What Made Mahjong Click with Suburban Americans?
In Annelise Heinz’s cultural history, ‘Mahjong’, the role of games tells more significant stories than simply recording how we use our leisure time.
Games
‘Chrono Trigger’ and Coping with Pandemic Trauma through Video Games
Coping with the COVID-19 shutdown via a video game, where I have control over the apocalyptic outcome, was what I needed. Chrono Trigger delivered.
Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Film/Games/Internet/Lists/Media/Music/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular/Television
5 Negative Effects of Fandom Nostalgia and How to Overcome Them
Fandom, powered by nostalgia, is gigantic, uncloseted and, unfortunately, argumentative. It's so powerful it has driven creators away from their creations. How do we control that rabid drive to "own" someone else's works?
Composer Ilan Eshkeri Discusses His Soundtrack for the ‘Ghost of Tsushima’ Game
Having composed for blockbuster films and ballet, Ilan Eshkeri discusses how powerful emotional narratives and the opportunity for creative freedom drew him to triple-A video game Ghost of Tsushima.
Books/Culture/Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Games/History/Internet/Love in the Time of Coronavirus/Politics/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular/Visual Arts
Coronavirus and the Culture Wars
Infodemics, conspiracies -- fault lines beneath the Fractured States of America tremble in this time of global pandemic, amplify splinters, fractures, and fissures past and present.
Announcements/Books/Comics/Culture/Film/Games/Love in the Time of Coronavirus/Music/Politics/SAVE/ IGNORE: popular
Love in the Time of Coronavirus: The Series, the Call for Papers
#Coronavirus #COVID19 #Pandemic: Love in the Time of Coronavirus is a series about art and life and the art of living in these times of global health crisis.
Nazism Repackaged? A Closer Look at the “Fascist Subtext” of ‘Attack on Titan’
Many fantasy writers have incorporated the visual footprint of the Third Reich into their fictional worlds. Few, however, have done so as extensively as the creator of Attack on Titan, who revisited this terrible chapter of history not to find inspiration for a fearsome antagonist, but to excavate the divisive ideas that lay buried there.
Call for Articles and Staff Writers
With the mission to educate as well as entertain, our scope is broadly cast on the best of pop culture (or at least among the more interesting) and we are the world's largest site bridging academic and popular writing.
Gaming for Social Change with ‘Critical Role’ and ‘Dungeons & Dragons’
Fans have pledged $11M to a Dungeons & Dragons group because they champion safety and inclusion. Does this have larger, real-world implications?