Podcasts about critical distance

This week I am joined by my friend, Nicholas, who is a narrative designer, artist, and founder of Essay Games. His artwork and games have been featured in Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun, Game Developer, Critical Distance, Unwinnable, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. His games are interesting, thoughtful, and delve deeply into human stories. While his last two games relied on his skill for research, his current undertaking, Bundle of Joy, draws on his recent experience of becoming a parent during the pandemic. We speak at length about creativity as a practice and what his personal go-to tools are to tell stories and create games Wishlist Bundle of Joy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3138370/Bundle_of_Joy/ https://bsky.app/profile/essaygames.bsky.social https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-o-brien-essaygames/ https://essaygames.itch.io/

The boys uncover the harsh realities facing games journalists, talk games media unions with Tyler from IGN Creators Guild, and finish it all by gushing about the stealth action classic Dishonored! Check out our merch! ▶ https://pleasestopshopping.com/ Support the podcast on Patreon ▶ https://www.patreon.com/SirMeowMusic Join the PST Discord server! ▶ https://discord.gg/YNqTT65 Check out IGN Creators Guild! ▶ https://x.com/ignunion Contact IGN Creators Guild! ▶ igncreatorsguild@gmail.com Check out Critical Distance! ▶ https://critical-distance.com/ Links: Billy ▶ https://twitter.com/SirMeowMusic Cameron ▶ https://twitter.com/SuperSneakSheep Kbash ▶ https://twitter.com/KBashShow Shayne ▶ https://twitter.com/SuperFoxcade PSTPodcast Art by Yves ▶ https://twitter.com/hangingrabbit A key was provided to us for the following game: Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are we adult enough to admit that opinions can change?

This episode we speak with Dr Brendan Keogh, discussing his new book The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist: Why We Should Think Beyond Commercial Game Production (https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545402/the-videogame-industry-does-not-exist/). It is the final part of a special 6-episode Season of Keywords in Play, exploring intersections and exchanges between Chinese and Australian game studies scholarship. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Dr Brendan Keogh (he/him) is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication and a Chief Investigator of the Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology. He is the co-author of The Unity Game Engine and The Circuits of Cultural Software (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019; with Benjamin Nicoll), and is the author of The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist (MIT Press, 2023), A Play of Bodies: How We Perceive Videogames (MIT Press, 2018), and Killing is Harmless: A Critical Reading of Spec Ops The Line (Stolen Projects, 2012). He has written extensively about the cultures and development practices of videogames in journals such as Games and Culture, Creative Industries, and Covergence, and for outlets such as Overland, The Conversation, Polygon, Edge, and Vice. You can check out more of Brendan's work and games on his website: https://brkeogh.com/, and follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/brkeogh. The podcast series is part of the Engaging Influencers initiative. This initiative is curated by the Australia Council for the Arts and funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.” Interviewer: Mahli-Ann Butt Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Emilie Reed, Zoyander Street Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Special Thanks: Hugh Davies, Chloe Yan Li

This episode we speak with Dr. Xavier Ho, discussing his data visualisation and design research, as well as the curation process of the thoughtful queer indie games exhibition ‘Pride at Play' (https://prideatplay.org/). It is part 5 of a special 6-episode Season of Keywords in Play, exploring intersections and exchanges between Chinese and Australian game studies scholarship. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Xavier Ho is a lecturer and a queer games researcher at Monash University. He received the inaugural CSIRO Medal for Diversity and Inclusion, was appointed as Junior Chair in Sexuality Studies at the Hunt-Simes Institute in Sydney, and was named a 2023 Australian Broadcast Corporation TOP 5 Arts media resident. You can check out his work here: https://jtg.design/, and follow him on Twitter https://twitter.com/Xavier_Ho. The podcast series is part of the Engaging Influencers initiative. This initiative is curated by the Australia Council for the Arts and funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. As a joint venture between Critical Distance and DiGRA, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Interviewer: Mahli-Ann Butt Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Emilie Reed, Zoyander Street Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Special Thanks: Hugh Davies, Chloe Yan Li

As mass media exploded and the American art scene bloomed in the 1950s and 60s, Rosalyn Drexler and Sturtevant pushed back on corrosive cultural assumptions. Drexler's collage paintings dissect popular attitudes towards fame, violence, and women, and Sturtevant's replicas spur questions around originality, reception, and perception. Hear how each artist made her own way in her own words. Show Notes and Transcript available at www.aaa.si.edu/articulated

This episode we speak with Dr. Stephanie Harkin, discussing the concept of “techno-femininity” from her award winning PhD Thesis (2022) Girlhood Games: Gender, Identity, and Coming of Age in Videogames. You can read her PhD here: https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/86788440-fcec-420a-8df1-b7c35f976066/1/stephanie_harkin_thesis.pdf, follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sa_harkin, and read more of her work on Academia.edu: https://swin.academia.edu/SHarkin. It is part 4 of a special 6-episode Season of Keywords in Play, exploring intersections and exchanges between Chinese and Australian game studies scholarship. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Stephanie Harkin is an early career researcher interested in girls' gaming cultures and representations of girlhood. She completed her PhD at Swinburne University of Technology where her thesis explored girlhood and the coming-of-age genre in videogames. She has previously published on gender and games in the journals Game Studies, Games and Culture, and Girlhood Studies. The podcast series is part of Engaging Influencers initiative. This initiative is curated by the Australia Council for the Arts and funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations. As a joint venture between DiGRA and Critical Distance, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.” Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Interviewer: Mahli-Ann Butt Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Emilie Reed, Zoyander Street Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Special Thanks: Hugh Davies, Chloe Yan Li

This episode we speak with Dr. Felania Liu. The episode is part 3 of a special 6-episode Season of Keywords in Play, exploring intersections and exchanges between Chinese and Australian game studies scholarship. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Dr Felania Liu is a game researcher, and is founder and curator of the Homo Ludens Archive. She currently lectures at Beijing Normal University and has previously worked at the Department of History, Institute of Humanities, Tsinghua University /Durham University. Felania is also responsible for cultivating the game research community in China and for fostering international collaborations in the field of video game studies from the perspectives and techniques of Social Sciences in China. As a researcher, a historian, a curator, and a gamification designer, Felania specializes in using fun and game mechanics to solve problems in education, recruiting, training, learning, marketing and the designing of events. Felania promotes video games as forms of media that can bring meaningful communication and are able to make positive social impacts to the world. The podcast series is part of Engaging Influencers initiative. This initiative is curated by the Australia Council for the Arts and funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Interviewer: Hugh Davies Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Emilie Reed, Zoyander Street Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Special Thanks: Mahli-Ann Butt, Chloe Yan Li

