at Game Design Advance. It got me thinking more about the meat of the form of the medium. So I spent some more time thinking and went back to reread his post. Here's my response. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

October’s ’09 Round Table Entry – Denouement: The Gameplay Slowdown

Designer Denouements How can the denouement be incorporated into gameplay? In literary forms, it is most often the events that take place after the plot’s climax that form your lasting opinion of the story. A well-constructed denouement acts almost as a payoff, where protagonists and antagonists alike realize and adjust to the consequences of their actions. Serial media often ignored the denouement in favor of the cliffhanger, in order to entice viewers to return. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

September’s ’09 Round Table Entry – What Do Spatial Relationships Mean to Us

Isn't That Spatial? Every video game has certain benefits and constraints in the way it represents space. Interaction fiction, arcade titles, 2D side-scrollers, isometric RPGs, and first person shooters all have advantages and disadvantages to how they deal with space-some technical in nature, some design-based. This month's topic invites you to explore the ways games have represented the spatial nature of their storyworlds and what this does for the audience experience. | more

Eric Swain Critical Responses, Recent Posts

May’s ’09 Round Table Entry – The Great Wave off Kanagawa

A Game Is Worth a Thousand Words: What would one of your favorite pieces of non-interactive art look like if it had been created as a game first? May's topic challenges you to imagine that the artist had been a game designer and supersede the source artwork-whether it be a painting, a sculpture, an installation, or any other piece that can be appreciated in a primarily visual way-to imagine a game that might have tried to communicate the same themes, the same message, to its audience. | more