#writing about video games

[annamarabella-grumble]

Redfall's Vampire Myth, the Modern Gothic, and Monstrous Capitalism

Or, When they had everything, they wanted more.

In Redfall, there are many things that come together to make a monster: greed, progress at any cost, and a complete loss of humanity. This manifests in a well-known gothic entity—the vampire. The game’s story charts its own evolution of the vampire myth, and the gap between what we, the players, know, and how the game constructs its myth simultaneously becomes a gap that is present in the text itself. Vampires exist in the fictional island town of Redfall, Massachusetts, but they exist on two planes: the mythological, and the scientific. Any seasoned cryptid hunter may enter Redfall only to find that well-travelled ways of dealing with the creatures aren’t going to hold water, here, holy or otherwise.

My new essay, Redfall's Vampire Myth, the Modern Gothic, and Monstrous Capitalism is now available! For a 🪙, you can read the advance version while I get started on the video! 🧛🦇

#redfall #gothic fiction #vampire fiction #writing about video games

[roundthewheel]

EARTHBOUND has a lot to say about the interconnectedness of humanity and the triumph of love over hate—but that's a lot harder to sell than farting, burping, and vomiting. Here are my thoughts after finally playing it for the first time in my late 30s. Save it for an extended trip to the facilities; it's nearly 5000 words long.

#earthbound #shigesato itoi #satoru iwata #hirokazu tanaka #super nintendo #super nes #snes #1995 #nintendo #ape inc. #game freak #writing about video games #essays #longform #review #writing #video games #blocker trap #ness earthbound #giygas #you cannot grasp the true form #onett #twoson #threed #fourside #moonside

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Reasons to play In Stars and Time: Canon Pronoun Warfare.

#in stars and time #ISAT #Siffrin #Loop #Context: early on you meet a character who tries to get you to use the royal We pronoun for them and you shut them down. It's great. #The gender swag and non-binary rep in this game is lovely. #I sketched this out when I was in Act 2 - and as of posting this I have not yet finished the game so *please* no spoilers. #It is rare for me to get into something spoiler free and I have been getting my shit rocked by this game in the best way. #Yes I *am* taking another detour to talk about a video game I love again. I will have some fun crossovers. Trust the process. #I will also do my best to pitch this game as spoiler free as possible. Because you *should* play this game: #ISAT is a very lovingly crafted RPG with very fun and emotional writing. #The characters are great and the mysteries you slowly uncover are intriguing! #The way the gameplay ties into the player's own emotional state is nearly always in sync with the protagonist. You *will* feel things. #And it is not afraid to let those things be hard emotions! Do mind the content warnings and know your limits though. #As someone who sucks at video games I also appreciate that it is so generous with your time and keeps things fun. #Not to mention it is honestly underpriced for the amount of content in it. Buy this game. I need to spread the brainworms.

[blueskittlesart]

at a certain point i think we need to acknowledge that art is very rarely created accidentally. if you can see a theme in a work than that theme was, more likely than not, at least somewhat intentional on behalf of the creator. you don't put a piece of yourself out into the world without thinking about what it means at least a little bit.

#sigh. sorry got a comment like 'nintendo creates these accidentally heartbreaking scenarios and then fans add depth' and i just. #do you really think that not a single professional adult writer on the oot writing team thought about the implications of the scenario they #were writing. do you think that all of the ways in which the world is set up to reinforce the themes brought up by that scenario are also #accidental. do you think writing is just throwing shit at a wall and seeing what sticks without any more complex thought. #do you truly genuinely think that in a game so constrained by storage & software limitations ANYTHING about that story would be accidental #it just seems like such a sad and reductive way to view art. it's like you can't imagine that anything is done in earnest. #that people might really care about the things they create. that they might be truly meaningful. #the mcuification of story analysis. we just assume that nothing has substance anymore ig. our brains are so flooded with consumerist #garbage that we assume all art is made purely for consumption and profit. ok #WHATEVER. sorry. i have this disease where im obsessed with video games as art and i hate that no one sees it like i do #personal

[phantasia69]

As a female gamer, one thing I love about Fromsoftware games is their female characters.

For me, a game having decent female characters is a huge selling point. I literally bought Elden Ring (and therefore got into souls games) just because of Malenia. She is literally the sole reason why I bought the game. I even bought the collectors edition of the game so I could get the figurine of her, which sits at the top shelf of my glass display shelf along with a figurine of Lady Maria.

I love how fleshed out the female characters are in Fromsoftware games. I love how the female characters are allowed to just be people, and not have their entire character revolve around them being female. They're allowed to be kind, mean, caring, selfish, deceitful, cunning, mysterious, vulnerable, strong, weak, and so many other things.