This episode we speak with Dr. Tingting Liu, discussing her research as a cultural anthropologist examining digital intimacies, gender, platforms and gaming in China. It is part 2 of a special 6-episode Season of Keywords in Play, exploring intersections and exchanges between Chinese and Australian game studies scholarship. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Dr Tingting Liu is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University, China. She received her PhD in anthropology from the University of Queensland in 2018. Dr. Liu used to serve as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, as well as a part-time lecturer at the University of Sydney. Dr. Liu's research interests centre on digital media, video games, gender, sexuality, and their intersections. Her pioneering research on Chinese digital games has been published in leading international journals, including Games & Cultures, Information, Communication & Society, and Television & New Media.   The podcast series is part of Engaging Influencers initiative. This initiative is curated by the Australia Council for the Arts and funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Interviewer: Hugh Davies Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Emilie Reed, Zoyander Street Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Special Thanks: Mahli-Ann Butt, Chloe Yan Li

This episode marks the beginning of a special 6-episode Season of Keywords in Play, exploring intersections and exchanges between Chinese and Australian game studies scholarship. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. This episode we speak with Dr. Gejun Huang. Gejun is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He was a Lecturer in the School of Communication at Soochow University and earned his Ph.D. and MA in Media Studies from the Radio-Television-Film Department of the University of Texas at Austin. His academic interests mainly touch on the digital game industry, media entrepreneurship, cultural policy, as well as digital inequalities and digital privacy. He has published in peer-reviewed journals including Big Data & Society, Cultural Trends, International Journal of Communication, Chinese Journal of Communication, American Behavioral Scientists, and Information, Communication & Society. The podcast series is part of Engaging Influencers initiative. This initiative is curated by the Australia Council for the Arts and funded by the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Interviewer: Hugh Davies Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Emilie Reed, Zoyander Street Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Special Thanks: Mahli-Ann Butt, Chloe Yan Li

This epsiode we speak with Florence Smith-Nicholls about the paper "The Dark Souls of Archaeology: Recording Elden Ring" https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.10949. Florence is a game AI PhD researcher based in London. They also work as a Story Tech, a member of the writers' room at the indie studio Die Gute Fabrik. Building on their background as an archaeologist, they have contributed to the field of archaeogaming through experimenting with archaeological approaches to titles such as Elden Ring and Nier: Automata.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

This episode we are doing something a little bit different - interviewing a group of scholars about their Call for Papers on "The Post-Gamer Turn", which can be found here: https://postgamerturn.wordpress.com/ .  Abstract submissions of 500-800 words are due on November 30th 2022. We discuss with Mahli-Ann Butt, Amanda Cote, Emil Lunedal Hammar and Cody Mejeur the rationale behind the edited collection, their backgrounds doing diversity work in game studies, and their thoughts about the future of the dynamics they identify. "This edited collection engages with the shifting understanding of “Gamers”/gamers/players in game culture, the games industry, and game studies – which Butt refers to as “the post-Gamer turn” (2022, p. 51) – to address the ongoing issues inherent in the use of a limited identity category. The post-Gamer turn does not signal the end of the “Gamer” identity but denotes a way of recognizing its promises as a sustained fantasy with real power and implications for who plays games and how. Engaging with the limits of the “Gamer” identity and questioning the boundaries of representation in games does not settle, solve, or supersede the concept of a “Gamer,” but instead reveals evolving relations between players and the games they play. Doing this work now is not only important as a matter of theoretical rigor, but also as a means for making game studies a more inclusive and vibrant scholarly community. Recognizing diverse perspectives on games, “Gamers”/gamers/players, and game studies is of urgent practical and political necessity. It has been nearly a decade since the events of Gamergate, where the tensions between “Gamers” and players were violently, publicly highlighted, and this edited collection asks what has changed in games and game studies with regard to conceptualizing players/gamers/“Gamers,” as well as where further change is needed." Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Special thanks to Mahli-Ann Butt for editing this episode.  

Everest Pipkin is a writer, game developer and software artist from Central Texas whose work follows themes of ecology, information theory, and system collapse. As an artist and as a theorist, they fundamentally believe in the liberatory capacity of care; care not as an abstract emotion but rather as a powerful force that motivates collective work towards a better world. They hold a BFA from University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and live and work in southern New Mexico. They have shown and spoken at The Design Museum of London, The Texas Biennial, The XXI Triennale of Milan, The Photographers Gallery of London, Center for Land Use Interpretation, and other spaces. When not at the computer in the heat of the day, you can find them in the hills spending time with their neighbors— both human and non-human.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

Alesha Serada is a PhD student and a researcher at the University of Vaasa, Finland. Their dissertation, supported by the Nissi Foundation, discusses construction of value in games and art on blockchain. Inspired by their Belarusian origin, their research interests revolve around exploitation, violence, horror, deception and other banal and non-banal evils in visual media. In this episode we discuss Alesha's paper "‘Died from Debeeration': the Case of the First Belarusian Political Game" which characterises the game MENSKBand in the context of cultural, technical and political change in Belarus. Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

In this episode we talk with Gregory Whistance-Smith, an independent scholar based in Edmonton, Canada. The discussion focuses on the book "Expressive Space: Embodying Meaning in Video Game Environments" https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110723731/html?lang=en Video game spaces have vastly expanded the built environment, offering new worlds to explore and inhabit. Like buildings, cities, and gardens before them, these virtual environments express meaning and communicate ideas and affects through the spatial experiences they afford. Drawing on the emerging field of embodied cognition, this book explores the dynamic interplay between mind, body, and environment that sits at the heart of spatial communication. To capture the wide diversity of forms that spatial expression can take, the book builds a comparative analysis of twelve video games across four types of space, spanning ones designed for exploration and inhabitation, kinetic enjoyment, enacting a situated role, and enhancing perception. Together, these diverse virtual environments suggest the many ways that video games enhance and extend our embodied lives.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

In this episode we speak with Regina Seiwald and Ed Vollans on paratexts and their forthcoming collaboration "Not in the Game: History, Paratext and Games", soon to be published with De Gruyter. Regina Seiwald is highly interested in the relationship between literary theory and narratology across the languages. Her focus thereby lies with the Anglo-American and Germanic tradition. In my PhD thesis, she researched metafiction in the postmodern British novel to determine how texts communicate the relationship between fiction and reality. The insights generated have subsequently been applied to video games and digitalisation more generally (also XR/AI/MR), particularly in the context of paratextuality and Cold War narratives. Ed Vollans' research interests explore the promotional culture of the entertainment industries, how they promote, market and position themselves within the wider popular sphere. Specifically focusing on film and videogame promotion, his work has explored the emergence of trailers for the games industry, and audience reception of film promotion. Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

Esther Wright is Lecturer in Digital History at Cardiff University. Her work is situated within the field of Historical Game Studies, critically examining how digital representations of the past found in popular visual media have the potential to shape public understandings of history. Her PhD, awarded by the University of Warwick in August 2019, is a study of Rockstar Games as developer-historian, and the company's long-established project of negotiating and representing U.S. History in their games – in particular, focussing on Red Dead Redemption (2010), Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018), and L.A. Noire (2011). This project is forthcoming as a book entitled Rockstar Games and American History: Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity (De Gruyter, 2022). Esther argues for the importance of studying promotional materials, developer branding strategies, and other kinds of paratextual materials associated with the development and release of historical digital games. These materials are important digital sites and spaces through which game developers, like Rockstar, perform the role of historian and manage expectations for "historical authenticity" among players and critics. She uses promotional materials to offer more nuanced interpretations of the influence of dominant understandings of U.S. History on game development and marketing decisions. These hegemonies, established by and through the conventions of pre-existing cultural "genres" like the Western and film noir, and popular narratives long-centred on the white and male experience, lead to games that exclude and marginalise other people and identities, and promotional practices that reaffirm exclusionary stories about America's “real” past. Esther is also a convener of the Historical Games Network https://www.historicalgames.net/   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

