Level 12.3: Critical Analysis

Critical Analysis

I have mentioned before that an important game design skill to have is the ability to critically analyze other people’s games. I think about half of the reason why I am as far along as I am in my career, personally, is that I have the ability to play a game and offer direct constructive feedback that is useful to another designer. My usefulness to designers makes me friends in a lot of places, and I want you to have the same opportunity.

This time, we will follow a process that is a bit different than before. We are going to take off our game designer hats for a moment, and put on our game critic hats.

Review and Critique

We don’t hear the words “game critic” very often. Especially with video games, more often we see “game reviewer.” Review. Critique. Reviewer. Critic. Are these synonyms? What is the difference?

As Costikyan points out, the difference is in the purpose of the writing. In short, a reviewer is aiding the consumer in making a buy-or-don’t-buy decision. A critic is writing about a game and why it is or is not important, or valuable, or what have you. Since we often hear the term “game journalism” as well, I would add that a journalist is writing about news in the field. Thus, a reviewer writing about Settlers of Catan might say that it is an excellent game that you should buy right now; a critic might write of its historical importance in bringing Eurogames to the US, or an analysis of its mechanics and how the game deals with minimizing player downtime, balancing luck and skill to make it accessible to all ages, and so on; and a journalist might write about a new game in the series getting released, or a new publisher getting the rights to the game, or the designer getting married to a famous celebrity, if any of those things ever happened.

For game designers, it is critique that is the most important, because critique can directly inform our present and future designs.

Not all critique falls into this category. A critique of Chess as a patriarchal game that pushes an anti-Feminist agenda would not be particularly useful if you’re just trying to design a compelling strategy game, sans social commentary. But another critique of the same game might speak of the mechanics and dynamics, what is effective and what is not, and how it all fits together to make the kind of game that has persisted for centuries. And that would be quite useful, wouldn’t you say?