game cities
The Secret to a Believable Game City Isn't What You Think
I sat down with a SimCity historian and a real urban planner to ask: what makes a game city feel alive—and what happens when designers get it wrong?
theory
anthropology
Can AI-Powered Games Actually Teach Anthropology?
Anthropologist Michael Hoffman uses AI to transform ethnographic fieldwork into playable text adventures, bridging the gap between academic research and accessible learning.
digital archaeology
Why should we treat videogames as archaeological sites?
Archaeologist Florence Smith Nicholls discusses "archaeogaming," mapping the digital traces of Elden Ring, and the hopeful act of "anticipatory archaeology."
The Game Design of Everyday Things
Is Gerrymandering Cheating or Just A Good Strat?
American democracy operates like a complex board game where the rules keep changing, cheating is normalized, and spoilsports threaten the entire system.