October 2014: ‘Masks’

Casey in Kid Chamelion, Link in Majora’s Mask, Captain Hotline and the Miamis from Hotline Miami. (So I haven’t played that last one). All these protagonists share common motif, one I’d like to see spark a conversation. For this edition of Blogs of the Round Table, let’s talk about the power of ‘Masks’

Masks serve a wide assortments of functions in many cultures. They’re ceremonial, playful, religious, criminal, empowering, and so many of other traits. They protect heroes and villains alike, they keep identities secret and they give identities and opportunity to flourish.

Tell us how masks are reflected in games. Is there a game that uses masks in an interesting way or are they all just uninteresting stat modifiers? Is role-playing at a tabletop or online a mask of sorts or does it let you take a mask off? Have games ever provided you with a mask when you needed it or are masks just a chance to abuse anonymity? What does masquerading symbolize and how can these effects change the experience of a game? In short, tell us about how masks effect a game, a player, and the culture.

We’re accepting your blogs until October 31st. You can see current submissions here:

Use this code to embed the links in your blog, if your publishing platform allows iframes:

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Please email us your submissions or tweet them to @markfilipowich or @critdistance with the #BoRT hashtag. Happy blogging!

Rules of the Round Table

  • Blogs of the Round Table is not curated. If you write it, we’ll publish it, as long as it’s connected to the topic and has been written specially for BoRT or up to one month prior.
  • This BoRT post is the home of the discussion: as I receive new submission blogs, I’ll update the ‘BoRT Linkomatic’ so new blogs are reflected on this page immediately. We’ll also use the @critdistance Twitter account to post regular updates, so follow us!
  • Your duty as a knight of the round table is to leave a comment on a blog to which you respond with a link to the response piece, to give them a ‘right of reply’. Keep the conversation going.
  • If your work contains potentially disturbing content, please include a suitable warning at the start. Use your common sense.
  • You can submit as many articles as you like throughout the month, and it doesn’t matter if they are commercially published, paywalled or available for free. We will need a transcript for paywalled content to be approved.