Jonathan Blow - Criticism

Criticism

The method of relaying the story in Braid through lengthy sections of on-screen text prompted criticism from several gamers, who labeled these on-screen soliloquies as "ham-fisted", "pretentious dreck", and being "written in that style of a student who has found a thesaurus." Blow addressed this criticism, stating that "I disagree with the use of that word. I don’t think any of my games are “pretentious” because I’m not pretending. I legitimately mean everything that I put into the game. Whether that comes across or not, I don’t know… But what it really comes down to is that some people think, “Games do this sort of thing. They don’t do this sort of thing.” And I think games can do any kind of thing that we want them to do."