This is actually a specifically glowing review of pragmata in a way that tells me more useful information about it than anything else I've read. Solid. Top-tier. No notes.
But also, the phrase "video-game-ass video-game" really is up there with "people die when they're killed". Yes, thank you. Next you're going to tell me John Wick is a move-ass movie. Please re-parse your sentence structure and get back to me.
I had a professor in college who would get so frustrated whenever a student said “It’s a vibe!” She would ask us to clarify and describe the vibe with more detail.
I think calling out this style of reviewing games is incredibly important! Loved the write up.
This reminds me of the overuse of “addicting” in roguelike reviews — I know that the genre is geared towards repeated play, but tell me why that’s the case! Great piece.
I think the critique of games being too gamey stems from a deep misunderstanding of the nature of video games. Interestingly, this critique is only applied to games, never to other media types like books or movies.
To me, this signals that the reviewer doesn't actually like games but wishes that games were more like something else (usually movies). I blame the rise of the movie game for this confusion. I've written a long post on this topic here: https://corerunner.substack.com/p/games-arent-movies
Anyway, when a reviewer complains about a game being gamey, I can safely disregard everything he has to say.
This is a bad take. We shouldn't judge how much people that aren't us like video games LOL.
I often catch myself not believing that people that love Minecraft and other sandbox games like video games so much as Toys and that people that don't have the time for an in-depth JRPG love video games as much as those that do, but then I mature and go, oh yeah, there's video games for everyone and that's really cool.
"It reports back the obvious and leaves the work untouched" got me good, dang. Great piece!
This is actually a specifically glowing review of pragmata in a way that tells me more useful information about it than anything else I've read. Solid. Top-tier. No notes.
But also, the phrase "video-game-ass video-game" really is up there with "people die when they're killed". Yes, thank you. Next you're going to tell me John Wick is a move-ass movie. Please re-parse your sentence structure and get back to me.
thanks for shouting out that first part!
I had a professor in college who would get so frustrated whenever a student said “It’s a vibe!” She would ask us to clarify and describe the vibe with more detail.
I think calling out this style of reviewing games is incredibly important! Loved the write up.
This reminds me of the overuse of “addicting” in roguelike reviews — I know that the genre is geared towards repeated play, but tell me why that’s the case! Great piece.
I think the critique of games being too gamey stems from a deep misunderstanding of the nature of video games. Interestingly, this critique is only applied to games, never to other media types like books or movies.
To me, this signals that the reviewer doesn't actually like games but wishes that games were more like something else (usually movies). I blame the rise of the movie game for this confusion. I've written a long post on this topic here: https://corerunner.substack.com/p/games-arent-movies
Anyway, when a reviewer complains about a game being gamey, I can safely disregard everything he has to say.
This is a bad take. We shouldn't judge how much people that aren't us like video games LOL.
I often catch myself not believing that people that love Minecraft and other sandbox games like video games so much as Toys and that people that don't have the time for an in-depth JRPG love video games as much as those that do, but then I mature and go, oh yeah, there's video games for everyone and that's really cool.
Michael is a strong writer! I am glad you found their review meaningful.