Volume 9, Issue 3, 2022
Articles
- Tabletop RPGs as Environmental Texts
What does it look like to read a TTRPG as an ecological text? This essay attempts an ecocritical reading of the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons, drawing on Alenda Y. Chang’s “Games as Environmental Texts,” which critiques of the extractivist tropes common to many video games. The essay explores variety of techniques that designers might employ for constructing more environmentally conscious TTRPGs and catalogs several moves towards “green” TTRPGs that independent game designers are already making.
- Analysis of the Player Experience Across Digital and Physical Worlds
The relationship between digital and non-digital gameplay experiences is still quite an undeveloped topic in Game Studies literature. This paper aims to expand the body of knowledge on the topic by trying to understand whether the player’s experience changes when the same game is played via software or its tabletop version. The research is based on thirteen semi-structured interviews with players who tried both the digital and physical version of the card game Magic: The Gathering (also known as MTG). The results suggest that the tabletop version of the game seems to be more immersive, while the online version is more comfortable and more accessible, especially for new players. However, when playing the online version of MTG, players seem to exhibit lower levels of empathy towards their peers.
- Feeling Clever: Thematic Design in Sid Sackson’s Games
This essay provides close textual analysis of the rulebooks of many of Sid Sackson’s pioneering games arguing that Sackson’s games may not be rich in theme, but his selected themes are nevertheless sensible and significant because they amplify his desired play experience of outsmarting your opponent. This amplification may in turn help explain the enduring popularity of his designs. The essay begins with a consideration of Sackson as a designer and larger debates about theme in the eurogame genre. Then it turns to analyzing Sackson’s rulebooks, proposing the outsmarting of opponents as the link between these games’ designs and their various themes. Finally, the essay concludes with some reflections on how this analysis might contribute to considerations of theme in analog game studies.