Reading Games
... as in "we are reading games," not as if a series of gamified reading sessions – is a book club for video games instead of books!
The club meets on a monthly basis, to talk about selected games, from an interdisciplinary perspective, including Cultural Studies and literary approaches. In order to join, you don't have to have any level of knowledge about video games, or define yourself as a "gamer." That term is becoming as meaningful as a term like "movie-goer" in today's world, where digital games are everywhere as cultural products. Please come prepared, i.e. play the game, and/or watch a video of someone else who is playing it for you.
For more information or questions on how to access the Discord server, please contact Kübra Aksay.
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Upcoming Sessions – Winter 2024
Second Wednesday of the month | 6.30–8.00 pm
Room 4008 & Discord (hybrid)
A N I M A L S
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September 11 | Untitled Goose Game (2019) Let's Play Session: It's a lovely morning in the village and you are a horrible goose. |
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October 9 | Stray (2022) Lost, alone and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find their way home. |
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November 13 | NUTS (2021) NUTS is a single-player walking simulator surveillance mystery. Record the squirrels, report your findings, and piece together what’s really going on in Melmoth Forest. |
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December 11 | Beyond Blue (2020) Beyond Blue is a single-player narrative adventure that takes you deep into our planet’s beating blue heart. Explore the awesome wonder and unbounded mystery that exists within the world’s ocean. |
Tom Tyler – Game: Animals, Video Games, and Humanity (2022) |
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Past Sessions
F O O D
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May 8 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) Special session: Cooking in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and other open world games. This is an open discussion session and participants are not required to complete a specific game in preparation for it. |
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June 26 | PlateUp! (2022) Multiplayer session: Participants do not need to purchase their own copy or play the selected game in preparation for this session. |
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July 10 | Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (2020) Play as an adorable yet trouble-making turnip. Avoid paying taxes, solve plantastic puzzles, harvest crops and battle massive beasts all in a journey to tear down a corrupt vegetable government! |
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August 14 | Venba (2023) Venba is a short narrative cooking game, where you play as an Indian mom who immigrates to Canada with her family in the 1980s. Cook various dishes and restore lost recipes, hold branching conversations, and explore South Indian food in this story about family, love, and loss. |
Agata Waszkiewicz – Delicious Pixels: Food in Video Games (2022) |
R O M A N C E
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To the Moon (2011) | 2.2024 A story-driven experience about two doctors traversing backwards through a dying man's memories to artificially fulfill his last wish. |
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Haven (2020) | 3.2024 Two lovers gave up everything and escaped to a lost planet to be together. Glide through a mysterious landscape, explore a fragmented world and fight against what's trying to tear them apart in this RPG adventure about love, rebellion, and freedom. |
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Thirsty Suitors (2023) | 4.2024 THIRSTY SUITORS is a surreal story-driven game which throws turn-based RPG battles, skating and over-the-top cooking mechanics together in a spicy fusion! This isn't a dating sim - it's a breakup simulator. Battle your exes. Disappoint your parents. Find yourself. |
Katherine Isbister - How Games Move Us - Emotion by Design (2017) A copy of the book can be borrowed from the university library or Kübra Aksay (R 4046). |
S P O O K Y
Please note: Games chosen for this theme contain depictions of and references to violence, death, mental illness, and other potentially sensitive topics. Please make sure to check trigger/content warnings for all titles before you decide to play them.
