Unwinnable Monthly – September 2018
This is a reprint of the Letter from the Editor from Unwinnable Monthly #107. If you like what you see, grab the magazine for less than ten dollars, or subscribe and get all future magazines for half price.
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Welcome to the September issue!
In our cover story, Davis Cox talks to Sam Farmer, the developer behind the as yet unreleased game Last Life. It is a fascinating look at Kickstarter and its effects on the perception of game development. Our second feature, by Adam Goodall, looks World Factory, a card game about running a clothing factory in China and the crushing economic forces that fuel the clothing industry.
Our regular columnists are also here with their usual diverse mix of topics.
In the wake of the Michigan State University gymnastics scandal, Gavin Craig muses on institutions gone wrong. Meghan Condis chats with archaeologist Andrew Reinhard about the Atari landfill dig and archeogaming. Astrid Bugdor delivers a brutal mix of new metal for your listening pleasure.
To mark the one year anniversary of her column, Deirdre Coyle switches things up and writes about ten videogame characters she never wants to hang out with. Ben Sailer plays Homo Machina, learns about the infographic work of Fritz Kahn and muses on the politics of art. Corey Milne goes on a quiet adventure with Burly Men at Sea.
Matt Marrone wonders what would happen if he was put in the position of being The Running Man. Yussef Cole looks at the spectrum of inter-relationship strife, as depicted in the film We the Animals and in the experience of playing the Overcooked games with his spouse. I finally start to figure out my feelings about the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Sara Clemens single handedly fixes New York City’s mass transit problem in Mini Metro. Rob Rich realizes he should have been more careful when he wished to be a videogame critic. Adam Boffa digs into the film Automata and finds a surprisingly non-human-centric take on artificial intelligence. Rounding things out, we chat with illustrator Sara J. Clement about her art.
In other news, Vintage RPG has started a Patreon. If you dig the work we’re doing on the Instagram and with the podcast, consider joining us!
That’s it for this month! We’ll see you on October 1 with a new issue of Exploits.
Stu Horvath
Kearny, New Jersey
September 14, 2018