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[We're partnering with game criticism site Critical Distance to present some of the week's most inspiring writing about the art and design of video games from commentators worldwide. This week, Ben Abraham examines discussion of EA's upcoming Dante's Inferno and an analysis of apocalyptic settings for games, among other things.]

SnakeLinkSonic wrote last week about the connection between Star Wars and Metal Gear. You didn’t see that one coming, did you?

You probably also didn’t see Duncan Fyfe returning to video game writing, and with a vengeance, with the writer starting a new series of short stories about games and game culture. High Society is part one, and it’s a must read for anyone interested in the development of serious alternative video game criticism.

The Twitter account ‘veracious_shit’ tweets about Sydney based studio “Team Bondi” and the Duke Nukem Forever sound-a-like story of developing the as-yet unreleased LA Noire. Not particularly verifiable information, but fascinating nonetheless. True Story: I once applied for a job at Team Bondi. I guess they missed out, and by the sound of it I dodged a bullet.

From Matthew Gallant, who sent this last week, ‘Love does not exist’, a long treatise on… all sorts of things over ten years of gaming.

Evan Stubbs writes about ‘Mining your habits for fun and profit’, another piece on digital distribution: 'More than anything else, digital distribution means change. Changes to the way we shop, changes to the way we perceive the goods that we buy, and changes to the way we interact with publishers and distributors.'

Steve Gaynor writes an apologia for the entertainment industries (including gaming), and in the comments has a long and rather entertaining discussion with Braid creator Jonathan Blow.

Elsewhere, Daniel Bullard-Bates considers “Dante’s Inferno: A Failure on Two Fronts” and fellow blogger C.T. Hutt takes a rundown of our favorite videogame enemies, saying: “As gamers we want to square off against the most dangerous prey, humanity, but also want to believe that our characters are the good guys. As such, violence in action games is usually directed at enemies which walk and talk and fight like people, but for whom we feel little pity when blowing away en masse…”

At The Border House, Brinstar asks ‘Do Game Designers Have A Social Obligation?’, starting with a rather strong statement:“We have designed our games to be so inherently fit, muscular, white American, that it’s now an exception and a social point to include people outside our comfort zone.”

In other news, GameSetWatch had an interview with Krystian Majewski this week about his amazing independent photo-based adventure game Trauma.

Chris Lepine at The Artful Gamer releases an audio interview he did with Thatgamecompany co-founder Jenova Chen at GDC 2009. I haven’t listened yet, but with people as smart as Lepine and Chen I feel safe recommending it.

In ‘Zompocalypse Now’, Mike Hanus examines the connection between the western film genre and modern apocalypse films (and by extension, games) suggesting that those like Fallout 3 are a continuation of the western genre. He particularly muses:

“I think that the current surge in apocalyptic movies and games is the second coming of the Western genre, and this accounts for this recent popularity. These games and movies share similar characteristics, they establish a frontier, they create a lawless world and they present the player/viewer with main characters who must create their own law and rules in a world gone half crazy.”

Additionally, Corvus Elrod discusses a particular fascination with the ease of pouncing on and killing guards in Assassin's Creed 2. While on the subject, Richard Clark has some thoughts about the end of that game (with HUGE spoilers), and some of the things its provocative ending says about the audacity of the developers.

Lastly, Create Digital Motion talks about the upcoming GAMMA IV competition in 'Indie Game as Visualist Event: As the Deadline Nears, One Button Inspires'. Since I'm going to be in San Francisco for GDC 2010, I'm definitely going to go to see all these excellent games.

[Another 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards announcement, and I think the Penny Arcade folks are well deserving of accolades, especially given their great work with Child's Play and their genuine, infectious love of gaming in all its forms.]

The 2010 Game Developers Choice Awards have announced that the key figures behind popular webcomic Penny Arcade, the Child’s Play Charity and the Penny Arcade Expo events -- writer Jerry Holkins, artist Mike Krahulik and business guru Robert Khoo -- will be awarded the prestigious Ambassador Award.

The Special Award honors an individual or individuals who have "helped the game industry advance to a better place, either through facilitating a better game community from within, or by reaching outside the industry to be an advocate for video games and help further our art."

It is chosen by the elite Choice Awards Advisory Committee, part of the highest honors in game development acknowledging excellence in game creation, which includes game industry notables such as Ben Cousins (EA DICE), Harvey Smith (Arkane), Raph Koster (Metaplace), John Vechey (PopCap), Ray Muzyka (BioWare), Clint Hocking (Ubisoft), and many others.

