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elvie mae parian

May 15th

…and being unable to do anything out of it?”

Speaking of play experiences with relatable resonance, this piece from Elvie Mae Parian hits. I’m always on the lookout for LARP coverage, and this one sounds–gently painful? If that makes sense?

  • Review: “What Happened Here” and When You Finally Step Out That Door | Sidequest Elvie Mae Parian spends time with an at-home, solo-friendly LARP about coming out of Covid isolation.

“What Happened Here is a cathartic experience that doesn’t require previous LARP or roleplaying abilities. Perhaps you may not be ready to go…

July 26th

…old DOS platformer, provoking tensions between its narrative framing and its constrained, secondhand game engine.

  • It Was Inevitable: An Interview with Tarn Adams on Dwarf Fortress | Sidequest Elvie Mae Parian chats with Tarn Adams of Dwarf Fortress fame about story systems, industry trends, and developing a game that can never be done.
  • Mystery House [1980] – Arcade Idea Arcade Idea embarks upon the task of excavating Mystery House from the obliterating influence of history to consider its charming and obtuse innovations on the adventure genre.
  • Necrobarista is Haunting, Innovative and Begging for Interpretation | Unwinnable Violet…
  • October 18th

    …latest bout of parasocial stunt marketing.

  • Deaf Accessibility in Video Games – I Need Diverse Games Mandy Jane Ashford goes beyond captions to look at other accessibility needs and considerations in games for deaf players.
  • An Inclusive Future: A Recap of Game Devs of Color Expo 2020 | Sidequest Elvie Mae Parian recaps the broad strokes of this year’s virtual GDoCExpo and highlights some rad upcoming games from marginalized developers.
  • “GDoCExpo is a firm effort against not only the failings of the games industry, but of the very systems that perpetuate those failings. It is…

    September 12th

    …back for.

  • Animal Crossing’s Merchandising Efforts Tell Me That Suffering Yields Stuffing | Sidequest Elvie Mae Parian contrasts Animal Crossing‘s aggressive merch push with its recent dearth of content updates.
  • “Aggressive push for Animal Crossing merch despite stagnancy in the most recent mainline game will continue to raise a lot of questions, but I know I am partially part of the problem as I fiddle with my Tom Nook toy. Perhaps I am trying to fill a void in my own lack of regularity playing New Horizons. Or maybe I just think it’s all so damn…

    April 10th

    …at the fault lines of form as long as it is comprehensible to us. We trust good writers to keep us engaged as they self-mythologize.”

    Modes of Play

    Gathered together here, we’ve got three pieces on (mostly contemproary) games, the ways in which we engage with them, and the questions they leave us to ponder.

    • Preview: Glitchhikers Meditates on the Journey, Not the Destination | Sidequest Elvie Mae Parian eschews more goal-directed play to appreciate her time with Glitchhikers.
    • Sumire asks us to confront grief, without being consumed by it – Uppercut Monti Velez…