April Tyack is a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University and vice-president of DiGRA Australia. April researches player experience and how games facilitate different types of experiences. In this episode, April discusses the paper Off-Peak: An Examination of Ordinary Player Experience (2021), published with Elisa D. Mekler. The paper critiques the focus in game research, culture and development on extraordinary, optimal or peak experiences, and how this focus has shaped the field of HCI in particular. Ordinary player experience is conceptualised as familiar, emotionally moderate, co-attentive, and abstractly memorable, providing a new model for thinking about and researching digital games. “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture (as well as transcriptions of each Keywords in Play episode) please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord       The paper is available here: https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3411764.3445230

This episode we speak with Felan Parker about his work on cultural intermediaries and indie games. Felan is Assistant Professor of Book & Media Studies at St. Michael's College in the University of Toronto, and a scholar of media industries and cultures specializing in games, digital media, and film. His ongoing research, supported from 2016-2019 by the Indie Interfaces SSHRC Insight Development Grant, explores the production, distribution, and reception of independent or “indie” digital games with a particular focus on the role of intermediary actors like curators, critics, and community organizers in the cultural ecosystem of the game industry. Dr. Parker is also co-investigator on the Swarming Comic-Con SSHRC Insight Grant, a collaborative ethnographic research endeavour that examines the famous San Diego Comic-Con and its cultural and economic resonance across entertainment industries. Other interests include game development in Canada, transmedia franchises, blockbusters and spectacle, authorship, genre, and analog games. His work has been published in leading journals and presented at conferences around the world, and he co-edited Beyond the Sea: Critical Perspectives on Bioshock, a 2018 anthology of essays on the influential game series. More on Felan's work: https://stmikes.utoronto.ca/about-us/contact-us/directory/felan-parker   “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture (as well as transcriptions of each Keywords in Play episode) please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

This episode we speak with Leon Xiao about the paper "What are the odds? Lower compliance with Western loot box probability disclosure industry self-regulation than Chinese legal regulation", co-authored with Laura Henderson and Philip Newall. This empirical study of loot boxes and probability disclosure is (as of this interview) a preprint and hence subject to change during peer-review. The current version is available here: https://osf.io/g5wd9/ Leon is a Teaching Associate at Queen Mary University of London. He researches video game law, particularly the regulation of loot boxes, a quasi-gambling monetisation mechanic in video games. He has appeared before the Law Commission of England and Wales, and submitted policy recommendations to the Spanish, Singaporean, and UK Governments. His research has been published in peer-reviewed law, psychology, and behavioural public policy journals. He has presented at conferences in various disciplines, including at DiGRA Australia, British DiGRA, and the Chinese chapter of DiGRA. He won the poster prize for student research at the 2020 annual conference of the Society for the Study of Addiction. A full list of his publications is available at https://sites.google.com/view/leon-xiao/.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed, Bettina Bodi. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart Transcription: Charly Harbord

This episode we speak with Adrienne Shaw about the paper "Encoding and decoding affordances: Stuart Hall and interactive media technologies". This paper brings Stuart Hall's concepts of encoding and decoding into proximity with ideas of affordance and technology. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0163443717692741 Adrienne Shaw is an Associate Professor in Temple University's Department of Media Studies and Production and a member of the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication graduate faculty. From 2019-2022 she will serve the first director of Temple's new Graduate Certificate in Cultural Analytics. Shaw is author of Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture (winner of the 2016 International Communication Association's Popular Communications Division's Book Award). She has co-edited three anthologies: Queer Game Studies (2017, University of Minnesota Press), Queer Technologies: Affordances, Affect, Ambivalence (2017, Routledge), and Interventions: Communication Research and Practice (2018, Peter Lang). She is also the founder of the LGBTQ Game Archive and co-curator of Rainbow Arcade, the world's first exhibit of LGBTQ game history (Dec 2018-May 2019 in Berlin, Germany).  From 2011 to 2015 she was also part of the multi-million dollar and award winning CYCLES project, which developed games to train users to identify and mitigate cognitive biases. A full list of her publications is available via Google Scholar. “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

Join us as we sit down and debrief after Nate finally, finally gets his cohosts to play his utterly favorite game, Kentucky Route Zero. We talk about our perception of the themes and designers' intents in this labyrinthine surreal art of 5 acts, conceived and released over a decade in the wake of American recession. WEVP's Un Pueblo de Nada broadcast, also WEVP's broadcast history Tamas Kemenczy, GDC '14: The Scenography of Kentucky Route Zero Junebug's solo album Eggplant's 'Into the Depths' series on KRZ Justin Clark's tremendous GameSpot review Deep, moving, and critical reflections: Blake Hester: A Kentuckian ex-alcoholic's deep reflections on Kentucky as seen through Kentucky Route Zero; GameInformer, 11/25/2020 Amanda Hudgins: The anger, pain, and disgust of Kentucky Route Zero being the primary game experience about Kentucky, written by outsiders; Bullet Points Monthly, February 2020 (also see the other 3 articles in February 2020's edition) Nicholas O'Brien: On the themes of Kentucky Route Zero; Critical Distance, September 2019 (an analysis of the 4+ main themes of Kentucky Route Zero, with many journalism links supporting each) Carolyn Petit: Revisiting Acts I-IV while Desperately Looking for Work; Medium, January 2020

This episode we speak with Alenda Y. Chang about games, ecology, literature, and environmental relations. Alenda is an Associate Professor in Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara. With a multidisciplinary background in biology, literature, and film, she specializes in merging ecocritical theory with the analysis of contemporary media. Her writing has been featured in Ant Spider Bee, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Qui Parle, the Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, and Ecozon@, and her first book Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games (University of Minnesota Press, December 2019), develops ecological frameworks for understanding and designing digital games.   “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

This time around, Loud Friends is firmly in podcast potpourri territory as topics span from yet another slightly esoteric sport, to speculation on the future of the video game media space. Mike cautiously dips his toes back into the warm, comforting embrace of coffee, while Zac tells a fraught tale of doing furniture surgery to his desk, and last second Home Depot trips. Also discussed are the anxieties surrounding the post-covid adjustment period, as well as the recent changes over at GiantBomb. You can read all the good writing about video games at Critical Distance. -- Mike's got a Patreon and YouTube Channel Zac's got a golf swing that won't quit Podcast Art: Photo taken by Olly McDonagh and edited by Becca Hallstedt Music from Uppbeat License code: FHBEMH2JOZYUVZH6

