When pay-to-play becomes pay-to-win, the classic model of video games—paying for time or access to the game—turns into something much more insidious. In The Baffler, game designer Ian Bogost asks us to consider which extracts a higher social cost: the explicit violence of Grant Theft Auto, or the addiction and sly financial drain of Candy Crush? […]
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Posted inEditor's Pick
The Culture of Video Games: A Reading List
This week’s picks from Emily includes stories from The Guardian, Kotaku, Leigh Alexander, Polygon, and Kill Screen.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Virtual Swindle of the New Breed of Video Games
When pay-to-play becomes pay-to-win, the classic model of video games—paying for time or access to the game—turns into something much more insidious. In The Baffler, game designer Ian Bogost asks us to consider which extracts a higher social cost: the explicit violence of Grant Theft Auto, or the addiction and sly financial drain of Candy Crush? […]
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Nonfiction, Story
A Shot in the Arm
Why would a tenure-track professor find himself selling his plasma to make rent? A story about debt in the academic world.
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Can an Outsider Ever Truly Become Amish?
One of the rarest religious experiences you can have in America is to join the Plain.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Canada’s National Magazine Award Winners: A Reading List
Below is a guest reading list by Eva Holland, a writer and editor based in Canada’s Yukon Territory, whose work we’ve featured on Longreads many times in the past. * * * Canada’s magazine industry recently threw its biggest party of the year: the National Magazine Awards. The Canadian event differs from the American Ellies, with […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quote Posts, Quotes
Journalist Jack Shenker on the State of the Egyptian Revolution, Five Years Later
At the Guardian, Jack Shenker — author of the new book The Egyptians: A Radical Story — examines the future of the Egyptian Revolution.
Posted inNonfiction, Reading List
Canada’s National Magazine Award Winners: A Reading List
Below is a guest reading list by Eva Holland, a writer and editor based in Canada’s Yukon Territory, whose work we’ve featured on Longreads many times in the past. * * * Canada’s magazine industry recently threw its biggest party of the year: the National Magazine Awards. The Canadian event differs from the American Ellies, with […]
Posted inBooks, Nonfiction
The Family That Would Not Live
What can haunted houses and their history tell us about American history and culture? Writer Colin Dickey sets out across America to investigate America’s haunted spaces in order to uncover what their ghost stories say about who we were, are, and will be.
Posted inNonfiction
Truther Love
Uncovering the dating habits of conspiracy theorists and the challenges they face.
