7
comments on video
games and who is told
by his imagined readers he’s a sanctimonious, socialist snob with
a gargoyle face from
the high and late medieval period. And if I
was Stewart Lee – and
I’m not – this would
be the sort of place
I’d write, wouldn’t it?
A little-known, humble
place, where half the
imagined
audience
misinterpret and despise me and the other
half dimly understand
and revere me. I’ll let
you make up your own
minds.
I realise that I’ve
spent a lot of time in this
article being incredibly
self-indulgent. And I
also realise that the remit at Cubed is to write
about video games
and not the intentional fallacy followed by
an ironic non-sequitur
about Stewart Lee, so
as a way to stay true to
my brief like a proper
journalist, I thought I’d
list a few things that I
should’ve written about
but didn’t. That way,
I’ll have got away with
writing about writing in
a games magazine instead of writing about
games in a games
magazine
because
there’s games stuff at
the end, and that’s
what you’re likely to remember. Let’s go:
The Dangers of Accessibility:
Could
making
games easy to play
and understand have a
negative impact on the
industry?
Reviews:
Are game reviews
pointless now we can
watch footage of any
game we like in order
to inform our purchase?
The Chaos of Steam:
Does Steam need
quality control so we
can browse for a game
without being overwhelmed by RPG Maker dreck and woeful-
ly-written visual novels
about falling in love in
high school?
Early Access:
Is early access as
ridiculous as it seems?
‘Here’s your car, sir.
There are currently no
windows or wheels but
you can work out exactly what’s wrong with
it so that we can fix it
later and be blameless.
Thanks very much.’
Exposition:
Along with today’s
advancements in storytelling comes the hallmark of the lazy writer:
naked exposition. How
can devs rub out this
narrative blemish and
treat players like the in-
telligent adults they is?
Divinity
Original
Sin: Enhanced Edition is Good:
Just a reminder that
it’s not all bad. A lot
of games are really
bloody good. And this
is one of them. Play it.
The Loathsome Narcissism of Comment
Writers Today:
Are comment writers
in independent magazines deluded about
the size and interest of
their readership, and
do they desperately
need to learn when to
stop?