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I write stories to say what I think about games, for me it's the only way I can really communicate what I feel about them. Do you ever have a response to something that's hard to put into words? I find that sometimes I have something to express that can't be communicated by trying to explain how I feel, directly.
Often when we criticise games, films or stories we focus on technical areas: control, visuals, atmosphere, pacing and characters. I find that my personal responses aren't always defined by the sum of a games parts and I don't believe yours are, either.
I like stories. GamePeople is all about personal accounts from niche perspectives. I believe that we understand the world better through allegory: the telling of a story which explains something using a fictional example.
I also think people like to be told an entertaining story. There is a narrative in all of our heads which drives us when we play games. I just don't think it's always the narrative the game's creator's had in mind.
Jonathan Swift, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, William Gibson - these are the voices I grew up with and who taught me to look at the world through a broken window pane. Different angles, separated into artificially self-contained views on a part of the world.
So when you come with me on a journey to look at a game you will often find two perspectives:
There's a critical response, to be sure; as one gamer to another I'm always happy to share my feelings about what I feel works in a game and what doesn't.
There's also the flipside response: the narrative the game takes on in my head when I think about it; the story which I want to tell you about how the game makes me feel.
I hope they are entertaining, entertaining and amusing as stories in themselves. I also hope you find them an enlightening and tangential route into a new gaming experience.
Here are my game reviews.
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