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Greg Costikyan on Game Criticism

Manifesto Games co-founder Greg Costikyan wrote about the game industry’s need for [tag]game criticism[/tag] literature. He makes a point of differentiating critical thought pieces from product reviews.

While reading it, I felt that this article is another result of the great gulf that separates individual members of the video game industry from each other and their works. As another example, when Costikyan was looking for venture capital for Manifesto and getting a lot of publicity, I asked Alex Seropian during a post-mortem of Stubbs the Zombie about his opinion on Manifesto Games, and again, I emphasize that it seemed like everyone was talking about it at the time. Seropian surprised me with the answer, “Manifesto games? What’s that?”

I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Costikyan felt a need to rant about the lack of serious literature about games, except I could have sworn I’d seen advertisements in The Escapist for Manifesto. Any time I’ve referred to The Escapist, I’ve said “It’s like Rolling Stone, but for video games.”

If you read through the list of comments on Costikyan’s blog, you’ll see even more links to websites. One is Gamers Corner, currently on its 8th issue, and the other is Action Button. There are references to Kieron Gillen and Russ Pitts, among other writers. It’s not as bad as Costikyan may think when he said that there is “virtually nothing we can point to today as ‘game criticism'”.

I do agree that we need more of it though.

[tags]video games[/tags]

3 replies on “Greg Costikyan on Game Criticism”

i’ve googled and bookmarked a few of the things you’ve mentioned above. thanks for making me aware of them – i’ve had a need for this kind of reading as of late, and you’ve filled my cravings perfectly, and added some fresh cream on top.

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