Previous Writing
For the most up-to-date list of my work at Polygon.com, refer my author page here.
Published Games Writing
The Verge
"How Public Arts Funding Helps Developers Make Unique, More Diverse Games"
Twin Cities Business Magazine
"Remember Pokémon Go? It's Still Going..."
Unwinnable
"Lo-fi Hip Hop Beats To Have a Nervous Breakdown To"
Twin Cities Geek
"Minnesota-Made Game HyperDot Is Coming as an Xbox Exclusive"
"7 New and Upcoming Video Games to Be Excited about in 2019"
"Try Out the Global Game Jam Creations of 2019 at the GLITCH Play Party"
"The Concepts of Ravnica Brings Original Magic: The Gathering Artwork to Lodestone Coffee and Games"
"Twin Cities Gamers Celebrate the Release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate"
Non-Games Related Writing
Podcast Review: A Channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books
"Serial Season 3: Episode by Episode"
"An Interview with Polygon’s Allegra Frank"
"In the Dark and the Warmth of Rural America"
"A Look at Three Nintendo Podcasts"
"The Courage of What’s Good Games"
Twin Cities Business Magazine
"Super Bowl Ads: Bigger is Not Always Better"
"Shipt Employees Call for More Protections During Pandemic"
"Minnesota AG Sees More than 700 Price Gouging Complaints"
"Here's How Minnesota Companies Are Helping Out with Coronavirus Relief"
Citizens Utility Board Minnesota
"Energy poverty: What is it and how do we understand it?"
"Why get a furnace or boiler tune-up? Let us break it down for you."
"Energy Sucker or Energy Sipper? Learn More about Household Electronic Use"
"Thinking of Buying a New Appliance? Consider Energy Star"
Midwest Energy News
"Midwest Energy News' 40 Under 40"
I administered and lead on Midwest Energy News' 40 Under 40 campaign. I wrote, edited, and published all the landing pages. In addition to that, I coordinated nomination and judging efforts from dozens of partner organizations across the midwest.
Hosting and Appearances
Hi! I'm currently a host at MinnMax
Refreshed
I'm the host of Refreshed, a show highlighting the wonderful people, work, and ideas on the internet. It's an internet culture talk show that branches from traditional games journalism to examine the online cultures that often run analogous to them.
Episodes:
"The Unlikely Online Fandom For Overlooked Animated Films (With Petrana Radulovic)"
"How Neopets Inspired A Generation Of Coders And Writers (With Shannon Liao)"
"How K-Pop Superfans Are Changing The World (With Palmer Haasch)"
The Deepest Dive
The MinnMax Show
You can also see me cover more standard video games news as I appear on the show.
"Ana learns about Monster Rancher."
"Ana is weirdly good at recalling the most obscure Pokémon spin-offs."
"Minecraft Dungeons is funny?"
Also seen on...
OUTSIDE/IN
"Open Worlds" - I appeared on the OUTSIDE/IN podcast from NPHR and NPR to talk about Skyrim and player relationships to its built environment.
Projects
Creative Projects
Global Game Jam 2019
I made an interactive fiction game about making home in a cold place for the 2019 Global Game Jam.
Creative Writing & Story Telling
A nonfiction piece written for my upper level speculative and autobiographical fiction course.
"Coffee with a Tall Man"
An audio piece written, recorded, and produced by me to raise money for a local charity event.
College Undergrad Writing and Presentations
Senior Honors Thesis
"Playing the Other: Interpreting Colonial Encounters in Earthbound"
This project looked at how one video game fit into Edward Said's theoretical framework of Orientalism. To translate that into nonacademic speak, I look at how an idea of "the East" is created through features unique to video games. This research was a wildly fun way to spend her senior year of college, and if you run into Ana, please talk to her about it.
Abstract: This paper draws attention to the potential for interdisciplinary enrichment between post-
colonial theory and videogames studies. Although some scholars have accounted for Orientalism in video games (Consalvo 2016; Tucker 2006), there has yet to be a thorough engagement between post-colonial theory and video games scholars. This paper starts by elaborating on the colonial nature of games and establishes video games as a fruitful site of post-colonial discourse. After applying post-colonial frameworks from Blaney and Inayatullah (2004) and Nandy (1983) to the video game Earthbound (Ape and HAL Laboratory, 1994). I find that the character Prince Poo and his region Dalaam, are spatially and temporally othered in its depiction and mechanically. For the second case, I find Mr. Saturn challenges these categories of difference.
The Mac Weekly
"PRESS A: A Link Between Worlds"
The Politics of Fear and Hope
"Jumping Through Human Rights: Video Game Development and Human Rights Advocacy in Senegal"
Macalester College Institute for Global Citizenship
"Empathy Craft: Video Game Design Possibilities"
I presented a part of my honors thesis research for the 2018 international Roundtable. I did a comparative analysis of Undertale and Earthbound to illustrate ways to promote empathy with video game characters.