The Game Studies Watchlist newsletter, curated by Prof Dr Rudolf Inderst, is published weekly on GamesMarkt. This week's topics include the unforgivable in stories, the new DiGRA DACH chapter page, the Elizabeth Magie Prize for student papers and more.
AHOI there, game studies operators!
Let's say ... Kratos is a genocidal force of rage rebranded as a remorseful father, whose path to “redemption” is made palatable only by keeping the full weight of his atrocities at a safe, mythic distance. Would you agree? If not, why? No worries, let's sit down together (have some creatin and something something alpha) and think about it, while we listen to Arcane Workshop and his latest essay How Stories Forgive the Unforgivable.
Kratos destroyed Greece. Drowned its people, extinguished its sun, unleashed plague and famine on tens of thousands. The God of War Norse saga asks us to forgive him for it — and we do, gratefully. This essay examines the narrative machinery that makes that forgiveness possible.
This essay argues that God of War (2018) reimagines Kratos as a figure struggling with fatherhood, guilt, and the fear of passing his own destructive nature onto his son, transforming the series from a spectacle of violence into an intimate story about breaking cycles of harm; it emphasizes that while the original games celebrated power and brutality, the reboot shifts toward quiet, emotional storytelling centered on Kratos and Atreus. The journey to fulfill Faye’s final wish becomes less about mythic conflict and more about the painful distance between a father and son. At the heart of this is a universal parental fear: that one’s own flaws will damage one’s child. Kratos’s mantra, “we must be better,” reflects a desperate attempt to prevent that outcome. However, the essay highlights a key tension: Kratos’s past atrocities, mass destruction, countless deaths, are never directly confronted. Instead, they remain abstract, allowing players to sympathize with his struggle without fully grappling with what he has done. This distance lets the story function as myth, where characters represent ideas rather than fully accountable individuals. The narrative reinforces this theme through parallels like Baldur and Freya, showing how a parent’s fear and control can ruin a child, sometimes beyond repair. These mirrored relationships deepen the central idea that love, when driven by fear, can become destructive.
Right now, winter is back (or so it seems in Munich), that's why this position has come to my attention: Florence School of Fine Arts is hiring a new Docente di Game Design in the Florence Metropolitan Area and this might just be your next great adventure! The course is project-based, focusing on creating the story and characters for a potential video game, ideally drawing from the students' experiences in Florence. It does not involve software use. The instructor should have strong English proficiency and preferably experience teaching international students.
Episode 7 of The Game Developers’ library podcast has been released; this time they read Tynan Sylvester’s book Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences. And I laughed very hard when they explained: "It’s very good, except when it’s not!" Tune in to find out more.
I got interesting news via Astrid Ensslin: "And here it is: the shiny new website of the "D-A-CH" (German-speaking countries') Game Studies Chapter of DiGRA (the Digital Games Research Association)." Finally, after all this time, one might have started to suspect it was a myth, like the German summer or a finished dissertation. But there it is, in all its long-awaited glory. Welcome to the digital light, folks!
The AKGWDS is accepting submissions for the 2026 Elizabeth Magie Prize for outstanding theses in game studies and game research. Eligible are Bachelor’s and Master’s theses (and comparable final projects) that focus on games, play, or ludic media from any disciplinary perspective. If you’ve recently completed an excellent thesis in or around game studies, or supervised one, this is a great opportunity for recognition within the German-speaking game studies community. Full details on eligibility, deadlines, and submission procedures can be found on the AKGWDS website.
...and last but not least ... 65 years already? Time for some S E G A history!
P l e a s e support my work in game research & culture, consider contributing via Buy Me a Coffee.
Cheers and stay healthy, Rudolf
