Game Theory Podcast

Recorded on May 21, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Brian, Jim, and Tom discuss their plans to put the show on hold for a while. Jim is taking a road trip (follow that here) and Brian’s got a new baby in the house.

We intended to publish this right after Episode 19, but the reasons above contributed to extra delay.

We’ll let you know via this website or the podcast feed when we start up again, but we don’t expect to record any episodes this summer.

Recorded on May 21, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Streamlining - the way the sequels of a game, or games in a genre are re-worked to be simpler, easier - sometimes even with a dramatically transformed core mechanic - is covered in this live episode.

Brian also adds nostalgia to the discussion list. The group talks about the way we hold old, complicated games in reverence (as well as the resurgence of kickstartered ‘homage’ games). They also discuss what makes a sequel good or bad, and whether, as a rule, you should play the latest game in a series.

Referenced items:

World of Warcraft,
Nerf,
Community Building - Tobold,
How Microsoft Labs Invented a New Science of Play - Wired,
Eve Online,
XCom UFO Defense,
Isometric Game,
Bioshock 2,
Defender,
Stargate,
Halo,
Jaws 2,
Assassin’s Creed,
Grand Theft Auto,
Jason Statham,
Steve McQueen,
Mass Effect,
Desert Bus,
Fallout,
Elder Scrolls,
Madden NFL,
Tiger Woods Golf,
Tony Hawk Pro Skater,
SSX Snowboarding,
San Francisco Rush,
The Walking Dead,
Sam and Max,
Monkey Island,
Harry Potter,
Hunger Games,
Star Wars: Episode 1,
The Matrix: Reloaded,
King’s Quest V,
Space Quest,
Maniac Mansion,
Larry David,
National Public Radio,
Portal,
Killzone,
Gears of War,
Legend of Zelda,
Fallout,
Everquest,
Super Meat Boy,
World of Tanks,
Social Fabric - Tobold,
Red Dead Redemption,
Half Life,
Goldeneye,
Super Mario Bros.,
Doom,
The New SimCity,
Diablo Three.

Recorded on March 26th, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Now that video games are big business - perhaps bigger than movies - they have advertising and promotional budgets to match. It is common to see video games promoted in a way similar to other mass media - billboards and television ads.

The group talks about the way they learn about games, keep up on game news (or at least used to) and the way game reviews and metacritic scores are handled.

They also discuss their game buying strategy, when (if ever) to preorder, and how they track game sales.

Referenced items:

PAX East 2013,
Borderlands Two,
Simcity (new),
A Question of Competence - Tobold,
Square Enix CEO Stepping Down,
Indie Game: The Movie,
Super Meat Boy,
X-Com Enemy Unknown,
Bioshock: Infinite,
Diablo Three,
Guild Wars Two,
World of Warcraft,
Spaceteam,
Rogue WiFi at Super Bowl - Ars,
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim,
Fez,
Minecraft,
The Castle Doctrine,
Steam Greenlight,
Spy Party,
Kickstarter,
Planetary Annihilation,
FTL,
Planescape Torment,
God of War,
Gears of War,
Jerry Bruckheimer,
How Early Reviews Hurt Sales - Ars,
Kill Screen Daily,
GameSpy,
IGN,
Why We Avoid Metacraitic - Ars,
The Verge,
Engadget,
Gizmodo,
Tom Bissell - Grantland,
Catherine,
Daring Fireball,
Joystiq,
Kotaku,
1up,
I’m sorry, Marcus - Quarter to Three,
Steam Mobile,
Humble Indie Bundle,
When TED Lost Control - HBR,
EFF,
Child’s Play,
Gabe Newell Left 4 Dead Sale- Shack News,
Kingdoms of Amalur,
Stephen King,
Chromehounds,
G4 Channel,
e-Sports,
Call of Duty is Making Us Dumb - PAR,
Curling,
PS4 Video Sharing,
Counterstrike,
League of Legends,
Letterpress,
Anno 2070,
Red Dead Redemption,
Why I Played Bioshock on Easy - PAR,
SLI Graphics.

