Scholars At Play

In this episode, we answer some questions from listeners! We talk about powerlessness in horror games, loot boxes, the lack of variety in big-budget games, and much more! Plus, Kyle quizzes us on our knowledge of Metacritic's ranking algorithm... err, I mean, the Games of the Year from 2014 - 2016, and reveals the secrets of 'stairs money!'

In this episode, Derek, Terrell, and Kyle talk about Supermassive Game's 2015 horror hit "Until Dawn" and work through its relationship with the tropes and language of cinematic horror, as well as the game's "Butterfly Effect" system. Note: this episode DEFINITELY contains spoilers. You have been warned. ---------- Objects Discussed Texts: - Espen Aarseth, Cybertext (1997) - Alexander Galloway, Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (2006) - Boeing, G. 2016. “Visual Analysis of Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: Chaos, Fractals, Self-Similarity and the Limits of Prediction.” Systems, 4 (4), 37. doi:10.3390/systems4040037 Game: -Until Dawn (2015) -------------- Hosts Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net --------------

In this extra-long, bonus, feature-length episode, special guest Sabeen Ahmed joins us for a discussion about how games intersect with contemporary political activism. We work through some of the regressive tendencies in modern gaming cultures, take up Bogost's idea of procedural rhetoric, and talk about how a few games from the recent #ResistJam might speak to our political moment and inform our political activity. We also take up the question of what resistance means for the left in 2017. ---------- Timestamps 00:00 - 04:37 - Introduction 04:37 - 20:10 - Politics in and around games 21:39 - 34:52 - Discussion of Bogost 35:57 - 49:29 - Pivotal 49:29 - 1:11:19 - Wake Up 1:11:19 - 1:32:25 - If Not Now, When? 1:32:25 - 1:48:30 - Discussion of Frost -------------- Objects Discussed Texts: - Chapter 1 of Persuasive Games (Ian Bogost, 2010) - All Worked Up and Nowhere To Go (Amber A’Lee Frost, 2017) Games: - If Not Now, When? (https://ravynn.itch.io/if-not-now-when) - Pivotal (https://jellymachete

---What's In Your System? (WIYS) - Friday, August 18th, 2017--- It's Friday and we're chilling not 10 feet away from Kyle's glorious stairs and sharing our thoughts about loot-crate logic in PUBG and the differences/similarities between Breath of the Wild and Horizon Zero Dawn. We also debate the pronunciation of "verisimilitude" and regretfully announce that the First Annual Scholars At Play Corn Maze Festival will be cancelled because Kyle.

-------------- Objects Discussed Text: Introduction to “The Limits of Critique” (Rita Felski, 2015) Game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo, 2017) Video(s): “Breath of the Wild: The Best Game Ever” (YT: Cool Ghosts, 2017) https://youtu.be/ZLRedgWqejo “Stuff That Bugs Me About the Thing Everyone Likes Right Now” (YT: Super Bunnyhop, 2017) https://youtu.be/gNLMDWZY6_A -------------- Hosts: Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - https://twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast(at)gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net -------------- Special thanks: Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "The Plateau at Night"

Enjoy this first (of hopefully many) standalone "What's In Your System?" We'll be releasing more of these shorter, more informal podcasts in the future, but DON'T WORRY we're still doing the longer thematic and academic/critical ones too. In this episode of WIYS we talk about our summers, One Weird Trick To Attract Female Pokemon, Hitman and Playerunknown's Battlegrounds, and MechWarrior Online, and we finally find out who the real Bad Boy of the podcast is...

-------------- Sections: What is Twine?/Kopas Introduction - 5:45 SABBAT - 32:50 Eden - 40:39 Even Cowgirls Bleed - 46:09 Bogost's piece - 53:50 What's in Your System? - 1:09:20 -------------- Objects Discussed Texts: Introduction to “Videogames for Humans” (Merritt Kopas, 2015), “Video Games are Better Without Stories” in The Atlantic (Ian Bogost, 2016) Games: Gaming Pixie's "Eden," Christine Love's "Even Cowgirls Bleed," Eva Problem's “SABBAT” -------------- Hosts: Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - https://twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Max Baumkel -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast(at)gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay -------------- Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (esp. Jay Clayton), HASTAC, and Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "The Plateau at Night"

Many thanks to our special guests Curtis Maughan and Pablo Abend! -------------- Sections (time = start of section): Guest Introductions - 1:57 Paper Summaries - 5:20 General Discussion - 17:42 Topic: Aesthetics, Surveillance, and Games - 56:13 What's in Your System? - 1:13:34 -------------- Objects Discussed Games: Orwell (2016), Watch Dogs I and II (2014, 2016), Pokemon Go (2016) -------------- Hosts: Derek Price - Twitter: https://twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackSocrates Curtis Maughan - Email: cm@colognegamelab.de Pablo Abend - Email: pablo.abend@uni-siegen.de -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast(at)gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay -------------- Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (esp. Jay Clayton), HASTAC, the “Critical Gaming Project” @ University of Washington, especially Ed Chang, and Visager for the use of his song "The Plateau at Night" (check out m

Sections (time = start of section): Intro - 0:00 Civ 5 - 2:46 Schut Article - 20:45 Galloway Chapter - 39:42 What's in Your System? - 1:01:46 -------------- Objects Discussed Game: Sid Meier's Civilization 5 (2010) Articles: "Strategic Simulations and Our Past: The Bias of Computer Games in the Presentation of History" (Kevin Schut, 2007) "Allegories of Control" - 4th chapter from book “Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture” (Alexander Galloway, 2006) -------------- Hosts: Derek Price - Twitter: https://twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - Twitter: https://twitter.com/e_kyle_romero -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast(at)gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay -------------- Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (esp. Jay Clayton), HASTAC, the “Critical Gaming Project” @ University of Washington, especially Ed Chang, and Visager for the use of his

Objects Discussed Game: Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 2013) Review: Videogame Utopia: Passage Denied, a “Papers Please” review​ (Rui Craveirinha, 2014) Article: Ritualization of Regulation: The Enforcement of Chinese Exclusion in the United States and China (Adam McKeown) -------------- Hosts: Derek Price - Twitter: https://twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - Twitter: https://twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - Twitter: https://twitter.com/e_kyle_romero -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast(at)gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay -------------- Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (esp. Jay Clayton), HASTAC, the “Critical Gaming Project” @ University of Washington, especially Ed Chang, and Visager for the use of his song "The Plateau at Night" (check out more at their Free Music Archive page or on twitter at twitter.com/visagermusic)

Objects Discussed Text: ​Ludonarrative Dissonance​ - (Clint Hocking) Game: Bioshock Video: "The Debate That Never Took Place" (Youtube: Errant Signal) -------------- Hosts: Derek Price - Twitter: (at)Digital_Derek Terrell Taylor - Twitter: (at)BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - Twitter: (at)e_kyle_romero -------------- Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast(at)gmail(dot)com Twitter: (at)ScholarsAtPlay -------------- Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University (esp. Jay Clayton), HASTAC, Adam Merki for technical help with audio set-up, editing, and mixing, the “Critical Gaming Project” @ University of Washington, especially Ed Chang, and Visager for the use of his song "The Plateau at Night" (check out more at their Free Music Archive page or on twitter at twitter.com/visagermusic)