Monster Prom (2018) 10.2023 In this session, taking place shortly before Halloween, we will play the multiplayer party game MONSTER PROM (2018). This is a multiplayer session where everyone can play the game through the broadcast on Discord, which means participants do not need to purchase their own copies and unlike in usual sessions, participants are not expected to play the game in advance of the meeting. |
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Soma (2015) | 11.2023 SOMA is a sci-fi horror game set below the waves of the Atlantic ocean. Struggle to survive a hostile world that will make you question your very existence. |
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Signalis (2022) | 12.2023 A classic survival horror experience with a unique aesthetic, full of melancholic mystery. Explore a world with a dark secret, solve puzzles, fight off nightmarish creatures and navigate through dystopian, surreal worlds as Elster, a technician Replika looking for a lost dream. |
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Omori (2020) | 01.2024 Explore a strange world full of colorful friends and foes. Navigate through the vibrant and the mundane in order to uncover a forgotten past. When the time comes, the path you’ve chosen will determine your fate... and perhaps the fate of others as well. |
Mental Health | Atmospheres | Video Games: New Directions in Game Research II. The book is available as a free open access copy in pdf and epub formats on the publisher's website. |
T R A V E R S A L
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Dredge (2023) | 6.2023 DREDGE is a single-player fishing adventure with a sinister undercurrent. Sell your catch, upgrade your boat, and dredge the depths for long-buried secrets. Explore a mysterious archipelago and discover why some things are best left forgotten. |
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Last of Us: Part I (2022) & the game's TV adaptation (2023) | 7.2023 Join us for this special session in which we first take a quick look into the 2022 remake of the Last of Us video game (via let’s play live-stream) and then discuss the game’s 2023 TV adaptation. Participants do not need to play the game in advance but should watch the first season of the show. The discussion is not planned to be spoiler-free. |
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Season: A Letter to the Future (2023) | 8.2023 In SEASON: A Letter to the Future, you play as a young woman from a secluded village exploring the world by bike for the first time, collecting memories before a cataclysm washes everything away. SEASON is a quest to discover a new world; one unknown yet familiar. Document, photograph, and record life as you find it, while you still can. |
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Outer Wilds (2019) | 9.2023 Winner of Best Game at the 2020 BAFTA Games Awards and named Game of the Year 2019 by Giant Bomb, Polygon, Eurogamer, and The Guardian, Outer Wilds is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning open world mystery about a solar system trapped in an endless time loop. |
Gerald Farca - Playing Dystopia: Nightmarish Worlds in Video Games and the Player's Aesthetic Response (2018) NEW! |
N A T U R E / R E B I R T H
Lost Ember (2019) | 2.2023 Explore the remains of a fallen world from fascinating perspectives! Slip into the role of different animals to uncover the fate of an ancient world. Dive into deep waters, fly at lofty heights, dig underground as a mole or even climb steep cliffs with a mountain goat, there are lots of ways of getting around. |
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Sky: Children of the Light (2019) | 3.2023 Hold hands and take flight in an unforgettable social adventure together with loved ones. Explore the seven realms of this beautifully-animated kingdom with other players where compassion, community and wonder greet you at each turn. Create enriching memories as you solve mysteries, make friends, and help others along the way. |
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Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (2020) | 4.2023 Even the smallest person can make a big difference. Join Alba, as she sets out to save her beautiful island and its wildlife. And possibly start a revolution. |
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Lake (2021) | 5.2023 It's 1986 - Meredith Weiss takes a break from her career in the big city to deliver mail in her hometown. How will she experience two weeks in beautiful Providence Oaks, with its iconic lake and quirky community? And what will she do next? It's up to you. |
W I T C H E S
Strange Horticulture (2022) | 10.2022 Strange Horticulture is an occult puzzle game in which you play as the proprietor of a local plant store. Find and identify new plants, pet your cat, speak to a coven, or join a cult. Use your collection of powerful plants to influence the story and unravel Undermere’s dark mysteries. |
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Black Book (2020) | 11.2022 Explore a world of authentic slavic folklore as a young witch. Outwit the devilish forces and open all the seals on the Black Book. The game is set in late XIXth century Perm District, north of Cherdyn. This is an RPG with deckbuilding elements featuring a narrative inspired by folklore demon stories. |
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Wytchwood (2020) | 12.2022 Wytchwood is a crafting adventure game set in an expressive land of gothic fables and fairytales. As the mysterious old witch of the woods, you will explore a strange countryside, collect magical ingredients, brew sorcerous enchantments, and pass your twisted judgement upon a capricious cast of characters and creatures. |
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Potion Craft (2021) | 01.2023 In this special session, we will have a look at two recently published games, Potion Craft and Little Witch in the Woods. The games will be live streamed on Discord during the meeting. You don't need to purchase and play these games in advance of this meeting. |
S A I L I N G
Spiritfarer (2020) | 6.2022 Spiritfarer is a cozy management game about dying. As ferrymaster to the deceased, build a boat to explore the world, care for your spirit friends, and release them into the afterlife. |
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Overboard! (2021) | 7.2022 Get away with murder! A highly replayable detective game where you're the one whodunnit. |
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Return of the Obra Dinn (2018) | 8.2022 A puzzle-adventure game about a ghost ship and determining the fates of its sixty crewmembers that did not return. |
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Sea of Thieves (2018) | 9.2022 Join us aboard the pirate ships on this special session either by purchasing a copy of the multiplayer game, Sea of Thieves, and playing it with the rest of us or by watching our live-stream on Discord. |
G H O S T S
Note: All games chosen for these sessions deal with the topics of death and loss. The first two sessions’ games include horror elements. Please make sure to check trigger/content warnings for all titles before you decide to play them.
