As a small update to yesterday’s article - Christian McCrea at The Escapist posted his own views on game journalism, criticism and reviewing. Most of the article says nothing new, to be honest, but it does at least provide an attempt at adding something constructive to the debate. If you’ve read the article already, I’ve formulated my own response in the Escapist forums, which hopefully didn’t come off too preachy or indignant. The comment thread for the article may be worth reading as people respond to the article, and my comment on it. For the sake of completeness, however, I’ve included my own response below:
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For some strange reason, the stars aligned on the weekend and several news sites produced responses to Ebert’s recent column “Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker” in which he replies to some of Clive Barker’s claims on video games as an art form. There was of course the obligatory response from the gaping advertisement-feeding maw of Kotaku, who (for once) provided an intelligible response; unfortunately the response came from a talented film critic who seems to have never played a video game in his life. Joystiq, Ragnar Tornquist (creator of The Longest Journey and Dreamfall), and a slough of other news sites provided their own commentaries on Ebert’s volley. Most notably, however, came much more informed responses from Arthouse Games and Mentisworks, who had already spent time discussing the subject over the past year. The question I’m left with here, however, is why does this all seem to matter so much?
Okay, things are finally moving along. Although I’ve actually already read the book in its entirety, I’m back-tracking a bit to catch up on the reviews. This chapter, written by Richard Boon, continues in the tradition of the previous two chapters as being an introduction to more general premises in game writing. The chapter focuses, in general, on the relations between game design and narrative design, and how the two relate.
In a freakish coincidence, Michal over at the Mentisworks blog posted his commentary/analysis of Okami.. the critically-acclaimed (and surprisingly financially successful) game from now-defunct japanese development team Clover Studio. This is a project that I always wanted to do myself, but lacked the time to release some polished thoughts on the game. I highly recommend reading Michal’s thoughts on the game, which cover everything from aesthetic style to storytelling with a bit of philosophy to round things out. In the coming weeks I’d like to formulate a response to Michal’s thoughts, trying to link Okami in with other contemporary games such as Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, which I believe both share in the same sense of artistic integration.
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