The Broken Contract

Not even a year into my illustrious career and already we're digging things up from the vault. Less for the best-selling hardcover collections, but I think I'll manage.

But first, a foreword. I got into a number of decent discussions over the piece from people who bothered to read it instead of jumping onto the dog pile, which thankfully prevented this thing from being a complete wash. While I stand by the critiques of Dys4ia and Lim I make here, I wholly realize these games are important works by sheer virtue of their existence; I even had the privilege of watching their well-deserved lionization in real-time with the announcement of the IGF finalists.

But I'm not interested in all-or-nothing criticism and analysis; merit can be found in failures, and flaws can be found with success. I felt that these games were important steps into the future, but not the attainment of that future. Anna Anthropy disagrees with me; if she thought something was wrong, she would have made her game a different way. We come from wholly opposite viewpoints on the nature of games and what their strengths as a medium are, and that's where dialog happens. All writers inherently forward an agenda, and I felt like blanket approval didn't serve mine. Busting chops and being all edgy isn't my thing, and most people who make it a habit are hacks, but there still needs to be room for measured praise.

Okay that was all boring but this is my blog damn it I DID IT FOR ME. Okay here it is.

The Man Who Wasn't There

So apparently Medium Difficulty got an overhaul and now the article's gone missing for the last couple of days. Maybe because it was published the day before the rollout? Curious is all; just figured it was worth mentioning since I'm not banking on it going back up. I doubt anyone particularly wants to read it, but I have a backup drifting around somewhere, so ask me if you want to read it and worst comes to worst it gets a home here. (This is how I'll let it quietly vanish, shirking responsibility for it since nobody reads this blog.)

Maybe it was nice gesture to that guy who considers saying "no, you're wrong" and calling my article a "fart party" counts as a bon mot. Eloquence I'm sure both Anthropy and Kopas couldn't provide on their own, let alone outdo, since you felt the need to speak on their behalf. Oh well, nobody's perfect.

Hot Water Again

Polarizing!

At least I got a chance to tweet at Anna Anthropy about it real quick. She thinks my criticism is dumb and misinformed. That's what happens when you come from opposing points of view on the nature of games as a medium, I guess. And I've heard from enough people I could stand to loosen up, and not just on the vocabulary, so I can at least call this a teachable moment. Noticing nobody's complaining about another chance to kick Spec Ops while it's down, though!

Vive le difference.

The Year In The Rearview: A Gallery

A commemoration to the New Games Journalism of 2012.

A juxtaposition of select quotes with visual complements.

All images are best seen at their full size. (750 x 500 px.)

Additional submissions welcome!

Everyone Loves You, Nobody Cares

DISCLAIMER: If you're already sick to death of games writers writing about gamers writers and games writing and getting all hyper-personal about it, go ahead skip this whole mess. I don't blame you, I generally can't stand it either. But to critique it, I have to go hypocritical and actually use it. Feel free to just ignore this whole mess and comment that you did so. I won't be offended in the least.

I'll probably manage one more Real Game Thoughts thing before year's end but this sure as heck isn't it. No edits, no running it by a friend; it's raw and kind of disjointed, but whatever. I had feelings and this happened, so, you know, sorry in advance. Happy Hanukkah, free Palestine.