New Video (2 of 2)! Do Video Games Deserve Better? (Patreon exclusive!) (Patreon)

Hello again!

Thanks so much for your patience on this - your reward is that I now have the video portion of this piece done! Don't worry, as you've already been charged for the last post with the audio, you will not be charged for this post!

Like I say, this is a response to a Cinema Cartography video entitled "Video Games Deserve Better".

Contained within its dense 90 minutes, the film critic tries to wrestle with the notion that games are indeed art, and yet designers, developers, players, critics... all of them fail to engage with the medium on the level of legitimate art, on so many different levels. He just can't find anyone talking about, engaging with games as an artform! It's all just lowly Gamer Discourse!

He then spends a good deal of the video talking about Spec Ops: The Line—you know, the game that no one has ever talked about on an artistic level.

I say this as someone who has a degree in literature and film, who believes that engaging with art of all kinds makes someone a better critic, as well as just helping us endure life generally: this might be one of the most staggeringly myopic, hubristic videos I've come across in a long time—only noteworthy because, as I discuss, Channel Criswell was someone I would have once called the best film critic out there.

There are so many ways in which I think this video is wrong, with every point contradicting another point, that I just had to vent my thoughts in the form of this video response.

As I say at the end, I'm making this Patreon exclusive because I'm not trying to start any drama, I just thought it was interesting to look at this "artistic perspective" and use it as a springboard to see where video game criticism is actually at—including a look at my own progression as a critic.

(note: if you're looking for the other Patreon-exclusive videos, you can find an unlisted playlist here. Just please don't share it about!)

So yeah, including the Like a Dragon vid that's a Hefty Chunk of Stuff for you to get stuck into. I sincerely hope you get a kick out of it!

In December I have a few articles I'm writing, as well as prepping the Game of the Year podcast with Nico, the Game of the Year video, and I'm looking at trying to get out a couple of other BIG videos too. Ace Combat is the one I'm focused on, but I've been working on something else too...

See, my Hitman videos have been a big draw for the channel. Couldn't be happier about that, outside of the fact that the first video in that series is prrretty shoddy in terms of writing and production quality, on all fronts. So I thought I'd embark on a project to tighten up and remake that video, and put out a compilation of sorts with my other vids (with some tightening up occurring there too), as well as cover the one map I haven't gotten around to yet. Basically create the ultimate version of my Hitman analyses, with a whole bunch of new stuff even for those that have watched all of the prior vids already.

It's taking a little while (turns out it's not simply a case of re-recording the original script lol) but I hope to have it ready soon.

Once again, I cannot thank you enough for your continued support. You allow me to continue the work I do on this channel and I am forever grateful. I hope you enjoy the vids and are excited for what's to come!

Thanks again,

Hamish

Writing on Games