Podcast appearances and mentions of mattie brice

Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we continue our series on Dwarf Fortress. We talk about working on a thing for a long time, the refinements of the latest version, and a host of other small issues. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Several hours of the latest version of the game Issues covered: rendering different glyphs, working on a thing for twenty years, the historical record, preservation, iteration, a game of saying yes, being able to leverage systems to other purposes, adding to the interface, modernizing their UI, experimentation and direction, setting goals, greater clarity, when a dwarf can't do a thing, doing more planning due to exposure to the systems, intuiting where things should go in relation to one another, the presentation of UI, the depth of the emotional state of the dwarves, world generation and fantasy elements, amount of space determining how dwarves will act, hotkeying to views, elevation levels of the world, planning ahead, the responsiveness of the dwarves, increased tick rate and the way it impacts play, communicating state of what the dwarf is up to, how the game might do on Steam, the appeal of life simulation games, emergent stories, a child playing with the trash, adding dialog for trade, giving goals or quests without a quest system, making a thing out of the trade panel, the tradeoff of fidelity and simulation, the benefits of Moore's Law, games we have a hard time playing now, liking problematic things, the sign that a thing is a problem from another's perspective, simple mechanics that work, increasing the fun. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Halo, World of Warcraft, APEX Legends, Fortnite, SimCity, Lynx, Lexis-Nexis, DOS, Linux/Unix, Emacs, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Minecraft, Populous, Civilization, RimWorld, The Sims, Will Wright, DOOM (1993), Cities: Skylines, Fallout, Farmville, Skyrim, Flight of the Conchords, Colin Tougas, GTA III, Pokemon Red/Blue, Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear Solid, Dragon's Lair, Tron, Death Stranding, Jarkko Sivula, Rogue, Dark Souls, RPG Maker, Unity, Godot, Uncharted, Mainichi, Mattie Brice, Microsoft Powerpoint, Sierra On-Line, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia.  Next time: The Steam Version Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub DevGameClub@gmail.com

Sixième émission de la saison 2021-2022, en compagnie de Nicolas Lopez, chargé de relations avec les éditeurs multimedias et jeux vidéo à la BNF.Émission diffusée le 20 février 2022 sur Radio Campus Paris. Au programme :– la chronique de Lys qui met en parallèle les personnages féminins de la série de livres The Witcher et de leurs adaptations vidéoludiques par CD Projekt Red– la deuxième chronique trimestrielle d'Hoshi qui nous narre l'histoire de la jeune Tetris– la chronique d'Alexandre dans laquelle il nous parle de Spelunky 2, pas réellement son coup de cœur du mois, mais clairement celui de l'année 2021 !– 1ère pause musicale : Meridian Child composée par Hiroki Kikuta et tirée de l'OST de Seiken Densetsu 3 plus connu sous le nom Trials of Mana– l'entretien avec Nicolas Lopez par Jean– 2ème pause musicale proposée par Nicolas : A Song from her Memory composée par Nobuo Uematsu pour l'OST de Final Fantasy IX– la chronique de H qui s'interroge sur la capacité, souvent établie voire revendiquée, du jeu vidéo à produire de la compassion chez les joueur·euses– le blind test sur le thème "C'est nul, mais la musique est cool" par Alexandre– pause musicale de conclusion : Area: Planet Wisp composée par Mariko Nanba et tirée de l'OST de Sonic Colors Si vous souhaitez aller plus loin sur le sujet de la compassion que provoqueraient les jeux vidéo : "Why Video Games Can't Teach You Empathy" de Cecilia D'Anastasio "empathy machine" de Mattie Brice « "If you walk in someone else's shoes, then you've taken their shoes": empathy machines as appropriation machines » sur le Radiator Blog "Queer Games After Empathy: Feminism and Haptic Game Design Aesthetics from Consent to Cuteness to the Radically Soft" de Teddy Pozo Casting :– Cindy Asselin de Beauville, chroniqueuse– Vincent Boutin, programmateur musical– Alexandre Hanquier, chroniqueur– H, chroniqueuse– Jean Jouberton, intervieweur– Lazare Jolly, réalisateur, monteur et responsable technique– Lys Sombreciel, chroniqueuse Production : Pixel Up! grâce au financement de l'université Sorbonne Nouvelle et en partenariat avec Radio Campus Paris

mattie brice is an activist, critic, designer, and currently Visiting Assistant Arts Professor at New York University’s Game Center. In this episode, she and Jordan discuss the effectiveness of so-called educational games and games for change, and mattie shares her ideas for how we can use play for everyday activism, touching on topics from diversity and inclusion to psychological experiments to BDSM.

