Another year has passed and now is the time to look back and take stock of the year that was. For Critical Distance that means crafting our mega roundup, with links curated from all the year’s weekly roundups and bolstered by recommendations from the community, into a representative portrait of the year. And from this particular portrait I was surprised to see very little of 2018 itself take shape. Instead, I saw all the previous years and decades leading up to 2018 reexamined.

Reading Catherine Nichols’ piece reminded me of the saying, “the age-old battle between good and evil.” I was reminded because, as Nichols explains, the concept is quite new and has little basis in our founding myths, in the classics so revered as the bedrock of the western canon. And yet such a phrase is emblematic of the thinking that colors our entire view of the world. We believe there are bad guys who must be opposed by good guys, nothing more, nothing less. This is how it is, how it always was, and how it has to be. Right?

Often it feels like videogames exist in their own tiny bubble completely at odds with the rest of the world. This is on purpose. They are meant to be a refuge from the real world. Right? But like the phrase “age-old battle between good and evil” that too is just another unsupported myth. Videogames have always been connected to the real world. They are made by real people, not logos. They are played by real people, not demographics. To say these things out loud, both statements feel obvious, yet old beliefs remain.

In going through the criticism of 2018, it wasn’t so much about 2018 as much as it was about how we got to 2018. The things we take for granted, so much so that we don’t even think about them anymore, were reappraised and often found wanting. It was a year of no longer accepting facts without support, nor truth without wisdom. For the 2018 edition of This Year in Videogame Blogging, let all assumptions be challenged and no myth given the credence of reality.

Industry Criticism

Videogames are reflective of the means and conditions by which they were produced. They are difficult to produce, but do not need to break those that produce them. Yet, beyond just the people they affect, the working conditions cannot help but set the tone for the wider medium both in and out of the games themselves.

Labor

Company Abuses

Unionization

Dev Culture

Valve-Steam

Abdication | Your Critic is in Another Castle – Kate Cox

Valve finalized its anything-goes stance on Steam and Kate Cox calls it, for all its power, an abdication of responsibility to all the systemic issues on its platform. It hurts customers, publishers and PC gaming as a whole.

Valve finalized its anything-goes stance on Steam and Kate Cox calls it, for all its power, an abdication of responsibility to all the systemic issues on its platform. It hurts customers, publishers and PC gaming as a whole. Why I’m not super excited about Valve’s new Steam policy | Radiator Design Blog – Robert Yang

One would think an anything-goes policy would help artistically provocative developers like Robert Yang, yet he says it’s ultimately more harmful as no moderation means there is no relationship with Valve and in the end is its own form of gatekeeping.

One would think an anything-goes policy would help artistically provocative developers like Robert Yang, yet he says it’s ultimately more harmful as no moderation means there is no relationship with Valve and in the end is its own form of gatekeeping. Steam developers speak: Maximum profits for Valve, minimum responsibilities | Polygon – Tim Colwill

As Tim Colwill succinctly puts it, “Valve like to take a cut of sales, but it doesn’t like to be responsible for the store”, as he speaks to numerous small developers who feel like Valve isn’t doing anything to earn its cut as platform holder.

Loot Boxes

Using Psychology and Loot Boxes to Destroy Video Games: A Fun and Practical Guide | The Psychology of Video Games – Jamie Madigan

Jamie Madigan is tied up and Satan takes the reins to explain how best to exploit your player base psychologically with loot boxes.

Jamie Madigan is tied up and Satan takes the reins to explain how best to exploit your player base psychologically with loot boxes. For Many Players, Lootboxes Are a Crisis That’s Already Here | Waypoint – Ellen McGrody

In a much less lighthearted tone, Ellen McGrody finds that the cycle of addiction thanks to loot boxes is already having real-world consequences for quite a few players already. The problem is further exacerbated by an industry that resists calling it gambling.

Too Many Games

Culture Criticism

Communities of play are where beliefs about videogames matured into the present attitudes we have today. Their constant repetition led to the calcification of the underlying notions into doctrine and to the virulent reactions against those outside those norms.

Toxicity

Guns

Framing

Opinion: There’s a Huge Problem With Fighting The Anti-Video Game Debate With A #NotAllGames Mentality | IGN – Chloi Rad

The Administration released a video to scapegoat videogames, and the industry/community responded, with what Chloi Rad describes as a poor rhetorical strategy, putting games on the back foot instead of embracing the violence and arguing for it as artistically valuable like in any other medium.

