by David Parisi First published, January 2015 Download full article PDF here. Abstract In this article, the author examines the tactile materiality of the videogame controller, reading its stability across multiple generations of game consoles as a strategy simultaneously intended (1) to maintain the ergonomic identification between the player/consumer and the console/brand and (2) to continue… Continue reading

by Robert Rath First published January 2015. Download full article PDF here. Abstract Video games have enormous potential to encourage tangential learning, but there are several obstacles that mar this self-guided process. These include online misinformation, the lack of a learning structure, and a public who are poor at source criticism. Enter explanatory game criticism, a… Continue reading

by Victor Navarro-Remesal & Antonio Loriguillo-López First published January 2015. Download full PDF here. Abstract The popularity and influence enjoyed by Japanese video games is irrefutable. There is little doubt, for many scholars, that the Japanese video game industry has helped establish the standard procedures of production, distribution and localization for the global sector. However, beyond titles of… Continue reading

by Stephanie C. Jennings First published January 2015 Download full PDF here. Abstract Responding to a longstanding wariness of the subjectivity of the critic—both within game studies and humanities disciplines more broadly—this essay proposes an approach to games criticism in which the subjectivity of the critic is accepted as central, unavoidable, and necessary. It is built… Continue reading

by Michael James Heron & Pauline Helen Belford First published January 2015. Download full article PDF here. Abstract Narrative games such as The Walking Dead, Gone Home, Dear Esther, and The Stanley Parable are difficult to situate into the general framework of game genres that are popularly, albeit informally, understood by mainstream audiences. They are too unabashedly contrarian with reference to the generally… Continue reading

by Veli-Matti Karhulahti First published January 2015. Download full article PDF. Abstract This article introduces the concept of ludocriticism as a practice for evaluating videogame artifacts. The primary method of this practice is hermeneutics. If the reader chooses to enter the main article, she or he will find out how the concept of hermeneutics has been previously used… Continue reading