We continue our chat with Michael Warbington and dig into a rich vein we usually leave unmined: video games.
With different levels of skill, engagement and knowledge, we look at the experience of gaming in 2022, the intersection of art and commerce, the prevalence of in-game microtransactions, getting mercilessly griefed by racist swearing twelve year-olds, and a game’s replayability. What do we want out of the gaming experience?
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We’re back to dive into an overstuffed grab bag of off-topic nonsense with Roz Townsend, and we grapple with the important questions that keep us up at night.
Is Colonel Sanders the closest thing we have to an American Time Lord? What are our favorite fictional restaurants? Are self-published fan zines a lost art? Are skunks a form of Pokémon? Did Freddie Mercury go super saiyan in the ’80s? Are modern video game mechanics inaccessible to people who didn’t grow up with them?
Plus, Casey becomes annoyed at a group of small children not being as entranced by My Neighbor Totoro as he is, and we all betray our socialist leanings.
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“I was an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee.”
Mike and Casey completely abandon their quests to consolidate their pixelated criminal empires and save the kingdom from dragons, so that they can play darts and brew potions with video game journalist and YouTuber Kinsey Burke, and returning panelist Patrick Johnson.
Our non-essential side quest? To dig into the massive phenomenon of Open World Video Games. From Fallout 3, to Skyrim, to Grand Theft Auto V, there is an video games where the storyline is optional and immersive player-initiated exploration are their biggest sell points.
What is the appeal of a game that lets you make your own agenda in a fictional city, or epic fantasy realm or post-apocalyptic future? What are the limits of a game that aspires to let you be and do anything you want?
And why are these games so damned buggy?
Previously titled: “The World Doesn’t Look Bright for Us Completionists”
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In the first of two Fun Size discussions this month, we sit down with Rebecca Friedman and debate the merits and popularity of post-apocalyptic fiction and video games, and why absent panelist (and spouse) Sam Mulvey will probably never discuss it on the show.
Is the genre inevitably juvenile, and does its recent popularity speak ill of us as a society? Disagreement follows.
[NOTE: Some Fallout 4 spoilers]
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Casey makes a second appearance on our friend Carlos Rodela‘s Video Game Break Podcast! This time, to discuss Bethesda’s newest installment in their signature post-apocalyptic open world RPG series, Fallout 4!
They swap their stories of their Fallout 4 experiences, the self-directed open world game experience, and sheer massive scale of the game’s Commonwealth Wasteland setting. So, grab a Nuka-Cola and start blowing the legs off of some feral ghouls!
On the tail of our BioShock panel, Mike and Casey continue our conversation with Patrick Johnson and Carlos Rodela, to delve deeper into the strengths and weaknesses of this game series in particular and gaming in general.
How big and dense can — or should — a video game’s world be? How much should the player be directing the story, as opposed to the game’s designer? How often should video game franchises release sequels, especially when new installments have only small incremental changes?
Plus, random musings on Star Wars and M. Night Shyamalan.
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“A man chooses… a slave obeys…”
Mike and Casey pile into a bathysphere and flee the surface world, and the clawing hands of Big Government and the Parasites to reserve their tables at the Kashmir Restaurant with first panelists Patrick Johnson, and Carlos Rodela of the Video Game Break Podcast. Our topic, the revolutionary 2007 video game, BioShock and its sequels.
We explore the immersive game world of Rapture, the failed undersea utopia inspired by the free-market Objectivist philosophy of Ayn Rand. We look at whether video games can transcend the reputation of being a fun distraction, and whether they can truly be works of art in their own right. And finally, we contemplate the limitations and possibilities of player choice in games, and whether complex storytelling is at odds with the agency to make character decisions.
Previously titled: “Being a Selfish Asshole Is the Best Thing You Can Be”
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