About Critical Reflection

In a world drowning in noise, Critical Reflection listens for the quiet echoes. Those moments when a video game becomes more than play: a memory, a metaphor, a mirror.

This is an artzine for those who believe games can be poetry and that they carry meaning. That a procedurally generated cave can hold the weight of myth. That a glitch can be a ghost. That getting lost is sometimes not only the point, but the adventure

Here, you’ll find essays, experimental critiques, and video meditations that treat games not as products, but as cultural artifacts; fragile, powerful, and worthy of care. There are no ads. No algorithms. No noise. Just a slow, deliberate exploration of what games can mean.

Thomas Grønvoll is the voice behind the site. A cultural critic, scholar, and policy advisor, he has helped shape Norway’s national strategies on video games and established Spillaben, a DKS initiative exploring how games speak to young audiences as art. He has curated conferences, collaborated with legends, and supported game creators through his work at the Western Norway Film Fund.

But this space is personal. It’s written in the margins of a full-time life; between grant deadlines and bedtime stories for his five-year-old twins. It’s a place to think, to wander, and to remember why we fell in love with games in the first place.