Even in the modern age, there are still so many games coming out that use female characters for just fanservice. All the time, I see games underutilize their female characters or just set them to the side entirely. Not once have I ever felt like a female character was used for fanservice in a Fromsoftware game, or at least, their entire character wasn't based around it.

I'm not saying that fanservice is inherently bad, I'm just saying that it gets a little exhausting when all of your favorite female characters, especially in video games, get over sexualized to the point where there's NSFW content of them everywhere. I know the same thing happens with some male characters, but I see it a lot more often with female characters.

I feel like a lot of newer games should take some notes from Fromsoftware when it comes to making female characters. It's 2023, after all.

#fromsoftware #dark souls #ds3 #elden ring malenia #malenia #lady maria #sister friede #soulsborne #bloodborne #elden ring #games #rant #female characters in video games #i could write a lot more about this but if i did this post would become too long #resident evil #dmc

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know this is just a silly bad quality random screencap of a screencap that I found on facebook lol, BUT it's a succinct enough image to easily describe the concept in a quick/accessible way hopefully :

-

(and of course, feel free to elaborate in tags, etc.! (especially elaborating about other senses as well.. can you "hear" in your mind just as well as you can "see"? taste? etc.) It's an interesting topic to me, as someone who's like a 4.5 at MOST lol. I'm curious what option will be the most common :0c )

#tumblr polls #hrmm... a little poll perhaps.. about a subject I find interesting.. since this image came across my facebook today #still really not feeling that well. no longer shaking violently and such but I still feel weird and weak much more than usual #They did say my markers for like infection or inflammation were elevated but that they werent sure of the cause so hopefully #it's nothing too serious. they did also say a lot of different things can cause that thing to be higher than normal but didn't go into spec #fics of what. maybe some of them are relatively benign or something. I still havent felt much back to normal since #I got really sick that one time though. I feel fine on and off but then little bouts of feeling weird and sick happen. hrmmm #ANYWAY.. looking for small ways to be productive. such as little doodles on evil ipad or editing game videos #or posting polls or cat pictures or some other like not very labor intensive things #I WISH I COULD FOCUS on writing HHRGGhh... I need to finish my game.. it would be so freeing.. a project that's been looming #over my head for like 5 years even though througouht that 5yrs I've probably spent a total of 3 months working on it lo.. ANYWAY #I still partially really cannot beleive that people CAN see stuff in their heads. There's always part of me that's thinking like. well mayb #e everyone DOES see the same exact thing but we just describe/conceptualize it so differently that we think we're talking about #different things when we're really not. But I have been assured by people I've talked to about it that they can GENUINELY really see #stuff in their heads like as vivid as an actual picture in real life or something. And the other senses are neat too. Like for exmaple I #can hear in my head much better than I can see imagery. I still CANNOT hear vividly like as if I were listening to actual music out loud.. #but I think it's developed more than my sight. AND interesting how this varies the creative process. a friend I was talking to on the phone #said they write by literally just watching stuff play before them like a movie. where my process is COMPLETELY different. AND that affects #the content/what details we focus on as well as our individual styles of writing have differences that can be traced back to that.. hrmm

[okthatsgreat]

rewording a post i made a while ago just bc it was a bit nonsensical but something that definitely needs to be examined in the danganronpa fandom is how a lot of characters seem to be interpreted through one single lens of intelligence. does that make sense. like in order for a character to be “smart” in this fandom they SPECIFICALLY need to be book smart and well spoken, regardless of their talents. we gotta shape up guys .. examining other types of intelligence is FASCINATING and really highlights each characters strengths and weaknesses, and this especially applies to emotional intelligence.

like is byakuya smart? absolutely. but is he emotionally intelligent? fuck no!!!! and aoi used that against him in chapter four!!!!!!!! and even though she is misguided as all hell, tenko has the ability to understand her opponent mid-battle and use that to determine how she continues the fight (likely something other fighting ultimates do as well!!!) which is crazy. mikan is able to read facial expressions well, even if she IMMEDIATELY misinterprets this as something she personally did wrong lol. these characters navigate through the killing game differently and in some cases survive because of it, and if you want something interesting to write on it’s definitely something to be examined!!!

also straight up sometimes the fandom interprets characters who don’t speak super formally/are optimistic as dumb too which is so strange. more of the “buff” talents like mondo and fuyuhiko need to understand battle tactics and serious team management/planning in order to get anywhere in their field, but are pushed aside quite a bit because theyre these super gruff macho characters that swear a bunch. sonia as well because she's a fish out of water type of character. and yes he isn’t very well spoken and is very trusting but gonta is an actual scientist guys… i could make a whole separate post about this weird trend of pessimism being seen as smart and optimism as stupid but yeah seriously

anyways all this to say, when writing for a “dumb” character take a step back and ask just what makes them dumb in your eyes. is it because they aren’t considered academic or a scholar?? is it because they’re a “happier” character that might not be as well-spoken?? theres nuance there and this obviously doesn't apply to all of them, like clearly akane isnt super good with emotions or smarts in general, but even THEN her spacial awareness and heightened sense of perception is something that is often under-utilised in fics!! it provides a whole lot of depth to remember that a lot of danganronpa characters are very talented and well versed in other forms of intelligence than what might be most obvious !!!!!

