Author: jalalian
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Non-player “Permadeath” in Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 1994-2002)
In chapter five of Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, titled “Collapse,” Alenda Y. Chang defines “permadeath” as “a game mechanism in which playable characters that die remain dead and therefore become unplayable” (Chang 213). When players know that their characters cannot return to life, they act more carefully. Chang encourages us to extend this logic to…
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Reimagining Shakespeare Pedagogy through Video Games
Prepared for delivery at the Association of Canadian College and University Teachers of English (ACCUTE), Spring 2026 For centuries, the cultural and economic prominence and unique interactive affordances of games have encouraged educators to imagine “gameful” teaching in which students engage learning material more actively (Bloom, Gaming the Stage 66–68, Sheldon 27–46). Shakespeare education has…
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Designer’s Notes
Dear user, No matter how masterfully they are modernized by editors, old plays can always be intimidating to read and understand. Written around four hundred years ago, Shakespeare’s plays are no exception. It is not surprising if you find yourself getting bored or confused when reading a Shakespearean play. There are simply too many characters,…
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Navid Jalali (He/Him)
Navid Jalali is a game enthusiast, literary editor and translator, and PhD candidate in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Besides teaching English, he currently serves as an Editorial Assistant for Queen’s Men Editions and Early Theatre and is affiliated with a number of early modern digital humanities projects, including…
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From the Stage to the Game Board: Reflecting on the Birth of Othello, a Game
An old man once said, “All the world’s a stage” (Shakespeare, II, VII, 146-147). To me, these words have always seemed like a glimpse into my own life, as if viewed through a crystal ball. As a mathematics student with a stern mind who decided to pursue English, I found myself entering the world of…
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What does every card do?
Each containing a little information about the story of Othello, these numbered cards are the most important cards of the game! If you land on an S space, you should pick and read a story card, draw a sketch of them on the white board, and narrate that part of the story to everyone using…
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What are the rules of “Othello, a Game”?
At the beginning of the game every player gets 3 1point cards and 2 2 point cards (you will need these cards in case you fail to do a task or a chance card punishes you.) Leave the other point cards into and let’s call that space the bank. To see who gets to start…
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How to move on the game board of “Othello, a Game”?
As the goal of almost every play is to reach to a conclusion, the main point of this game is to reach to the center (and that’s why the first person who gets there wins!). So, after you roll the dice, you start from the right space (or home) of each of the four starting…
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Game Pieces of “Othello, a Game”
Whether you are playing the physical or the digital version of of the game, here are the pieces that you are going to see: 1)A dice, because chance is a part of life, and that includes the lives of fictional characters like the ones in Othello! 2)Four cool 3d game pieces in the shape of…
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Guide Sheet
You can find a step by step introduction to the game and how it is played in the guide sheet.