Analog Game Studies

The focus of this essay is to analyze Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings, exploring the extent to which thematic and trans-textual content, as well as novel play (cooperation), can offer multiple ways of considering and challenging knowledge (re)production and representation specifically linked to patriarchal structures. Knizia’s Lord of the Rings has been cited as one of the first popular collaborative games (released 2000) designed for a mass international English-speaking audience. The analysis is autoethnographic and autotheoretical, following feminist modes of enquiry read from a situated perspective and imagination in order to bring method to thought processes, articulating experiences and insights in a manner which brings both the pleasures of play and academic thought together.