From a parallel future Detroit, where androids' struggle for equal rights reflects the civil rights movements of the 1960s, to the more or less nuanced representation of mental health in video games, the Fall 2021 edition of Loading... presents 8 original papers that explore a range of intersections between academia, video games and society at large. What makes an "indie" game indie? What can be grasped of "actual" history from the historical strategy game Europa Universalis IV? What can we learn about diverse identity assumptions from the web series The Guild? What are the real-world impacts of loot boxes in video games, and should they be regulated? How our reality can be transformed into a palimpsest of physical and virtual layers by an AR game like Pokémon Go. And Baba Is You is explored as a game where Actions are mediated through Words, and Play leads inevitably and amusingly to Philosophical Inquiry.