This episode we talk with Aaron Trammell about challenging canonical thinkers, race, torture and TTRPGs, with special reference to his open-access piece "Torture, Play and the Black Experience" https://www.gamejournal.it/torture-play/. Aaron is Assistant Professor of Informatics and Core Faculty in Visual Studies at UC Irvine. He writes about how Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and board games inform the lived experiences of their players. Specifically, he is interested in how these games further values of white privilege and hegemonic masculinity in geek culture. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Analog Game Studies and the Multimedia editor of Sounding Out! You can get in touch at trammell [at] uci [dot] edu “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

Víctor Navarro-Remesal is a media scholar specialized in games. He teaches History of Videogames and Interactive Narrative at Tecnocampus, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and Game Design at UOC. He's the author of ‘Libertad dirigida: Una gramática del análisis y diseño de videojuegos' (Shangrila, 2016) and ‘Cine Ludens: 50 diálogos entre el juego y el cine' (Editorial UOC, 2019), as well as the editor of ‘Pensar el juego. 25 caminos para los game studies' (Shangrila, 2020). His research interests are player freedom, Zen-inspired games, gêmu, and game preservation. He is one of the founding members of DIGRA Spain.   https://medium.com/game-studies-espa%C3%B1a/monogr%C3%A1ficos-dedicados-al-videojuego-en-revistas-acad%C3%A9micas-59e08566a8bd “Ludonarrativas: La complejidad narrativa en los videojuegos” http://www.revistaatalante.com/index.php?journal=atalante&page=issue&op=current Pensar el juego: 25 caminos para los game studies https://shangrilaediciones.com/producto/pensar-el-juego/   Thiago Falcão is Professor of Digital Media Communication Course and Professor of the Graduate Program in Communication at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). He holds a PhD in Communication and Contemporary Culture from the Federal University of Bahia and was a PDSE/Capes fellow at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He has a Post-Doctorate in Audiovisual Communication from Anhembi Morumbi University in São Paulo/SP. Thiago currently researches themes regarding politics and entertainment, with special attention to the ties between the Brazilian esports scene and cultural dynamics associated to neoliberalism / late capitalism.    Link for the Special Issue CFP "The Colonization of Play by Neoliberal Capitalism": https://periodicos.uff.br/contracampo/announcement/view/491 Rede Metagame: Brazilian Research network on Games and Political Culture: twitter.com/redemetagame   “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/

C. Thi Nguyen is a former food writer, now a philosophy professor at University of Utah. He writes about trust, art, games, and communities, and is interested in the ways that our social structures and technologies shape how we think and what we value. His first book is Games: Agency as Art. It's about how games are the art form that work in the medium of agency. A game designer doesn't just create a world – they create who we are in that world. Games shape temporary agencies for artistic purposes. And games turn out to be our way of writing down and communicating modes of agency; by playing them, we can try out different forms of agency.  (Here's a summary of the book and Thi's website is https://objectionable.net/.) “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. For more on games writing and culture please visit https://www.critical-distance.com/

An immersive producer is a key role in any XR project - so what does it take to become one yourself? What are the nuts and bolts of delivering a project to budget, and what technical knowledge do you need to be able to translate what clients want to developers? This week we have two guests that have worked on some ground-breaking immersive projects, Katie Grayson from Passion Experience, and executive producer Zillah Watson. Both of them share their top tips on the different phases of production and discuss the making of the BBC's Emmy-nominated ‘Dr Who: The Runaway'.Zillah Watson, Executive Producerhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/zillahwatson/Katie Grayson, Passion Pictureshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-grayson-42b8447/Credits:Presenter: Shehani Fernando Producers: Chris Hogg & Shehani Fernando Assistant Producer: Max BowerExecutive Producer: Will SaundersEditing and sound design: John Wakefield & Matt McGuinness The title track is: ‘A Thousand Years' by David A MolinaAdditional music: Neil CullenThanks:Clips from Congo VR and Dr Who: The Runaway, courtesy of the BBCClip from Critical Distance courtesy of Vision 3Thanks to Satore Studios for use of the Swan AR clipResources:Passion Pictures - http://www.passion-pictures.com/experience/ @passionpicturesBBC's Congo VR Piece: https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/congo-vr/ Dr Who: The Runaway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RPe6aNiotAHololens 2: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens/buyCritical Distance: https://www.vision3.tv/VR-3D-projects/post.php?permalink=critical-distanceSatore Studios: https://satorestudio.com/ @satorestudioGuide to virtual production: https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/virtual-production Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode's guest is Sonia Fizek, to discuss a forthcoming book on 'delegated' and 'interpassive' play. Sonia is a digital wanderer and a ludic thinker. On a more formal note, a professor at Cologne Game Lab in media and game studies and a co-editor in chief of the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds. Previously a lecturer at Abertay University, a postdoctoral researcher at the Cent­re for Di­gi­tal Cul­tu­res at Leu­pha­na Uni­ver­si­ty Lüne­burg and a guest lecturer at: Leuphana University Lüne­burg, Goethe University Frankfurt, Hamburg Media School, and Design School Berlin. “Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.  

This episode we speak with Lindsay Grace about love and affection in games. Lindsay is Knight Chair in Interactive Media and an associate professor at the University of Miami School of Communication. He is Vice President for the Higher Education Video Game Alliance and the 2019 recipient of the Games for Change Vanguard award. Lindsay's book, Doing Things with Games, Social Impact through Design, is a well-received guide to game design. In 2020, he edited and authored Love and Electronic Affection: a Design Primer on designing love and affection in games. “Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.

This episode we speak with Mal Abbas, an independent game designer, artist and producer working on experimental and meaningful games. Malath established Scotland's first game collective and co-working space Biome Collective, a diverse, inclusive melting pot of technology, art and culture for people who want to create, collaborate and explore games, digital art and technology.  Work includes Killbox, an online game and interactive installation that critically explores the nature of drone warfare, its complexities and consequences, and Garden, a beautiful music based exploration interactive experience set in space. “Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart  

This episode we speak with Dr Jamie Woodcock. Jamie is a researcher based in London. He is the author of The Gig Economy (Polity, 2019), Marx at the Arcade (Haymarket, 2019), and Working The Phones (Pluto, 2017). His research is inspired by the workers' inquiry. His research focuses on labour, work, the gig economy, platforms, resistance, organising, and videogames. He is on the editorial board of Notes from Below and Historical Materialism. Jamie completed his PhD in sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London and has held positions at Goldsmiths, University of Leeds, University of Manchester, Queen Mary, NYU London, Cass Business School, and the LSE. “Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

This episode we have a departure from academia; a different approach to the creation and transmission of knowledge. We interview Eli Smith, Traditional Music Consultant for Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2. In our first COVID-19 recording (you may hear some sirens), we discuss the American music archive both as living tradition and recording technology, and the ways in which these interface with the virtual space of a digital game. Eli is a folk singer, banjo player and guitarist who grew up in New York's Greenwich Village.  Smith has recorded for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and regularly performs as a solo musician and with the string band the Down Hill Strugglers http://elismithmusic.blogspot.com/ “Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture.   Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

“Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance's commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. In this episode we speak with Rob Gallagher about "digital subjectivity". Rob was recently a postdoctoral researcher with the European Research Council-funded Ego Media Project at Kings College London, and is now a teaching fellow in literature and the digital at Royal Holloway, University of London. His book Videogames, Identity and Digital Subjectivity was published by Routledge in 2017.

