Meaningful Play Podcast

In this episode, Sian and Heather reflect on the past few busy months and discuss their favourite games of the year. From the psychological horrors Mouthwashing and The Coffin of Andy and Leyley to the action-RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard and visual novel STOP BURYING ME ALIVE, BEAUTIFUL!, it certainly has been an eventful 2024....Continue reading »

In this episode, Sian and Heather reflect on the complexities of archiving video games. We discuss the way that formal archiving is often difficult and tied up with ideas and judgements about cultural value. We also reflect on the importance of fan preservation, and the discussions around ownership, accessibility, licencing, backwards compatibility, remixing, and more....Continue reading »

Queer games? For pride month? Ground-breaking. This episode Sian and Heather chat about queer game design and the growing body of scholarship from writers including Bo Ruberg and Xavier Ho on queer games and the way queer games reimagine and play with the video game form. We catch up on what we've been working on...Continue reading »

In this episode Sian and Heather reflect on ‘cosy' games – games that are designed or played for relaxation and comfort. We recap our research over the past month or so, including the DIGRAA conference, and games we've played recently, including Signalis and Mato Anomalies. We consider what ‘cosy' games are; a category that often...Continue reading »

In this episode Sian and Heather ‘dive in' to underwater worlds and level design in video games, particularly the kinds of storytelling inscribed in watery environments. We first catch up on different research projects we've been working on and what we've been playing recently, before discussing a few different artistic and scientific projects that bring...Continue reading »

In this episode, Sian and Heather ‘tuck in' to video game food and its role from both  mechanical and narrative perspectives. Food, an essential part of life, is a constant presence in video games that rely on world-building and environmental storytelling to convey meaning. From cute cooking minigames to games that use food to inscribe...Continue reading »

Gamification is the practice of applying game design elements in non-game contexts. Both the term and practice have been applied to various activities including education, work, fitness, romance, finances, and beyond. In this episode, we slow down and unpack what the term means and some of the research around its application from various game studies...Continue reading »

What does the phrase ‘gaming lifestyle' mean in 2023? In this episode, we talk about the spaces, times, and activities that come to mind when we think of gaming as a hobby. From stylised gaming setups and the visuals of video game streaming; to challenging and toxic communities; to game design exhibitions and the community...Continue reading »

What makes something cute, and what does a cute thing do in the context of video games? As a surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) dominant aesthetic of the contemporary era, cuteness is an area of interest for various scholars. In the episode, Sian and Heather unpack some of the developing ideas around cuteness within and outside...Continue reading »

In this episode, Sian and Heather get stuck into the influential concept of flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's writing and lectures on the flow state have been applied by designers and scholars alike to understand and articulate the unique experiences of play that video games facilitate. We walk through what the concept means and discuss some later...Continue reading »

Happy new year! In this episode Sian and Heather talk about failure in video games. Failure has been an aspect of gameplay that has fascinated many scholars studying video games. We walk through the theories of several scholars, including Jesper Juul, Jane McGonigal, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ronald Tocci, Christopher Paul, Bonnie Ruberg, and Jack Halberstam, reflecting...Continue reading »

Welcome to our last episode of 2022–and what a year it has been! Sian and Heather take it light and breezy and discuss some of their favourite games from this year, titles they loved, titles they spent a lot of time on (hello Genshin Impact …) and those with some interesting mechanics. We catch up...Continue reading »

Happy Halloween! In this episode Sian and Heather catch up on what they've been playing and researching lately before moving into a discussion of the gothic, the horrible, and the spooky in video games. We reflect on some different ways of thinking about these genres and their appearances in different video games, discussing scholarship, the...Continue reading »

Bandai Namco sends a prolific Elden Ring player a sword and God gives you a phone in Pokemon Arceus. This episode, Sian and Heather dive into the idea of generous play. While over the years there has been plenty of discussion on the more negative emotions associated with games and play, there is plenty to...Continue reading »

In Episode 24 of Meaningful Play, Sian and Heather catch up on some recent research projects before diving into a thinking exercise around the recent discussions on open world games—their MacGuffins, beauty, and all the quirks in between. What is it about this prolific genre (and its mechanics) that is at times so wonderfully compelling...Continue reading »

In episode 23 of Meaningful Play, Sian and Heather get stuck into a discussion on difficulty in video games—a subject that has resurfaced in significance with the release of FromSoftware's latest title Elden Ring. While touching on some of the rich scholarship around community behaviour and polarisation in relation to difficulty, the discussion branches out...Continue reading »

In Episode 22 of Meaningful Play, Sian, Heather and Jordana discuss one of the most controversial topics in the realm of videogames – NFTs! In discussing NFTs, they attempt to define and understand NFTs and how they can be used in relation to videogames as a distinct medium. References: D'Angelo, W (2022). [Update] Nintendo on...Continue reading »

*Apologies for the audio quality – due to COVID-19 we were not able to record with our usual equipment*. In Episode 21, Jordana, Sian, and Heather discuss what games they have been playing recently, and consider what makes their favourite boss battles so memorable.  Key Games Discussed:  Blacksad: Under the Skin, Blasphemous, Final Fantasy XIV,...Continue reading »

In the twentieth episode of Meaningful Play, Sian and Jordana welcome a special guest, Heather Blakey(!), a PhD candidate focused on games and aesthetics. Together, they discuss the concept of environmental storytelling (or “embedded narratives” as termed by scholar Henry Jenkins), sharing some of their favourite or notable games that have successfully implemented environmental objects... Continue Reading →