The Administration released a video to scapegoat videogames, and the industry/community responded, with what Chloi Rad describes as a poor rhetorical strategy, putting games on the back foot instead of embracing the violence and arguing for it as artistically valuable like in any other medium. The imagined importance of the blockbuster game – Brian Crimmins

Brian Crimmins argues that AAA blockbuster games, by any metric, have bought their clout rather than earning it. Their position continues on through intertia as they continue not to push the envelope in audience, influence or artistic relevance.

Brian Crimmins argues that AAA blockbuster games, by any metric, have bought their clout rather than earning it. Their position continues on through intertia as they continue not to push the envelope in audience, influence or artistic relevance. Beware the corporate video game canon | AV Club – Lewis Gordon

Sony released the list of titles to appear on the PlayStation Classic and Lewis Gordon warns against letting corporations decide on the canon of what videogames are historically important.

Criticism

Hampering the search for real criticism: Two platform deaths | ZoyaStreet – Zoyander Street

In the third post in a series, Zoyander Street explains the history of where criticism used to happen and how it has changed over the years to private platforms due to evolving social and safety concerns, leading to the continuation of the question “where is all the good writing on games?”

In the third post in a series, Zoyander Street explains the history of where criticism used to happen and how it has changed over the years to private platforms due to evolving social and safety concerns, leading to the continuation of the question “where is all the good writing on games?” The Vid Economy: Making A Living From Crowdfunded Game Analysis | Game Informer – Jacob Geller

Jacob Geller writes an exposé on the new critical circles appearing on YouTube funded through Patreon. He looks at the nature of those channels and listens to the stories of those creators.

Jacob Geller writes an exposé on the new critical circles appearing on YouTube funded through Patreon. He looks at the nature of those channels and listens to the stories of those creators. The Review and The Critic | ZAM – Eron Rauch

Rest in Piece ZAM. Eron Rauch was kind enough to republish his piece about the historical and evolving difference between reviewers and critics and how that distinction affects our discourse about them.

Reviewers

Should games get lower review scores for poor labor practices? | I Need Diverse Games – Tauriq

Tauriq Moosa’s answer is ‘yes.’ “If we agree bad labour practices matter more than bad graphics, I don’t see why you wouldn’t mark down a game for the former.” Just because it wont matter to some, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be reflected in your personal evaluation if it matters to you.

Tauriq Moosa’s answer is ‘yes.’ “If we agree bad labour practices matter more than bad graphics, I don’t see why you wouldn’t mark down a game for the former.” Just because it wont matter to some, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be reflected in your personal evaluation if it matters to you. Writing About Games: Learning to Love the Compromise | Unwinnable – Yussef Cole

Yussef Cole couldn’t muster enthusiasm for Red Dead Redemption 2 until the marketing machine demanded he do so. It causes him no amount of self-reflection in buying into a morally compromised product as he articulates why he stays writing in a field that resists such self-reflection.

Theory/Design Criticism

While more esoteric than the more concrete areas of criticism, those based on things and people, it can be more than useful to understand concepts. From there, a different future can be planned out away from the ties of present reality and the things and people stuck in the rut even as they try to escape it.

Conceptualizing

Single Player as Local Co-Op | ZEAL – Sophia Foster-Dimino

Sophia Foster-Dimino draws a comic whereby she discusses playing games in non-standard ways, including with multiple people at the controls at once, and how this alters the experience in unexpectedly pleasant ways.

Sophia Foster-Dimino draws a comic whereby she discusses playing games in non-standard ways, including with multiple people at the controls at once, and how this alters the experience in unexpectedly pleasant ways. Artificial Identities: An Essay | PEM Playtime – Katherine Cross

Katherine Cross examines what is behind our conception of identity in role-playing games and how this can reveal a player’s true nature.

Katherine Cross examines what is behind our conception of identity in role-playing games and how this can reveal a player’s true nature. Apathy Machines | Real Life – Rob Horning

To run counter to the current conception of VR as empathy machines able to help improve the world, Rob Horning undermines the underlying assumptions that lead to that conclusion and how the current commodification undermines the effect empathy is supposed to engender in the first place.