Emma and Gil invite award-winning game designer, teacher, and not-scholar Sharang Biswas to the show to discuss verbs in games. What actions do we actually perform when we play a game, what actions do they represent, and how does that impact the game experience? You can find Sharang on Twitter or on the web. Here is his itch.io store. CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains references to sex and sexuality. Show Notes 2h31m: Sharang teaches at The International Center of Photography (Bard College), and at Fordham University. 3m05s: We had Dr. Mary Flanagan on the show for Ludology 226 - Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo 3m26s: Playcrafting is an organization that holds game design events, mainly for digital games, in New York City, San Francisco, and Boston. 5m04s: Anna Anthropy is an influential game designer, and current designer-in-residence at DePaul College in Chicago. 5m15s: Ian Bogost's Persuasive Games. 10m08s: Android: Netrunner 11m33s: We discussed ludonarrative dissonance, especially in board games, in Ludology 190 - Diabolus in Ludica. 12m05s: The uselessness of 1:1 scale maps came up in our conversation with Volko Ruhnke for Ludology 178 - COIN-Operated. 12m29s: If you haven't heard us discuss at length what a "game" is, check out Ludology 151 - High Definition. 12m35s: More information about the word autotelic, which is extremely useful when discussing games and play. 13m35s: Frank Lanz is a game designer and director of the NYU Game Center. 16m35s: Great Western Trail, Food Chain Magnate 17m10s: Ryan and Geoff discussed the magic circle with game designer and professor Eric Zimmerman in Ludology 79 - The Magic Circle. 17m29s: You can find more about Honey & Hot Wax, edited by Sharang and Lucian Kahn, here. 18m25s: The phrase "turtles all the way down" is one of Gil's favorites. 20m54s: Hungry Hungry Hippos, Mouse Trap, Pretty Pretty Princess, Electronic Dream Phone 21m30s: MegaCity Oceania 21m54s: Mountains of Madness 23m10s: Pandemic Legacy: Season One 24m11s: Sharang's game with Max Seidman, Mad Science Foundation 26m35s: The RPG Sign. 28m10s: More information about the larp Sarabande. 29m42s: Geoff and Gil discussed "soft incentives" in Ludology 185 - Soft Boiled. 30m38s: Jiangshi, an RPG about Chinese immigrants juggling running a haunted restaurant, by Banana Chan and Sen-Foong Lim. We had Banana on the show a few weeks ago, for Ludology 228 - The Roles We Play. 31m10s: Some of the discussion about "Press F To Pay Respects" in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. 31m31s: Untitled Goose Game 35m53s: Sharang compares Chaos in the Old World to Assault of the Giants. Chaos was designed by the incomparable Eric Lang, who we had on the show for Ludology 175 - Auld Lang Design. 37m13s: Sagrada 38m19s: DC Comics Deck-Building Game 40m00s: John Cage's 4'33", which instructs the performer to play no notes for the duration of the piece. 40m27s: Positive examples of ludonarrative dissonance: Typing of the Dead, Unspeakable Words 40m58s: Brenda Romero's well-known art game Train. 41m16s: Sharang's game Feast, inspired by Felix Gonzalez-Torres' original art piece Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.). 41m45s: The RPG With Great Power…  42m31s: Team Fun's interview with Sharang, featuring the phrase "Jump, Decapitate, Kill." 43m44s: Journalist, larp designer, and game writer Lizzie Stark. 45m00s: The 2001 video game Black & White. 45m17s: French literary critic Roland Barthes proposed the idea of the Death of the Author in a 1967 essay, suggesting that critics don't need to understand an author to contextualize their work. 45m24s: The Effing Foundation for Sex Positivity. 47m16s: Thumb Wars (or thumb wrestling) 51m45s: The games A Guide to Casting Phantoms In The Revolution, and Can You Hear Me?  52m34s: Sharang's game Several Miles from Heaven. 53m36s: The Jenga-implementing RPGs Dread and Star Crossed, and the apocalyptic RPG Ten Candles. 54m45s: Metatopia is a game designer convention based in the northeastern US that specializes in tests of board games, TTRPG, and larp. 56m41s: Sharang's solo food-based RPG Verdure. 57m52s: We had Jenn Sandercock on in Ludology 210 - The Way to a Gamer's Heart to discuss her edible games.  58m41s: The 200-word RPG Stardust. 1h00m00s: The bizarre Hellcouch (taking the idea of the "couch co-op to the next level), amd Mattie Brice's empathy machine. 1h00m45s: Marina Abramović's seminal performance art piece Rhythm 0, in which she allowed visitors to do whatever they wanted to her body for 6 hours. Visitors were gentle at first, but became more cruel as the piece went on, several times aiming a loaded gun in her head. The most powerful part of the performance emerged at the end; once the 6 hours ended, Abramović stood up and approached the audience, who promptly left, unable to face her as a person who had regained her bodily autonomy. 1h06m08s: Alex Roberts' Pop! is part of Sharang's project Honey and Hot Wax, co-edited by Lucian Kahn. 1h06m37s: Emma's degree is in Product Design. 1h08m45s: Sharang has written a couple of articles for Killscreen. 1h10m38s: Wingspan. We had the pleasure of chatting with designer Elizabeth Hargrave for Ludology 203 - Winging It. 1h12m15s: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire was a horrifying tragedy in which 146 sweatshop workers in New York City were killed by a fire. The workers were locked into their working space, so they could not exit on foot; many leapt to their deaths. The fire resulted in legislation that improved factory safety standards and strengthened union powers.  1h14m42s: Clio Yun-Su Davis' RPG Pass the Sugar Please was run by theater company Intramersive. 1h16m44s: Sharang is referencing Kat Jones' game Glitzy Nails. 1h17m43s: The RPG Flatpack 1h19m34s: The productivity games Habitica, SuperBetter, Chore Wars, and Zombies Run. 1h20m58s: Sharang's game A Shroud for the Seneschal.

