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 15: Augmented Reality and social norms – with Andrew Adams

A sign in a church inviting Pokemon Go players into church

In which Catherine and Tyr wrangle another fascinating victim special guest at ETHICOMP 2018, Prof. Andrew Adams, to talk about Pokémon Go and augmented reality games more generally. (Yes, another Pokémon Go one. I think we’re almost all out of material on Pokémon Go now.)

We talk social norms about Pokémon Go in Japan vs. other places, and safety while playing these games, that came out of a paper Andrew wrote about augmented reality games and the issues with large uptake of such games (disruption, poor locations of Pokestops, etc.).

We get interrupted by a Polish war memorial ceremony in the park outside our hotel, which is ironic because we talk about fighting in gyms at war memorials, as well as churches (and particularly Quaker meeting houses) and the discomfort that augmented reality games can sometimes bring when data is not perfect, or not used appropriately.

We also look at some of the upsides of Pokémon Go too though, so it’s not all doom and gloom!

I would link to Andrew’s paper on this but he hasn’t finished it yet. 🙂

Like our stuff? Support out Patreon! Help us pay for our wonderful editor.

Episode 14: Twinkle Ponies – with Erica Neely on Ethics of Lootboxes

Loot box picture

Hello! In this episode I have to apologise for the sound quality; we were recording at ETHICOMP 2018 in Sopot, Poland and the room was a bit more echoey than expected (and noisier) and apparently I didn’t point the microphone in quite the right direction. The sound does get better as the episode goes on. But still, we have excellent content as we are with Dr Erica Neely, who gave an amazing talk about the ethics of loot boxes! We talk about loot boxes, paying for levels, paying for gear, cheating, catching up, reputation, and fairness for a bit, then Tyr comes up with an amazing song about Twinkle Ponies. (Apparently songs after the credits is now a Thing, so enjoy!) ✨🦒✨

We now have a Patreon, if you’d like to support us by kicking us a dollar or two per episode! We plan to have fortnightly episodes. $5/episode unlocks a space on our Patreon where you can suggest topics for us to talk about 😀

You can also support us by writing a review on iTunes or Google or whatever it is that accepts reviews about Podcasts!

Links:

Dr Erica Neely

ETHICOMP 2018

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!

 

Mental health benefits of Pokémon Go

Dr. Jessica Urwin and I are carrying out a study of Pokémon Go and its mental health benefits. We’re carrying out an ethnography in Leicester and conducting an online survey.

If you’re interested in participating, here’s the blurb for our questionnaire, which is found here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PokemonMH

Please share this amongst your friends!

“Pokémon Go took the world by storm following its launch in summer 2016. As well as being a fun game to play there have been some reports of it encouraging exercise, social interaction, and improving the mental health of players. This study is looking at what mental health benefits players receive from Pokémon Go, and to understand how the format of the game itself contributes to this (if at all).

We are asking individuals who play Pokémon Go to complete the following online questionnaire. This will ask about your experiences of playing Pokémon Go, if you feel it has benefited you in any way, and what form those benefits have taken. As the research is related to mental health, the questionnaire will touch on this subject. However, you do not have to disclose any personal information that you do not feel comfortable sharing, and do not have to answer the questions if you do not wish to. All information which is collected during the course of the research will be kept on a password protected database and is strictly confidential. You will be given a pseudonym which will be used instead of your name. Any identifiable information you may give will be removed and anonymized, and all quoted materials will have all identifying information removed.”