Mik Deitz

“How many of these gentle people have I helped to kill just by paying my taxes?" June Jordan, 1984

It will never not be true that one of the best ways to improve as a writer or a critic is to read A Lot. And not just your field. Be curious. It's so beautiful to be able to make connections but also give yourself a broad base of connections to make!

due to shenanigans, i have to go through the State Department if i ever want to amend my birth certificate. which, at this point, means it’ll just never happen!

*nods furiously, takes notes*

Cat’s out of the bag: I reviewed Resident Evil Requiem.

What did I think? Maybe give that there link a click and see for yourself:

www.startmenu.co.uk/home/review-...

literally the example i was talking about among games friends. thank you for voicing the voiceless

The Recovering by Leslie Jamison, a touchstone about addiction and alcoholism and the narratives we tell about abuse and recovery. it’s so good

but Joshua, context certainly can’t matter in games.

i get the impulse here, i really do but also sometimes second guessing things — especially if you feel it will make you smart or deep — is good. much love to the writer but sometimes writers are wrong.

editors exist to keep writers from putting their foot in their mouths and hanging their ass out of their trousers.

sometimes discourse can be avoided, y’know

i think editors are more important than writers

the benefits of being a pico-influencer who loves having loud opinions, especially against takes that make me feel like i’m having a stroke reading them

comparing game embargoes to film criticism is wild too. no film company has ever said “hey, you can only talk up until the end of act one.”

developers ask too much and it often harms criticism. the best games writing comes out months later, when the art object can be viewed in entirety.

on the topic of embargoes, remember when TLOU II reviewers couldn’t write about Abby or the San Diego chapter? you can’t just “derive meaning from the whole” if you can’t discuss large, thematically resonant portions of a game.

it’s one thing to talk shop about CEOs, it’s another to treat them like besties who want the best for their companies and the industry writ large. they want money, stock, and prestige.

maybe let’s turn our friendship with corporations into critical thinking about consumer/dev protection?

arguably the most successful game exec, a man who tries to sue college papers and is in the Epstein files multiple times. weak ass man whose success relied on exploiting gamers and devs alike. let’s make more of him! (not Joshua’s point, i’m aware)

nuance? in this economy? less likely than you’d hope (i agree and think we need to start perhaps teaching people how to report, a skill that’s in very high demand with no pathway for newcomers)

honestly this conflation happens for most media, and it’s a hard one for me because i’m not breaking stories or writing news daily, but i often integrate research and reportage into my criticism. one could argue that’s just being a well informed critic, and i’d accept that.

The humble tomato

this might be controversial but I love playing good video games and talking about them with my friends

i’m pretty sure i’m objectively correct when i (a former Nintendo magazine editor here) say:
1) A Link Between Worlds
2) The Wind Waker
3) Twilight Princess

Botw/TotK are a solid number 4. will i return to them as much as these three? probably not! damn good games though

inspired by Jacob Geller’s half joking post and Patrick H Willems’ video on “Games as Cinema,” any chance anyone would let me explain why video games are actually books? anyone wanna pay me for this? i already wrote a good portion of this for my dissertation. let me put my masters to use, please!

i wanna remind everyone that Satya Nadella feeds podcasts he likes into Co-Pilot so he can “have a conversation” rather than listen, and has admitted to being unable to do his job without Co-Pilot’s help as a digital secretary. this man is the CEO of one of the largest tech companies ever.

everyone’s lives would be so much better. if we could fix the pooled same five dollar dilemma, imagine the work and stability that could exist in the world.

i think it’s incredible you can pay what you do. when I ran a site, I paid for 16 or so pieces essentially out of pocket, and it was far less than i wanted to pay. truly if i won the lottery or found buried treasure, I’d start a site for trans media criticism and pay WELL and OFTEN

i wish we could go back to the days where a wealthy benefactor could help lift up an entire art scene because they
just liked what was happening.

someone fund my writing! fund my publication ideas! fund galleries and open mics! please

art is so cool man

i remember Obama being sworn in, and my third grade teacher sitting us all down to watch the inauguration because it was historic. two years later all the rural dipshits from my hometown we’re parroting their parent’s conservative hate.

that’s absolutely why he speaks at the NBA All-Star game and still releases his Best in Year art lists. he’s a guy these people wanna grab a beer with — he can’t be terrible controller of the American machine!!

i find it funny (and upsetting) that the Obama-era ethos of hope falls apart with literally any scrutiny or thought — drone strikes and deportations happened en masse, Ferguson, Treyvon Martin — but it wasn’t *as* bad or blatant so people cling to it like some golden era of goodness

i really think, for Americans, it has to do with releasing before the 2016 election time nexus that we still live in and how its design ethos, from characters to modes to loot boxes, emblematizes the player/consumer-friendly aspirations as aligned with Obama-era hope in institutions doing any Good.