Everything you need to write about the channel

Second Playthrough publishes long-form video essays and written analysis on how games work, what we call them, and what they can do beyond entertainment.

Second Playthrough is a video essay channel and publication about games as a medium. Each episode makes one argument — about classification, serious games, gamification, or games as art and industry — and each argument is published here as a sourced, citable essay. The Field Guide collects the terms those essays depend on, defined precisely and in plain words.

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.