by Elvie Mae Parian | Mar 1, 2021 | Lists, Roundtables, Video Games
Once upon a time, a naive editor in chief sat down in the Sidequest Slack, gazed upon her writers, and asked, “What, dear friends, is a worthy followup to Witch Moms and Sword Dads? What might we rank, to be referenced for generations to come, that sits on par with those parental figures we love so dearly?” (more…)
Elvie somehow finds bliss in purposefully complicating the art of storytelling and undertaking the painful practice of animation. If you see her on Twitter at @lvmaeparian, she is doing neither of those things. She currently helps with managing the socials to ensure that the secret recipe will never be revealed.
by Melissa Brinks | Nov 30, 2020 | Mobile Games, Roundtables, Tabletop Games, Video Games
Believe it or not, we’ve entered the holiday season. Though family gatherings will likely be different this year, we’re bringing you some practical advice for socializing through games because that’s what we do best. (more…)
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.
by Emma Hartley | Nov 5, 2020 | Essays, Tabletop Games, Video Games
The game will tell you what you want. Then, it will tell you how to achieve it. Of course, this is exactly the premise on which most games operate. Yet the copious hours I have dedicated to Animal Crossing: New Horizons have helped me realise just how this fundamental process can reveal troubling assumptions about what the players are expected to value. (more…)
Emma is a student and freelance writer. You can often find Emma in the lost property box.
by Zainabb Hull | Nov 3, 2020 | Mobile Games, Opinion, Roundtables, Video Games
Mid-September doesn’t just mark a change in seasons, leaf colors, and Starbucks orders: it also means #BiWeek, a celebration of bisexuality and bi+ sexualities! This year, the Sidequest team decided to consider bisexuality in video games. (more…)
Zainabb Hull is an editor at Sidequest, a freelance writer and videographer, and sort-of artist. They’re also a trans, queer, and disabled brown femme. They tweet into the void at @ZainabbHull.
by David R. Howard | Oct 19, 2020 | Essays, Video Games
Randomness in games is often talked about purely in terms of strategic cost-benefit analysis. Random number generation (RNG) is good when it is fair, or used in procedural generation processes, otherwise it is bad and must be avoided. But randomness can also be aesthetical a la aleatoric art—pardon the tongue twister. Celeste‘s gameplay is wholly deterministic, which is a part of why speedrunners like me admire it, but in actuality it uses RNG for its various particle effects. One game series which uses RNG in both a mechanical and aesthetical way is Nintendo’s Animal Crossing, and not only in its island-creating algorithm. (more…)
David R. Howard is a writer from Southern Ontario, Canada. They can be found on Twitter @rhombical.
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