The video game critic (and, breathe easy, the literary critic), by contrast, suddenly finds a near-captive audience that is, once Netflix has been plundered at least, just maybe willing to give video games a try.įor the next who-knows-how-long, this monthly look at the medium will move to a weekly slot.
As cinemas, theatres, restaurants and concert venues close, and their remaining staff begin the sorrowful work of disinfection and grant application, writers who cover their industries are forced to glumly twirl their pens, waiting. Still, personally speaking, it took a pandemic to appreciate that the video game reviewer is truly the cockroach of arts and entertainment criticism. As a reporter for the Washington Post tweeted in 2017, in reference to the American chatshow host Jimmy Fallon, a keen fan of the medium: “At the heart of any banality is an adult male who plays video games.” But away from the golf course or bridge club, adult play is still viewed, culturally speaking, with suspicion, pity or disdain. Yes, in 2020, millions of thoughtful, otherwise usefully employed people enjoy video games (as well as a fair few thoughtless wastrels too, if Twitter is anything to go by). Anyone who has continued to play video games beyond childhood is used to the name-calling.
