Journal of Games Criticism

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  • REPLY TO J. KÖLLER

    First published June 2014. Full letter PDF here. Joe: We share the majority of your criticism of academia; we don’t think it’s worth the trouble for everyone. We’re witnessing a time in Western, first-world societies when there is a mass intelligentsia that has made the formal institutions of academia seem burdensome. We’re thinking of formal institutions like… Continue reading

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  • LETTER TO THE EDITOR: “CYBORGS AND ACADEMIA”

    by Johannes Köller First published June 2014. Full letter PDF here. To the Editor: Let me start off by congratulating you on the first issue of your new journal. The launch of a new academic publication is rarely accompanied by much fanfare, so the fact that you have already started discussions in the wider game-dissecting public, or… Continue reading

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  • WHY FAILING IN GAMES IS A POSITIVE ASPECT OF PLAY: A REVIEW OF JESPER JUUL’S THE ART OF FAILURE

    by Pascaline Lorentz First published June 2014. Full article PDF here. Jesper Juul. The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2013, 157 pp., ISBN NO.9780262019057. Jesper Juul is a well-known and established game scholar recognized as one of the pioneers in game studies. His doctoral dissertation, which was… Continue reading

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  • DO YOU FEEL LIKE A HERO YET? EXTERNALISED MORALITY IN VIDEO GAMES

    by Michael James Heron & Pauline Helen Belford First published June 2014. Download full article PDF here. Abstract Video games have a long tradition of including elements of moral decision making within their ludic and narrative structures. While the success of these endeavours has been mixed, the systems used to express moral choices within a game have grown… Continue reading

  • BEYOND IDENTIFICATION: DEFINING THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN PLAYER AND AVATAR

    by Luca Papale First published June 2014. Download full pdf here. Abstract When discussing what happens when a player acts into the game world by using an avatar, many people may refer to the feeling he or she experiences as “identification”. But while identification may indeed occur during play, it’s far from being the one and… Continue reading

  • THE BRECHTIAN, ABSURDIST, AND POOR VIDEO GAME: ALTERNATIVE THEATRICAL MODELS OF SOFTWARE-BASED EXPERIENCE

    by Chaz Evans Published June 2014 Download full article PDF here. Abstract Springing from an interview with video game critic Morgan Webb, this essay proposes a set of avant-garde models for video game illusions prioritizing artistic goals that do not necessarily function in terms of the market. These models are derived from the history of 20th… Continue reading

The Journal of Games Criticism is a non-profit, peer-reviewed game studies journal that strives to connect the conversations between traditional academics and popular game critics. The journal strives to be a producer of feed-forward approaches to video games criticism with a focus on influencing gamer culture, the design and writing of video games, and the social understanding video games and video game criticism.

ISSN: 2374-202X

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