Archive • Adventures in History and Video Games • Buttondown

Return to Oblivion?

Hello! I had a great time at the Popular Culture Association annual meeting last week and saw some great talks. I hope to share some thoughts about that...

Samurai to Cyberpunk to... Mascots?

I am teaching a class this semester on Orientalism, specifically focused on representations of East Asians in Western-produced media and cultural products....

Personally invested in a dorky gangster

Phew. Last week was my children's spring break, so... yeah. I'm back! This post originally began with how happy I was to find time to write during that...

Imperialism as a Grey Area in Avowed

I have, as implied a few posts ago, been playing Avowed. This is a good game and you should seriously consider playing Avowed! I'm a scholar-wizard who will...

Death Stranding 2: Into the Known or Unknown

This coming April, I am giving a talk at the Popular Culture Association Annual Meeting on how video games tend to incorporate their own visions of Japanese...

Ideas for the future. And also Star Trucker.

I have been playing some Star Trucker, and it is good. More of that in a few minutes. I mentioned, briefly, in the last post (email? newsletter?) sent out to...

Moving to Buttondown

Saying goodbye to Substack

Midnight Suns (again) and thinking about history

Midnight Suns has me in its grip

February 24, 2025

System Shock and others await

Game Studies' Inexorable Advance in the Classroom

February 11, 2025

Some reflections on CentreTerm 2025

HIS 282: History and Video Games, '25

December 11, 2024

Thinking more directly about critiquing games in class

Dragon Age and its World

November 28, 2024

Living in the world BioWare built.

From Tsushima to Night City: Japan in the (Video) Gaming Mind

November 22, 2024

My proposal for PCA 2024

Revel in the Madness that is Capcom

November 8, 2024

Games that hit different hit hard

What would a Criterion Collection for Games look like?

And would Duck Hunt make the cut?

Roooooooooogue Tradin'!

What makes a game stick?

Medievalist Capitalism

Making things work in Manor Lords

Falling Back in with Fallout

Ol' Man River in the Wasteland

January 1, 2024

The Real and the Unreal

December 23, 2023

Hanging out in the Dark Place at Christmastime

We're back in time for the holidays

December 13, 2023

I still play games.

Sanctuary on the Open Road

Diablo IV and American Truck Simulator, a natural combination

It was the 90s, and will be again

Getting the RTS groove on with Age of Darkness: Final Stand

Everyone loves samurai

Embrace the Medieval (and Early Modern)

Working it in space

Hanging out with Citizen Sleeper

Fishing but no night swimming

Hanging out with Dredge

Death Stranding in 2023

February 2, 2023

Better late than never

Connections and Making Friends at the End of the World

December 21, 2022

Post-rock in the post-society

Making video games, large and small

December 13, 2022

I have been thinking a lot about game development over the last week or so. Not really the large scale Molyneux-saves-the-world-of-art type stuff, but the...

RPGs and Historical Legacies

November 29, 2022

Dice rolls and turn-based battles

Keep Playing Those Caaaaaaaaaard Games... yeah

November 21, 2022

Cheating my way through the French elites

Ninteenth Century Everything, and Gotham

November 15, 2022

Victoria 3 and Gotham Knights, together at last

Adventures in History and Video Games

December 7, 2020

Chats about teaching, playing and making.