The Sunday Papers
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Sundays are for discovering in-shower moisturiser and feeling more powerful than ever. Before you pat yourself dry, let's read this week's best writing about games.
For Polygon, Tasha Robinson asks: "What happened to Shrek's laser-eyes?". And for more Shrek-related specials, Polygon's got a whole section on the ogre.
Original Shrek smells so bad that trees lean away from him as he goes by, and he’s so ugly that he can cook food just by glaring at it, with an eye-laser effect that looks exactly like a colored-pencil version of Superman’s heat vision. Shrek also breathes fire and blows smoke out of his ears for fun. For him, being hideous isn’t just a lifestyle, it’s a literal superpower. Steig never describes him as an ogre in the book — he could just be an unusually repugnant human with mysterious eartennae, or he could represent his own unique species. (His parents are snaggle-toothed, patchy-haired critters with pastel skin, but they have normal ears.) Regardless, though, he’s definitely a monster.
Over on Vice, Patrik Klepek talks to the designer of VVVVVV and Dicey Dungeon about how they fell in love with Roblox.
"I'm really fascinated with the way that Roblox is its own totally isolated games culture," said Cavanagh, "like it's some ancient, deep lake that's been cut off from the rest of games for some reason."
For Medium, Jay Dragon writes a dozen fragments on playground theory.
I hate when games try and tell me what counts as playing them. Like when I sit down and I pull out a Powered By The Apocalypse game and it tells me that play is a conversation that is periodically interrupted by moves. Bitch how do you know that, you don’t know me! [laughs] But seriously, I think a lot of modern games assume all the players have the energy to be hyper-engaged and hyper-invested in the game mechanics, and I’m not sure that has to be true. Maybe I want to explore a game without having to think about fictional triggers or make big decisions. Aren’t I still playing, even if I’m just vibing?
For Harper's Magazine, Barrett Swanson spent some time with influencers at their content houses. This really is one of the funniest - and saddest - things I've read in a while.
Now, on the pool deck, the boys tussle and roughhouse with the zeal of Labrador puppies, slugging each other lovingly in the shoulders and then retreating with giggles like ninnies. As one boy gets chased, he shrieks, “Yo, bro, bro! I was just kidding!” They’re so caught up in their own antics that they hardly even notice my presence. In this way, I can float among them like a ghost in a Henry James novel, loitering on the edge of the patio as they arrange a post for Instagram. In some sense, they are like college boys anywhere, except that they live in a seven-thousand-square-foot mansion, a residence whose value is roughly $8 million and whose rent is $35,000 a month—which, it must be said, is more than half of what I make in a year as a tenure-track university professor.
Over on Resident Evil's YouTube channel, they released a "Making of Resident Evil Village" mini-doc and it's a very interesting watch. QA really came through here.
And a little bonus article for you from resident newser Imogen. She looks into the biggest cheating scandal in Trackmania history.
Music this week is quickly, quickly's "Feel". Just a nice injection of happy.
Oh, and The Sunday Papers won't be printed next week as I take some time off. Hey, maybe save some of those Shrek articles?
That's me. Have a solid Sunday everyone!