In this episode Jordana provides an analysis of the game Bully. After recapping what we've been playing lately, we explore player typologies: what are some of the ways that researchers have tried to understand player motivations and preferences? We take Quantic Foundry's gamer motivation profile survey and discuss our results. Games: Animal Crossing, Bully, Greedfall,... Continue Reading →

In the eighteenth episode of Meaningful Play, Sian and Jordana discuss a genre of videogames that has become increasingly popular in the last decade – walking simulators! Resultingly, this episode discusses definitions of walking simulators and how they are categorised by games audiences and games scholars, as well as dissects and muses upon some notable... Continue Reading →

We’re back! Neopets is a virtual pet website that launched in 1999 and surged popularity, but two decades later is under threat of becoming obsolete. Easing back into our podcast, we take a trip down memory lane and reflect on our experiences of Neopets as children. We reflect on what we enjoyed and why, the... Continue Reading →

*Apologies for our extended absence and this episode’s recording quality, there were some technical issues and we have not been able to record with our usual equipment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the sixteenth episode of Meaningful Play, Jordana and Sian discuss Life Simulation videogames. They converse with a strong focus on what constitutes... Continue Reading →

In the fifteenth episode of Meaningful Play, we continue to discuss user-generated-content related to videogames. Specifically, we discuss our favourite gaming-based YouTubers and Twitch streamers, and the reasons behind why we tune into these certain content creators – why do they appeal to us, and what use do we get out of their content? Moreover,... Continue Reading →

In this episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss user-generated-content (UGC) focused on videogames. Specifically, we explore what makes UGC appealing to audiences (i.e. the use of cultural or ‘gaming capital’ – see Consalvo 2007, and common video templates, formats, and topics) as well as discussing some of our favourite YouTubers (such as Felicia Day, and... Continue Reading →

In the thirteenth episode of Meaningful Play, Sian and Jordana discuss their favourite games of the decade, as well as the concept of a ‘canon’ of video games – what are the best games of all time, and how is their position justified? Games:Minecraft, God of War, Pokémon Sword/Shield, Death Stranding, I Love You, Colonel... Continue Reading →

In this episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss the notion of ‘realism’ in video games. Using a framework developed by scholar Ciara Cremin’s succinct typology of realism in video games, this episode asks questions such as what realism is (or is generated by) in video games and their construction, what forms of realism we personally... Continue Reading →

Welcome back to Meaningful Play! Our second season begins with a discussion on empathy in video games. We reflect on how we understand empathy and feeling in games, and consider some of the ways that researchers and philosophers encourage us to think about these issues. We find that in many cases empathy is linked to immersion... Continue Reading →

In the tenth and final episode of the first season of Meaningful Play, we discuss the incredibly popular open world genre in video games. Specifically, we discuss key questions and issues pertaining to the open world genre, such as what constitutes the open world genre, how the genre is generally defined in terms of constructive... Continue Reading →

In the ninth episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss horror as a video game genre. Specifically, we ask questions such as what elements we believe constitute horror, how current academic literature conceives of horror as a genre in games (with reference to scholarly research focusing on body genre), and how horror games will develop in... Continue Reading →

In the eighth episode of Meaningful Play, we reflect on our favourite kinds of games, and quickly realise that genre is quite complex in game studies. We discuss what genres are comprised of, how they are established, and how they change. In particular, we consider the role that genre has in games compared to film,... Continue Reading →

In the seventh episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss sex and romance in games once again! In this much anticipated part two, we talk about sex with greater consideration, asking how sex, as well as the distinction between sex and romance, is discussed within the relevant academic literature. Moreover, we discuss depictions of sex and... Continue Reading →

In the sixth episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss sex and romance in video games. We discuss our experiences of romance in video games, and the difficulties in portraying a believable romantic experience. One interesting aspect of this is procedural rhetoric, which Ware (2015) touches on in his discussion of how video games can encourage... Continue Reading →

In the fifth episode of Meaningful Play, we discuss Ann Takamaki from Persona 5 (2017), a character we feel is hypersexualized and objectified, and in conjunction with both audio-visual elements and mechanics, highly contradictory in her depiction. As is well documented in games studies, female representation in video games has been highly controversial, with female... Continue Reading →

Welcome to the fourth episode of Meaningful Play. In this episode, we discuss why there are so many franchises in the games market, as well as the industry’s struggle to balance innovation and familiarity. We also consider the role that nostalgia plays in game production and consumption, as well as discuss what our favourite franchises*... Continue Reading →

Welcome to the third episode of Meaningful Play. In this episode we discuss what kinds of avatars we design or choose in games, and what kinds of patterns we notice in this behaviour. We also discuss the ever-controversial concept of immersion – do you feel ‘immersed’ in certain games? How do you view yourself in... Continue Reading →

Welcome to the second episode of Meaningful Play. In this episode, we discuss our enjoyment (and frustrations!) in playing video games cooperatively. How does local coop compare to online play, and is passing the controller around enough? How do you deal with disagreements when playing with others? How is the video game industry currently approaching... Continue Reading →

Welcome to the very first episode of Meaningful Play. In this episode we briefly introduce ourselves before having a chat about our difficulties in finishing games. What constitutes finishing a game? And what factors impact whether we finish a game? Articles: Bailey, EN & Miyata, K 2017, ‘Analyzing video game completion achievements: Implications for game... Continue Reading →