A Real History of Video Game Criticism | The 5 Kinds of Writing About Games

In 1981 , a couple of magazine dedicated to Video Games started their publication, Electronic Games and Computer and Video Games, and since then, writing has proliferated and diverged into different branches and forms. However, if we dig deeper, we realize that this is far from the origin of video game criticism, which has implications for how we talk about games today.

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Chapters
0:00 A Brief History of Video Game Criticism
0:28 1) Consumer Writing
1:05 2) Criticism
3:14 3) Theory of the Practitioners - Game Design
3:46 4) External Theory
4:15 5) Internal Theory - Ludology, game studies, play theory
5:28 The divide between different forms of writing
8:10 Unifying Critical Writing

Sources

Electronic Games Issue 1 https://archive.org/details/Electroni...

Computer and Video games Issue 1
https://archive.org/details/Computer_...

How to talk about Video Games , Ian Bogost

Pilgrim in the Microworld , David Sudnow

Games, Game Design, Game Studies , Gundolf S Freyermuth

The Art of Game Design , Jesse Schell

Game Mechanics, Advanced Game Design , Ernest Adams

Game Feel , Steve Swink

Hamlet on the Holodeck , Janet Murray

Computers as Theater , Brenda Laurel

Cybertext, Espen Aarseth

Half Real , Jesper Juul

The Rules of Play , Eric Zimmerman and Katie Salen

Homo Ludens, J . Huizinga

Man , Play and Games , Roger Callois

On the Aesthetic Education of Man , Friedrich Schiller

How we talk About Games , HeavyEyed    • How We Talk About Games  

Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock , Clint Hocking https://clicknothing.typepad.com/clic...

GDC channel    / @gdconf  

Game Studies Study Buddies Podcast https://rangedtouch.com/game-studies-...

Critical Distance https://critical-distance.com/

Game Studies Journal https://gamestudies.org/2301

Game Design books   / design  

Well Played Journal https://press.etc.cmu.edu/publication...

List of Video Game Journals https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=...