‘Catan’ ® (1995) is a multiplayer tabletop game with global sales of over 20 million copies. Presented here is an exploration of the steps that were taken in the development of the ‘Catan: Global Warming’ expansion, from prototype to final design. During the playtesting of the game the feedback that we received from a variety of playtesters indicated that the game mechanics (rather than any accompanying story) were an effective and elegant way of developing dialogue around a specific topic, in this instance global warming. We conclude that in order to develop such a game, consideration must be given to: the accessibility of the game, the game literacy of the proposed players, the playtesting of the game mechanics, the peer review of the scientific content, and the extent to which the metagame (i.e. those discussions that take place around and away from the game) is enabled.

This essay argues that the second-person address of the interactive gamebook generates a mode of identification between reader (player) and character that functions not through immersion or presence but through an estranging logic that arises from the particular affordances of the print form. It begins by situating the gamebook, an influential but short-lived genre that enjoyed its heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s, in relation to other forms of second-person narrative as well as Interactive Fiction and video games, before turning to a consideration of the points at which the forms diverge. Taking Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982) as its example, the essay then examines the ways in which the gamebook's highly-demanding print form undermines notions of transparency, arguing that identification with the gamebook you is specific to, and reliant upon, the material properties of the print text. 1 Life and death in the second person: Identification, empathy and antipathy in the gamebook 2 Fig. . "The locked door bursts open." Image © 1982 Russ Nicholson. The locked door bursts open and a nauseating stench hits your nostrils. Inside the room the floor is covered with bones, rotting vegetation and slime. A wild-haired old man, clothed in rags, rushes at you screaming. His beard is long and grey, and he is waving an old wooden chair-leg. (36) 1 3 Something is not quite right. You landed a fair blow on him, but he appears not to have noticed the wound! You deduce that this Undead creature is not vulnerable to normal weapons. (310) If you are still alive, turn to 201. (339) These three extracts, taken from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone's The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (1982), show both the range and the paradoxes of character-reader relations in the interactive gamebook. In this they serve to introduce the key concerns of this essay, in which the gamebook you is figured in terms of identification, empathy and antipathy in an attempt to account for the curiously-estranging structures of interactive second-person print narrative. The first of the extracts, an encounter with a crazed prior adventurer, gestures towards the intent of the gamebook. Focalized from a perspective that allows the reader to identify with the narratee/protagonist, the reader is invited to respond to the Fighting Fantasy slogan "YOU are the hero!" in the affirmative: "I am you". The second extract might at first appear to be a continuation of the first mode, but upon further inspection "something" is indeed "not quite right". Here the narrative makes an unusual (unnatural) projection into the mind of the protagonist, offering through a process of deduction, the reader's own deductions: "You deduce that..." As this doubled-deduction 4

In this article, we argue that tabletop games provide a helpful means of rethinking the affordances of digital games in pedagogy. We argue that tabletop games offer a distinctive technology from digital games in exploring the idea of play as experience, providing a sociable, accessible and tactile platform that can easily be adapted by players to suit their needs. At a workshop session at an international conference on play in education, we used tabletop games to enable discussion and observation of play. This workshop suggested that, rather than a singular definition, tabletop play means different things to different people, and what is 'counted as' play depends upon both individual and group interactions. Building upon this discussion, in this article, we return to both tabletop and digital games to discuss the idea of play as experience, especially with regard to the use of technology in educational settings, and how games might be seen as less 'predictable' than other technologies. We hope that this discussion provides future inspiration to other scholars who are considering the use of tabletop games in both pedagogical and technological research.(page number not for citation purpose) the experience of tabletop play in an educational context, we move away from what has been called a 'profound mismatch' (Halverson 2012, p. 435) between game studies and the impact-/outcome-focused approach to education, and towards an approach that considers the ways in which games are experienced by educators and learners.Accounts of technology throughout history have tended to focus on technology as innovation and invention, rather than 'technology-in-use' (Edgerton 2008, p. xi). This suggests that discourse surrounding technology is often quick to move to the latest development, and that the meaning of 'technology' can shift to the futuristic or utopian, especially in educational contexts (Selwyn 2010). Our argument for tabletop games as a form of technology is influenced by McCarthy and Wright (2004), who approach technology in a relatively broad sense, focusing on 'interactive technologies', such as mobile phones, online shopping, and air-traffic control. Considered through the lens of experience, as McCarthy and Wright suggest, technology is a broad concept; books, cards and dice are technology, just as much as tablets and virtual reality (VR) headsets, in that they are interactive tools. With this definition in mind, we follow the Oxford English Dictionary definition of tabletop games as those 'played on a flat surface, such as a board game or card game'. Using this definition, chess and mah-jong would be classified as tabletop games, whereas charades or blind man's bluff would not. This is the definition that we adopt in this article, with the term 'tabletop' game being used to characterise all board games and card games.Recent writing on games and play theory has taken its influence from the digital more than the analogue (Juul 2005; Sicart 2014), but it remains clear that the digital and analogue fields have much in ...

He has written on literary representations of the Gunpowder Plot and is currently working on representations of war in contemporary historical fiction. Word count: 6664 (excluding references)1 'Except in the case of historical fact': History and the historical novel

The history of the relationship between critical theory and Marxism has been an ambiguous one. On the one hand there have been those who have affirmed an axiomatic connection: i.e. Marxism as the critical theory of capitalist society. In this regard Marxism has tended to be viewed as a totalizing discourse under which all possible forms of social critique can be subsumed ('the problems of class, race, gender… all boil down to capitalist exploitation'). On the other hand, there are those who argue that critical theory represents an evolving (postmodern) intellectual tradition that, in rejecting all forms of naturalism and necessity, cannot be reconciled with Marxist thought and, moreover, renders the latter redundant. Both positions are equally entrenched. For Jacques Derrida-regarded by many as the philosophical architect of contemporary critical theory-the boundary between Marxism and critical theory is considerably overdrawn. Indeed he maintains that his own highly influential theory of deconstruction is something that already names a deep connection with Marxist openings: 'Deconstruction has never had any sense or interest, in my view at least, except as a radicalization…in a certain spirit of Marxism' (Derrida 1994: 92). Despite orthodox interpretation, Marxism has never comprised a unified position that simply needs to be explained in order to grasp its universal veracity and import. Marxism is as much a part of history as any other discourse and as such continues to