About This Blog

The Vinrafel Gaming blog is a blog focused around video game reviews and critical analysis. Reviews are posted on at least a weekly basis while the analytical pieces will come out as I have them prepared. I am trying to take a more intellectual and structured approach towards gaming and its various aspects.

The Goal

The goal of this blog is to view games as the artistic pieces that they are. To do so, my work seeks to take a more critical and in-depth approach to reviewing game, uncovering various aspects of gaming, and approaching games as narrative pieces as much as they are gameplay pieces. Video games do not need to be proven to be art because they already are. What is needed now is an audience that is willing to examine games the way that other art forms are examined.

The Format

In order to succeed at the goal of this blog, there are three things that must be done.
  1. The first is to engage in critical review that do not just tell the reader what the game is, but also why certain aspects did well or poorly.
  2. The second is to discover the various mechanisms that are necessary to really understand what a game is trying to convey. To this end, theoretical pieces are devised to focus on specific elements within games.
  3. The final thing that must be done is to apply the theoretical concepts to games through in-depth examination of different works.
In doing all of these, the analysis that is created through this blog will (hopefully) begin to view gaming as the artistic system that it is.

About Me

I am Vinrafel from the Vinrafel Gaming Youtube channel and blog. I won't say how long I've been doing this because then I would have to update this all the time. What a pain that would be.
Outside of gaming, I have a bachelors of arts in English Literature from the University of New Hampshire, I was a professional chef for six years, practice HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), and am moving into the publishing industry.

I can only hope that, as we delve into gaming more deeply, we will reveal the true extent to which the interactive arts can be used as a means of artistic expression. Even if we don't get get quite that far, I'm sure we'll make some headway.

As always, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day.

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