Recorded on March 11, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Online games purportedly exist to bring us together and create memorable communal experiences. Few mainstream games actively cultivate positive interactions among their players. Players, particuarly when they are fired up and competitive, can get pretty rough.

Tom reminds Brian and Jim that they are all elitist jerks, and Brian discusses his internal conflict when players use certain types of language while they trash talk.

It is good to take a stand and to shift social norms, but it is not clear how to find an effective way to engage players in this context.

Referenced items:

World of Tanks,
Halo,
Skype,
Ventrilo,
Teamspeak,
League of Legends,
PA Report - Riot Games,
World of Warcraft,
Journey,
Little Big Planet 2,
Left For Dead,
Valve Anti Cheating,
EvE online,
4Chan,
Stack Exchange,
Call of Duty,
Modern Warfare,
Not in the Kitchen Anymore (NSFW),
Fat, Ugly or Slutty (NSFW),
Tropes Against Women in Video Games,
Barrens Chat,
Counterstrike,
Street Fighter Two,
Farmville,
Simcity,
Copenhagen Game Collective
Johann Sebastian Joust,
Dark Room Sex Game,
Guitar Hero,
Rock Band.

Recorded on February 20th, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Examples of sex and violence in video games are often trotted out as the root cause of many of society’s ills. Stepping away from the drama, are video games materially different than, say, movies?

Brian laments the fact that we don’t have many interesting examples of love and romance in video games. Jim’s been playing available interpretations as they are released, and Tom optimistically reminds us that we’re still in early days as far as the medium is concerned.

Referenced items:

Thoughts About App Store Curation,
Video Games and the Human Condition,
Fifty Shades of Grey,
Postal,
Manhunt,
Call of Duty,
Top 10 Movies,
Top 10 Games,
Just Dance 4,
NBA Jam,
Madden NFL,
Lego Batman,
Call of Duty,
Halo,
Grantland - Spec Ops the Line,
Sexposition,
Mass Effect,
Grantland - Mass Effect Three,
Fable,
Skyrim,
Catherine,
Karateka,
Spec Ops the Line,
Natural Born Killers,
Bioshock,
Doom,
Cut the Rope,
FarmVille,
Infinity Blade,
Mortal Kombat,
Death Race,
Peggle,
Angry Birds,
Minecraft,
Clear Vision Two,
Skinner Box,
No Violence Please, We’re Gamers,
Rethinking Mass Murder,
Gears of War,
Killzone,
Mirror’s Edge,
Heat,
Kill Bill,
Let The Right One In,
Portal,
Dating Sim,
Leisure Suit Larry,
Scenes From a Marriage,
Heavy Rain,
The Witcher,
God of War,
Duke Nukem,
The Player,
The Mummy,
G.I. Joe,
Girls Gone Wild,
Two and a Half Men,
Anna Anthropy,
Proteus,
Dear Esther,
Thirty Flights of Loving.

Recorded on February 11th with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

This is not the oft-promised indie episode - it is something much better! When thinking about what he liked about indie games, Jim realized the aspect that he wanted to discuss was the innovative design elements in many of his favorite games.

Innovative games often represent a thought experiment or a deliberate isolation or exaggeration of a specific game mechanic or component. This means that often, short form and indie games are the right format for this investigation.

Brian also finally gets to complain about pixel art, and Tom startles the group with a shocking (ok, mildly interesting) confession.