#nurse shes rambling about the murder video game again #but goddddd this is why i love writing from a bunch of different povs. theyre all so wildly different and interpret the world through very #different thought processes #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #lee chat

[whynotimtired]

The best part of Will saying he wants forever with Mike so blatantly is that he isn't the one who brought it up, Mike was. In an act of projection he asks "What did you think? That we'd actually get to be together forever? When we're both boys?" and will says yes. He says yes, and Mike immediately regrets it.

#not even going to get into how earth shattering it was for me to make that reference #i didnt even realize that's what i was writing until halfway through #he said yes. he said yes. (it was the worst thing I'd ever done.) #accidentally implying he doesnt also want forever with Will #gonna scream #this is so stupid dkndnd i just woke up #byler #will byers #byeler #mike wheeler #stranger things #mike wheeler is gay #AND KNOWING THAT WHEN WILL MOVED ALL MIKE DID FOR A FULL MONTH WAS LOCK HIMSELF IN HIS BASEMENT AND PLAY VIDEO GAMES #LIKE #IT CANNOT GET MORE BLATANT THAN THIS #will 'i want forever with you' byers and el 'hes my first boyfriend' hopper #also imagine how much white hot rage mike felt when will said 'you called maybe a couple times' when mike called CONSTANTLY- #and will NEVER called him back #i hate the roller rink scenes they both think that theyre being ignored and dropped by the person who they care about most in the world #& the idea that once mike finally got on the right page and understood what the painting & the speech meant. WILL flew to a whole diff BOOK #mikes like holy shit he loves me this is all ive ever wanted & then wills over here like TELL HER YOU LOVE HER CAUSE YOU'LL NEVER LOVE ME #mike 'I thought my wants were something i had to grow out of. i thought i you would never love me the way i do you so i tried to move on- #but YOU want ME?? YOU want forever with ME? Then i want it with you.'

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #143

Shout out to @jedipirateking, their comments yesterday gave me an idea.

Danny is sent to another world by Clockwork. He just had his 16th birthday and Clockwork said he was nearly ready to take the thrown of high king of the infinite realms. He was to go to an alternate dimension and live there for a couple years as there were so many different dimensions out there that he’d be in charge of he needed to know what to expect. He winds up in the DC world and started exploring to get his bearings. He runs into one of the Green Lanterns and decides to observe them.

Soon Danny notices how close ectoplasm is to their powers and he begs them to train him. Hal does eventually and they soon form a mentor, protege bond. I’m thinking it would be really funny if they bond for a while and then Hal takes him to headquarters and then finds out the kid he's been training is actually a prince and something akin to a baby god.

#dp x dc prompt #dp x dc #dc x dp #danny fenton #danny phantom #writing prompt #Admittedly I know next to nothing about Green Lantern #I spent all my time as a kid playing video games #Not the games your thinking though the other ones #I’ll try to watch more DC things but I just got a new job and the transition is rough #I appreciate all the comments reblogs and likes #my asks are open #all my prompts are free to use

[nathanwinter]

i've seen a few tweets that sort of started going down this train of thought, but has anyone made a post about how uncanny the farmer must seem to the rest of pelican town?

a few friends and i were talking about just. this silent, unknown person showing up to a miniscule town to live on a piece of property that is, in some games, full of violent and aggressive monsters. They proceed to:

Eat raw and inedible food on a regular basis -- if anything, it's most of what you subsist on until you get a kitchen;

Work near-tirelessly every single day for 18- to 20-hour days of hard labor;

Barge into people's houses at any hour the front door is not locked just to wordlessly hand out a gift and immediately leave;

Charge through town carrying axes, swords, pickaxes, and other very large and dangerous-looking objects in their hands;

Casually slaughter dozens of monsters in the cave systems that are considered by the rest of the town to be incredibly dangerous;

Immediately start using magic and communicating with local fey apples, something it seems none other than the Wizard can do;

Possess the ability to easily and consistently dig fossils and ancient artifacts out of the ground, with seemingly no limit to this ability.

These poor people must think they accidentally awakened some primal eldritch horror or something. They just don't mind because the horror grows really nice potatoes and also kills megacorps for fun.

