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Calen Bender

Ludic Narratives and the Pokémon Nuzlocke

Challenge-seeking impulses and emergent storytelling combine to redefine the play patterns of a children’s video game.

6 min readMay 7, 2024

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A collage of pokemon games box art samples in the background, with the big word “Nuzlocke” in the pokemon font overlaid on top.

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Calen Bender

The Way For Me, But Not For Thee

How Skyrim presents something great, then sabotages it immediately

7 min readApr 22, 2024

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A shot from Skyrim’s promotional material, where the camera looks down on a warrior in studded leather armor and a horned iron helm Shouts up into the camera with a steel sword gripped in his right hand.

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Calen Bender

Video Games Deserve Better Magic Systems

Spells should feel like wrestling with reality and breaking rules, not just choosing what flavor of DPS you’d like spew at an enemy.

21 min readApr 9, 2024

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A sorcerer or mage in the first Dragon’s Dogma game striking a troll with a massive vertical pillar of ice

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Calen Bender

‘Shangri-La Frontier’ Embraces the Game and Drops the Melodrama

If you die in the game you. . . get to keep having fun on your adventure?

4 min readNov 21, 2023

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‘Shangri-La Frontier’ Embraces the Game and Drops the Melodrama

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Calen Bender

‘Slay the Princess’ Is A Masterpiece

An engaging exploration of trust, relationships, and perspective that you need to play

4 min readNov 2, 2023

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‘Slay the Princess’ Is A Masterpiece

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Calen Bender

Triangle Strategy: A Hidden Gem

A turn-based Strategy RPG that delivered on every expectation and promise it made to me.

11 min readApr 1, 2022

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Triangle Strategy: A Hidden Gem

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Calen Bender

Catharsis Means “Release” for a Reason

An uncomfortable personal story with a lesson I wish I’d learned far earlier.

6 min readJan 11, 2022

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Catharsis Means “Release” for a Reason

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Calen Bender

The Horror and the Wild — Album Review

The Amazing Devil takes us on a tempestuous exploration of our relationships with ourselves and others.

5 min readJan 4, 2022

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Album Cover: “The Horror and the Wild” — The Amazing Devil. Depicts one man in black and one woman in white on either side of a campfire in a forest

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Calen Bender

Leftist Anti-Theism

A case study in shooting yourself in the foot.

6 min readDec 7, 2021

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a businessman riding a gilded crucifix carried on the back of the oppressed poor; anti religious soviet propaganda

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Calen Bender

Oversight — Flash Fiction

This was a short story I wrote for another writing contest. The word limit for this one was very strict (for me), and I’m pretty proud of…

5 min readSep 9, 2021

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Oversight — Flash Fiction

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Calen Bender

Calen Bender

Fantasy author and professional content writer. I like to read, play games, play with my dogs, and pretend I know what I’m talking about.

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