In this article, I explore how community collaboration, game design and emanicipatory politics can intersect through the lens of play.
“Gazing upon the banality and unyieldingness of the evils gripping our material world at this time, it is only natural that many would seek refuge in fantastical realms; in dimensions of wonderment and possibility, of the mystical and otherworldly, where the heavens speak and tyrants fall every day, where species—humanoid and otherwise—live in holistic symbiosis, where events of great transformation are possible through heroic might and magic, and where even the darkest night ends with a brighter dawn. More often than not, we envision playing in such planes an escape from the brutality of the oft-unjust world that our mortal bodies inhabit… but what if this is not all they are, or can be? We, the witches of the Random Kingdom, know the far realms of play beckon us to more than respite alone. Oases of recovery, healing and growth, these windows into the lands of make-believe are not mirages, but portals. These doorways invite us to step through their thresholds, dig hands into soils fertile for bringing the seeds of hope to bloom, and join in joyful communion with lands of imagination, where we may learn, once again, to make ourselves believe.”