Exploits 2010 – 2019 By Stu Horvath • December 1st, 2020 Do not party like it’s 2019. Wear masks. Be socially distant. Stay home.
2800 words on Ready Player Two By Amanda Hudgins • November 30th, 2020 The weirdest thing about Ready Player Two is that it decides to confront the criticisms of Ready Player One head on in the least effective way you could imagine.
genre fiction by people who aren’t cis white dudes By Amanda Hudgins • November 25th, 2020 Every few years there’s a push for people to read more books by writers who are not white or writers who are not male or writers who are not cis-gendered or Western.
Strong Openers By Amanda Hudgins • November 17th, 2020 A good opening line is like the sound of opening a can of soda on a hot day, it’s a promise of things to come.
Lankhmar By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • September 21st, 2020 This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we walk the shadowy streets of Lankhmar: City of Adventure, one of the greatest RPG city sourcebooks.
Midnight Sun is a Mistake By Amanda Hudgins • August 17th, 2020 Midnight Sun, the 2020 follow-up to the Twilight series, was a mistake.
Three Hearts and Three Lions By Stu Horvath and John McGuire • August 17th, 2020 Travel through time to World War II, then travel through time again to the age of Charlemagne, and learn the secrets of the knight of three hearts and three lions.
Self Insert Quarantine Fics By Amanda Hudgins • August 10th, 2020 When the entire world is on lockdown, even alternate universes start hitting closer to home.
The Case Against Reality By James K. Anderson • July 27th, 2020 Is human perception akin to a species-specific user interface?
Rookie of the Year America is Under the Dome By Matt Marrone • July 8th, 2020 Watching what feels like an endless newsfeed of new acts of police brutality every day, Matt can feel the Dome closing in.
Self Insert No Beta We Die Like Men By Amanda Hudgins • July 8th, 2020 Readers never know what they’re going to get with this tag. It may be a warning, but it’s not always deserved.
Experiencing World War Z During a Pandemic By Evan Dennis • June 26th, 2020 World War Z suddenly feels extremely relevant.
I Did an Asian Readathon and Whoops Now I’m Into MDZS By Amanda Hudgins • June 15th, 2020 This year for May, I decided to participate in #AsianReadathon, a reading event sponsored by the only booktuber I follow readwithcindy.
No Accounting for Taste Beyond the Farthest Shores By Adam Boffa • June 10th, 2020 Ursula K. Le Guin leaves no stone in Earthsea unturned, even when that means challenging her own history.
Rookie of the Year The New York Times Bestseller List, July 25, 2021 By Matt Marrone • May 9th, 2020 If we make it through all this craziness, Matt predicts that next summer’s must-reads will definitely have a running theme.
1983 and the Future of Videogame Writing By Levi Rubeck • May 7th, 2020 Levi turns back the clock on videogame crit.
In the Business of Adaptation By Amanda Hudgins • April 13th, 2020 A faithfulness to a format that is no longer consistent with the product that you’re making is worshiping at the ground of a false idol.
Towards a Carrier Bag Theory of Videogames By Edwin Evans-Thirlwell • March 23rd, 2020 Applying the lessons of Ursula K Le Guin’s criticism to the art of videogame storytelling.
Best of 2019 The Best Books of 2019 By Team Unwinnable • December 26th, 2019 An idiosyncratic but earnest selection of the reads we considered most worth our time.
Backlog Repeating Being By Gavin Craig • August 9th, 2019 Gavin muses about repetition while he muses about repetition while he muses about….
Boss Fight vs. KotOR By Elijah Beahm • April 23rd, 2019 Elijiah Beahm reads the latest from Boss Fight Books.
Rookie of the Year The Half-Baked Book Review: 1Q84 By Matt Marrone • April 12th, 2019 Matt Marrone had a brilliant idea for a series: Reviews of half-read books. Written for parents of small children.
The Burnt Offering Metal is My Church By Stu Horvath • April 4th, 2019 Stu Horvath ponders the alchemy behind taste as he reconsiders a “cheeseball” artist from his nascent metal education.
Never is that Brief Flash Resented By Levi Rubeck • March 14th, 2019 When a relationship is sent crashing, the unmoored self can be so easily thrashed upon the rocks—it’s necessary to reaffirm that sense of self, to rejoin that once-blended ego.
The Real Dr. Frankensteins By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • February 12th, 2019 First there was Frankenstein, there there were the scientists inspired by Frankenstein.
Backlog The Stiff Brown Cloth in Which the Knife is Kept By Gavin Craig • February 9th, 2019 Knowing a fable’s end first can change its meaning. Especially when you remember endings are things of fiction.
Exploits Feature Opening Statement By Gavin Craig • February 1st, 2019 We experimented with a different format for this issue of Exploits. Gavin Craig explains.
Making Mulaka – Adventures in Not Making a Game By Malindy Hetfeld • January 28th, 2019 Making Mulaka, a book released through Select Start Press is a about a group of people and their journey to make a game.
Backlog Resolution State By Gavin Craig • November 9th, 2018 With most videogames having half-baked conclusions when they don’t continue on indefinitely, Gavin Craig asks: Can you even have a story without an ending?
The Burnt Offering Binge Reader By Stu Horvath • October 29th, 2018 There are many books sitting on my shelves that I have read in a single sitting. I can’t tell you a single thing about most of them. Re-read responsibly, kids.
A Criticism of Adequacy By Levi Rubeck • October 18th, 2018 Katamari Damacy blindsided videogames with style and simplicity, imploding the paradigm of violence for a brief, fantastic moment.
Rookie of the Year The Running Matt By Matt Marrone • September 25th, 2018 Matt Marrone muses where he’d escape to if faced with the dilemma of Stephen King’s The Running Man.
The Burnt Offering Dungeons & Dragons Is a Double-Edged Sword By Stu Horvath • August 15th, 2018 Dungeons & Dragons is the gateway into tabletop roleplaying, but for many players, it is also the final destination.
Procreation of the Wicked By Astrid Budgor • August 10th, 2018 “They rip him apart as he grins, nerve-endings aflame with the liquor of pain, finally accepting an eternity of obliterative bliss.”
Another Look Hood Cyberpunk By Yussef Cole • August 7th, 2018 Cyberpunk stories don’t generally want, or need, to change society. It seems, rather, that they’re perfectly content partying in the rubble.
Feature Excerpt A New York Adventure By Alyssa Hatmaker • July 12th, 2018 The Blackwell Convergence captures the ambiance and rumble of “old” New York as it tells the story behind one author’s decades-long writer’s block.
Losing a Friend You Never Met By Blake Hester • June 8th, 2018 I kept getting excited reading it, thinking maybe soon he’d put out another book. It felt like getting excited for your friends’ bands – you know, the actual good ones – to put out new albums
Epistolary Voicemail By Levi Rubeck • May 31st, 2018 Enjoying a recent New Yorker online poetry experiment where Natalie Diaz and Ada Limón are explicitly communicating with each other, and we are shepherded on the atmosphere that extends between them.
Poetry at the Crossroads of Self and State By Levi Rubeck • May 23rd, 2018 Sharif, an American poet whose parents were exiled from Iran, is taking stock of her homes and houses in this and all of her work
