Games
Quillette Podcast #179: Racist Orcs, Ableist Adventures, and Non-Binary Monsters: Can ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Survive Wokeness?
Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay talks to psychology professor Christopher J. Ferguson about his newly published academic paper, Are Orcs Racist? Dungeons and Dragons, Ethnocentrism, Anxiety, and the Depiction of ‘Evil’ Monsters.
The Videogame That Takes Us Inside the Hell of a Nazi-Run World
For almost 20 years, Hearts of Iron has been a prominent franchise in the videogame genre known as “grand strategy.” In these games, players don’t command individual characters or armies, but whole nations or even civilizations. In Hearts of Iron, which is now up to its fourth iteration, players
Are Gamer Stereotypes Accurate?
Back in 2014, the term “Gamergate” swarmed into public consciousness as major news outlets picked up the story of harassment of women—including developers, journalists, and fans—in the games industry. The Gamergate phenomenon began with concerns among some gamers that conflicts of interest between games journalism and the games
Goa, Gods, Gandhi and Greed: Lessons in Colonialism from Four Boardgames
It’s an eight-and-a-half-hour drive from Toronto to Indianapolis. And the route, which takes me through Sarnia, Detroit, Toledo and Fort Wayne, is far from scenic. But Gen Con is the biggest boardgame convention in North America, and there’s no direct flight between the two cities. Which is why,
Entering the Mind of an Inuit Whale-Hunter
This is a review of the Greenland (Second Ed.) Board Game, from Sierra Madre Games. A bowhead whale is a majestic and intimidating creature—up to 60 feet in length, weighing up to 100 tons, with a triangular hunk of bone for a skull, which the bowhead uses to smash
