What is this blog?
Low Cutoff is a blog for video game criticism and cultural discussion. Video games are a young and increasingly influential art form, and the approach of Low Cutoff is to treat them as such. Writing on Low Cutoff focuses on the whole experience of playing games. How do games intersect with current events? How do you physically play games? What are interesting ways that games break? You can still expect to read writing here about whether game mechanics are executed well or poorly, but it will always be contextualized by how those mechanics color what a game is communicating. The name Low Cutoff doesn't mean one thing in particular, but it stems from the idea that video games are part of "low culture" and typically cutoff from being seriously discussed in "high art" circles.
Who am I?
Hi! My name is Dan Solberg. I'm a writer, a visual artist, and an occasional DJ from St. Louis, Missouri, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Before starting Low Cutoff, I wrote about games on another blog for about 3 years. If I had to pick a favorite game, I'd probably go with Chrono Cross for the PlayStation: JRPG combat that's actually fun, an enrapturing story, maybe the best original score in video game history, and visual design that changed the way I thought about color. In general, my gaming tastes run the gamut from realistic racing sims, to expansive action-RPGs, to competitive puzzlers, to experimental not-games. I'm willing to give a game in any genre a fair shake and enjoy nothing more than having my expectations shattered in a positive way. Oh, and I looove pinball.
I've written for Kill Screen, PopMatters, Unwinnable, re/Action, and Medium Difficulty.