Holkins, Krahulik and Khoo will receive their award for their genuine, gamer-friendly empire they've built over the past decade, lovingly skewering video game culture and developers while building up a following, events and an industry-leading video game charity that help epitomize the positive elements of 'gamer spirit'.

Penny Arcade itself began in 1998 when high school friends and life-long gamers Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik began to pen the webcomic, which featured two semi-autobiographical gamers who joked, argued and swooned over all things video gaming. The website soon grew in popularity as gamers spread their favorite comic strips to friends, and the comic garnered a loyal following of like-minded game fans.

After years of financial difficulties, the comic duo met Robert Khoo, who quickly became the team’s business manager, and helped to create a burgeoning empire centered around the comic, which now includes the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a huge bi-annual gathering of gamers that hosts tabletop, console and PC games while celebrating gaming culture.

As well as drawing over 100,000 game-positive geeks to the events in Seattle, Washington and now Boston, Massachusetts every year, the team created the Child’s Play Charity in 2003, leveraging their large fanbase to help support children’s hospitals with games, toys and money. In 2009 alone, the charity raised $1.78 million dollars in donations from gamers and a host of game development and publishing studios. For these community and philanthropic successes, the Penny Arcade team is jointly receiving the Ambassador Award.

"The Penny Arcade crew might be some of the most flippant, adorable game fans out there," says Meggan Scavio, Event Director for GDC. "So obviously, we’re delighted to recognize their efforts in providing a genuine voice and event for gamers, and working with both fans and developers in the Child's Play Charity to raise millions of dollars for a great cause."

The trio will be present to collect the Ambassador Award at this year's Game Developer's Choice Awards ceremony, held immediately following the Independent Games Festival Awards on Thursday, March 11, during GDC 2010 at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center.

Choice Awards organizers have also recently confirmed Valve co-founder Gabe Newell as the recipient of the Pioneer Award, as well as debuting 2010 regular awards finalists led by Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2 and Thatgamecompany's Flower.

For further information about the Choice Awards, please visit the official Game Developers Choice Awards website. For further information about GDC and to register for attendance, please visit the official Game Developers Conference website.

Burlington City Arts and Champlain College are currently running Game (Life), an exhibition/arcade presenting "Video Games in Contemporary Art", at the Firehouse Gallery in Burlington Vermont. The show features titles from almost a dozen indie designers and artists, allowing visitors to play their games for free.

Some of the displayed games include Jonathan Blow's Braid, Jason Rohrer's Passage, Petri Purho's Crayon Physics, Jenova Chen/Thatgamecompany's Flower, Mark Essen's The Thrill of Combat, Paolo Pedercini 's Faith Fighter, and Jakub Dvorsky/Amanita Design's Machinarium.

Starting this Friday, the gallery and Champlain College will also offer a lecture series with several of the featured artists, like Blow, Rohrer, and Randy Smith (Spider: Secret of Bryce Manor). You can read more information about the presentation schedule and the Game (Life) exhibit, which ends on February 13th, at the Firehouse Gallery's site.

[Via Game Culture]

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's semi-regular link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

Well, still catching up on GameSetLinks, and I think these are the final set of links I harvested in 2009 - and a bumper set, too, since you may be almost fed up with last year's best-ofs, even if folks like Tiny Cartridge do it differently and more awesomely than a lot of those pedestrian countdowns.

Also in here - Rock Band Network news, some well-justified love for Wii Sports Resort, news and community games, the Nintendo Fun Club newsletters dissected, a game company layoff chronicle for last year, and rather more things besides.

Publishing platform:

Tiny Cartridge's favorite tiny cartridges of '09 - Tiny Cartridge
One of my favorite sites [DISCLAIMER: Eric co-runs it and co-edits GSW] with a good line-up of the best DS games of the year.

Psychochild’s Blog » Game development according to Cypress Hill
A cute idea.

2009 Job Losses and Studio Closures | indievision
A well-compiled, if depressing list.

Ten Indie Games you SHOULD play » sugarfreegamer.com
Another list, but an interestingly alternative one - semi-via RPS.

The Shins, Ministry, Evanescence Coming to RBN | Plastic Axe | \m/
Have I mentioned that I'm excited about Rock Band Network?

Play This Thing! | The Year In Indie
Some more indie game picks, and therefore eminently worth linking.

Phantom Leap: My GOTY: Wii Sports Resort
'I just want to have some relaxing and rejuvenating fun in front of the TV with friends and family. In this way, I can honestly say that Wii Sports and its sequel have enriched my life.' Agreed.

