GYGO: Strange Endings and Stranger Surprises

GYGO: Strange Endings and Stranger Surprises

We are about to close out 2022 and the video games industry seems to insist on holding onto loose ends with no signs of stopping, dropping surprises both good and, quite frankly, questionable. (more…)

October Roundtable: Ghosts

October Roundtable: Ghosts

October is the month for all ghouls, ghosts, and haunts of all kinds, so naturally we here at Sidequest wanted to talk about our favorite spiritual apparitions in-depth. Or perhaps, given the season, we want to talk about them in-death (cue echoing maniacal laughter from an unseen source). Join us in this paranormal conversation—share your favorite spirits and poltergeists in the comments! (more…)

Postgame.14: Theseus’s Flat Ass

Postgame.14: Theseus’s Flat Ass

Welcome back to Postgame, Sidequest’s monthly podcast, where the editors lay down hot takes on cold games. This month marks the Postgame debuts of Maddi Butler and Zainabb Hull, as they, Zora, and Melissa talk about what they were playing in… September of 2021. We’re working though the backlog, we promise!

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Chip Chat #2: Hot Chips, Hotter Game

Chip Chat #2: Hot Chips, Hotter Game

Welcome to Chip Chat, a column where I eat as many novelty chip* flavors as humanly possible, then justify it by reviewing the chips and pairing them with a game I think they’re particularly suited for, like a garbage sommelier who specializes in junk food instead of wine. This is, I insist, not a thinly veiled excuse to buy novelty chip flavors—but if it was, that sure would be convenient, now wouldn’t it.

*That’s crisps, for the British readers among us.

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Death Is Only the Beginning: Mortality in the Roguelike

Death Is Only the Beginning: Mortality in the Roguelike

There are few sensations more familiar to seasoned gamers than death. Since death is a common consequence for failure in play, we consider death and its attendant rebirth a necessary part of the play process. Some of us even revel in our constant flirtation with death: at its peak in 2014, an average of forty-two Dark Souls II player characters died every second. It is through death that we learn how to play games successfully, but many games treat death as a simple rewind: when you fail, your character dies and reappears at a predetermined point in the narrative prior to the death, with no indication that the death ever occurred. Thus, while games are in many ways primed to open a discussion of mortality, most prefer to pretend mortality is a non-issue.
Roguelikes, as a genre, deal very explicitly with death as a central mechanic. There are no save points in most roguelikes, so death puts you back at the very beginning of the game, with your progress and some or all of your upgrades erased. But as with gaming writ large, many roguelikes treat death as a simple mechanic to indicate failure, and neglect its narrative opportunity. But two recent roguelikes have taken the conceit of cyclical, death-based play and baked it into their stories. And from these, a bigger conversation about our attitudes about mortality was born. (more…)