Reactions to Helen Lewis' Piece;
or, a Meditation on the State of Games Criticism Today, as Seen through Twitter. This is an archive, in chronological order, of the reactions and conversations (on twitter, with a link to comments on the original site) around the New Statesman article on "talking about videogames".
Why are we still so bad at talking about videogames? New piece by me featuring @kezamacdonald @EdStern & @kierongillen newstatesman.com/culture/2012/1…- On a suggestion from a reader, I'm adding a link directly to the comments on the New Statesman site: Comments on the original article
@helenlewis I dearly wish for a games mag which produces work equal to this profile of Jonathan Blow in the Atlantic: theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…- @iansteadman Yes, that's superb. I don't think that will ever happen, though; easier to wish for Atlantic-style mags to do pieces on games.
@helenlewis Good article, I wonder if the problem is that, like in this piece, general games knowledge is only of the AAA releases.- @helenlewis I wonder if gaming culture just doesn't lend itself to the kind of mindset that breeds the criticism we expect in other arts.
- @iansteadman Well, Ed's quote speaks to that - the difficulty of making games MEAN something.
- @The_Reviewist Yes, that's probably part of it. I was writing for NS mag (non-gaming audience) so that's why I narrowed it.
@helenlewis Very interesting piece. I think, though, that there's actually good stuff out there now, but it is often lost in the noise.- @helenlewis It also doesn't help that the emergence of a need for game criticism coincides with a decrease in stock for criticism generally.
@helenlewis when we're all fluent enough for that to be unnecessary, maybe then we can create a critical voice.- @dangolding That's a fair argument - I find myself following writers (Tom Bissell, Keza, some of the RPS crew) rather than publications
- @dangolding That's a fair argument - I find myself following writers (Tom Bissell, Keza, some of the RPS crew) rather than publications
- @helenlewis just feels like 15% of every piece giving an overview of gaming is wasted saying 'You had to load them from a tape!'
- @helenlewis Right, me too. I think that's true of a lot of criticism now, regardless of subject—critics tend to wander more than they did.
@helenlewis as a none-gamer, but former EngLit student who reads reviews of games that look to be exploring use of narrative, I enjoyed this- @helenlewis but it's a constant feature. Pretty sure Gameswipe started with history lesson, for example.
- @D_F_Lyons Have you read Tom Bissell? He's probably my favourite writer about narrative.
I actually feel like game criticism is better than ever? newstatesman.com/culture/2012/1…- @helenlewis imagine every piece on the state of modern literature having to do a bit about movable type at the beginning.
- @helenlewis I've not, but I will now. I was trying to download Myst the other day - surely deserves a place in the literary games canon?
