The Uncomfortable Thoughtlessness of Spider-Man By David Shimomura • October 2nd, 2018 Spider-Man works hard to portray Peter as a guy good, but it fails to find nuance in incarcerated populations, foreigners and the ecosystem of New York itself.
Backlog Shut It Down By Gavin Craig • October 1st, 2018 Gavin Craig talks about how institutions are just that: institutions. And they can overstay their usefulness.
Exploits Feature “This is America” Parodies By Amanda Hudgins • October 1st, 2018 “This is America” has been made into a dire warning for more than just the United States.
Feature Excerpt Your Hands Are Always Tied By Adam Goodall • September 27th, 2018 A card game wrestles with the darker side of the clothing production and its own mission to change how players see the world.
Bullets are the Pennies By Levi Rubeck • September 27th, 2018 Destiny 2 is penny slots, a string of tiny thrills occasionally punctuated with glowing ones.
The Harmful Misconceptions Behind We Happy Few By Alyse Stanley • September 25th, 2018 Compulsion Games’ recent release rebukes psychiatric drugs in its attempt to build a commentary around them.
The Donner Party By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • September 25th, 2018 Chow down on a feast of facts about the Donner Party!
Choreomania By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • September 18th, 2018 Dance, dance, dance until you collapse, collapse, collapse.
Unwinnable Monthly – September 2018 By Stu Horvath • September 17th, 2018 September is here, and so is the new issue of Unwinnable Monthly. Find out what is behind the cover…
Go Read DED LED By Amanda Hudgins • September 12th, 2018 This isn’t a eulogy, mostly because I doubt I would be the person to write such a thing and also because how can something actually be lost when the heart of it, the writers who crafted remarkable work and who I respect so terribly much, still exists.
The Gay Normalcy Fantasy By Jeremy Signor • September 12th, 2018 Sometimes we just want to escape into a power fantasy. For many gay people, there’s power in the fantasy of normalcy.
Another Look The Grandeur of Overwatch League’s Grand Finals By Yussef Cole • September 11th, 2018 An arena’s gravitas and a bit of Blizzard showmanship make OWL feel like a real sporting event
The Blood Countess Elizabeth Bathory By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • September 11th, 2018 This week’s Notorious Narratives exhumes the mystery of the Blood Countess.
Aretha Franklin and the Price of Excellence By Malindy Hetfeld • September 10th, 2018 I was punished for telling my high school music teacher to take Aretha Franklin’s name out of his undeserving mouth.
Episode 1: The Catacombs of Paris By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • September 4th, 2018 Deep beneath the beautiful and historic streets of Paris lies the Empire of Death.
Episode 2: Shanghai Tunnels of Portland By Jen Sisco and Robin Mazzolla • September 4th, 2018 Beneath the city streets of Portland, Oregon, lies a secret system of tunnels that led from many of the most notorious brothels and bars to the waterfront…
Documentary Sunday The Rachel Divide By Megan Condis • August 31st, 2018 In the wake of current events, we might ask why Netflix thought that pulling Rachel Dolezal back into the spotlight was a good idea at all.
Collision Detection Whether its NFL or RPG, A Party Trumps Its Players By Ben Sailer • August 30th, 2018 How communities and players lose sight of the people behind their beloved teams.
Documentary Sunday Won’t You Be My Neighbor? By Megan Condis • August 24th, 2018 How do we teach kids about the complicated modern topics that throw even grown-ups for a loop? This looks like a job for Mr. Rogers.
Feature Excerpt Climbing the Virtual Mountain By Rowan Evans • August 23rd, 2018 When rendered in videogames, a mountain becomes more than an obstacle. They’re living sites, where introspection, healing and learning take place.
Rookie of the Year Snake Vs. Writer’s Block By Matt Marrone • August 22nd, 2018 Some people have real addictions. Some succumb to them. I’m terrified of developing a real addiction because I can’t shake Snake Vs. Block.
Checkpoint The Blind God By Corey Milne • August 21st, 2018 God of War is just the latest example of how outside narratives are at the mercy of the established Western studios.
This Mortal Coyle Spyro the Dragon By Deirdre Coyle • August 20th, 2018 Spyro the Dragon’s thwarted vacation helped fuel the escape from my own.
Feature Excerpt Never Alone Again (Digitally) By Gavin Craig and David Wolinsky • August 20th, 2018 Meditations and musings on the lack of solitary videogame experiences, and what that might mean.
The McMaster Files The Deal By Jason McMaster • August 14th, 2018 New life in the McMaster household brings with it a somber remembrance of friends past.
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 The In-game Museum By Daniel Fries • July 26th, 2018 Devoid of physical limitations, games examine what museums represent and what they soon could be.
Feature Excerpt Skin Deep By Malindy Hetfeld • July 25th, 2018 For a modern racial allegory, David Cage repeats a lot of history’s mistakes
Florence and Collaborative Play By Daniel Schindel • July 13th, 2018 This was a deeper connection; the two of us were actively involved in an act of creation, the kind of authorship of a story that only a video game can provide.
The Heavy Pour Our Town By Sara Clemens • July 13th, 2018 Nothing says summer like mystery, and the point-and-click adventure Unforseen incidents stirs up half-remembered recollections of murder cases and childhood towns.
Mixed CDs, Stolen By Amanda Hudgins • July 13th, 2018 14 disks in their slimline cases, carefully handwritten descriptions of each song — no more than 2 per artist. 100 songs.
Feature Excerpt Remembering Doom on SNES By Ben Sailer • July 12th, 2018 Doom for the Super Nintendo was an incredible feat of technical trickery. It’s also my favorite game of all time that I never want to play again.
Rookie of the Year Finding the Holy Grail. Again. By Matt Marrone • July 6th, 2018 The folk rock band The Innocence Mission has faded into obscurity, but its small, cult-like following continues to do some crazy things in the name of fandom. Or maybe it’s just me.
Documentary Sunday Instrumental Intimacies: An Interview with Dr. Melissa Littlefield By Megan Condis • July 3rd, 2018 Melissa Littlefield, the author of Instrumental Intimacies: EEG Wearables and Neuroscientific Control, talks with Megan Condis about fashion technologies that can read our minds.
The Ticking Clock in Cultist Simulator By Bill Coberly • July 2nd, 2018 Cultist Simulator is about starting a cult, but it functions as a metaphor for a creative person struggling to keep their head above water while making time for the art that makes their life worthwhile.
Backlog Backlog: Unpacking By Gavin Craig • July 1st, 2018 Relocating to a new home can be difficult. Everything you know and love packed away into neat little boxes. Be isn’t it natural; after all, as Gavin Craig puts it, it’s where we all end up anyway.
What Shone at E3 2018 Despite…E3 2018 By Davis Cox • June 26th, 2018 Is there anything inspiring, anything creative, anything wonder-inducing to be found at E3 2018? Let’s see.
Feature The Origins of Assassin’s Creed By Yussef Cole • June 26th, 2018 Yussef Cole explores the complex relationship between Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Egypt and blackness.
God of War & the Lessons of an Undocumented Immigrant By Marcos Gonsalez • June 25th, 2018 For my father, my Kratos, my brown Atlas holding up my world, and the world of cookie-cutter America so dependent on his labor, his exhaustion, his life energy itself, will be the one I must release on the summit.
Unwinnable Monthly – June 2018 By Stu Horvath • June 18th, 2018 The June issue of Unwinnable Monthly brings you features on Gorogoa, the Blackwell games, the SNES port of Doom and much more!