This week features pieces from Sabrina Imbler, Natan Last, Lulu Miller and John Megahan, Casey Cep, and David Grimm.
games
Posted inEditor's Pick
Can Crosswords Be More Inclusive?
“The puzzles spread from the United States across the globe, but the American crossword today doesn’t always reflect the linguistic changes that immigration brings.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
What If the Robots Were Very Nice While They Took Over the World?
“First it was chess and Go. Now AI can beat us at Diplomacy, the most human of board games. The way it wins offers hope that maybe AI will be a delight.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How Chess.com Became ‘the Wild West of the Streaming World’
“While much of the e-sports industry struggles after billions in investments, Chess.com has gone in the opposite direction.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
Dungeons & Dragons’ Epic Quest to Finally Make Money
“Can Hasbro overcome 50 years of D&D business disasters without enraging its fan base?”
Posted inEditor's Pick
‘It Changed the World’: 50 Years On, the Story of Pong’s Bay Area Origins
“How Atari created the world’s most famous video game.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Loneliness of the Junior College Esports Coach
After a year of loss and grief, Madison Marquer signed up to lead a team of gamers at a community college in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Brendan I. Koerner chronicles the journey. By early 2021, Walsh had gathered ample evidence to prove that esports could bring in as many as 20 student-athletes per year and boost the […]
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List, Story
For the Love of Wordle: A Reading List on Puzzles and Games
Seven longreads on the communal pastime of puzzles, games, and crosswords.
Posted inEditor's Pick
The Surprisingly Messy Culture Wars Within The New York Times Crossword Puzzle
“While the crossword remains a word game mainstay, what’s appropriate has changed with the times.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
On the Insanity of Being a Scrabble Enthusiast
“Any single word of the 192,111 can send a player as deep down a linguistic rabbit hole as she would like to go, through thick layers of definition, history, culture, immigration, war, conquest, colonization, appropriation, derivation, coinage, conjugation, translation, pronunciation, and selection. As the great player Marlon Hill once said about learning the Scrabble words’ […]