To run counter to the current conception of VR as empathy machines able to help improve the world, Rob Horning undermines the underlying assumptions that lead to that conclusion and how the current commodification undermines the effect empathy is supposed to engender in the first place. Do Videogames Turn Us Into Bad People? | Paste – Holly Green

Holly Green looks at the data that helps answer that question and realigns our common understanding of what motivates players to what actions. It’s not the events that sway them so much as how their decisions align with their self-perception of their personal values. Games won’t turn you into a bad person, but they can reinforce tendencies you already have.

Styles

Design

Critical Video Game Criticism

Ultimately, any conversation about an artistic medium needs the subject by which all other conversations revolve. Art will outlive the artists and can perpetuate beliefs better than any individual ever could. Games construct our view of the medium’s past and will be the lens by which those in the future will ultimately see our present. They are the conversation.

God of War (2018)

The Game of the Generation | Deorbital – Jackson Tyler

Jackson Tyler says the new God of War “has always been the game of the generation, a mirror in which we can see ourselves and our values” only to find little has changed and how the real ugliness shines through the change in style and goes unaddressed.

Jackson Tyler says the new God of War “has always been the game of the generation, a mirror in which we can see ourselves and our values” only to find little has changed and how the real ugliness shines through the change in style and goes unaddressed. God of War Leviathan Axe | YouTube – Mark Brown – Mark Brown

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mark Brown examines the central weapon of God of War as a triumph of combat and game design. He also delves into the process by which the developers crafted it as it did not spring fully formed.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Mark Brown examines the central weapon of God of War as a triumph of combat and game design. He also delves into the process by which the developers crafted it as it did not spring fully formed. Atreus: God of War’s Strongest Asset | YouTube – Writing on Games – Hamish Black

Hamish Black focuses on the character of Kratos’ son Atreus, calling him the triumph of the game as he constantly delivers Kratos and by extension the game from its overly self-serious nature and allows the game to breathe naturally through their relationship.

Hamish Black focuses on the character of Kratos’ son Atreus, calling him the triumph of the game as he constantly delivers Kratos and by extension the game from its overly self-serious nature and allows the game to breathe naturally through their relationship. In ‘God of War,’ Moms Come Last | Waypoint – Dia Lacina

Coming back to that real ugliness, Dia Lacina highlights that in all the focus on Dad Games and the relationship between fathers and sons, stories of mothers and their children are given the short shrift, demonized by their presence or lionized due to their absence. In the end, mothers cannot remain.

Far Cry 5

Far Cry 5 Offers No Insight into Christian Fundamentalism | Paste – Holly Green

Holly Green lived within the confines of American Christian Fundamentalism and contends that Far Cry 5 doesn’t get much if anything right and offers a very false view of that experience.

Holly Green lived within the confines of American Christian Fundamentalism and contends that Far Cry 5 doesn’t get much if anything right and offers a very false view of that experience. Far Cry 5’s Faith Seed Embodies An Evangelical Double Standard | Kotaku – Riley MacLeod

Riley MacLeod, however, does find one hint at truth through the character Faith Seed and how she is presented within the double standard of Evangelical Christianity. She is both temptress and subordinate to men. She reflects reality as she is trapped by her position in the culture with no real agency even as a villain.

Riley MacLeod, however, does find one hint at truth through the character Faith Seed and how she is presented within the double standard of Evangelical Christianity. She is both temptress and subordinate to men. She reflects reality as she is trapped by her position in the culture with no real agency even as a villain. Far Cry 5’s Hyper-Videogamification | Bullet Points – Ed Smith

Ed Smith feels stymied by the game’s resistance to any critical apparatus he has developed as the experience of playing it is so overwhelming in its gameness that it creates an uncertainty in anything he could say about it with the illusion he was missing something.

Ed Smith feels stymied by the game’s resistance to any critical apparatus he has developed as the experience of playing it is so overwhelming in its gameness that it creates an uncertainty in anything he could say about it with the illusion he was missing something. Far Cry 5 and the Art of Saying Nothing | YouTube – Errant Signal – Christopher Franklin

Despite the title, Chris Franklin does think Far Cry 5 is about something, but in a hyperrealist way. It is about selling the beer commercial version of the great outdoors and sense of freedom instead of anything conferred by the actual content of what its story is. It’s not much and it’s not pleasant, but it is something.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Detroit: Become Human

David Cage Games Keep Treating Women Like Shit | Kotaku – Heather Alexandra

Heather Alexandra is sick of how David Cage treats his women characters in what now looks like limited access to a small number of tropes, including having them tied down and threatened with rape metaphors.

