Archive • Adventures in History and Video Games • Buttondown

Dune: Awakening, Dune, and the Fremen

August 11, 2025

So, I am still playing a ton of Dune: Awakening. In the last newsletter I briefly mentioned the game (and really, the Dune fictional universe) has this...

Desert Diving in the Summer

July 31, 2025

Hello everyone! So, I did not mean to take a months long break from writing, but summer + small kids + life = Homer go something something. I have, somehow,...

Easing off games a bit, except for giant robots

May 21, 2025

So, this week I played more Expedition 33, but not that much more because of life and other things. Final exams are ongoing here at Centre, and we have...

Ikimasho,mes amis.

May 16, 2025

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: the game that made me walk over to my office neigbor, an expert in French history, and ask: when exactly was the "Belle Epoque"?...

A Little Bit of PCA Talk and Some Animal Crossing

May 2, 2025

It feels a little odd sending a newsletter out late on a Friday night, but it was a busy week, I DID write something, and I want to keep this run going! I'm...

Return to Oblivion?

April 25, 2025

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?

April 15, 2025

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

April 8, 2025

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

March 24, 2025

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

March 17, 2025

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.

March 11, 2025

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...