How Do We Talk about Things That Are Happening without Talking about Things That Are Happening?

Abstract

This roundtable opens part 5 of the collection, “Mobilizing Machines,” by exploring how Asia and America are separated in games through implicit political and historical narratives rooted in militarism, tech, and artistry. The roundtable designers discuss the social and political impacts of games centered on geopolitical and racialized frictions, especially in local acts of protest and community-building. It features Mike Ren Yi (creator of Yellowface), Melos Han-Tani (creator of All Our Asias), Yuxin Gao (creator of Out for Delivery), and Pamela Punzalan (creator of Asian Acceptance). Conducted over Zoom in the spring of 2021, during a global pandemic, the roundtable considers how the playful space of games has provided opportunities to reflect on the increasingly serious (and increasingly anti-Asian) world punctuated by unexpected moments of connection and community. These thinkers thus attempt to catalogue the ways that games have sought not only to understand our world but also to make new worlds.