Sorry for the long stretch with no posts. I've been working on a paper on Argentina- the one I posted about way way back in July- to present at a few conferences. The paper still isn't done, but I presented it once already and am headed off to do another presentation this weekend. In the mean time, I have a post on PopMatters about my favorite game of recent memory, Journey. Here's a clip below:
For some time, critics, myself included, have struggled to find ways to interpret games through artistic parameters that we are familiar with, to apply our understanding of what is meaningful in other art forms to a new and developing medium. Video games do not, at least not yet, do what literature or movies do. On the surface, they have little to offer in terms of cultural criticism and their stories are for the most part god awful. The heralding of Heavy Rain, with all of its absurd melodrama and B-movie plot twists, as a hallmark of storytelling should tell us all that we need to know about the current state of the medium in this respect. And yet, those of us who play video games know (and know with a passion) that there is something significant here, something more to playing a game than just… well, playing a game.Enjoy! I'm off to sunny Boston, MA!