In this episode we speak with Bo Ruberg, who is Assistant Professor at UC Irvine in Film & Media. Their interdisciplinary research crosses media studies, queer studies, the Digital Humanities, cultural studies, and an engagement with computational fields. From 2015-2017, Bo served as a Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar in the Interactive Media & Games Division and a member of the Society of Fellows at the University of Southern California. In 2015, Bonnie received their Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley in conjunction with the Berkeley Center for New Media and the Department of Women and Gender Studies. Prior to entering academia, they worked as a technology journalist, reporting on tech, video games, sex, and gender from 2005 to 2009. We discuss their books "Videogames Have Always Been Queer" (tiny.cc/e0zkjz) and the forthcoming "Queer Games Avant-Garde" (http://tiny.cc/2yzkjz). “Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance’s commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart    

“Keywords in Play” is a monthly interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance’s commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. In this episode we speak to Emilie Reed. Emilie is a recent PhD graduate researching the history of displaying videogames in museums and other arts contexts. Her academic background includes art history, museum studies and creative writing. She is interested in creating exhibitions which highlight overlooked elements of the history and artistic practice behind videogames, and developing more experimental approaches to game criticism. https://emreed.net/ Emilie's paper "Exhibition Strategies for Videogames in Art Institutions: Blank Arcade 2016" is open access: http://todigra.org/index.php/todigra/article/view/91 Please consider supporting Critical Distance at https://www.patreon.com/critdistance Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

“Keywords in Play” is an interview series about game research supported by Critical Distance and the Digital Games Research Association. As a joint venture, “Keywords in Play” expands Critical Distance’s commitment to innovative writing and research about games while using a conversational style to bring new and diverse scholarship to a wider audience. Our goal is to highlight the work of graduate students, early career researchers and scholars from under-represented groups, backgrounds and regions. The primary inspiration comes from sociologist and critic Raymond Williams. In the Preface to his book Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Williams envisaged not a static dictionary but an interactive document, encouraging readers to populate blank pages with their own keywords, notes and amendments. “Keywords in Play” follows Williams in affirming that “The significance is in the selection”, and works towards diversifying the critical terms with which we describe games and game culture. In this episode we speak to Elizabeth LaPensée, Ph.D. Elizabeth is an award-winning designer, writer, artist, and researcher who creates and studies Indigenous-led media such as games and comics. She is Anishinaabe with family from Bay Mills, Métis, and Irish. She is an Assistant Professor of Media & Information and Writing, Rhetoric & American Cultures at Michigan State University and a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow Production Team: Darshana Jayemanne, Zoyander Street, Emilie Reed. Audio Direction and Engineering: Damian Stewart Double Bass: Aaron Stewart

Sound record of Critical Distance Art gallery on Friday, April 19, 2019 at 3:20 pm. During Nicole Kelly Westman: a slight space amidst installation in partnership with the 2019 Images Festival.

Bob talks with Zoyander Street about history, academia, game studies, game preservation, and his curation work at Critical Distance. This episode was recorded at GDC 17. Music is Symphony 40 in G minor by texasradiofish (c) 2015 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)license.dig.ccmixter.org/files/texasr…iofish/49560 Ft: W. A. Mozart, Big Bonobo Combo

In this episode, I interview the newly crowned Critical Distance 2016 Journalist of the Year, Heather Alexandra. Each new interviewee seems to bring some new aspect to the video criticism form. Heather Alexandra instead of jumping straight into video essays, began with the longer form of Let's Play, but with a critical bent. From there she continued to evolve her voice down two paths, the more structured video essay we are familiar with, and a more casual conversation format developed from the Let's Play style. We discuss that two pronged approach as well as her freelance work, new job at Kotaku, and speculate on the future of video game commentary. SHOW NOTES Heather Alexandra's YouTube Channel Kotaku's A Critical Look Playlist "Let's Crit": Far Cry 4 "Let's Crit": Shadow of the Colossus Let's Remember Skies of Arcadia Vanquish: Why Ya Gotta Do More Than Just Play Games ZAM - The Witness Review A Closer Look At "The Harvester" in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Reviting Red Dead Redepmtion MGS2 Livestream w. Zolani and Austin! Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

The theme of today's episode is apparently creators showing off how the art gets made in a way that describes it as a craft rather than some amount of magic. Topics include songs by a Bowie soundalike crab, family film animation, and video games. Your Twitter Goodfollow is @ronniedelcarmen. Schatz Fired's Theme Song is AGeD written by Rand Bellavia and Adam English and performed by Ookla the Mok.

Welcome to another episode of the Critical Distance Confab! We are taking a mid-summer break from our series on video producers and critics to talk about Critical Distance. Senior Curator Zoya Street and I have decided to talk about the site and our process of curation, mainly in the This Week In Videogame Blogging feature. Every person is different with what they curate and why, and so we felt it might be a good idea to introduce our newest Senior Curator's views on the matter now that he's settled into the role. We discuss what we're looking for in TWIVGB entries, how standards of inclusion have risen over the years, the behind-the-scenes logistics, as well as touching on the other features Critical Distances publishes. Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Welcome another interview here at Critical Distance! This month we interview the host of Matt Chat, English Professor at St. Cloud State University, Matt Barton. Inspired by the books he published on the history of video games, Dungeons & Desktops and Vintage Games, Matt Chat became a channel focused on older game. As the episodes went on he was fortunate enough to get the creators of these older games on for interviews and has been doing so for 6 years. He has interviewed such gaming luminaries as John Romero, Ralph Baer, Chris Avellone, Brian Fargo, Lord British and many many more you've never heard of. During our interview, we talk about the facts of interviewing, setting them up, the behind the scenes work going into them and how to develop a rapport with the subject. We also go into the hopes for future uses of the material he has produced and archieved on his remarkable channel. SHOW NOTES Matt Chat Dungeons & Desktop: The History of Computer Role Playing Games Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario and the Most Influential Games of All Time GamePlay: The Story of the Videogaame Revolution Matt Chat 40: Sword of Fargoal with Jeff McCord Matt Chat 44: Ralph Baer, the Father of Videogames Matt Chat 51-55: Interview with John Romero Matt Chat 78: Arnold Hendrick Interview Matt Chat Patreon Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Welcome another new podcast here at Critical Distance! Continuing with video-based criticism, we have one of the original videogame pundits, Bob Chipman. His Game Overthinker series began in 2008, making his one of the few early voices to set up shop on YouTube. The original run of the show ran for 100 episodes, during which time it started with the angry young man shtick that was popular at that time, before incorporating skits and ongoing storylines. Now the show has been revamped using a personality-driven, pundit-like presentation style. During the interview, we talk about his influences, his evolution in production, as well as his place in the landscape over the years, and how said landscape itself has changed regarding both the style and the culture of internet video. SHOW NOTES Game OverThinker Playlist GAME OVERTHINKER V1 Game OverThinker V2 GAME OVERTHINKER EP 25: VIOLENCE IS GOLDEN Game OverThinker V32: I Heart Bayonetta GAME OVERTHINKER V45: AntiThinker - Mega Man Bob Chipman Patreon Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Welcome to the new year of podcasts here at Critical Distance! Last year we went over publications, both books and magazines, in the critical video game sphere. Having, for the most part, run out of those we turn our eyes to different forms of criticism. Now we turn out eyes to video. Joining me this month is game designer and the writer behind the Extra Credits series, James Portnow. Starting out as a final course project for fellow Extra Credits creator, Daniel Floyd, the series has only grown in the years since. Every week the crew at Extra Credits creates a short cartoon Youtube video as a basic introduction of design concepts, craft implementation and surrounding issues of the video games industry. Over the years, supplementary shows have been added. You can check them all out (as well as specific episodes we discuss on the podcast) below! SHOW NOTES Extra Credits Channel Extra History Extra Remix Extra Play Design Club Video Games and Storytelling Call of Juarez: The Cartel Spec Ops: The Line Pt. 1 Spec Ops: The Line Pt. 2 Power Creep in Hearthstone - What it teaches us about games Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Welcome to Roguelike Radio episode 25, where we look at Permadeath, both how it applies in roguelikes, and other game experiences. Talking this episode are Andrew Doull, and Ben Abraham of Critical Distance, joined part way through the episode by Darren Grey and Nicolas Casalini (aka DarkGod).Read more »

