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Novel Gamer - Chris

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Today Chris is:

I write stories to say what I think about games, for me it's the only way I can really communicate what I feel about them. Do you ever have a response to something that's hard to put into words? I find that sometimes I have something to express that can't be communicated by trying to explain how I feel, directly.

Often when we criticise games, films or stories we focus on technical areas: control, visuals, atmosphere, pacing and characters. I find that my personal responses aren't always defined by the sum of a games parts and I don't believe yours are, either.

I like stories. GamePeople is all about personal accounts from niche perspectives. I believe that we understand the world better through allegory: the telling of a story which explains something using a fictional example.

I also think people like to be told an entertaining story. There is a narrative in all of our heads which drives us when we play games. I just don't think it's always the narrative the game's creator's had in mind.

Jonathan Swift, H.G. Wells, George Orwell, William Gibson - these are the voices I grew up with and who taught me to look at the world through a broken window pane. Different angles, separated into artificially self-contained views on a part of the world.

So when you come with me on a journey to look at a game you will often find two perspectives:

There's a critical response, to be sure; as one gamer to another I'm always happy to share my feelings about what I feel works in a game and what doesn't.

There's also the flipside response: the narrative the game takes on in my head when I think about it; the story which I want to tell you about how the game makes me feel.

I hope they are entertaining, entertaining and amusing as stories in themselves. I also hope you find them an enlightening and tangential route into a new gaming experience.

Here are my game reviews.

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With so many different perspectives it can be hard to know where to start - a little like walking into a crowded pub. Sorry about that.

But so far we've not found a way to streamline our review output - there's basically too much of it. So, rather than dilute things for newcomers we have decided to live with the hubbub while helping new readers find the columnists they will enjoy.

What sort of gamer are you?

Our columnists each focus on a particular perspective and fall into one of the following types of gamers: