Unwinnable Monthly – December 2020

This is a reprint of the letter from the editor in Unwinnable Monthly Issue 134. You can buy Issue 134 now, or purchase a monthly subscription to make sure you never miss an issue!

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Hi folks. Quite a year, huh? Let’s start winding it down with the last Unwinnable Monthly of 2020.

First off, fresh off November’s Artist Spotlight, we’re psyched to have Michael Hsiung back and doing the honors on our cover. That’d be for Caroline Delbert’s monster feature on firewatching, Firewatch and a friend who became a firewatcher after playing Firewatch. Wild.

Our second feature is about masculine bodies in videogames, specifically Assassin’s Creed II, by Zsolt David. This month’s sponsored feature is a pretty swell chat with Doc Burford about the forthcoming game Adios, a game about the illicit uses of pig farms. Finally, last month’s cover artist Johan Nohr sits himself in the Artist Spotlight.

The columns are no less stacked. Noah Springer skips album recommendations this month in favor of a killer interview with Zach Schonfeld, author of a new book about the unfairly forgotten funk and soul band 24-Carat Black. Harry Rabinowitz also skips his usual recommendation, instead using his space to perform a post-mortem on his first year as a bookseller specializing in comics. Oluwatayo Adewole goes to Germany to take in Aguirre, Wrath of God and Wings of Desire. Amanda Hudgins explains the fanfic phenomenon of rarepairs.

Diego Nicolás Argüello compares the long miserable slog of existing through 2020 to the long miserable slog of playing The Banner Saga. Deirdre Coyle goes to Monster Camp and gets sweet on a goth witch (no surprise there). Melissa King appreciates Fischl from Genshin Impact. Ben Sailer checks out a game that inoculates players against coronavirus misinformation. Matt Marrone appreciates Phoebe Bridgers’ all-year-long skeleton costume.

Yussef Cole takes a close look at Umurangi Generation. Autumn Wright feels the first wind of winter. Justin Reeve examines the really weird architecture of the Gone Home house. Finally, Rob Rich says “fuck it” and deletes his YouTube channel.

Look for our best of 2020 lists right after Christmas and the first Exploits of a new and hopefully better year on January 2. Have a happy holiday if that’s your thing and if not, Unwinnable is sending our love.

Stu Horvath
Kearny, New Jersey
December 14, 2020