The Weirdest E3 - Reading List for June 2016 (Patreon)

Hey! This is Reading List, where I recommend a bunch of articles and videos I've enjoyed this month. And we start with the big talking point of June.

 

The weirdest E3

This year's E3 was weird. Hours before the show started, a man shot and killed 49 people in Orlando, Florida, and injured even more. Then, as we were still reeling from the unimaginable tragedy, we sat through trailer after trailer for games where we'd get to shoot, stab, and punch people to death.

It certainly made some people think about how games, on the whole, just seem inextricably linked to carnage and combat.

Now, no one likes to talk about violence and video games in the same sentence. We have an immediate, gag-like reflex to bring up studies and counter arguments - honed after years of media lies and opportunistic lawyers.

But, this month, I want to highlight some interesting and nuanced articles and videos about violence in games that rose up in the weeks after E3.

Keith Burgan argues that we should treat glorification of violence in games much like we have done with sexist portrayals of women: not through censorship, but by talking openly about our dissatisfaction with gross kill cams and the gleeful glorification of sticking a knife in a dude's neck.

ZAM calls on developers to use guns and violence in more responsible (and, frankly, interesting) storylines.

It’s not the guns I find disturbing, so much as how often games cast guns as an empowering tool to resolve violent grudges. A soldier carrying a rifle into battle is one thing, I’m going to kill you and all of your kind for wronging me is quite another. Like it or not, the game industry frequently turns out stories where people solve their problems via a gory rampage

In their post-show breakdown, Feminist Frequency noted that of all the games shown during the keynotes, 81% feature combat.

[Combat] limits our sense of what is possible and of the kinds of stories that can be told. There remains tremendous unexplored potential for games as a medium, and it’s necessary that the industry put more effort into exploring new mechanics and storytelling techniques rather than continuing to rely so heavily on established norms if the medium is ever going to achieve that potential.

Likewise, Jim Sterling makes the argument that the constant focus on combat is just boring, and calls on developers to experiment with other mechanics and genres.

And finally, this post on Twitter did the rounds this month. It's about how violent actions feel so much more impactful in VR. I had a similar experience playing a zombie shooter - holding the controller out like a gun and shooting a zombie made me squirm unlike any game before it.

Words and pictures

Before we leave E3 - watch this video comparing Ubisoft games to their E3 demos, and enjoy this brilliant reaction from EasyAllies to the Resident Evil 7 reveal.

Want to learn about multiplayer map design? Here's a breakdown of a level in Halo 5 and here's a funky visual guide to map making.

I've started following this analytical YouTube channel about video game music. I don't understand half of it, but you might get a kick out of it.

Blizzard makes good stuff. Here's some great insight into what makes their games so loved.

Blizzard will even design pieces that "fail" just to teach players how to win. Consider the Magma Rager card in Hearthstone, for example: With its five attack and one health, it's a terrible choice. But it teaches players the value of attack power versus survivability. Once a beginner has seen a Rager or two annihilated the moment they hit the board, this core gameplay concept sinks in.

Speaking of Blizzard, here's a post on the influences and differences of classes in Overwatch and TF2.

At Gamasutra, Bryan Lufkin (and interviewees) explains how six successful indie games - from Superhot to Factorio - stand out and explain themselves. 

To break out in this crowded landscape, an indie game has to market itself. It needs the sort of instantly grokkable kinetic appeal that can be captured in an arresting trailer, or even in a GIF. It needs graphics that stop people in their tracks because they look unlike anything else out there, or convey the central gameplay elements in a single screenshot

This is an older post, but still interesting. Liz England explains the role of a game designer - purely through doors.

This collection of game art tricks is fascinating. Dense, complicated, and incredibly inside baseball but fascinating.

This is a good video on flow in FPS game design, Extra Credits talks about loops and backtracking in level design, Matthewmatosis is back with a monster video on Devil May Cry, and TheGamingBritShow talks Resident Evil 7.

Every Uncharted game has featured a sequence involving a convoy of vehicles. HyperBitHero shows how this has evolved over the course of four games. Also, if you've got 3 hours to spare, here's Joseph Anderson on Naughty Dog's PS3-era games.

I still haven't played Doom 2016. So let Errant Signal and Super Bunnyhop tell you about its game design. And here's Noah Caldwall-Gervais with more than you'll need on Fallout 4's DLC.

This video explains the G2A Steam key reseller thing, Rock Paper Shotgun talks about information and Invisible Inc, the new FemFreq is on lingerie armour, and this video explains how Doom did 3D… before 3D.

Non-gaming stuff

I never realised that there was so much drama behind the Bugs Life / Antz thing. If you made a movie about this, it would be better than both of the ant movies.

Old video but I found it this month. Tom Scott talks about awesome features we don't have in the English language. I like the absolute direction thing.

Movie channel Now You See It talks about the cinematography of a political campaign ad. That channel also did a video on film dialogue - shortly after Channel Criswell did one.

kaptainkristian is a new must-follow channel. Watch his video on Batman. And here's where we (including Batman, I guess) came from.