A Serious Defender of Video Games
Via Oregon Live:
"It's no easy thing to make a living as a critic of anything, but video-game criticism may be the least remunerative of all. Count off the number of people of your acquaintance inclined to read criticism at all; chances are lean they will be the same people in your life as the ones playing video games."
It's possible to think critically about narrative and aesthetics while controlling the actions of "Red Dead Redemption's" laconic main character, John Marston, but it isn't easy to articulate them while attempting to lasso a few horses.
"There's a sense of fiction in every video game," Bissell says, a deep thought slipping out of his mouth as the rope slips away from the escaping horses. "It creates a world for itself that you want to obey."
…"I'm an Old Media guy," Bissell says. "I don't have a website, I don't Twitter, I love magazines, yet I love video games. It's a strange disconnect."
