Remember When Multiplayer Gaming Needed Envelopes and Stamps?
Landes began making computer games in 1980, but when missed release dates killed the company he launched his own PBM brand in 1984. Based in Oregon, his creations included Swords…
What It Takes to Turn a Video Game Into a Tabletop One
This revolution makes good business sense. The tabletop space has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years, and major publishers have rightly identified the natural crossover appeal between analog…
Why Are There So Few Women in Wargaming?
Becky Esteness was fed up. She was at a local wargaming convention, where enthusiasts schlep their pewter armies to beige conference halls for a long, meditative weekend of stone cold…
I Revisited ‘SaGa Frontier’—and My Bisexual Video Game Crush
Depending on who (and where) you ask, SaGa Frontier is either a little-known cult classic JRPG or a best-selling building block of a famous franchise. It’s engaging, it’s complex, it’s…
Ann Takamaki From ‘Persona 5’ Was Exactly Who I Needed to See
This all felt too familiar. Twenty years and several dress sizes ago, I also donned a catsuit—as a regular go-go dancer for nightclubs in San Francisco. Friends thought I had…
An Inclusive, Cyberpunk Future Is In the Cards
A diverse and inclusive world “had been something that, internally, we’d wanted for a long time, but the IPs had never really allotted for it,” she said. In a podcast,…
D&D Must Grapple With the Racism in Fantasy
“Orcs are human beings who can be slaughtered without conscience or apology.” This damning assessment of one of fantasy’s most ubiquitous villains comes from N. K. Jemisin, titan of modern…
Wikipedia Is Basically a Massive RPG
The first-ever edit to Wikipedia took place on January 15, 2001. Today, the online encyclopedia officially turns 20 years old, on the date known as Wikipedia Day. One of WIRED’s…