About

Second Playthrough is a video essay channel and publication about games as a medium. It takes a second look at the ideas players and designers use every day — genre labels like “RPG”, buzzwords like gamification, categories like serious games — and asks what they actually describe. Each episode makes one argument, and each argument is published on this site as a written essay with every source linked, so that students, designers, educators and researchers can read, check and cite it. The Field Guide collects the terms those essays depend on, each defined in plain words with its neighbors, examples and sources. The channel works with studios, schools and training teams on design reviews, talks and workshops about applying game structures to learning and work.

How the work is made

Text is canonical. Each argument is written as an essay first; the video is one rendering of it.

Every claim carries its source. Essays link to the documents, interviews, data and games they cite.

Evergreen over timely. Essays should read correctly years after publication, and dates are stated, not implied.

Definitions are our own. Field Guide entries are written from the sources, and say so where the field disagrees.