Referenced items:

Match Three Game,
Portal,
Pong,
Doom,
Outsider Art,
Legend of Zelda,
Super Mario Bros.,
Dune Two,
Literature of Exhaustion,
Memento,
Tower Defense,
Bejeweled,
Limbo,
Fl0w,
Osmos,
Ingmar Bergman,
Stephen Merchant,
Electroplankton,
Biophilia,
Sonic the Hedgehog,
Alien vs. Predator (FPS),
Journey,
Left 4 Dead,
Halo,
Hundreds,
Galcon,
ToeJam and Earl,
Earthworm Jim,
Battletoads,
World of Goo,
Shadow of the Colossus,
Ico,
Kinectimals,
Kinect Party,
Mario Party,
WarioWare,
Kongregate,
Raving Rabbids,
Mirror’s Edge,
Dungeon Keeper,
Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman,
Hoard,
Starcraft,
Sim Life,
Spore,
Eve Online,
Red Dead Redemption,
World of Tanks,
Half Life,
Counter-Strike,
X-Com: UFO Defense,
X-Com: Enemy Unknown,
10,000,000,
PixelJunk,
Ni No Kuni,
Studio Ghibli,
Dishonored,
Mass Effect,
Dungeon Raid,
Pinball Arcade,
Medieval Madness,
Cirqus Voltaire,
Pin*Bot,
Black Knight 2000,
Waking Mars,
Sid Meier’s Pirates!,
Lili,
Letterpress.

Recorded on January 21st, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Tom runs through a brief history of video game distribution, starting with arcade consoles and ending with digital distribution stores. A number of trends are identified: transition from physical (resellable) objects to software licenses, certification programs driven by the game distributors and the gradually lowering bar for distribution that now supports ‘indie’ game development.

Links to referenced items:

Super Missile Attack,
Missile Command,
Atari,
Nolan Bushnell,
Sente Technologies,
Pac-Man,
Ms. Pac-Man,
Midway Games,
Namco,
Burning Wheel,
Atari 2600,
Activision,
Imagic,
Nintendo,
Sony,
Microsoft,
Gamestop,
EA,
Deadly Towers,
Floppy Disk,
CD-ROM,
Copy Protection,
Infocom,
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego,
Blizzard,
Diablo Three,
Sim City,
Final Fantasy,
Blockbuster,
iOS App Store,
Stardock Central,
Steam,
Amazon Kindle,
Wal-Mart,
Humble Indie Bundle,
Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates,
World of Tanks,
XBox Live,
PSN,
Nintendo eShop,
Geometry Wars,
Sega Channel,
Atari Gameline,
Temple Run,
Square,
Chaos Rings,
Nintendo DS,
PS Vita,
How long should a game be? - Tobold
Google Play,
Sideload,
Androminion,
Ingress,
Endgame: Syria
Elder Scrolls Online,
App Store Curation - Jonathan Blow,
Angry Birds,
Fifty Shades of Grey,
The Smurfberry Affair - GigaOM,
Zynga,
Farmville,
Popcap,
Mafia Wars,
Rovio,
Cow Clicker,
X-Com: Enemy Unknown,
Ten Million,
Dungeon Raid,
Puzzle Quest,
Letterpress,
The Walking Dead,
Mass Effect,
Halo Four,
Assassin’s Creed Three,
Dishonored,
Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Recorded on January 7th, 2013 with Brian Fife, James Fingal, and Thomas Westberg.

Jim, Brian and Tom start the new year with new audio equipment, a stack of new games to play and a summary of the top/memorable games of 2012.

When forced to summarize the year in gaming, the group talks about the development of conceptual / experimental indie games in the vein of Journey and Unfinished Swan, as well as a rash of kickstarter games and retro-remakes.

Links to referenced items:

Assassin’s Creed Three,
X:Com: Enemy Unknown,
Halo Four,
Dishonored,
The Walking Dead (Video Game),
The Walking Dead (Hardcover),
Dog Slippers,
Comet’s Tale,
Gotye,
PAR’s Gaming Canon,
Ars’ Games of the Year,
Beverly Hillbillies,
Journey,
thatgamecompany,
World of Tanks,
Diablo Three,
Super Hexagon,
Fez,
Mark of the Ninja,
Letterpress,
Words with Friends,
Killzone Three,
Kinect Party,
Just Dance Four,
Waking Mars,
Pikmin,
Nihilumbra,
Indie Game: The Movie,
The Unfinished Swan,
Narbacular Drop,
Nvidia Shield,
Nintendo Land,
ZombiU,
Big Picture,
FTL,
Fever,
Mega Mano-a-Mega Mano,
Reeder,
Sony RFID - Ars,
New Siracusa County Bros. U.

