rolling thread of stuff worth reading on videogames

Not sure the right thread for this. Was reading through the radian games blog and saw this:

"This interview from Kill Screen makes me sound depressed, which is not true (the vast majority of the time). The interviewer asked a lot more questions than is shown, so when I give too much information about having to cut back or things like that, it was because he kept asking for more specifics. This interview from DIYGamer is a lot more accurate about how I’m feeling these days. I’d describe my current status as “uncertain”."

(http://radiangames.com/blog/?p=997)

So I read the kill screen interview and sure enough it seems like it's really a pretty one-sided cut compared to the other interview or other things on the developer's blog. Really more related to "what's wrong with kill screen" and a "state of videogame crit" discussion but the c&p thread is well beyond that now.

Missing that ! means 'not,' is a really very basic programming error that undermines the author's entire authority...

w/r/t colonization: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Cities_of_Gold_(game)

also yeah, the ability of folks to actually carefully read code in the broader context of how it's written and what it means and not just in isolation for what it sounds like it might mean is the stumbling block of much of critical code studies at the moment. I don't think the notion is doomed, but I have yet to see it executed well.

I feel like unless it becomes architectural/linguistic studies of code (which exist already), it's always going to be limited to either a) finding how coders described sections of the code in comments/names of functions and show how that's "problematic" (ie: Natives as a variable) or b) just extracting things without context because they sound interesting. I could see a really interesting, maybe super-Levi-Straussian structural analysis of code develop, but aren't the really serious questions about code mostly already covered by computer science + game theory + stuff? And the things this guy wants to study (broad identity studies w/ a nod towards critical theory/cont. phil) he would probably be better served writing about the game on a game level. Anything embedded in the code is going to occur on the surface too. You don't need to open up the code to realize that you aren't given the choice to play as the natives in the game. Going through the code to show how even if you hack the game, there still aren't sufficient options for the natives is just redundant.

but I have yet to see it executed well.

i don't think it's redundant - the screenshot of the empty town it creates manifests something interesting you couldn't get at in other ways. and i think there's stuff that (if you had code-literate ppl doing this) it would make more sense to get from the code, like e.g. how the AI makes decisions about native behaviour, than to observe and reverse-engineer the design principles. (a couple things i read about how the alien team thinks on the worryingly comprehensive x-com wiki made me go 'huuuuh'. i'm not sure x-com is as interesting to deconstruct for 'meaning' though.)

man, nothin on rps this sunday worth reading at all. fu british games journalism

some likeminded bros of mine have started some pretty cool gaming blogs

crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com
gamefeel.tumblr.com/
pldevelopment.blogspot.com
gamergoku.blogspot.com
shutupandgame.blogspot.com
finalbrutalweapon.blogspot.com

they're mostly coming from anti-narratologist POVs

looking forward to exploring that list

who are these ppl and why didn't they start one nonbuttugly blog

why do that when you can start an ironic webring

http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com/2012/03/bioware-day-one-dlc-developed.html

i guess this is an example of 'critical code studies' that tells us something we couldn't know without looking at the code

xpost do they actually have little webring .gifs and stuff that i missed bcz they totally should

if 'critical code studies' consists of uncovering whether companies are lying about dlc ripping you off or not, i'm not interested in the field.

like, this isn't critical code studies. it's consumer watchdogism bolstered by code analysis.

i'm sorry i just thought it would be a thing to say that would make me sound clever

they're mostly coming from anti-narratologist POVs

huh

aka privileging gamism + ludic components over story/narrative (if i understand it correctly)

i should start a blog, about videogames

haha tim rogers first game is out

I have it. It's kind of fun but I got bored of it pretty fast.

i would like to blog about video games however i am terrible at updating blogs bc i lose interest and never update it.

i would like to blog about video games on someone else's blog. i think this would be ideal.

yeah blogs require too much dedication for me (ie. a nonzero amount). i'll stick to postin'

those dudes seem to be at abt the same level of discourse as ILG, they should post here instead, that would require the less effort of not typing a different address in my web browser

god, chrome has the eight most frequently visited sites and i only even use about five of those, what happened to the internet

lol i wouldnt inflict ILG on them. they all post on another board im on, u should join it instead

cruel!

lol ade. what is this other forum?

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/03/13/bioware-plays-the-gay-card/

one of the reasons i love tom chick

g1

lol ade. what is this other forum?

Permalink
― bosomy English rose (thomp), Tuesday, 13 March 2012 15:14 (2 days ago)

hope this hasn't already been posted: http://insertcredit.com/2011/09/22/who-killed-videogames-a-ghost-story/

ah, nhex posted it back in november. still a great read.

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2012/03/24/the-official-journey-review-faq/

my fave part: had no idea Chick was a Harvard divinity student who learned Hebrew

ha for a mo I thought you meant Jack Chick lol

well, he does clarify that in the article

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7793059/john-burgeson-ibm-computer-start-baseball-video-games

nice story!

i like this one too, even if it's a bit bloggy:

http://insertcredit.com/2012/04/09/playing-to-win-at-life/

more worth seeing than reading but:
http://www.campbellwhyte.com/8-bit-dreams/8-bit-requim-for-a-dreams/
he's selling originals for fifty bucks, i'm tempted by a few of these
http://www.etsy.com/listing/79423771/adventures-of-lolo-original-nes?ref=v1_other_2

some of those are pretty neat. i would certainly not pay money for them

i suppose i wouldn't either but i'd entertain the idea

i guess what i'm saying is, don't do it man :P

heh, okay

i often feel the past couple years have been a futile waste of time but then i read a sentence like "i spent a year and a half playing starcraft 2" and momentarily feel better about myself

I bet you guys are real excited to read another long feature about JBlow, the game industry's "most cerebral developer":

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/the-most-dangerous-gamer/8928/

stopped here:

“It just drives home how fictional money is,” Blow said, squinting against the unseasonably bright December sun. “One day I’m looking at my bank account and there’s not much money, and the next day there’s a large number in there and I’m rich. In both cases, it’s a fictional number on the computer screen, and the only reason that I’m rich is because somebody typed a number into my bank account.” For the world’s most existentially obsessed game developer, coming into seven figures just provided another opportunity to ponder the nature of meaning in the universe.

jesus christ STFU

tell you what, let me hold six of those figures and then call me back about existential meaning

nothing jblow says there is as bad as whoever wrote it

^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah, the bit where he tries to make out that games were wall-to-wall Call of Duty and nothing else before Braid came along is the worst.