"This is the best game!"

This article analyses The Best Game, a fictional arcade game encountered in the YouTube animated series Bee and PuppyCat. Although arcade games in North America have long been conceptualised as sites of masculine skill-based competition and mastery, this reputation obfuscates the diverse history of...

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Main Author: Jacqueline Moran
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Septentrio Academic Publishing 2025-06-01
Series:Eludamos
Subjects:
Online Access:https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/eludamos/article/view/7919
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author Jacqueline Moran
author_facet Jacqueline Moran
author_sort Jacqueline Moran
collection DOAJ
description This article analyses The Best Game, a fictional arcade game encountered in the YouTube animated series Bee and PuppyCat. Although arcade games in North America have long been conceptualised as sites of masculine skill-based competition and mastery, this reputation obfuscates the diverse history of arcade games and reinforces capitalist design conventions. The Best Game offers a critique of these assumptions. By examining this fictional game through arcade history, masculinity, capitalism, and dance, this article explores how The Best Game eschews design conventions to align with the show’s mahō shōjo-inspired themes and leverages its fictionality to suggest a game that neither trains nor evaluates its players, although the result expresses resentment more than it incites resistance.
format Article
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issn 1866-6124
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publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Septentrio Academic Publishing
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series Eludamos
spelling doaj-art-bed901ce074741b1ac9965142d7a7eeb2025-08-20T02:35:23ZengSeptentrio Academic PublishingEludamos1866-61242025-06-0116110.7557/23.7919"This is the best game!"Jacqueline Moran0https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9934-6797Swinburne University of Technology This article analyses The Best Game, a fictional arcade game encountered in the YouTube animated series Bee and PuppyCat. Although arcade games in North America have long been conceptualised as sites of masculine skill-based competition and mastery, this reputation obfuscates the diverse history of arcade games and reinforces capitalist design conventions. The Best Game offers a critique of these assumptions. By examining this fictional game through arcade history, masculinity, capitalism, and dance, this article explores how The Best Game eschews design conventions to align with the show’s mahō shōjo-inspired themes and leverages its fictionality to suggest a game that neither trains nor evaluates its players, although the result expresses resentment more than it incites resistance. https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/eludamos/article/view/7919Bee and PuppyCatfictional gamesworkcapitalismsportsarcades
spellingShingle Jacqueline Moran
"This is the best game!"
Eludamos
Bee and PuppyCat
fictional games
work
capitalism
sports
arcades
title "This is the best game!"
title_full "This is the best game!"
title_fullStr "This is the best game!"
title_full_unstemmed "This is the best game!"
title_short "This is the best game!"
title_sort this is the best game
topic Bee and PuppyCat
fictional games
work
capitalism
sports
arcades
url https://septentrio.uit.no/index.php/eludamos/article/view/7919
work_keys_str_mv AT jacquelinemoran thisisthebestgame