We start Episode 15 with an informal discussion of our reflections on this year’s Theorizing the Web conference, which we recorded on the long car ride home. Theorizing the Web is an annual conference in New York that focuses on social issues in digital technology. After our brief discussion we bring you interviews with three conference speakers who we thought were doing work relevant to the show. First, we talk to Kelly Steinmetz about the use and social impact of sex emojis. Then, we talk to Mattie Brice about the politics of how trans women are treated on dating sites. And lastly, we talk to Lindsay Ferris about the ways that women queer tech up, particularly in relation to dating apps like Tinder.

Geneva and Mickell are products of NYC Public Schools, a handful of key programs for aspiring young digital creators, and (eventually) some supportive families. We cover lots of territory in this episode. Mickell takes us to school on game genres, and together they reflect on what key supports helped them pursue their passion. We also scratch the surface on gaming and gender, and Naomi Clark pops by to offer some ideas about why boys might be quicker to identify as a "gamer" than girls.In this episode:Mattie Brice: http://www.mattiebrice.com/Alexandre "Zedig" Diboine: http://alexandrediboine.tumblr.com/2064 Read Only Memories, the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2064:_Read_Only_MemoriesVA-11 HALL-A (aka, "valhalla"), the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VA-11_HALL-AThe World Ends With You, the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Ends_with_You Naomi Clark: http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/faculty/naomi-clark/Learn more about the free Future Game Designers Program @ NYU: http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/academics/high-school/Eyebeam: http://eyebeam.org/If you like this episode, subscribe to No Such Thing on iTunes and Googleplay. If it's not available on your favorite player, let me know through our shownotes site, nosuchthingpodcast[dot]wordpress[dot]com. Already a subscriber? Please rate and review us, and listen to this episode for info on how to enter a raffle to win a Google Pixl phone. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Affection Points is a recording of discussions between Mattie Brice and AM Cosmos. They will usually center around one game, series, or topic. Our second episode: Fire Emblem! At least that's how things start out. We talk about Fire Emblem Awakenings and Fates from a social sim standpoint and a tactical mechanics standpoint. Then we end up talking about queerbaiting and Yuri!!! on ICE. Because that's Amanda's obsession lately. And Mattie loves Tanaka-kun is Always Listless. Opening song is voice actor Tomokazu Sugita being remixed as Chrom in the Fire Emblem Awakening beach DLC battle theme! Mattie's article on queerbaiting that is mentioned in the show: www.mattiebrice.com/queerbaiting-and-fan-futures/ Note: This episode was originally recorded and uploaded back in November 2016, but was later moved to this new account.

