This article explores comparative criticism and videogame software development
through thef igure of the bricoleur, the handyman who assembles units of preexisting
meaning to form new structures. An intersection of these two domains -- what the author calls comparative videogame criticism --suggests a more intimate interrelation between criticism and production. The author offers a critique of functionalist approaches to videogame analysis and argues instead for a comparative analysis of the expressive capacity of games and how they relate to other forms of human production.

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An expanded version of this argument appears in my book Unit Operations.