My last Sunday Sharing of the year (and potentially ever). I’ve got several other blog posts I’d really like to focus on this month, plus I’m considering a more flexible and interesting approach for next year.
As this is the last, I’ve packed this one full of content more in line with the fifth, sixth and eighth editions of this limited series. I hope you find it worth your while.
If all you’re interested in is the list of 10 things I wanted to share from the week, you can skip to the end.
Trying something slightly different for this week’s Sunday Sharing. This post will be longer than October’s lists of 10 things, but if all you want is a list of reading/viewing recommendations then you can skip to the bottom.
Currently, these weekly sharing posts are experiments for me. I want to establish a regular writing habit that has something of value to whoever reads it. I enjoy the lists of 10 format, but I thought I’d revisit the structure of my first newsletter. Whilst I felt it was too long for an email, I figured it might work well for a blog post.
Plus, it would function as a weekly log of my work, which means I’ll actually have to work in order to log it.
As with the last format, it’s subject to change. This is an experiment for me to work out the best way to use this blog. Some might argue it would have been better to work it all out in advance, but I find it’s often difficult to see what’s shit and what’s gold until it’s in front of you. You have to try making something before you can judge if it’s a broken mess.
Razbuten is a YouTuber who posts video essays about video games. He’s talked about why they hate fast travel, how crafting is pointless in some games and how small open-world games feel big, among other topics. However, my favourite videos on his channel are all part of his series Gaming For A Non-Gamer.
One day, his wife — who had not grown up playing video games — asked if she could have a go at one of the games she had seen him play. Like any good content creator, Razbuten saw an opportunity. What better way to understand what gaming is like for someone who does not usually play video games than to see a non-gamer learn in real-time? All he had to do was watch and provide almost no instructions. And so began a series of informal experiments that raised many interesting questions about the language of video games.
John Wesley Stammers 