Affection Points is a recording of discussions between Mattie Brice and AM Cosmos. They will usually center around one game, series, or topic. Our first episode: Style Savvy! Mattie knows a lot about fashion and educates Amanda well in the different terminology used in Style Savvy: Trendsetters, along with eager anticipation for upcoming Style Savvy: Fashion Forward. We also talk a bit about the FFXIII series, FFXIV, and The World Ends With You. Opening music is the groovy store background song from Style Savvy: Trendsetters. Note: This was originally recorded and uploaded back in August 2016, then was moved to this new account later.

Queer & Trans Artists of Color Vol 2 A celebration of queer and trans black and brown genius...building on the groundbreaking first volume, Queer and Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Nia King is back with a second archive of interviews from her podcast We Want the Airwaves. She maintains her signature frankness as an interviewer while seeking advice on surviving capitalism from creative folks who often find their labor devalued. In this collection of interviews, Nia discusses biphobia in gay men's communities with Juba Kalamka, helping border-crossers find water in the desert with Micha Cardenas, trying to preserve Indigenous languages through painting with Grace Rosario Perkins, revolutionary monster stories with Elena Rose, using textiles to protest police violence with Indira Allegra, trying to respectfully reclaim one's own culture with Amir Rabiyah, taking on punk racism with Mimi Thi Nguyen, the imminent trans women of color world takeover with Lexi Adsit, queer life in WWII Japanese American incarceration camps with Tina Takemoto, hip-hop and Black Nationalism with Ajuan Mance, making music in exile with Martin Sorrondeguy, issue-based versus identity-based organizing with Trish Salah, ten years of curating and touring with the QTPOC arts organization Mangos With Chili with Cherry Galettte, raising awareness about gentrification through games with Mattie Brice, self-publishing versus working with a small press with Vivek Shreya, and the colonial nature of journalism school with Kiley May. The conversation continues. Bear witness to QTPOC brilliance. Included in the evening will be performances by:  Ryka Aoki is the author of Seasonal Velocities, He Mele a Hilo (A Hilo Song) and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul. She has been honored by the California State Senate for her “extraordinary commitment to free speech and artistic expression, as well as the visibility and well-being of Transgender people. Ryka was the inaugural performer for the first ever Transgender Stage at San Francisco Pride, and has performed in venues including the San Francisco Pride Main Stage, the Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, the National Queer Arts Festival, and Ladyfest South. Ryka also appears in the recent documentaries “Diagnosing Difference” and “Riot Acts.” She has MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is the recipient of a University Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.Winner of the People Before Profits Poetry Prize, Meliza Bañales aka Missy Fuego is the author of Say It With Your Whole Mouth (Poems) and the Xicana-Punk-Rock-Coming-of-Age novel Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific which was a 2016 Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She was a fixture in the San Francisco Bay Area spoken-word and slam communities from 1996-2010, where she became the first Xicana to win a poetry slam championship in 2002. She is a Visiting Professor of Literature and Counter-Culture at UC San Diego and the feature film of her novel is currently in pre-production in Los Angeles.Nadia Ann Abou-Karr is an artist, writer and practitioner of holistic healing arts. She has been self publishing her own zines since middle school, with the most recent being THE ICONOCLAST Revolutionary Love series which highlights the complexities and confusion that arise from loving in the 5th dimension. Ultimately she always come back to the realization that self love is the best kind, and she uses all of her creative production to create an optimal climate for free love.Kim Tillman is an LA-based singer/songwriter, lead singer of the band Tragic Gadget and half of the music duo Kim Tillman & Silent Films. Her songs