Medusa's Laugh - 11/14/2020 - Tavern Scene
Medusa's Laugh is a weekly newsletter thematically curating music and writing about games for your inbox.
Medusa's Laugh is a weekly newsletter thematically curating music and writing about games for your inbox.
Intro
It's hard to start things, because beginnings always entail a departure. A ship leaves the dock to begin a new course that may take days to weeks. Families say goodbye to loved ones that are starting new phases of their life. Produced objects leave their manufacturers to begin a life as commodity. The images of ships at the harbor are replaced with an empty bay.
We aren't a ship per say, but this is the beginning of fractals, which is pretty new for all of us involved. For many of us, games writing has been something of a struggle to understand a place within. Learning how to land a pitch, what audience is interested in your point of view, where you can find a community of writers to fit in with, and what you even have to say is much harder to comprehend than it initially seems. On top of this all, the protections for games writers is fairly abysmal. Over the past 5 years we saw the rise of multiple writers unions for media editorial employees. Nevertheless, many of the freelancers who make up the games writing field are constantly left out in the ocean with only a lifebuoy to reach their destination.
With fractals we aren't trying to leave our other writing jobs; after all, we aren't making any money from doing this (yet—please subscribe to us). However, we are trying to imagine something different, something that can be better. We hope fractals can be a space that writers are able to write about what they care about without pushing against the forces of the current culture which have prevented us from doing the work that we love doing. We want fractals to be a space that cares about the ethics of writing about media and those who are writing about it.
That's our departure, and that is our beginning. To begin a move away from something we all have felt is constrictive with hope that we can start imagining something new.
For this first week of Medusa's Laugh, we have put together a playlist of beginnings and departures. Some of these are directly referencing our theme, whereas others we felt are essential to our own beginning. We hope you find inspiration in them as much as we have.
Playlist
See You Space Cowboy - yeule
Kaze no Ne / Morning Sky - Samantha Ballard
Waking Up - Kero Kero Benito
Cookie Scene - The Go! Team
Karma Is a Witch - Alice Longyu Gao
Neither Her Nor There - tobi lou
Everyday, Everynight - Anamanaguchi, Planet 1999
Icebreaker - Cowgirl Clue
Plans - Kate NV
First Light - Makoto Matsushita
Living My Life Over - Cecile Believe
In Your Own Sweet Way - Wes Montgomery
Games writing
JRPG Openings and the Call to Adventure | Into The Spine
Tonya Penningston examines the moment a hero knows they must abandon their own world and travel into a new one.
"Remember, there are verifiably mountains of valuable work that gets passed over by the game industry, “game journalism,” and most importantly, in my opinion, our extant game history. Historicizing is a pressing area of organization that cannot be conventionally be paid for in games. When it comes to issues of game preservation and historicization, a kind of work for which there is no paid alternative, should we just let the market sort it out? Excuse me, but I have to mark down a fuck no."
We Keep Having The Same Video Game Arguments And It's Driving Me Bonkers
Heather Alexandra writes about the cyclical nature of video game arguments.
What Have We Gotten From Four Years of Politically Engaged Games Commentary? - Emilie M. Reed
Em Reed looks at the past four years of games writing and how its curation of topics have left the practice dwindling. As they conclude, "The time for making alternatives is, imo, now and always."
Letters with John Sharp: Inter-generational conflict in games
Mattie Brice and John Sharp talk about generational differences in games.
"Whatever the crowd was about to see, it would revolutionize the world of gaming. Certainly, the industry would be profoundly disrupted by whatever groaned behind the iron grate. It’s hard to say what the Machine really feeds on. Throwing money at it engorges it but it doesn’t sate it. Only the men with the clipboards and nervous looks of perpetual consternation knew how much money had been thrown at it."
Well Played: Battle Royale - Real Life
Vicky Osterweil writes about how video games reproduce the oppressive conditions of capitalism and its class structure.
Stephanie writes about the discomfort of the League of Legends champion Seraphine uncomfortably resembling themselves.
The Thin Blue Webline: Spider-Cops Are Bastards | Sidequest
Nola investigates Spider-man's relationship to the police as an institution of violence in the 2018 video game.
James Frierson deconstructs the "magic" of video game production, a veil protecting corporations for criticism for their abusive workplace practices.
Divest from the Video Games Industry!
This is one of the quintessential pieces for imagining a new future of video games. Marina Kittaka highlights many of the industry's problems and possible solutions we can work towards.
Getting High Off Your Own Supply
Liz Ryerson discusses her beginnings and exist in the last decade of games. "The 2010's were a decade where corporations were able to profit off our diminishing material possibilities and increasing distrust of authority and sell it back to us as empowerment. The 2010's were a decade where people in power were able to stir up constant chaos and panic as a way to make the public feel like their actions didn't matter to a degree that we'd never experienced before. The 2010's were a decade where the idea of collective struggle, even at the most grassroots level, became a commodity from its very inception because so much public life shifted onto to privately-owned platforms. The 2010's were a decade where activism and popular culture became inextricably tangled up inside each other, and all culture became defined by a search for absolute moral clarity in the midst of a reality that had none."
We Need to Talk About Games Journalism
Grace points out the harm and violence that Games Journalism continues to perpetuate.
Yussef Cole proposes through form how writing is a collaborative process which should give all those involved credit.
The beginning of history in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Autumn Wright discusses the rebuild of history post-post apocalypse in 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim.
Kimimi ponders beginning a journey at the end, and how Phantasy Star IV says goodbye both to its lovable cast and the series' past.
Austin Wintory's Themes are Simple, but Sophisticated
8-Bit Music Theory tackles the work of Austin Wintory, a composer known for his work on Journey and Abzu, particularly looking at our first introduction to these wonderful worlds: the main theme.
Final Fantasy's Prelude is Simply Genius
Game Score Fanfare takes a look at gaming's most iconic prelude, suggesting its success relies on its universal sound and instant familiarity.
Arcade Idea talks about how Adventure looked towards a future of gaming images and objects.
Final Fantasy's Meta-Narrative Proves Video Games' Short Memory | Into The Spine
Grace Benfell goes back to the original Final Fantasy where she finds hope not only for criticism, but for a beautifully imagined future of video games.
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