The Sunday Papers is a weekly roundup of the most interesting writing about games and culture, and this edition pulls together standout pieces on narrative choice, platformer design, media coverage of Long Covid, and how critics write about indie games. Here are the reads worth your time, with a little context on why each one stands out.
On meaningful choice in game narratives
Bruno Dias argues that narrative design does not need a rigid split between choices with real outcomes and false choices that quietly merge back into the same story. It is a useful corrective to a debate that often treats branching as the only "real" form of player agency. As Dias puts it:
A choice is ultimately a question you're asking the player, and sometimes the function of a question is to let the player hear their own answer.
That reframing matters for designers working under tight budgets, where fully branching stories are expensive. It suggests that a choice can carry weight through reflection and characterization, not just through forking outcomes, which is a far more achievable goal for small teams.
Platformers as postmodern design
Oma Keeling considers modernism and postmodernism through two recent platformers, Fallstruktur and Automaton Lung, reading the genre as a medium built around the challenge of navigating non-social spaces. It is the kind of close-reading that treats a familiar genre as worthy of serious critical attention rather than dismissing it as simple.
The piece is a good reminder that platformers, often seen as the most basic of game types, can carry real formal ideas about space, movement, and isolation. For more discussion like this, browse our gaming coverage.
Media, culture and indie criticism
Over at FAIR, Justine Barron makes the case that several large US outlets lean toward framing Long Covid as a form of mass psychogenic illness. Her argument is that this coverage often acknowledges symptoms are real while attributing them to a mind-body explanation rather than a biological cause, a framing that has real consequences for patients seeking care. Readers interested in the wider debate can follow related reporting in our health coverage.
For Defector, Corey Miller attempts a unified theory of "long D&D" and its politics, noting how the half-century-old hobby has been cast as both ally and nemesis across the political spectrum. It is a reminder that even tabletop role-playing carries cultural baggage that shifts with the times.
Roguelike developer Michael Brough offers blunt advice for people writing about indie games, including a memorable note that "niche" is not actually a property of a game:
You're telling us about the game because you like it. What do you like about it? That's way more interesting.
His point cuts at a common crutch in games writing, where labels stand in for genuine engagement. The advice applies well beyond indie coverage: specificity about what works is almost always more useful to a reader than a tidy category.
A community manifesto jam
Cecile Richard also hosted the third manifesto jam on Itch, drawing 333 entries. Manifesto jams ask participants to write short statements of intent or belief about games rather than build playable projects, and the strong turnout speaks to an appetite for thinking out loud about the medium's direction.
Taken together, this week's reads share a common thread: a push to take games and the people who make and play them seriously, whether the subject is narrative theory, genre form, or the language critics use. For more features and link roundups, see the latest news and roundups. Merry Sunday, and keep your feet dry.
The Sunday Papers: quick FAQ
What is The Sunday Papers?
It is a recurring weekly roundup of the most interesting writing about video games and surrounding culture, curating essays and criticism from across the web.
What does this edition cover?
This week's selection spans meaningful choice in narrative design, platformers read as postmodern works, media framing of Long Covid, the politics of Dungeons & Dragons, and advice on writing about indie games.
