Scholars At Play is a podcast dedicated to the critical discussion of video games and their place in society and the academy.
A feed drop from Derek' new pod, 2 Player Theory. Check it out below:https://twoplayertheory.podbean.com/
Feed Drop!! In this new podcast, Derek, Zach, and friends talk through games and media, together.Subscribe to Two Player Theory Podbean: https://www.podbean.com/pu/pbblog-n3ieq-11a3b2eSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0e6LX1a3MmR7nJkza5Pi49?si=1e7648dd3ca74a92In this first episode, we talk about Zelda's newest open-world game, Tears of the Kingdom, and what it's themes and narrative mean for us, right now.
Derek and Kyle sit down to talk about Derek's recently-completed dissertation "The Work of Nonfiction: Simulator Games in Germany." Derek talks about the history of simulator games, the specific simulators he studies, and what we can learn from games all about machines and work.
Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 4:11 - Theory, text, and context in research 8:30 - Origins of the project and how it developed, brief history of simulator games 20:12 - Theories and methods of the project 37:33 - Examples of popular simulator games from the mid-2000s 45:05 - How do these "newer" simulator games break from or continue in the tradition of older simulator games? 58:11 - How do simulator games respond to contemporary transformations of work in the 21st century, and why did the simulator game genre become popular in German-speaking contexts? 1:17:50 - The limits of critique/suspicion in research, and a brief discussion about how gender and class under-gird simulator game realism.
Subscribe to Dodging Hollow on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/dodging-hollow
Edited intro music is "Day Bird" by Broke for Free, Creative Commons by attribution. Check out their music here: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free/Directionless_EP
Hosts: Derek Price: twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor: twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero: twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero
Contact: email: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay
Music: "We Can Do It" by Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic)
Objects Discussed Game - Bloodborne (FromSoftware, 2015) Texts - Hudson - "In Bloodborne's brutal world, I found myself" (2015, Offworld.com) - Juul - "The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games" (2013, MIT Press) - "The Arts of Failure: Jack Halberstam in Conversation with Jesper Juul Moderated by Bonnie Ruberg" (2017, in: Queer Game Studies)
Hosts Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/blacksocrates Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net
Support us on Patreon!
patreon.com/scholarsatplay
Objects Discussed
Games - Assassin’s Creed 2 (Ubisoft Montreal, 2009) - Attentat 1942 (Charles University, 2017)
Texts - Gilbert - “‘Assassin’s Creed reminds us that history is human experience’: Students’ senses of empathy while playing a narrative video game” (2019, in: Theory & Research in Social Education)
Objects Mentioned: - Komel: "ORIENTALISM IN ASSASSIN’S CREED: SELF-ORIENTALIZING THE ASSASSINS FROM FORERUNNERS OF MODERN TERRORISM INTO OCCIDENTALIZED HEROES" (2014) - Sisler: "Digital Arabs: Representation in Video Games" (2008) - Sisler: "Contested Memories of War in Czechoslovakia 38-89: Assassination: Designing a Serious Game on Contemporary History" (2016)
Hosts
Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Curtis Maughan Sabeen Ahmed
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net
Support us on Patreon!
patreon.com/scholarsatplay
Episode 14 - Metagaming
Objects Discussed
Texts: - "Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Videogames (Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux, 2017)
(Meta)Games: - Heat Signature, Hitman (2016), Divinity Original Sin 2, FTL: Faster Than Light, The Pokemon Trading Card Game,
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
Special thanks: Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "We Can Do It" and our Distinguished Colleague Patreon supporters, including:
Support us on Patreon!
patreon.com/scholarsatplay
Timestamps 4:50 - A MAZE in general 11:20 - "The Game: The Game" (https://angelawashko.com/home.html) 25:18 - "Fantastic Fetus" (https://cyangmou.itch.io/fantastic-fetus) and other AMAZE talks 42:57 - Death Trash (http://deathtrash.com/) 44:10 - The Fermi Paradox (http://fermi-paradox.com/press/sheet.php?p=fermi%20paradox) 51:52 - Curious Expedition (https://curious-expedition.com/)
Recommended Texts -Dom Ford ““eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate”: Affective Writing of Postcolonial History and Education in Civilization V” (http://gamestudies.org/1602/articles/ford) -Johan Höglund - Electronic Empire: Orientalism Revisited in the Military Shooter (http://gamestudies.org/0801/articles/hoeglund) -Soraya Murray: “The Work of Postcolonial Game Studies in the Play of Culture” (https://olh.openlibhums.org/articles/10.16995/olh.285/) -Souvik Mukherjee - “Playing Subaltern: Video Games and Postcolonialism” (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1555412015627258) -Pascal Wagner - "Civilization, colonialism, and the misunderstanding of history" (https://languageatplay.de/2017/07/31/civilization-colonialism-and-the-misunderstanding-of-history/)
Hosts:
Derek Price: https://twitter.com/digital_derek Pascal Wagner: https://twitter.com/indieflock
Contact: email: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay
Music: "We Can Do It" by Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic)
Hosts: Derek Price: twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor: twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero: twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero
Contact: email: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay
Music: "We Can Do It" by Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic)
Objects Discussed
Texts: - Against Interpretation (Susan Sontag, 1966) - The Predator and the Jokester (Lauren Berlant in “Where Freedom Starts: Sex, Power, Violence, #MeToo”, 2018)
Games: - Persona 5 (Atlus, 2016 Japan, 2017 International)
Hosts
Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Sabeen Ahmed
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net
Special thanks: Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "The Plateau at Night," The Curb Center at Vanderbilt, HASTAC, and our Distinguished Colleague Patreon supporters, including:
Carol R. Rebecca P.