have been featured in film and television including American Girl: Saige Paints the Sky, the 2014 documentary feature Off the Floor, on Love & Hip Hop Atlanta and the ABC Family series Switched at Birth. Armed with a honey-velvet voice and precise, evocative lyrics, she aims simply to move you. Praise for Queer & Trans Artists of Color Vol 2 “Nia King’s essential project is about demystifying the artist’s life, and centering expression at the heart of radically diverse QTPOC lives. This second volume of artists’ voices is full of heart and wisdom, struggle and triumph. Another must-read for anyone dedicated to living creatively.” —Jeff Chang, author of Who We Be and We Gon’ Be Alright“With all the talk in the entertainment industry about a lack of diverse voices in our media, Nia King does the big work that is necessary to rescue the entertainment industry from itself. She is going out there to highlight these voices, not because they are diverse, but because they are absolutely necessary.” —W. Kamau Bell, host of United Shades of America“Queer and Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2 continues to amplify beautiful voices that need to be heard. Refreshingly honest and illuminating, these interviews combine to form a powerful statement on the journey of the artist, and the person behind the art, towards creating a world where we can all thrive as our true selves.” —Mat Johnson, author of Loving Day and Pym“Nia King once again provides a vital space where LGBTQ artists of color can share their unique experiences working in their creative fields. This volume, like its predecessor, will be a must-read for years to come.” —Hari Kondabolu, writer and comedian“This book shines a spotlight on QTPOC artists, activists and self-proclaimed weirdos, a group who rarely receive such attention. Through fluid and compelling conversations with King, readers learn about the creative processes, identities, organizing, and politics that inform their art. This is a beautiful archive as well as a rich source of information for creative people seeking inspiration.” —Farzana Doctor, author of All Inclusive and Six Metres of Pavement“In this new volume Nia King continues the invaluable work of amplifying the voices and interrogating the ideas of a new generation of joyous, committed creators. If you want to know who is shaping the culture of the next century, this is a book you must have: a book brimming with honesty, intelligence and heart.” —Nayland Blake, artist and professor“This book is a revolutionary literary gesture, providing both practical information to artists and also doing the work of expanding the archive. I love the way that King brings interviews to the page, disseminating artists’ knowledge while also creating a window into their language and lives. The honesty of the unscripted conversations feels both intimate and subversive.”—Virgie Tovar, author of Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion Nia King is a queer Black, Lebanese, Hungarian, and Jewish artist and activist from Canton, Massachusetts living in Oakland, California. She is the author of Queer & Trans Artists of Color: Stories of Some of Our Lives and the host and producer of We Want the Airwaves podcast. Her writing and comics have been published in Colorlines, East Bay Express and Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory. She has spoken about her work at schools and conferences such as Stanford University, Swarthmore College, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Facing Race, the Allied Media Conference, and the National Association for Ethnic Studies Conference. You can find more of her work at artactivistnia.com and contact her at NiaKing@zoho.com. Elena Rose, a Filipina-Ashkenazi trans lesbian mestiza, rode stories out of rural Oregon and hasn’t stopped telling since. As an ordained minister, writer, and organizer, she has been published in magazines including Aorta and Make/shift, co-founded the Speak! Radical Women of Color Media Collective, co-curated the acclaimed National Queer Arts Festival show Girl Talk: A Trans and Cis Women’s Dialogue, works as a nationally-recognized interfaith educator on justice issues, and serves on the boards of the Solar Cross Temple and the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples. She can be contacted at takingsteps@gmail.comand on Twitter @burnlittlelight.

