September Roundtable: Festivals

September Roundtable: Festivals

Who doesn’t love a festival? (Festival haters need not comment.) While you’d be hard-pressed to find me at a real-life festival, due in no small part to my small town not having many of them, I love indulging in a little gaming frivolity. Maybe it’s all those bonus opportunities in The Sims or seeing familiar places in World of Warcraft decked out for the Darkmoon Faire, but there’s something special about an in-game festival. Why? Let’s find out. (more…)

More Than Just Fishing: A Roundtable About Sidequests

More Than Just Fishing: A Roundtable About Sidequests

I’ve written pretty thoroughly about how I am a particular type of gamer. I prefer games that are story and relationship focused, and that don’t require a lot of level grinding or random quests. This includes my tabletop play style—apologies to my DM/wife who is sitting on a bunch of Kingmaker sidequests that our party has ignored! Because of my pickiness, I don’t play a lot of games, but lately I’ve been feeling like this framework of “pickiness” is unfair. Am I a gamer aberration? What makes me different from all of you? Why the heck do y’all enjoy repetitive level grinding?! (more…)

March Roundtable: Time Travel

March Roundtable: Time Travel

Time, like most things, is a construct. But never have we been more aware of that fact than in 2022, which is simultaneously three years ago and six years from now. In light of occupying a strange, shifting period, this month we’re talking about time travel in games! What games do it well? What games do it poorly? And what can we learn from its inclusion? (more…)

November Roundtable: Food and Cooking in Games

November Roundtable: Food and Cooking in Games

We’re getting into hibernating season up here in the Northern Hemisphere, which means it’s time for feasting. The crops are ready for harvesting. The cornucopia is assembled. What are we eating (in games)?

(more…)

February Roundtable: Representations of Culture in Games

February Roundtable: Representations of Culture in Games

In 2020, we can all agree that representation is important. Having games from different cultures with characters of different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, abilities, and sexualities enriches the art form. But representation is only one hurdle to overcome—there’s more to diversity than visibility. For the month of February, the Sidequest crew is chatting about representations of culture, including what games get it right and what games have a ways to go. (more…)

Subscribe