I’m a big, big, big fan of long video essays that dive deep into game mechanics. Whether I’m giving them my full attention, working alongside them, or letting them wash over me while I go to sleep, I’m kind of a sicko for Harry Brewis’ elaborate dissections of everything from Fallout: New Vegas to Pathologic. I’m probably in the top 10 viewers all time of Tim Rogers’ review of Tokimeki Memorial, though half of those have either been sleep aids (complimentary) or faithful companions on extremely long road trips.
I’m not turning my back on the longer dives, but I have started getting into shorter perspectives. Adam Millard is new to me, but has been doing video game crit for a long time through his YouTube channel and connected Patreon. I really enjoyed his most recent video, “How ‘Good Design’ Ruins Games,” an exploration on why the bizarre, abrasive Arctic Eggs actually succeeds at being awesome by being bizarre and abrasive on purpose. He expands on this point, burrowing into salient points about how different genre examples have been able to break free of convention and how some games have unsuccessfully dipped their toe into these risky waters.
It’s certainly not the only takeaway, but it’s wild just how many great examples of games keeping genres alive by going back to old mechanics and subverting them are from the past five years. I’m preaching to the choir, but games are great. More people are making games than ever. More people are trying weird shit than ever. We are the friction we need to keep the medium fresh.