Support us on Patreon!
patreon.com/scholarsatplay
This special episode is a recording of a digital colloquium that took place on April 16th, 2018. Sponsored by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities and the Center for Digital Humanities at Vanderbilt University, and organized by the RPW Seminar "Taking Play Seriously," this panel featured games industry vet Bill Harms (Mafia III, Infamous), games critic Dante Douglas (Paste, Polygon, Waypoint, and others), and games academic Dr. Adrienne Shaw (Temple University) discussing the idea of "(Making a) Difference in Gaming."
Panelists Contact info (Twitter): Dante Douglas: @videodante Adrienne Shaw: @adrishaw William Harms: @wjharms
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net
Support us on Patreon!
patreon.com/scholarsatplay
Ted Dawson joins Derek, Kyle and Terrell to talk about what "The Anthropocene" and "ecocriticism" are, why they matter, and what we need to do to save the world. Well, at least in "The Fate of the World."
Objects Discussed
Texts: - "The Climate of History: Four Theses" (Dipesh Chakrabarty, 2009) - "Greenshifting Game Studies" (Hans-Joachim Backe, 2014) - "Live in Your World, Play in Ours”: Video Games, Critical Play, and the Environmental Humanities (Megan Condis, 2015) - "What's the Fate of the World?" (Graham Smith, 2010)
Games: - Fate of the World (Red Redemption, 2011) - Thunderbird Strike (Dr. Elizabeth LaPensée, 2017)
Hosts
Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Ted Dawson - twitter.com/germanisted
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net
Support us on Patreon!
patreon.com/scholarsatplay
-Tired: Scholars at Play- -Wired: HISTORIANS AT PLAY-
-In this episode, Kyle takes over and forces Derek and Terrell to talk about history and strategy games again. Joined by special guest Henry Gorman, History PhD candidate and lover of Paradox games, the four talk through what it means for games to be historical or to represent history, the various ways we can approach historical games critically, and the differences in how games like Crusader Kings 2, Civilization V, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance allow the player to engage with the possibility space of history.-
Objects Discussed
-Adam Chapman, “Is Sid Meier’s Civilization History” Rethinking History 17:3 (2013), 312-333-
-Adam Chapman, “Privileging Form Over Content: Analyzing Historical Video Games” Journal of Digital Humanities 1:2 (Spring, 2012)-
-Crusader Kings 2 (Paradox Development Studios, 2012)-
-Sid Meier's Civilization V (Firaxis Games, 2010)-
Hosts:
Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Henry Gorman - https://twitter.com/HGreyGorman
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay
Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, HASTAC, and Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "The Plateau at Night"
-Tired: Scholars at Play- -Wired: HISTORIANS AT PLAY-
-In this episode, Kyle takes over and forces Derek and Terrell to talk about history and strategy games again. Joined by special guest Henry Gorman, History PhD candidate and lover of Paradox games, the four talk through what it means for games to be historical or to represent history, the various ways we can approach historical games critically, and the differences in how games like Crusader Kings 2, Civilization V, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance allow the player to engage with the possibility space of history.-
Objects Discussed
-Adam Chapman, “Is Sid Meier’s Civilization History” Rethinking History 17:3 (2013), 312-333-
-Adam Chapman, “Privileging Form Over Content: Analyzing Historical Video Games” Journal of Digital Humanities 1:2 (Spring, 2012)-
-Crusader Kings 2 (Paradox Development Studios, 2012)-
-Sid Meier's Civilization V (Firaxis Games, 2010)-
Hosts:
Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Henry Gorman - https://twitter.com/HGreyGorman
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay
Special thanks: The Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, HASTAC, and Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "The Plateau at Night"
In this episode of What's In Your System?, Derek, Kyle, and Terrell talk about the new (and old) games they've been playing in the new year.
In the second half of our game of the year podcast series, Kyle, Derek, and Terrell talk about their Greatest Escape, the most "2017" game, SAP's Game of the Year, games we would recommend to each other, and the best games we didn't play.
Also, if you're curious about our personal Top 5 lists, check them out on our website!
http://scholarsatplay.net/category/goty-2017/
In Part 1 of our Games of the Year podcast series, we talk about the games we thought had the Biggest Impact, our favorite moments in games, and we play another of Qyle's Qrazy Quizzes!
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!'
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
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.itch.io/pivotal) - Wake Up (https://inverge-studios.itch.io/wake-up, Inverge Studios)
Hosts
Derek Price - twitter.com/digital_derek Terrell Taylor - twitter.com/BlackSocrates Kyle Romero - twitter.com/E_Kyle_Romero Sabeen Ahmed
Contact us! E-mail: scholarsatplaypodcast@gmail.com Twitter: twitter.com/ScholarsAtPlay scholarsatplay.net
Special thanks: Visager (twitter.com/visagermusic) for the use of their song "The Plateau at Night"
---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"
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 more at their Free Music Archive page or on twitter at twitter.com/visagermusic)
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)
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
Game: Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 2013)
Review: Videogame Utopia: Passage Denied, a “Papers Please” review (Rui Craveirinha, 2014)
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
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)