In our current special exhibit, Level Up: Writers & Gamers, embark on a thrilling adventure into the world of game writing and explore the role of narrative and storytelling in gaming, from the 1970s to today. Timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of fantasy tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, Level Up enriches your understanding of writing through fun and interactive formats, inspires young people to try a new form of writing, and encourages exploration of the worlds created through games.
To highlight the exciting nature of tabletop games and the future of the gaming industry, we reached out to our friend Charlie Hall for his thoughts. Charlie is a journalist, editor, and photographer with more than 12-plus years’ experience at Polygon. After spending time as a freelance writer (Ars Technica, Paste Magazine, Gamers With Jobs) covering PC games, board games, and Dungeons & Dragons, he became Polygon’s first dedicated features writer in 2013. Over his career, Charlie has hosted and produced several podcasts on games and gaming, and has created multiple million-plus-view videos on YouTube. His areas of expertise include simulation, strategy, and spacefaring games as well as gaming and public policy. Charlie became Polygon’s tabletop editor in 2021—the first tabletop editor named to a major entertainment media website in the United States.
Charlie has been attending Gen Con, the nation’s largest tabletop gaming convention, since 2007, and has served as a judge for both E3 and the Origins Awards. He’s been invited to speak at GDC, PAX, Gen Con, Collision Conference, and the Games for Change festival. His work has been featured on NPR, the BBC, online with Smithsonian Magazine, and in the collection of The Peabody Essex Museum. He makes his home in far northern Illinois.
We spoke with Charlie via email about his career, the joy of playing games and writing about them, what he is excited about in the tabletop gaming world, and more. Check out our conversation below, and learn more about Level Up: Writers & Gamers here.
American Writers Museum: How did you first get into gaming journalism?
Charlie Hall: My first experience writing about games came on the forums at Gamers With Jobs, a Canada-based non-profit and a long-standing gaming community that I became part of out of college in the early 2000s. After years of posting on the forums, one of the moderators on the site privately messaged me and asked me to write for the front page. For the next few years I was welcomed into a hidden writer’s room, where I was able to workshop ideas with other members of the site and contribute big ideas to the front page and on YouTube. That’s where I learned to pitch gaming outlets and magazines, and how I worked up the nerve and the skills to take the bigger leap to more mainstream publications.
AWM: What is it about tabletop games that captivate you?
CH: The industry as a whole has such an incredible depth of experiences on offer. I truly believe that whoever you manage to sit down at the table alongside you, you can find a tabletop experience that will excite them.
AWM: What is the role that journalism has played in the development of tabletop games?
CH: Strange as it might seem, professional journalism has not traditionally had a presence in tabletop gaming. Coverage of the space has primarily been handled by enthusiasts, both on YouTube and at websites like Board Game Geek. Of note is that Board Game Geek specifically excludes written content that is not directly written into its forums, so quite literally the world’s largest database of board games is purposefully, intentionally devoid of professional journalism. I think that says a lot about BGG’s ownership cadre’s opinion of the value of journalism.
In the last decade, few professional journalists have explored the space with regularity and rigor. Those who have been most impactful—including writers at G/O- and Future-owned publications—recently lost their jobs. Dicebreaker, the closest corollary to our coverage here at Polygon, was effectively shuttered this year. These shortsighted decisions show a lack of vision on the part of these outlet’s corporate owners, that they have been unable to monetize or otherwise support this growing space.
“The same issues that impact the rest of society—issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion; issues of corporate malfeasance and labor rights; issues of technology, AI, and the need for creative expression—all of these issues impact the tabletop gaming space and the people who work in it.“
AWM: Why do you feel it is important to report on tabletop games and the industry today?
CH: The same issues that impact the rest of society—issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion; issues of corporate malfeasance and labor rights; issues of technology, AI, and the need for creative expression—all of these issues impact the tabletop gaming space and the people who work in it. That makes it fertile ground for professional journalists to shine a light on the things they admire, and point a finger at products and incidents that require more scrutiny.
AWM: Who are some notable figures in the gaming journalism world that have made an impact on the industry? Could you give a little background on why each of them is influential?
CH: Perhaps the most notable change in tabletop journalism in the last few years has been the rise of Rascal.news, a team of journalists who have had an outsize impact in their professional work while part of larger editorial organizations. All of them were laid off as described above, and have since set out to create a worker-owned publication to continue their work. Alongside Defector and Aftermath, they represent the nascent vanguard of the medium and are more than worthy of your support.
“The attention economy of YouTube and Twitter has also created a vast influencer class, with all the complexities and pitfalls that comes with.“
AWM: What about fan publications like zines? Do you have any insight into how those publications either help or hurt game journalism?
CH: Zines continue to be influential in the space. For instance, one of the viral hits from this year’s Gen Con was a one-sheet game called Either/Orc: A Short Worker’s Rights Game about Goblins. Designed, illustrated, and developed by Christos Reid, it became a big topic of conversation at the same convention that awarded the Paizo Workers Union the Diana Jones Award. That attention could only have happened because Christos literally put it in the hands of people he knew would appreciate it on the floor of the convention.
AWM: How has the digital age changed the way people learn about and ultimately play tabletop games?
CH: Completely. Not only do board games now commonly feature app-driven gameplay, but they also feature personality-driven how-to guides that teach folks how to play. The attention economy of YouTube and Twitter has also created a vast influencer class, with all the complexities and pitfalls that comes with. What do you do when tabletop gaming’s Mr. Beast jumps the shark? How do you pivot when you’ve tied your fledgling brand to a toxic individual? These are issues that the video gaming world has grappled with, in one form or another, over the last decade. Tabletop is just now starting to come to grips with this, and the fallout will continue for years to come.
“Developers are using other settings and themes to explore the same or similar gameplay mechanics, and the addressable audience is much wider because of that.“
AWM: You’ve been covering games for a while now, what has been the most surprising thing you have learned either about game writing or about writing about games?
CH: That so few writers are capable of doing it, and doing it well. And that so many readers are interested in it as an alternative to endless YouTube videos.
AWM: What is something that excites you about what is up and coming in gaming?
CH: The growth of nature-themed gaming, brought on by the incredible success of Elizabeth Hargrave’s Wingspan, has completely changed the face of tabletop gaming. Gone are the days when WWII and other historical conflicts dominated the strategy space, for instance. Now developers are using other settings and themes to explore the same or similar gameplay mechanics, and the addressable audience is much wider because of that.
AWM: What games have you recently found yourself especially enjoying?
CH: Arcs: Conflict and Collapse in the Reach is a novel new strategy board game from Leder Games. It uses traditional trick-taking mechanics, like Hearts of Whist, to tell a campaign-length space opera. It’s an innovative mechanic for a traditional setting, with an incredibly playful art style. It’s being talked about a lot as game of the year.
Our special exhibit Level Up: Writers & Gamers is open now through May 5, 2025.
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