And if you ignore the existence of video game mechanics and all, you can include:

Always wakes up at the exact same time, then will always collapse into instant unconsciousness at the exact same time at night with no exceptions;

Pulls hot coal, metal, and food out of forges/ovens without batting an eye;

Almost never speaks, just stands in front of townsfolk and stares wordlessly at them until they make enough small talk to satisfy them;

Run faster than any other character and might be the only one with a footstep sound? Which paints the hilarious mental image of them having these loud thundering footsteps like a dinosaur in Land Before Time;

Only occasionally use their breathing animation.

#stardew valley #i might write something about this #stardew valley more like #uncanny valley #thinking too hard about video games

[solthrys]

not much i liked about the xpac except these two and some moody locations

#world of warcraft #denathrius #kael'thas sunstrider #warcraft #friend talked me into resub for the new talent trees so i decided to finish story #omg its actually worse than what some of the hate videos talked about? #talent trees won't save scaly fun time if this level of writing keeps up #feel bad for the art team cuz they work their asses off while design and writers shit up the game

[roundthewheel]

I played (most of) GET IN THE CAR, LOSER!, the "lesbian road trip RPG" by Christine Love, and wrote about it

#video games #writing #writing about video games #get in the car loser #christine love #love conquers all #lgbtq #gay #lesbian #trans #queer #lgbtq video games #on the road #review #2021

[characteroulette]

Okay but the thing. About no one being able to recognise Link. Is that

even if he's had time to live in the world again after BotW, Link is still an outsider to this era.

Link and Zelda are over a hundred years old now. Sure, they didn't really live through that gap, but a gap it remains for them.

it strikes me that the only area in the game where the people recognise Link is in Zora's domain. The Zora people live incredibly long lives and thus remember Link. He grew up here. He has history here. A hundred years doesn't matter when the Zora people whom he grew up around remain.

Zora's domain being such a contrast to the rest of Hyrule is really striking to me. Link is a near mythical creature; he existed over a hundred years ago and yet he's managed to remain and so

of course no one can recognise him. The myth he's become can never match who he truly is. He's as human as he can be; of course no one can recognise him as the legendary swordsman.

#Zelda #Link #Tloz #Botw #Totk #Botw totk #Totk Link #Botw Link #Breath of the Wild #Tears of the Kingdom #Momo writes stuff #Momo talks about video games #A thought that keeps nagging me #Only the ancient remember a child out of their era #Only the ancient recall the human and not the legend

[cuubism]

You know what we need in the world? Dreamling in the backrooms. Idc if Dream is an entity, if Hob is an entity, if they are both human, if it's Endless Dream and immortal Hob both just going through the backrooms, or whatever. I just think it'd be funny

I'm out of touch so I had to look it up 😂 I'm imagining Hob as part of a group of friends who go adventuring in inadvisable places, and Dream as some creature that just kind of got stuck there, like, maybe he's a sleep paralysis demon that's supposed to exist in the liminal space between sleep and waking but he kinda got stuck in the real world and now he can only exist in physical liminal spaces instead. He is very sad and lonely and wants to go back to the dream world. Anyway. Hob's friends are all like you shouldn't go in there Hob what if you encounter The Entity and Hob, a known idiot, is like well what if The Entity wants a friend did you think of that? Also YOLO.

So Hob does go in there and it turns out The Entity is just this sad and wet guy that's sitting on the floor dripping ink and viscera everywhere, at first Hob thinks he's a ghost because he's kind of clipping in and out of reality, but no, turns out not. Instead of running away, Hob, a known insane person, is like wow... what a beautiful strange and demonic entity! Listen he's always been a bit of a monsterfucker. It's part of why he goes adventuring in inadvisable places, where else are you gonna meet monsters?

So he tries to befriend Dream; this is the first time someone tried to talk to Dream in years so he's very terrified of it, but eventually he's like "It's no use, Hob, I am stuck here in this liminal space, the only way I could potentially get out is through dreams but no one is going to want to let a sleep paralysis demon start living in their head."

And Hob's like "okay... so listen"

#i like liminal spaces but i don't know enough about this lore to be able to write anything for it alas #feel like a boomer going 'is this from one of them video games? is this from a tick tock?' #dreamling #ask #anonymous #the backrooms #hob: you could be MY sleep paralysis demon jk unless? 😳👉👈

[ghosttoastx]

I did these instead of paying attention in class today

Plus Mirabelle!!

She’s so cute I love her !!!!11!1!

#in stars and time #isat #isat siffrin #isat loop #isat mirabelle #I also wrote a poem #I May or May not post that too as well #I think I’m gonna rework it a little bit first #I like writing poems about silly little video games #makes me happy #my art

[hollowtones]

"Destiny 2"!! It's a video game!! I have a lot of complicated thoughts about it, good and bad!

I like that it's maybe the only video game that can give me a Bee Error, though.

#Every time I play this game I inch closer and closer to writing an essay about it. #One of my favourite video games that I also wish was a different video game somehow.