This is a podcast where your friends Cameron Kunzelman and Michael Lutz read books about games and discuss them chapter-by-chapter. We're exploring the big world of game studies, and we want you to come along! You can find Cameron on Twitter @ckunzelman, and you can find Michael @warrenisdead.
Listeners of Game Studies Study Buddies that love the show mention: ho ho, video games, detailed, brain, fascinating, books, important, check, hosts, thanks, interesting, think, like, always, good, listen, great, games studies, game studies.
The Game Studies Study Buddies podcast is a hidden gem that I'm glad I stumbled upon. As someone who initially felt intimidated by the subject matter, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this podcast is accessible and engaging for listeners like me who may not have an academic background in game studies. The hosts, Cameron and Michael, strike the perfect balance between being entertaining and educational, making the episodes enjoyable to listen to.
One of the best aspects of this podcast is the way it combines rigorous analysis with a lighthearted and humorous approach. The hosts delve deep into academic texts and theories related to game studies, but they never make it feel overwhelming or inaccessible. They break down complex concepts in a way that is easily understandable, even for those without prior knowledge of the subject matter. Their chemistry and banter also add a fun dynamic to the discussions, making each episode entertaining from start to finish.
Another standout aspect of this podcast is its ability to broaden listeners' perspectives on games and play. Through their in-depth discussions, Cameron and Michael explore various aspects of game studies, including design, culture, philosophy, and more. This comprehensive approach allows listeners to gain a deeper understanding of games as a medium while also challenging their preconceived notions about gaming. Whether you're a game designer looking for new insights or simply someone interested in thinking critically about media, this podcast offers something for everyone.
While there are countless positive aspects to The Game Studies Study Buddies podcast, one potential downside could be the level of jargon used at times. As with any academic-focused discussion, there may be moments where certain terms or theories might go over the heads of some listeners. However, Cameron and Michael do an excellent job overall at breaking down these concepts for a wider audience. Additionally, even if you don't fully grasp every single detail mentioned in an episode, you can still learn through osmosis and absorb valuable knowledge through their engaging conversations.
In conclusion, The Game Studies Study Buddies podcast is a must-listen for anyone interested in game studies or media analysis. Cameron and Michael's ability to make academic discussions accessible and entertaining sets this podcast apart from others in the genre. Whether you're a seasoned scholar or a casual listener, you'll find yourself gaining new insights and perspectives with each episode. Give it a listen and prepare to have your mind expanded by these knowledgeable and witty hosts.
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We talk about David J. Gunkel’s Gaming the System. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Kristine Jørgensen’s Gameworld Interfaces. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about the film Grand Theft Hamlet. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Sara Humphreys’ Manifest Destiny 2.0: Genre Trouble in Game Worlds. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Julian Dibbell’s My Tiny Life. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson’s Playing Oppression. You can read the book open access on The MIT Press website: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5547/Playing-OppressionThe-Legacy-of-Conquest-and Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme… Continue reading 77 – Flanagan and Jakobsson – Playing Oppression
We talk about Aaron Trammell’s Repairing Play. It is open access on The MIT Press’s website: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5530/Repairing-PlayA-Black-Phenomenology Note: Did one last final check — Riven did eventually release for the Sega Saturn. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter.… Continue reading 76 – Trammell – Repairing Play
We talk about Fredric Jameson’s “Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism” which was originally published in New Left Review in 1984. Note: Checked one more time — Riven did eventually release for the Sega Saturn. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on… Continue reading 75 – Jameson – Postmodernism
We talk about Douglas Guerra’s Slantwise Moves: Games, Literature, and Social Invention in Nineteenth-Century America. Note: Checked again — Riven did eventually release for the Sega Saturn. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris… Continue reading 74 – Guerra – Slantwise Moves
We talk about Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s How Pac-Man Eats. Note: Still confirming that Riven eventually released for the Sega Saturn. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Cyan’s Myst. Note: Riven did eventually come out for the Sega Saturn. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Dan Pinchbeck’s Doom: Scarydarkfast. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Bernard De Koven’s The Well-Played Game. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Lindsay Brandon Hunter’s Playing Real: Mimesis, Media, and Mischief. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Jaroslav Švelch's Player vs Monster. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Carlos Gabriel Kelly González’s Ready Player Juan. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Amanda Cote’s Gaming Sexism. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Mizuko Ito’s Engineering Play: A Cultural History of Children’s Software. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Josef Nguyen’s 2021 book The Digital Is Kid Stuff: Making Creative Laborers for a Precarious Economy. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Marsha Kinder’s 1991 classic Playing With Power. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Marie-Laure Ryan’s 2001 book Narrative As Virtual Reality. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Adrian Hon’s You’ve Been Played: How Corporations, Governments, and Schools Use Games To Control Us All. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about C. Thi Nguyen’s Games: Agency As Art Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Bettina Bódi’s Videogames and Agency. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about 2012’s Indie Game: The Movie. Ryerson piece referenced: https://web.archive.org/web/20120718043913/http://midnightresistance.co.uk/articles/indie-game-movie-review Ryerson podcast referenced: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10a-white-collar-mario-from-the-future/id1475437756?i=1000524299956 Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We’re joined by TreaAndrea Russworm, Jesse Ramirez, and Gerry Canavan to talk about The Last of Us game and television show. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for… Continue reading The Last of Us Roundtable
We discuss David Sudnow’s 1983 classic Pilgrim in the Microworld. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Katherine Isbister’s How Games Move Us: Emotion By Design. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Rachel Lee Rubin’s 2012 book Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss James Paul Gee’s 2003 book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Souvik Mukherjee’s 2015 book Video Games and Storytelling. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss 2019’s Marx at the Arcade by Jamie Woodcock. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss 1978's The Grasshopper, a book on the philosophy of games. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss 2006’s Game Cultures, an early and formative book of game studies by Dovey and Kennedy. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Stuart Hall’s Cultural Studies 1983, published in 2016. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Gary Alan Fine’s foundational book Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds from 1983. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Buy books from our Bookshop.org page! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss William J. White’s Tabletop RPG Design in Theory and Practice at the Forge, 2001-2012. Austin Walker joins us in this episode. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Jon Peterson’s The Elusive Shift: How Role Playing Games Forged Their Identity. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Anne-Marie Schleiner’s The Player’s Power To Change the Game – Ludic Mutation. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Rebecca Cassidy’s Vicious Games: Capitalism and Gambling. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Natasha Dow Schüll’s Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Michael Saler’s As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Seth Giddings’ Gameworlds: Virtual Media and Children’s Everyday Play. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We discuss Jacques Ranciere’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster. Buy the shirt! Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about Patrick Crogan’s Gameplay Mode: War, Simulation, and Technoculture. Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
We talk about T.L. Taylor’s Play Between Worlds. Support this show on Patreon! Follow Ranged Touch on Twitter. Follow CMRN on Twitter. Follow Michael on Twitter. Chris Hunt created the theme song for this show.
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