7 Minutes

For our giant-sized episode the group turns the camera around and discusses different types of gamers, what makes us tick, and what we get out of games. Robert, Zack and Angela take two tests of gamer psychology/motivation and discuss the results. Play along at home!

Bartle’s Taxonomy of Player Types: https://matthewbarr.co.uk/bartle/

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Welcome to the first bonus episode! While our podcast is not a reaction-heavy “news of the week” roundtable, Summer Games Fest and E3 were sufficiently packed with announcements that we had had quite a bit to say and decided to inflict that on our listeners rather than just each other. Because this is an unusual approach for us and a bit shorter than our regular episodes, we’re counting this as our first bonus episode.

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The gaming landscape has included multiplayer experiences for as far back as anyone can remember or bother to document — Tennis for Two (1958) and Spacewar! (1962) are among the oldest works in the medium, older even than game consoles, arcade games, or personal computers themselves. Angela, Robert, and Zack are all at least a little introverted when it comes to play habits, but would be remiss to ignore the wide world of multiplayer.

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30 years ago, being informed about upcoming video games largely meant looking through monthly magazines or getting the information in those magazines secondhand. Those magazines, though, were getting their information from PR professionals, trade shows, and so forth, and for most of the last 30 years the biggest event in video game news has been E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Zack, Angela, and Robert discuss their own histories with E3 and other industry events (including time spent working both sides of the booth), and also talk about how games marketing and cycles of hype have changed over time.

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Arcades and arcade machines haven’t disappeared, but they have grown less culturally prominent since their Space Invaders/Pac-Man peak, as console games, computer games, online games, mobile games, and streaming culture have all risen in relative prominence. Robert (ROB), Zack (ZAK), and Angela (AMM) talk about formative arcade experiences, the unique value of arcades, and how the scene has changed.

Of special note: while dedicated spaces to gather and play arcade games are much scarcer than they used to be, they’re still around, and we have a local place in Alameda that has been on the ropes due to the pandemic. Consider lending a helping hand if you’re able, or at least make a note to visit after they reopen: http://www.highscoresarcade.com/

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From Pog to Tickle-Me Elmo, many 90s sensations proved to be short-lived fads, but 25 years on Pokemon still has more than a few diehards, to say the least. Angela (Fire type), Robert (Fighting type), and Zack (Bug type) wander through the history of the storied Pokemon franchise and, because this is a more laid back podcast, decline to add the accent to the name of the series in this podcast description.

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Game designer Hideki Kamiya is known for tense, challenging, and rewarding games like Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 2, The Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta. It's easy to expect certain strengths and design priorities from the games he has helmed as a result, but Okami stands apart. A long and bucolic game known more for its art style than its combat systems, Okami was critically lauded but so commercially underappreciated that it earned a Guinness World Record for "least commercially successful winner of a game of the year award." Unlike Clover's other games (God Hand, Viewtiful Joe), though, Okami has remained well-loved with rereleases on new systems every few years. Robert, Zack, and Angie reminisce about their time with Okami and its peculiar place in the arc of Japanese game development, predating and perhaps precipitating Capcom's 360-era pivot towards more "western" games.

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For almost any hobby, budget is a limiting factor, but gaming is unusual in that it's a hobby often carried from childhood into adulthood. Even as free time shrinks and incomes grow, gaming itself can remain a constant. Angela, Robert, and Zack swap stories of getting gifts as kids, saving up for their first purchases, seeing what other kids' households were kitted out with, learning how to prioritize purchases ... and blowing a bunch of cash that they probably shouldn't have.

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Zack, Angela, and Robert look back at the the last of the legendary Game Boy line on its 20th anniversary. Is it fair to call it a portable SNES? Not exactly. Is it unambitious compared to its wild successor, the DS? Only sort of. Do the games hold up? Absolutely. And who reigns supreme when Zack puts the GBA trivia knowledge of the Marrujo siblings to the test?

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Some games are so nice they release them twice, yet almost never unchanged. Sometimes the creators only make small tweaks like adding save states or a concept art gallery, and sometimes they make an entirely new game with the same story and premise, and there's a lot of variation between those two poles. Robert, Zack, and Angie discuss their own experiences with ports, remakes, and remasters, and can't resist broadening the conversation to talk about game preservation and history.

A discussion of Final Fantasy VII Remake from 34:03 - 37:29 includes some spoilers for that title.

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