Our regular podcast host Mattie Brice needs a bit of extra time for her latest interview, so we've dug into our archives again for yet another heretofore unheard Critical Distance Confab episode. In this installment, Eric Swain interviews our very own founder and former head curator Ben Abraham. Part of the original games blogger boom in 2007-2008, Ben Abraham has always found himself focused on the community of critics. It led him to try and bridge many of those working unknown and segregated by the internet's distance to eventually founding a curation site (this one!) to bring all the best writing. Also in this podcast, we discuss some of his other notable projects and his obsession with Far Cry 2, the focal point of a few of those projects. SHOW NOTES SLRC Permanent Death - The Complete Saga Frank Bilders is Dead A Post-Comment World i am ben abraham Replayabilty is NOT a word Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Subscribe (iTunes)Subscribe (Stitcher) In what has to be the longest coherent rant they've ever put to audio, Dan and Arman discuss the ongoing harassment in the video game community.  One of the first pieces I ever wrote for Built to Play was the style guide. On the podcast, and in the articles, we should limit our  use of the word gamer. We agreed to that rule because it's not a word that makes a lot of sense.  Not everyone who plays video games is a gamer, just like not everyone who watches movies is a film buff. Now it's unusable, even in the strictest sense.  Since 'real gamers' began attacking Zoe Quinn for supposed ethical infractions or Anita Sarkeesian for inserting politics into innocent games, the term has become toxic. They've released pounds of personal information online, scared women out from their homes and riddled their social media with death threats. Let's not dance around it. These attacks have been misogynistic, largely targeted towards women who don't fixate on shooters and Nintendo nostalgia. Some people use Quinn's activities to say all games journalism is corrupt. HASHTAGGAMERGATE! But that fundamentally misunderstands what games writing is. Most articles on sites like Gamespot and Polygon commentate and criticise. Think game reviews or big convention coverage. On the few occasions where they engage in journalism, often it's redistributing content. Here's a trailer a publisher gave us. I found this neat thing on the Internet. That's not a fault of the websites, that's just the job. The games industry is insular and secretive, so there are few opportunities to do professional reporting. That's true with a lot of enthusiast press, like in comics, music or movies, but especially so in games. The old adage is that anyone can be a journalist. Just point a camera out your window. You have to call someone to be a reporter. When there's no one to call, however, there's not much you can do. Sites like Polygon, USGamer and Kill Screen still go out of their way to make great articles about game development and the video game community, although few people read them. That's true of all media by the way. The Washington Post's biggest story in 2013 wasn't the Edward Snowden scandal. It was a collection of pictures of a busted Sochi bathroom. All of this is to say that people who accuse games journalism of being corrupt are missing the point. I hesitate to call anything written on this site journalism. It's definitely not reporting. We're still honest when it comes to our opinions, as I expect most in the industry are. Enthusiast  writing serves a different purpose than conventional reporting. They disseminate product information and evaluate media.  That lack of diversity is why scaring away strong writers who go beyond that, like Jenn Frank and Mattie Brice, helps no one. They were among the few people who went beyond criticism to question the games they played and the people who made them. 'Real gamers' encourage bias in the industry by making the pool of commentators smaller and the voices less varied. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons I also challenge gamers on whether they are the equivalent of music, television or film enthusiasts. Outside of video games, enthusiasts seem to recognize that their medium of choice is a broad spectrum of content, made for many audiences. Some genres might be dismissed off-hand, like the romantic comedy or pop music, but even then good versions of these make it through to critical appeal. A lot of music fans acknowledged that 'Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen was fun and an enjoyable piece of music ephemera. Or that while 500 Days of Summer has its problems, the film tries to take the romantic comedy in a new direction. Being a fan of a medium entails a willingness to dive into its depths and explore all possible permutations of it. It doesn't mean tripping head first into the shallow end to wallow in its most obvious features. If you enjoy  big budget games, go ahead. No one can take that away from you. There are plenty of games made by big publishers that are genuinely great, but no game is perfect. Wolfenstein: The New Order has to be one of my favourite games of the year. It also has some groan-worthy dialogue and has terrible enemy artificial intelligence. Every game merits criticism, from indies to those old Nintendo titles. People who have such a narrow definition of games need grow up. More people have launched an Angry Bird than have made Mario jump. More adult women play games than teenage boys. Those blockbuster franchises won't vanish any time soon, but as video games become more popular, players have be more accommodating to more kinds of people and more kind of games. There is no sense in attacking people who are trying to make games like Depression Quest, because that's only going to become more prevalent, not less. So if gamers are people who like the most bland of the bland, and feel justified in ruining people's lives on behalf of a fool's errand, I don't want to be associated with them. Call me a game player. Call me an enthusiast. But please, I'm not a gamer. Gamers are about as self-absorbed as men's rights advocates, who can only conceive of the world in childish black and white dichotomies. I'm embarrassed to have needed to write this rant. Games are supposed to be enjoyable. Ideally, when coming away from a great game, we should feel enriched. A well-crafted game can engender joy, sadness, hope and occasionally fun.  All this does is make me feel disappointed in all of us. Games, and the people who play them, are capable of so much more. Thanks to writer and community manager Emma Woolley who talked to us about her article on the topic on the Globe and Mail.Note, she didn't play any part in this rant beyond what you hear in her interview. Take a listen for yourself starting 1:30. She comes off sounding far more optimistic than either Daniel or I feel right now. We used music from the Free Music Archive: "Photosphere" by Charles Atlas and "Lost Radio Station Sings Me Up the Tunnel" by Fields of Ohio. Our opening theme was "The Libra Lunologists" by Fields of Ohio.  **This episode was written by Daniel Rosen and produced by Arman Aghbali. ** IF YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE LEAVE US A COMMENT OR SUBSCRIBE. Think before you post, please.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances (namely, an impromptu digital game conference), Mattie Brice is unavailable to bring us a podcast this month. Fortunately, we dug into the archives and found this gem: an unreleased interview with Michael "Brainygamer" Abbott. Recorded about two years ago, most of what we talk about is his historical perspective from the beginning wave of internet bloggers and critics and his own view on video game criticism. We hope you enjoy! SHOW NOTES Brainy Gamer Podcast Bloody Play I'm your huckleberry A conversation about Braid Prince of quitting RPG Syllabus Unplayable Portal on the booklist Seeking the light Look at the camera and smile: No More Heroes and the New Wave Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