Heather Alexandra is sick of how David Cage treats his women characters in what now looks like limited access to a small number of tropes, including having them tied down and threatened with rape metaphors. ‘Detroit’ Siphons and Squanders a History of Marginalized Stuggle | Waypoint – Yussef Cole

Yussef Cole is disappointed, but ultimately not surprised by Detroit’s unimaginative handling of its own content, both with regards to Android and AI subject matter as well as its story of minority struggles.

Yussef Cole is disappointed, but ultimately not surprised by Detroit’s unimaginative handling of its own content, both with regards to Android and AI subject matter as well as its story of minority struggles. The Casual Inhumanity of How Detroit: Become Human Uses Black Culture | io9 – Evan Narcisse

Honestly, the title kind of says it all. Evan Narcisse calls out how Detroit copies its civil rights imagery with no sense for context or meaning. It’s a copy and paste job of various symbols and reference points, not people.

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Spider-Man’s Take On Police Feels Out of Touch | Kotaku – Heather Alexandra

In the current climate, Heather Alexandra finds that Spider-Man seems stuck in a much earlier era, where being so accepting of state power was a good guy thing, while also existing in a world not reflective of our own on these issues.

In the current climate, Heather Alexandra finds that Spider-Man seems stuck in a much earlier era, where being so accepting of state power was a good guy thing, while also existing in a world not reflective of our own on these issues. Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Realest Dad Game | Sidequesting – Erron Kelly

With the ongoing crop of “dad simulators,” Erron Kelly finds Spider-Man to be a more accurate representation about the relationship between father and son, albeit from the son’s point of view.

With the ongoing crop of “dad simulators,” Erron Kelly finds Spider-Man to be a more accurate representation about the relationship between father and son, albeit from the son’s point of view. Marvel’s Spider-Man and Dissecting Its Black-and-White Tale of Morality | DualShockers – Chris Compendio

Chris Compendio feels a bit disappointed that Spider-Man doesn’t follow through on its setup of making its villains more complex and relatable, as the game ultimately reverts back to the old-time black-and-white morality of the original comics and drops the villains’ more complex motivations.

Life is Strange 2

Life is Strange 2 works to deconstruct the series’ power fantasy | Unwinnable – Malindy Hetfeld

Malindy Hetfeld likes that the latest Life is Strange game embraces the characters’ positions where they lack power despite having super powers. It fits the game’s themes that Daniel’s problems (racism) do not have a quick fix.

Malindy Hetfeld likes that the latest Life is Strange game embraces the characters’ positions where they lack power despite having super powers. It fits the game’s themes that Daniel’s problems (racism) do not have a quick fix. What Other Games Can Learn From the Racism in Life is Strange 2 | Paste – Natalie Flores

Racism is not all loudmouth bigots or white hoods. It can be a lot more subtle, insidious and damaging. It can be as much as not standing up and letting oppression pass. Natalie Flores feels Life is Strange 2 captures this aspect of racism expertly.

Hitman 2

Hitman’s humour evolved because of 47’s penchant for disguises | Rock, Paper, Shotgun – Steven Nyuyen Scaife

Steven Nyuyen Scaife finds that Hitman’s world has gotten more and more ridiculous over the years and now finds the latest game seemingly leaning into that. It has created a world where everyone is too self-absorbed to see what is right in front of them and has become “some truly wicked satire.”

Steven Nyuyen Scaife finds that Hitman’s world has gotten more and more ridiculous over the years and now finds the latest game seemingly leaning into that. It has created a world where everyone is too self-absorbed to see what is right in front of them and has become “some truly wicked satire.” ‘Hitman 2’ Makes You The Catastrophe Everyone Is Dreading | Waypoint – Cameron Kunzelman

Cameron Kunzelman likens Hitman 2 to global warming, not in its effectiveness in destruction, but in relation to the last level at an oligarch conference on how to deal with the climate crisis. It’s a metaphorical thing, filled with irony that I won’t do justice describing here.

Fallout 76

Fallout 76 | Deep Hell – Sam Kittrel

Sam Kittrel examines a Polygon article on Fallout 76 and is frankly a little disturbed by the slavish devotion to the brand to the point of the author disregarding his own feelings while playing it.

