August 11, 2025: Does Super Mario Bros. (1985) Have Rules?

I wrote a provocatively-titled article about Super Mario Bros., but more broadly about the nature of rules and materiality in videogames vs. tabletop RPGs. I imagine some number of you will come to an instinctive conclusion, which is okay! I hope you check out the article and find it interesting. A lot of it is building on the work of Markus Montola and Jaakko Stenros in The Rule Book (2024), which is available for free online and a truly phenomenal read.

-- Jay Dragon