Postgame.9: What Does It Mean to Play

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Welcome back to Postgame, Sidequest’s monthly podcast, where the editors lay down hot takes on cold games. This month, we decided to compress an undergraduate semester’s worth of discussion into an hour and change with a look into what makes a game a game—and when that took about 30 seconds*, we moved on to discussing what “play” is and what the act of play means to us.

* Just a look!

No timestamps for the games this month, save for one CW for pandemic discussion. Games mentioned, in no particular order:

• Pandemic (CW for discussion of gamified handling of a pandemic!): 53:45 – 54:26
• Candyland
• Field Guide to Memory
• Dungeons & Dragons
• Dream Askew

Pieces we mentioned:

• John Breiger’s thread on Candyland
• REVIEW: Playing Make Believe with Field Guide to Memory
• Interview: Jeeyon Shim and Shing Yin Khor on Connected Path and Keepsake Games
• No Fun: The Queer Potential of Video Games that Annoy, Anger, Disappoint, Sadden, and Hurt
• Belonging Outside Belonging / No Dice No Masters games

Pieces we didn’t mention but you might like:

• Playing to Lose: The Queer Art of Failing at Video Games
• Let Me Tell You About My OC: Elaine Morrigan is Terrible
• I Am Not Playing Variations on Your Body

Theme music is Bass Thee by Alexander Nakarada, used under Creative Commons 0.

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Melissa Brinks

Melissa Brinks is Sidequest’s editor in chief, co-creator of the Fake Geek Girls podcast, author of The Compendium of Magical Beasts, and an aspiring beekeeper. She once won an argument on the internet, and tweets at @MelissaBrinks.