I feel like I'm reasonably good at picking at a game on the gameplay level, as per what works and does not and why and surface videogame essayist stuff like ludonarrative dissonance (or the rare examples of ludonarrative harmony).
I may offer you my finest insight into video games such as "Lara Croft has some sort of father complex going on" and "Shadow of Chernobyl is unintentionally about life in the collapse of the soviet union" which even by my own admission feels shallow and trite. You watch someone like Jacob Geller or Noah Caldwell-Gervais and they have fascinating things to say even on games you wouldn't expect it, like NCG on Quake.
How do I become that knowledgeable? Interesting? Analytical? about video games?
I can't remember where the saying originated, but the idea was "everything you see in a film (or game) is there for a reason, even if it's an accident". Whatever you see and experience is going to ultimately affect your view of a work
I really enjoy this analysis of media, looking at authorial intent (designer/programmer placing of items or assets to draw the eye, to inspire an emotion) vs diegetic intent (why did the wizard shop display the item like this 🤔), and filling the gaps
Yeah, it’s kinda more material, but also a lot of more symbolic analysis flows from this. while redditors can argue about curtains, they do obviously say something about author themselves, i wouldn’t mention curtains in describing room at all, but rather colors and textures of walls and floors, it doesn’t matter author thinks it’s perfectly normal to mention them, it still says something that they are there