We have a new minisode of the Critical Distance Confab. These minisodes are a chance for myself and a new co-host each time, to highlight some games that have gotten virtually no criticism written about them. This is our chance to correct that. They can be anything. Ich.io art games, prestige level indie games, all the way to AAA games that might have slipped between the cracks. Though generally they will skew a little smaller. Joining me this month is Critical Distance's own senior curator and my boss, Kris Ligman. Kris's Picks Shall we date? The Neflheim+ by NTT Solmare Corp. Killing Time At Light Speed by Gritfish Tour de Akiba by AM Cosmos also Six Japanese Dating Sims to Fall In Love With by AM Cosmos Eric's Picks Unrest by Pyrodactyl Monument Valley by ustwo Escape from the Man Sized Closet by Stephen Colbert Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Welcome to a new minisode of the Critical Distance Confab. In case you are just joining us or need a refresher, we here at Critical Distance are trying something new with a series of minisodes in the podcast. Here, each month, myself and a guest, will list off a number of games, aiming for a minimum of three each, that have not gotten the spotlight we feel they deserve. These are games that haven't gotten any criticism or otherwise aren't part of the conversation for whatever reason and we think they should be, even if just a little. These can be anything from itch.io art games to prestige indie titles to AAAs that have fallen through the cracks. This month's guest is editor-in-chief of Silverstring Media's critical publishing arm, Zoya Street. Zoya's Picks Say When by Kaitlin Tremblay + Emilie Majarian CHYRZA - Sunset Spirit Steel by Kitty Horrorshow Brick Block - Island - Procedural planet customiser by Oskar Stalberg Eric's Picks The Fall by Over the Moon Life Flashes By - Coffee: A Misunderstanding - Domique Pamplemousse by Deirdra Kiai aka Squinky Steve Jackson's Sorcery! by inkle Studios Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Although "Let’s Plays" have been around and popular for at least half a decade, little critical study exists on them not only in terms of their existence as a medium, but also in terms of the publishing potential the medium offers. Jon Ippolito and Lindsey Joyce discuss these new forms of criticism of video games which are published on the site Critical Distance (www.critical-distance.com) for which Joyce is a curator.

"After I no-scoped that noob I broke down and cried." Can games inspire catharsis?  If you mean expel bodily fluids, then yes, I suppose it's an inevitability.  For the sake of your couch, I wouldn't recommend it.  Instead, why not look to games for emotional catharsis?  It's a question posed by Critical Distance in this month's Blogs of the Round Table.  We decided to join the conversation and discuss the types of games that let us build up and then vent emotions.  Competitive games, meditative headstands, and the lasting legacy of Greeks (even ones that have twin chain blades) all come up over the course of the chat.  As always, we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments.   - Subscribe to the EXP Podcast via iTunes - Find the show on Stitcher - Here's the show's stand-alone feed - Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking here. Or, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format. - Subscribe to this podcast and EXP's written content with the RSS link on the right.  

This month we bring you another interview from the unheard archives. A few years ago Kirk Battle, going under the pseudonym L.B. Jefferies, was one of the most prolific critics of the burgeoning amateur bloggers arising from the boom of 2007 and 2008. Now he is retired from the video game criticism game. We look back on his time as a critic and his view of criticism itself. In addition to being a personal inspiration to podcast moderator Eric Swain, Kirk Battle was named Critical Distance's 2010 Blogger of the Year. SHOW NOTES Banana Peppers Martinis PopMatters - L.B. Jefferies Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review Zarathusra Analysis ZA Critique: The Darkness ZA Critique: Okami Lester Bangs rant Pauline Kael - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 Samuel Johnson and Video Games Does Video Games Need a Lester Bangs? The New YouTube Video Games Criticism: An Interview with "moviebob" Does Video Games Need a Pauline Kael? On Design Centric Criticism Telling Tales in Gabriel Knight 2 Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

This month's podcast is all about a subject near and dear to our hearts: curation. Here at Critical-Distance we curate games writing and other forms of criticism. We go through the massive amount of output on the internet that we can find and put it into a regular roundup. But what about curation of the games themselves. Steam is getting flooded with new releases to say nothing about the games that never seem to get the spotlight at all, hidden away individual projects scattered around the web. For this month's podcast, Mattie brings two curators of small, free indie games (Merritt Kopas and Chris Priestman) to discuss the process and the philosophy behind what games they try to give the spotlight to and what audience they are trying to reach. CAST Mattie Brice: Alternate Ending Merritt Kopas: mkopas Chris Priestman: Warp Door SHOW NOTES Forest Ambassador Forest Ambassador Patreon Forest Ambassador Twitter Warp Door Warp Door work in progress Warp Door Twitter Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

In honor of Black History Month or maybe, as the discussion recognizes, in submission to it, we at Critical Distance are honored to be host to a discussion of three highly intelligent black critics to discuss both the concept of Black Hisotry Month and what it means to be black in video games and the wider culture. Now, I'll just get out of the way and let them take it from here. CAST Mattie Brice: Alternate Ending Zolani Stewert: The Fengxi Box Evan Narcisse: Kotaku SHOW NOTES Bow Nigger The Arcade Review Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