Sam Kittrel examines a Polygon article on Fallout 76 and is frankly a little disturbed by the slavish devotion to the brand to the point of the author disregarding his own feelings while playing it. How Fallout lost its soul | Polygon – Katherine Cross

Fallout was about the existential threat of nuclear annihilation, a dark satire of the mid-20th century. Katherine Cross doesn’t ascribe the latest entry’s failure as something individual, but the inevitable end of a long downward spiral once the franchise changed hands.

Battlefield V

Battlefield V: A corruption of history | Medium – Ruben Ferdinand

Ruben Ferdinand sees Battlefield V as another “link in the shackle of commodified World War 2 stories,” based not on anything true, but “on sensationalized cultural images.”

Ruben Ferdinand sees Battlefield V as another “link in the shackle of commodified World War 2 stories,” based not on anything true, but “on sensationalized cultural images.” A Sad, Fun Story | Bullet Points – Reid McCarter

Despite what Battlefield V has to say for itself, Reid McCarter can’t help but feel its aspects in service to being a fun, multiplayer shooter renders “the war into little more than an aesthetic” saying its “lasting impression is of a sad story read in a jungle gym.”

Where The Water Tastes Like Wine

Encountering the Wanderer in Where the Water Tastes Like Wine | Videodame – Rachel Watts

Rachel Watts feels Where The Water Tastes Like Wine nails the feeling of wandering through a “battered and worn country,” becoming a vessel for stories and ultimately capturing something true through it all.

Rachel Watts feels Where The Water Tastes Like Wine nails the feeling of wandering through a “battered and worn country,” becoming a vessel for stories and ultimately capturing something true through it all. Worldbuilding America: Where the Water Tastes Like Wine | Emily Short’s Interactive Storytelling – Emily Short

Emily Short’s blog post is a postmortem on the story she contributed to Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, based on the experiences of her relatives.

Shadow of the Colossus (2018)

The question of fidelity and Shadow of the Colossus | Eurogamer – Gareth Damian Martin

Gareth Damian Martin finds the final result of Shadow of the Colossus’ remake stunning to look at, but also finds it falls victim to an odd quirk of fidelity, “that ultimately it undoes what it seeks to represent.” The more detail there is, the less that needs to be imagined and something is lost.

Gareth Damian Martin finds the final result of Shadow of the Colossus’ remake stunning to look at, but also finds it falls victim to an odd quirk of fidelity, “that ultimately it undoes what it seeks to represent.” The more detail there is, the less that needs to be imagined and something is lost. The Shadow of the Colossus Remake Isn’t Quite The Same | Kotkau – Heather Alexandra

In the changes of the remake, Heather Alexandra warns that the changes, while not bad, make things different through unintended consequences. Better placed controls make Wander feel more competent and altered lighting make the world more real rather than surreal.

Other 2018 Games

Card Games

‘Artifact’ Isn’t a Game on Steam, It’s Steam in a Game | Waypoint – Will Partin

Will Partin goes down the rabbit hole of metagames and how Steam’s new digital card game works. In it he finds a rather cynical game whose economic metagame perverts whatever it could have hoped to be. It’s not any more exploitative than other card games, so much as it’s better at obfuscating it and becomes more insidious as a result.

Will Partin goes down the rabbit hole of metagames and how Steam’s new digital card game works. In it he finds a rather cynical game whose economic metagame perverts whatever it could have hoped to be. It’s not any more exploitative than other card games, so much as it’s better at obfuscating it and becomes more insidious as a result. magical capitalism | killing a goldfish – Jesse Mason

Likewise, Jesse Mason, explains in extensive step-by-step detail how capitalism distorts the design of Magic: The Gathering which itself leads to the company grasping for top-down control of the culture around the game, which in turn leads to players buying into the concept that what is best for the game is what is best for the company that makes it.

Retrospectives

Close Out

There are no easy answers. It is difficult to let go of long-held if not cherished beliefs. The drive for truth can be short, but the drive for wisdom is never-ending. I wish you luck and good fortune on your long trip throughout 2019.

The weekly roundups have resumed. Please submit any for TWIVGB to our email or @ our Twitter account.

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Welcome to the New Year. Hands up and cover the face. It’s going to be another rough one.