Towards a New Language For Game Criticism

Wired contributor Annalee Newitz talks on Underwire today about the need for a new language with which to describe video game narrative:

The problem is that we're still coming up with accurate ways to describe video game "stories." This sounds a little nuts until you consider that it wasn't until the 1940s – roughly 45 years after the first films were shown publicly – that critics and filmmakers fully realized the potentials of this new medium. A French film magazine,
Cahiers du Cinema, brought to 1950s audiences a whole new vocabulary for talking about film, including the idea of a mise en scene, which refers to the design composition of a particular shot.

Newitz' upcoming interview with game designer/novelist Austin Grossman promises more on this subject. I'll link it when it's up.

No Language For Video Games? [Underwire]