Local Community Games: Picture the Impossible - News Games: Georgia Tech Journalism & Games Project
Another neat piece on news and community gaming.

Videogame Verse Becomes a Book | Game Culture
Hey, more game poetry, of which there still have been a lot - though recall Seth Barkan's stuff a few years back...

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : The Paper Trail: Nintendo Fun Club News (Part 1)
Another great piece of Cifaldi-authored history.

Some of my favorite video games are the titles that don't actually exist like Montezano's Quest, Diesel Kiss, and anything on the Raroo Fun System. It's even better when those releases manage to escape whatever parallel universe they originated from and appear in our reality in a playable form: Retro Game Challenge, Star Radish, and most recently Dark Void Zero.

The Winchester Cultural Center Gallery in Las Vegas is currently running an exhibit of video games that didn't phase into existence completely intact. The display features seven game boxarts with a large matching black icon painted on a nearby wall, as if blasted into our dimension from a nuclear explosion that disintegrated the cartridges but permanently flashed their silhouettes onto the gallery's walls.

Dreamed up by Michael Baker, an instructor at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, the video games include Smart Storm: Multiplayer Weather Battle!, in which players "paint weather systems directly on the map" to "restore parched land"; The Implosionist, which asks gamers to "analyze and destroy condemned buildings in a dense urban environment"; and Wings of Deceit, a pigeon simulator that offers "the most advanced robotic avian surveillance device in the world".

You can read reviews of the "Flick of the Wrist" show at Las Vegas City Life and Las Vegas Weekly, where I recovered the images for this post. The exhibition opened on December 11th and will run until February 5th, so head to the Winchester Cultural Center now before they blink out of existence, returned to their original universe or timeline.

[Via Game Culture]

Don't have plans yet for tonight or the rest of the holiday weekend? If you're anywhere near Alexandria, VA (several miles away from Washington, D.C.), head over to MAGFest, the four-day Music And Gaming festival. Along with its rooms dedicated to console, tabletop, LAN, and arcade games, the event promises tournaments, auctions, an indie game showcase, and several panels.

MAGFest will bring in game industry legends like Sid Meier, game culture personalities like the Angry Video Game Nerd, and twelve different bands like Metroid Metal. Several chip music performers and VJs will also provide music and entertainment: Animalstyle, Zen Albatross, Enso, No Carrier, and more.

Though the festival formally begins tomorrow, MAGFest is holding a Secret Agent-themed New Year's Eve party starting at 8PM tonight, promising performances by Jake "Virt" Kaufman, Double Ice Backfire, and others. If you haven't pre-registered, you might need a full-weekend badge to get in, but if your James Bond outfit looks super suave, maybe you can charm your way into the guest list.

[GameSetLinks is GameSetWatch's semi-regular link round-up post, culling from hundreds of weblogs and outlets to compile the most interesting longform writing, links, and criticism on the art and culture of video games.]

Continuing the GameSetLinks goodness as the holiday season wanders onward, here's a few new links for your delight and browsing pleasure, including - as a starting points - some good work by Retro Gamer in recapping the history of Crash, a seminal early UK game magazine.

Also in this set of links - ten years of Penny Arcade, Kim Swift looks back on pre-Portal student title Narbacular Drop, an interview with Christian gaming veterans, some NES game covers you might not have seen before, and various other bits of neatness.

Good good:

25 Years of Crash | Official Retro Gamer Blog
The classic UK ZX Spectrum magazine gets interviews, video excerpts - the full thing is in the Retro Gamer mag, but this on its own is great history. (Via Driph.)

Crispy Gamer | Intern for a Day, Vol. 3: Ready at Dawn
'Can Jones get hired by the team behind God of War: Chains of Olympus?' I do think more of these slightly gonzo antics would be nice, in game writing.

Critical Distance | Ten Years of Penny Arcade
Nice, link-filled retrospective on the game culture mavens.

Narbacular Drop Interview | PC | Eurogamer
Totally cute Kim Swift interview from John Walker - more fripperies like this, plz.

The Bottom Feeder: Why the People on Your Side are Always Ripping You Off.
Spiderweb's Jeff Vogel on why you have to pay people to do things in games - v.funny.

Paul McCauley - Genesis Works - Interview - Adventure Classic Gaming
'Heaven is the first adventure game project from Genesis Works and is a literal adaption of Heaven as described in the Bible.'

1UP's Retro Gaming Blog : Lost Levels: The Hidden Gallery of NES Secrets
Frank Cifaldi is showcasing his awesome preservation work on 1UP - bravo to all concerned.