Unwinnable Monthly – December 2018
This is a reprint of the Letter from the Editor from Unwinnable Monthly #110. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe as part of our Holiday Subscription Drive for two bucks and get all the back issues free.
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We made it through another year! Well done, gang.
Let’s get right to it. Our cover story, by Devin Raposo, looks at Fortnite’s 50v50 and some of the unpleasant subtexts lurking beneath the surface. Molly Stanard (last seen on the cover in January, in a nice bookendy bit of kismet) returned to deliver the lovely cover art.
We have two additional features this month. Ryan Cooper looks at Tabletop Simulator and how it is a tool for board game piracy. David Wolinsky also returns, this time from foreign lands, for an impression piece with cosplayer Tali XOXO on GX, a gaming expo in Kuwait.
Gavin Craig ponders souls, morality and . . . sigh . . . Mass Effect’s Legion (wasn’t that Mass Effect theme issue supposed to get all this out of our systems?). Megan Condis ponders the nostalgia for the Power Glove, thanks to the documentary The Power of Glove (oh god, I just realized that was a pun). Astrid Budgor (who is our new Senior Editor and thus, second in command of the magazine – give her a warm welcome, folks) switches things up this month and collects the best metal albums she missed earlier in the year.
Alyse Stanley chronicles the history of ASCII bunny memes. Deirdre Coyle turns pyro and hangs out with Willow from Don’t Starve. Ben Sailer looks at the way videogame marketing has changed over the years from combative to weirdly polite. Corey Milne, after months of searching, finds a kind of absolute solitude in Duskers.
Matt Marrone picks his favorite album of the year (not metal). Yussef Cole draws a fascinating comparison between the decadent rot in both The Favourite and Bloodborne. Of all the things I could talk about in Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, I decide to hone in on the funny way the game pronounces names from Greek mythology.
Meanwhile, Sara Clemens finds cosmic horror in a bar on Route 66. Rob Rich loathes the convention of the near miss. Adam Boffa examines environmental activism as portrayed in First Reformed and Night Moves. Finally, I chat with Seattle artist Kiriska about her beautiful, many-eyed beasts.
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We are currently in the midst of a subscription drive and it would be incredible if you helped spread the word. As you know, subscription dollars help keep us afloat and pay our writers (though, with this drive, we’re hoping to be able to start paying our editors, too). We also have some rewards aside of the usual free back issue archives – 100 new subscribers will get y’all a theme issue dedicated to pets, 200 will get a special fashion issue and, dear god, if we get 150, I will learn to play Overwatch and stream every painful minute of it. Amanda Hudgins, our managing editor, is also doing fun ship art for every 25 new subscribers. You can check out all the details here.
See you in the new year with the next issue of Exploits! In the meantime, on behalf of everyone at Unwinnable, I wish you and yours a happy and peaceful holiday season.
Stu Horvath
Kearny, New Jersey
December 12, 2018