Welcome to the first podcast in the brand new Critical Distance Confab! We were so impressed with Mattie Brice's moderation of our Black History Month podcast that we've asked her back to helm a new, monthly series. Each month on the 15th, Mattie will be tackling exciting, weighty topics flanked by special guests from across the critical landscape - and perhaps a few surprises as well! This month, Mattie sits down with fellow critic-developers Lana Polansky and Cameron Kunzelman, to discuss how they got involved in game design, why game development interests them, and how becoming a developer has changed how they write about games. CAST Mattie Brice: Alternate Ending Lana Polansky: Sufficiently Human Cameron Kunzelman: This Cage is Worms SHOW NOTES Rise of the Videogame Zinesters Opening Theme: 'Close' by The Alpha Conspiracy Closing Theme: 'Wishing Never' by The Alpha Conspiracy

When it comes to conversations, especially between three talkative people, Twitter just doesn't cut it.  Therefore, when Mattie Brice, Jorge, and I started trading tweets about the merits of difficulty in games, we knew it was time to change venues.  This week, we're excited to have Mattie on the show to talk about the meaning behind the challenges games offer.  We cover everything from Super Hexagon to Pokemon, and even throw in some parallels to BDSM to spice things up (Pro tip: don't Google BDSM+Pokemon…unless you're into that).  As always, thanks for listening, and feel free to jump into the comments with your thoughts!- 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.Show notes:- Mattie Brice's website- Runtime: 52 min 39 sec- Music by Brad Sucks

In this episode, it's a PAXtacular! With two thirds of us freshly back from PAX East, we discuss panels, games and Pokemon...garbage bag...creatures. We've also got a fresh batch of games we've been playing and thumbs up and thumbs down. Join us! Right now! With special guests Mattie Brice and Kristen Taylor joining Brad Gallaway, Richard Naik, Chi  Kong "Akuma" Lui and Dylan Collins.

Between them, hundreds and hundreds of hours committed to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Rick Dakan, Nick Dinicola, and Mattie Brice get together to discuss the varied approaches that they took to exploring Skyrim.

In view of our topic, this episode of the Moving Pixels podcast is expansive. In other words, this is quite a long episode.   Nick Dinicola, Mattie Brice, and I found quite a lot to discuss about the open world genre this week. It is a genre that has become widespread across the medium over the past decade (thanks in no part to a little game called Grand Theft Auto III). Worlds of all kinds have been built for players to explore, telling stories in genres as diverse as crime, the western, fantasy, science fiction, and even schoolhouse drama.   We talk a little about what the genre means to this last decade in gaming and what kinds of worlds most compel players to explore them.

This week Nick Dinicola and I are joined by our fellow blogger Mattie Brice to discuss, in part, the games of the year.   However, with PopMatters posting a forthcoming list of the best games of the year, we discuss more specifically that list, our writers' tastes here at PopMatters, and also what Game of the Year might mean in general to gaming.