So many games these days come with a press release or marketing tag proclaiming "Lovecraftian". But what exactly does that mean, and are they using it correctly? It certainly shouldn't just mean tentacled space monsters or sex cults -- there's much more to his writing legacy -- his character flaws aside -- than just big unknown monsters and dread.

So we roped in our good friend Christian D. Read to explain the term, the man and his legacy in another genre-slash-subgenre deep-dive.

Here's a snippet:

Even if you’ve never read him, there’s a very good chance you know who H.P. Lovecraft was. The horror writer who first invented tentacles or something. And more importantly, you probably have an idea in your head about who he is -- some kind of ferocious naziman who would growl and run away from black and Asian people before writing a story that ends with ‘Oh no! It was from Singapore!’. Or perhaps all you really know is references to things as “Lovecraftian” -- there’s a lot of those and these days the word means little more than ‘has a weird tentacle monster in it’, but it's much, much more than that.

We live in a fallen world where snap judgements and moral certainty are the order of the day. But Lovecraft is a vastly important writer and, actually, a very, very good one. (Yes, also pretty racist.)

Let’s, as the kids say, unpack H.P Lovecraft. And let’s talk about why this important writer and king of boomer energy is still absolutely worth your time to investigate and make your own mind up on...

Click here for our full breakdown of the term "Lovecraftian" and deep-dive into the man from which it is derived.