Victory Points Essays
Every month, Board Game Academics highlights a scholar, professional, or enthusiast representing the diverse communities that make up the world of tabletop gaming. Essays will explore the intersection of gaming and professional and academic life, the live experience of gamers across a range of different topics and more. Our goal is to highlight and elevate voices that represent the voices and experiences that make up the tabletop gaming community.
Interested in submitting an essay to Victory Points? Read more about our submission process and what we’re looking for.
Evolution of a Gameschooling Mom
Sarah S. Johnson, MSEd
A former public school teacher turned homeschool parent discovers gameschooling, using board games and later TTRPGs to support academics, social skills, and neurodivergent needs. The experience evolves into creative curriculum design rooted in storytelling, collaboration, and individualized learning.
LIFE Reimagined: the game as collective narrative
Misty Novitch
The unpublished cooperative storytelling board game, LIFE Reimagined, is a potential case study for how we might use tabletop gaming to facilitate larger collective conversations, education, and action on the overwhelming topics around where “We the People” go from here.
Something More: Nested Realities & Desire in Veiled Fate
Maggie Hemphill
I took a seat at a round folding table with six men in a church basement on a Monday night. It was my third time attending the bi-monthly meet-up of my local board gaming group, Meeples-N-More, and, as one of only two women in the room, I was curious to see how the night would unfold…
Board Game(r)s Helped Me Survive My Ph.D…and beyond
Kelber Tozini
A personal story of the impact of board games and the people in the hobby throughout a difficult stretch of time, during graduate studies while studying and living abroad.
Everyone at the Table: Accessibility and Universal Design in Board Games
Grace Kaletski-Maisel
UDL promotes inclusive design through multiple means of engagement, representation, action, and expression. Whether you’re a game designer aiming to reach a broader audience or someone organizing a game night for a diverse group, UDL principles can help ensure that more people can participate fully.
The Social Paradox of Gaming and Introverts
Matthew Makak
Board gaming is as much an extroverted activity as an introverted one, and that paradox is interesting to explore. Board games are deeply social while also being a reserved experience (assuming one plays more than only solo-driven board games). Further, board gaming is an activity that builds connections, friendships, and a sense of identity. These three facets of the human experience can be difficult to develop and maintain, especially in the face of adulthood.
Finding Safety in Blood on the Clocktower’s Community of Liars
Mel Gomez-Erickson
Social deduction games have been around since the 1980s. I remember playing Mafia in the cafeteria during lunch in middle and high school back in the early 2000s. Later, in college, my friends introduced me to Shadowhunters. As an adult, I found Werewolf, Among Us, Goose Goose Duck, and Town of Salem. Each new game I learned was more fun than the last, and social deduction quickly became one of my favorite gaming genres. There is something about the combination of using logic and social dynamics to find the “bad guys” that appeals to my mystery-loving side in a way that many other board games do not…