And comes close another year and along with it our fourth end of year look back podcast. 2013 is behind us and we at Critical Distance look one last time at the major points that occurred along the way. We did our best to keep the podcast as manageable as possible, time wise. This year, instead of breaking it up between the events that happen and games that came out we've done them all at once in a single chronological run through of the year. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Kris Ligman: Dire Critic Alan Williamson: Five out of Ten Cameron Kunzelman: This Cage is Worms SHOW NOTES FUCK VIDEOGAMES Tropes vs. Woman in Video Games The Creepy Side of E3 The Collapse of the Animal Crossing Economy and the Rise of Villager Trading Video Game Therapist Opening Theme: 'Close' byThe Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

And comes close another year and along with it our fourth end of year look back podcast. 2013 is behind us and we at Critical Distance look one last time at the major points that occurred along the way. We did our best to keep the podcast as manageable as possible, time wise. This year, instead of breaking it up between the events that happen and games that came out we've done them all at once in a single chronological run through of the year. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Kris Ligman: Dire Critic Alan Williamson: Five out of Ten Cameron Kunzelman: This Cage is Worms SHOW NOTES FUCK VIDEOGAMES Tropes vs. Woman in Video Games The Creepy Side of E3 The Collapse of the Animal Crossing Economy and the Rise of Villager Trading Video Game Therapist Opening Theme: 'Close' byThe Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Spec Ops: The Line made a surprisingly large splash in the critical games sphere considering its trouble development and relatively low set of expectations. Critical Distance gathered up a huge collection of the best writings on the game, which you can find right here. Also, Brendan Keogh wrote a book about it! With themes that attempt to deconstruct both American military violence and video game violence, there is plenty of depth to explore in the latest debrief. Of course if you have played the game yourself, do let us know what you think of it in the comments below! Show notes: - Runtime: 38 min 53 sec - Music by The Black Angels and Deep Purple via the Spec Ops: The Line licensed soundtrack.

The Mass Effect 3 fervor remains in full swing, and while many are already growing tired of the backlash against Bioware, it would be a missed opportunity to not discuss ramifications of player-driven protestations. Of course this is a grand subject, so we could not handle it alone. Kris Ligman of Critical Distance and Dire Critic joins us this week to discuss player entitlement, authorial intent, and all the drama surrounding the color-coded end of Commander Shepard. As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on the controversy in the comments section below. You will also find more of Kris' work in the show notes as well as pertinent articles about the Mass Effect ruckus. Show notes: - Run time: 41min 06 sec - "In which Squaresoft wrote a Bioware game. (Spoilers.)", by Kris Ligman via Dire Critic. See her weekly roundups at Critical Distance - "The Ending," by Cruise Elroy - "Why the ending of Mass Effect 3 was satisfying, and worthy of the series (Massive spoilers)", by Ben Kuchera via The PA Report - "The argument over Mass Effect 3's ending makes Ken Levine sad", by Brian Crecent via The Verge - Music provided by Brad Sucks

Yes, only 6 months late Critical Distance is proud to bring you episode 9 of the CDC podcast. This time we decided to focus on an actual game: Braid came out many years ago and sparked critics to write a megaton of criticism. 3 years after its initial release we bring you a panel of people with strong opinions on the game. Some loved it, some with not so kind feelings towards it. Consider this a companion piece to our Critical Compilation on the game. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Zach Alexander: Hailing From the Edge Tevis Thompson: Tevis Thompson Maggie Greene: The Wayward Historian Scott Nicols: Gay Gamer SHOW NOTES Braid Critical Compliation Braid Official Walthrough AV Club's Jonathan Blow Interview Opening theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

No, you did not read that incorrectly. This is indeed episode 10. Episode 9 is in the works still. (It's a little more evergreen of a topic.) Another year has come to a close and with it another year-end podcast to try and catalog it all. This time around we got the whole Critical Distance crew around the Skype fire to chat. This being that time of year a few of our panelists had to leave for family and friends, but the rest of us stuck it out. We don't get around to talking very often, but we sure make up for it in volume. The first two parts are on the events of the year from the Supreme Court to SOPA, from Sonic to Suparna Galaxy and everything in between. And the we wrap up with all the major releases this year from DC Universe Online to The Old Republic. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Ben Abraham: i am Ben Abraham Kris Ligman: Dire Critic David Carlton: Malvasia Bianca Ian Miles Cheong: Gameranx Katie Lloyd Williams: Alive Tiny World SHOW NOTES Suparna Galaxy The Many Faces of Tim Schafer A blunt critique of game criticism Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer The Best Gaming Podcast Ever: Episode 19 [SOPA Special] Debacle Timeline Final Fantasy VII Letters On the first person military manshooter and the shape of modern warfare Opening theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

No, you did not read that incorrectly. This is indeed episode 10. Episode 9 is in the works still. (It's a little more evergreen of a topic.) Another year has come to a close and with it another year-end podcast to try and catalog it all. This time around we got the whole Critical Distance crew around the Skype fire to chat. This being that time of year a few of our panelists had to leave for family and friends, but the rest of us stuck it out. We don't get around to talking very often, but we sure make up for it in volume. The first two parts are on the events of the year from the Supreme Court to SOPA, from Sonic to Suparna Galaxy and everything in between. And the we wrap up with all the major releases this year from DC Universe Online to The Old Republic. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Ben Abraham: i am Ben Abraham Kris Ligman: Dire Critic David Carlton: Malvasia Bianca Ian Miles Cheong: Gameranx Katie Lloyd Williams: Alive Tiny World SHOW NOTES Suparna Galaxy The Many Faces of Tim Schafer A blunt critique of game criticism Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer The Best Gaming Podcast Ever: Episode 19 [SOPA Special] Debacle Timeline Final Fantasy VII Letters On the first person military manshooter and the shape of modern warfare Opening theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

No, you did not read that incorrectly. This is indeed episode 10. Episode 9 is in the works still. (It's a little more evergreen of a topic.) Another year has come to a close and with it another year-end podcast to try and catalog it all. This time around we got the whole Critical Distance crew around the Skype fire to chat. This being that time of year a few of our panelists had to leave for family and friends, but the rest of us stuck it out. We don't get around to talking very often, but we sure make up for it in volume. The first two parts are on the events of the year from the Supreme Court to SOPA, from Sonic to Suparna Galaxy and everything in between. And the we wrap up with all the major releases this year from DC Universe Online to The Old Republic. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Ben Abraham: i am Ben Abraham Kris Ligman: Dire Critic David Carlton: Malvasia Bianca Ian Miles Cheong: Gameranx Katie Lloyd Williams: Alive Tiny World SHOW NOTES Suparna Galaxy The Many Faces of Tim Schafer A blunt critique of game criticism Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer The Best Gaming Podcast Ever: Episode 19 [SOPA Special] Debacle Timeline Final Fantasy VII Letters On the first person military manshooter and the shape of modern warfare Opening theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

