Episode 19 Capital O Opinions

In this episode, Tyr and Catherine have opinions. No, we have Opinions. Capital O Opinions. Some of them are probably unpopular. Some of them we would defend with our lives. (Maybe.) Bad words are said. Totally @ us. (@CatherineFlick and @FothergillTyr on Twitter!)

We are also going to PAX East this year! Please come visit us in the Diversity Lounge at Catherine’s “Ask an Ethicist” booth. We’ll be doing a talk on AI in video games as well, currently scheduled for Saturday morning. We may have swag.

Don’t forget that if you like our stuff we have a Patreon! Just $1/podcast episode would help us a lot. Thanks so much to our wonderful Patrons – don’t forget you can suggest topics for us to cover at $5+: https://www.patreon.com/notjustagame

Episode 17: It’s beginning to look a lot like Saturnalia!

Pride parade in GW2

In this episode we talk holidays! Why do we have certain holidays in games, and not others? Why is Christmas in games not quite Christmas, but a weird pagan version of Christmas? Is it only because game devs want to annoy right wing American Christians? Where do all these  in-game traditions come from anyway? (It’s probably Saturnalia.)

What about ad-hoc celebrations? Ugh, so much about holidays I almost can’t wait for the next lot of turkey I get to eat! Maybe with some traditional Halloween turnips.

Battlefield 1 tweet by Jan David Hassel

Tyria Pride

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Episode 11 – PAX East Pokémon Go followup

You may have seen our talk at PAX East on the Ethics of Pokémon Go – either live or via the YouTube video available at: https://www.notjustagame.eu/2018/05/07/video-interlude-pax-east-2018-ethics-of-pokemon-go/

In this episode we follow up with some of the questions we didn’t get to in the talk – it’s a bit longer than our usual episodes, and we’ll go back to normal after the second of these on zombies and brains, following up the other talk we did on archaeology and philosophy of zombies in video games!

 

Not Just A Game Episode 8: Things We Like

This week we talk about things we like! (Though “Halloween around the corner” implies this was recorded before Halloween… which is true. I’ve been very busy. Sorry! Also the voice levels aren’t great this episode. Sorry!)

We’re so used to being critical that we think it’s important that we also talk about nice things and things we like in games.

We talk costumes, avatars, hair cuts, Conchita Wurst, doing all of the tutorials, getting embarrassed in front of NPCs, working together in big social worlds, emergent community codes of conduct within games, societal beginnings, octopuses, stories that surprise us, and more!

Games mentioned:

  • Final Fantasy XI/XIV
  • Elder Scrolls Online
  • Guild Wars 2
  • an unnamed game where female dwarves can have beards
  • Elite: Dangerous
  • Everquest 2
  • Octodad: Dadliest Catch
  • Spec Ops: The Line
  • and more that I’ve forgotten…

Not Just a Game Episode 5: Relaunch – Pit People!

This week I relaunch the podcast and introduce the new co-host of the show, Dr. Tyr Fothergill! She has graciously agreed to sit and chat with me every couple of weeks about games and stuff!

This week we are talking about Pit People, how it’s OK to be critical of stuff that you like, colonialism in games, and what we’ve been playing recently.

We’ll be experimenting with the best way to record this so please let me know how it sounds.

Not Just a Game Episode 1: Life is Strange and Social Norms

This is the first episode of my new podcast. Please be gentle, I am working with new equipment and a new style of media! But any technical feedback welcome (I think I’ve solved the crackling in the microphone now though!).

In this episode, I am talking about Life is Strange and social norms. What’s a social norm? Listen and find out!

Are there any games where you struggled with social norms vs. expectations of the gameplay? Comment below!

Games mentioned:

  • Life is Strange
  • Grand Theft Auto
  • Legend of Zelda series
  • Dragon Age series/Bioware games
  • Skyrim
  • Guild Wars 2
  • Final Fantasy series