Detention (2017) | 2.2022 Detention is an atmospheric horror game set in 1960s Taiwan under martial law. Incorporating religious elements based on Taiwanese/Chinese culture and mythology, the game provided players with unique graphics and gaming experiences. |
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Phasmophobia (2020) | 3.2022 Phasmophobia is a 4 player online co-op psychological horror/investigation game. You can join this session either by watching our livestream on Discord, or by joining a group of up to three other players to play the game. You don’t need to play the game in advance. |
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Oxenfree (2016) | 4.2022 Oxenfree is a supernatural thriller about a group of friends who unwittingly open a ghostly rift. You are Alex, and you’ve just brought your new stepbrother Jonas to an overnight island party gone horribly wrong. |
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I Am Dead (2020) | 5.2022 A puzzle-adventure game about exploring the afterlife. Morris Lupton is the recently-deceased museum curator of the tiny island of Shelmerston who is reunited with the ghost of his dog Sparky, only to discover that a disaster is about to destroy his beloved island. |
V I S U A L N O V E L
Butterfly Soup (2017) | 1.2022 »An interactive coming-of-age story about four queer Asian-American girls, their baseball club, and relationships.« |
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Coffee Talk (2020) | 12.2021 »A game about listening to people’s problems and helping them by serving a warm drink out of the ingredients you have. It is a game that tries to depict our lives as humanly as possible while having a cast that is more than just humans. Immerse yourself in the stories of alternative Seattle inhabitants, from the dramatic love story between an elf and a succubus, an alien journey trying to understand human’s life, and many other stories that we might be able to relate a lot with.« |
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Doki Doki Literature Club! (2017) | 11.2021 »Welcome to a terrifying world of poetry and romance! Write poems for your crush and erase any mistakes along the way to ensure your perfect ending. Now’s your chance to discover why DDLC is one of the most beloved psychological horror games of the decade!« |
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Necrobarista (2020) | 10.2021 »Inspired equally by film and anime, Necrobarista is a unique take on the visual novel medium. Follow a dynamic and diverse cast of characters as they navigate Melbourne's hipstery coffee culture, the questionable ethics of necromancy, and the process of letting go.« |
A R T I F I C I A L I N T E L L I G E N C E
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013) | 8.2021 |
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In Other Waters (2020) | 7.2021 |
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The Talos Principle (2014) | 6.2021 |
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Tacoma (2017) | 5.2021 |
E X P L O R A T I O N
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine (2018) | 4.2021 |
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A Short Hike (2021) | 3.2021 |
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Night in the Woods (2017) | 2.2021 |
O F F I C E - C O R E
Hypnospace Outlaw (2019) | 1.2021 |
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Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You (2016) | 12.2020 |
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Her Story (2015) | 9/10.2020 |
N A R R A T O R
Loved (2010) | 8.2020 |
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Little Misfortune (2019) | 7.2020 |
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The Stanley Parable (2011) | 6.2020 |
[ F O U N D ] F A M I L Y
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons (2013) | 5.2020 |
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Pyre (2017) | 4.2020 |
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What Remains of Edith Finch (2017) | 2.2020 |
T R A U M A
Gris (2018) | 1.2020 |
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Max Payne (2001) | 12.2019 |
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Firewatch (2016) | 11.2019 |
M I S C .
When Rivers Were Trails (2019) | 3.2020 Your clubs Reading Games & Indigenous Reads came together for a special session on a brand new Anishinaabe video game to debate this original take on the classic '80s game The Oregon Trail. |
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Florence (2018) | 6.2019 |