Recorded on December 10th, 2012 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

Recently, MoMA announced their plans to show a collection of video games in 2013.

The challenges of collecting and showing video games are discussed, and Jim, Brian and Tom talk about thier reactions to the games that were selected - this list is very different from what we would expect to see on any serious gamer’s top ten list.

This will be that last podcast of 2012 - but we’ll be back in early 2013 with more episodes.

Referenced Links:

Letterpress,
Passage,
MoMA - Game Collection,
Pac-Man,
Tetris,
Another World,
Myst,
SimCity 2000,
vib-ribbon,
Katamari Damacy,
EVE Online,
Dwarf Fortress,
Portal,
flOw,
Canabalt,
This Gaming Life,
Space Invaders,
Asteroids,
Donkey Kong,
Super Mario Brothers,
Legend of Zelda,
Nethack,
Street Fighter Two,
Mario 64,
Chrono Trigger,
Kill Screen Magazine,
Okami,
Counterstrike,
Halo,
Starcraft,
Flixel,
Indie Game: The Movie,
Warlords,
Mortal Kombat,
Dotlan,
Super Mario Land,
Tengen Tetris,
Space Quest,
Monkey Island,
It All Began With a Strange Email,
Journey,
Nihil Umbra,
Waking Mars,
Peaceful Games - Tobold,
Proof of Concept - Tobold,
Terraria,
Minecraft,
World of Tanks,
Baldur’s Gate.

Recorded on November 21st, 2012 with Brian Fife, James Fingal and Thomas Westberg.

We’ve seen a dramatic shift in the way games are supported on the internet. Early on, gaming guides and magazines, as well as the occasional online FAQ or spoiler guide, were available, but now it’s almost a given that any game with a reasonable fan base has one or more dedicated websites around tricks, tips and strategies.

Two of the biggest changes are that site platforms like wikia make it very easy to create these player-supported websites, and it is now common, particularly for large MMOs, to have the data files for the game reverse engineered. So-called “database” websites can provide a comprehensive list of all the items that could appear in the game, before players have discovered them.

Jim, Brian and Tom talk about how these changes have impacted the way we play and interact with games. There’s certainly an opportunity for “help sites” to smooth over a rough patch in an otherwise well-designed game, but jumping directly to the loot tables has the ability to take a lot of the discovery and mystery out of a game… is it even possible to design a game with ‘secrets’ anymore?

Links to referenced items:

World of Warcraft,
Quest Tracker,
Nintendo Power Magazine,
Final Fantasy Three,
gameFAQs.com,
Monkey Island,
Nethack,
Dead Rising,
Dark Souls,
Fallout Two,
Skyrim,
X-Com: Enemy Unknown,
The Witcher,
King’s Quest Four,
Deus Ex: Human Revolution,
World of Tanks,
Starcraft,
Tetris,
EvE Online,
Grocery List Strategy - Tobolds
Half Life Two,
[Portal,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)
Fez,
Jonathan Blow,
Secret World - Tom Chick,
Star Wars: The Old Republic,
Mario Kart,
Letterpress,
Spell Tower,
Lose/Lose - Zach Gage,
Bit Pilot,
Eufloria,
On the Wind,
The Last Rocket,
Pulse,
Blind World,
Infinity Blade,
Eliss,
Guitar Hero,
Torchlight,
Dead Trigger,
Zombi U,
Knights of Pen and Paper,
Windosill,
Super Crate Box,
Jetpack Joyride.