No, you did not read that incorrectly. This is indeed episode 10. Episode 9 is in the works still. (It's a little more evergreen of a topic.) Another year has come to a close and with it another year-end podcast to try and catalog it all. This time around we got the whole Critical Distance crew around the Skype fire to chat. This being that time of year a few of our panelists had to leave for family and friends, but the rest of us stuck it out. We don't get around to talking very often, but we sure make up for it in volume. The first two parts are on the events of the year from the Supreme Court to SOPA, from Sonic to Suparna Galaxy and everything in between. And the we wrap up with all the major releases this year from DC Universe Online to The Old Republic. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Ben Abraham: i am Ben Abraham Kris Ligman: Dire Critic David Carlton: Malvasia Bianca Ian Miles Cheong: Gameranx Katie Lloyd Williams: Alive Tiny World SHOW NOTES Suparna Galaxy The Many Faces of Tim Schafer A blunt critique of game criticism Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer The Best Gaming Podcast Ever: Episode 19 [SOPA Special] Debacle Timeline Final Fantasy VII Letters On the first person military manshooter and the shape of modern warfare Opening theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

No, you did not read that incorrectly. This is indeed episode 10. Episode 9 is in the works still. (It's a little more evergreen of a topic.) Another year has come to a close and with it another year-end podcast to try and catalog it all. This time around we got the whole Critical Distance crew around the Skype fire to chat. This being that time of year a few of our panelists had to leave for family and friends, but the rest of us stuck it out. We don't get around to talking very often, but we sure make up for it in volume. The first two parts are on the events of the year from the Supreme Court to SOPA, from Sonic to Suparna Galaxy and everything in between. And the we wrap up with all the major releases this year from DC Universe Online to The Old Republic. CAST Eric Swain: The Game Critique Ben Abraham: i am Ben Abraham Kris Ligman: Dire Critic David Carlton: Malvasia Bianca Ian Miles Cheong: Gameranx Katie Lloyd Williams: Alive Tiny World SHOW NOTES Suparna Galaxy The Many Faces of Tim Schafer A blunt critique of game criticism Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer The Best Gaming Podcast Ever: Episode 19 [SOPA Special] Debacle Timeline Final Fantasy VII Letters On the first person military manshooter and the shape of modern warfare Opening theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Of course, we here at the Moving Pixels blog are fans of the work done over at the Critical Distance web site, a site interested in serving in a curatorial role in highlighting and maintaining various discussions in video game criticism. Conceived by Ben Abraham and launched in 2009, Critical Distance provides a weekly update of some of the best video game criticism published around the internet. Additionally, they provide a number of critical compilations of writings done by various critics, journalists, and academics on significant game titles.   We wanted to sit down and talk with Ben and fellow Critical Distance contributor, Eric Swain, to talk a little bit about the site, what purpose they see it serving in the emerging conversation about games, and how they manage the Herculean task of locating and managing such a vast array of voices.

VGHVI Latest Thoughts Podcast with Michael Abbott, the Brainy Gamer. Roger and Michael discuss the state of academic discourse about games in relation to the "middle circle" of game criticism, and the table we think VGHVI brings to the conversation. Features Roger Travis and Michael Abbott. Produced by Randy Ma.(Here's a direct link to the podcast.)Apologies for the lowness of my voice both in frequency and in volume. The former was a problem with a cold, now resolved, the latter a problem with my Skype settings, hopefully also now resolved.As Michael and I discuss at the end of the podcast, stay tuned for information, probably towards the end of the summer, about Michael's first online course-offering!Links to items Michael and I discuss:The Video Games and Human Values Initiative: check out the events listing there for invitations to the VGHVI gaming sessions--Lord of the Rings Online on Sunday nights and rotating titles (usually on XBox Live) on Thursday nightsMichael Abbott's Brainy Gamer blogRoger Travis' Living Epic blogDan Bruno's Cruise Elroy blogBen Abraham's SLRC and Critical Distance (founded by Ben and featuring him and many other incisive game critics)Corvus Elrod's Man Bytes BlogJustin Keverne's Groping the Elephant blogErik Hanson's VGHVI week-in-reviewThe Vintage Game ClubThe Tempest

It has arrived! Episode 3 of the CDC Podcast. This week we discuss the approaches to videogame narrative, specifically the differences between showing and telling narrative in games. We have a very special international cast this week. So sit back and enjoy as once again we interrogate game narrative, go off on an array of tangents, and eventually come back to the question of "show and tell." Feel free to leave us feedback on the Critical-Distance comments thread and continue the discussion on IRC. That is the freenode.net server, the room is #GBConfab. The Cast: D. Murray: http://www.graduateschoolgamer.com Erik Hanson: http://www.elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com Justin Keverne: Arthur Tellurian: http://tellurianspetshop.wordpress.com Eric Swain: http://www.thegamecritique.com Show Notes: Corvus Elrod's article on "Show and Tell" Ken Levine's GDC 2008 Keynote

Well yippee-kay-yay, this week on the EXP Podcast we focus on big burly men with chainsaw-guns. Developed by Epic Games, the Gears of War franchise has found immense success amongst a variety of gamers. With a collection of books , a movie in the works, and an inevitable third game, Gears of War just seems to stick in our minds for some reason. Earlier this week L.B. Jeffries of Popmatters drew connections between GoW2 and the Iliad , the talented editors/contributors of Critical Distance chatted about GoW2 and ludonarrative dissonnance (which Scott and I discuss briefly on this podcast), and I wrote my own Sensationalist piece on the game Monday.Scott and I finished both games in the series on cooperative mode, much like Resident Evil 5. Though not as controversial as RE5, we still plumb the subterranean depths of Gears of War and find some "sweet" analysis of the coop experience, over-the-top storytelling, and how to make giant worms even more epic. Please share your own thoughts in the comments section, we love to hear them.Some discussion starters:- Do you think the Gears of War franchise is representative of triple-A games at large? Has Gears become cliche?- Do you think Epic is wasting their time incorporating a serious story on top of the tone set by gameplay?- Somewhat referring to last week's podcast, would you show a videogame outsider Gears of War to draw them into the medium? To listen to the podcast:- Subscribe to the EXP Podcast via iTunes here. Additionally, here is the stand-alone feed.- Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking the title. Or, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format.- Subscribe to this podcast and EXP's written content with the RSS link on the right.Show Notes:- Run time: 24 min 59 sec- Music by Brad Sucks

Welcome to Episode 1 of the Critical Distance Confab. The CDC podcast is a weekly discussion with a cast drawn from an irregular pool of videogame bloggers and contributors to the Critical Distance website. We discuss issues of design, culture, art, and the industry viewed through the lens of videogame criticism. In this, the first of a tentatively scheduled weekly podcast, we have an extended discussion about the daunting topic that is Games Criticism. Our cast for this episode includes: Ben Abraham, Randy Ma (aka demonicmurry), Travis Megill, Alex Myers, David Sahlin, and Eric Swain. I apologize for the audio quality as this is our first attempt at a podcast - rest assured that the quality of the recording will improve in subsequent episodes. With that in mind we hope you enjoy the first episode and stay tuned for more in the coming weeks. Show notes: Rock, Paper, Shotgun Sparky Clarkson's Bioshock Compilation Corvus Elrod's Man Bytes Blog String Theory: The Illusion of Videogame Interactivity Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist You Have to Burn the Rope The Passage The Marriage