Authors Die Twice

Please enjoy this bonus Halloween episode on Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC. We'll post a full episode next Monday as usual.

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In this episode, Bryan and Nathan discuss Jonathan Boulter’s 2015 book Parables of the Posthuman: Digital Realities, Gaming, and the Player Experience, published by Wayne State University Press. They discuss the concept of posthumanism and how games help us elaborate on it. Nathan proposes an alternate framing (“prehumanism”) and talks about why Boulter’s book feels so prescient in the context of the Metal Gear Solid series in particular. 

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Bryan and Nathan discuss Chill Games, "Smart Games," Dumb Games, and Dumb Smart Games, and Bryan shares his early impressions of Metal Gear Solid 2 (the topic of an upcoming episode). They also cover the second half of Kentucky Route Zero, including the brilliant Xanadu sequence and the risks of narrative complexity creep.

Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice

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Bryan and Nathan get "enfrenzied" as they continue their discussion of Bloodborne. They discuss the role of madness, the empty form of knowledge, and why scholars need so much sedative.

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After mentioning the game in almost every episode so far, Bryan and Nathan finally have a dedicated discussion about Bloodborne. They talk about Nathan's recently published book (Grant Us Eyes: The Art of Paradox in Bloodborne), Bryan's recent replay, Evil Santa, and the one area in the game that still makes no sense.

Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice

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Bryan and Nathan are joined by games scholar Erick Verran to talk about video game criticism and writing. They discuss the pitfalls of professional scholarship, the differences between European and American games writing, and the beauty of classic gaming magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Find Erick Verran at https://linktr.ee/erickverran

Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice

Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are joined by literary and games scholar Justin Carpenter (University of Utah) to talk about Kentucky Route Zero. They discuss the game's amazing art style and sound design, its literariness, and the ways it challenges ideas of play, agency, and control.

Find us on YouTube at youtube.com/@authorsdietwice

Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]

Bryan and Nathan are once again joined by Shane (cohost of the terrific Reel Rap, a podcast about adaptations) to talk about Dark Souls 1. They discuss sentences lost to time, the meaning of humanity (!?), and why the game's world of Lordran resembles a giant haunted house.

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Bryan and Nathan finish up their conversation about Silent Hill 2 (2024), focusing especially on the game's final boss and discussing (again) the game's structures of repetition, the warehouse setting, and why spider enemies in games usually suck.

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Bryan and Nathan are joined by filmmaker Christopher Jason Bell (Miss Me Yet, Failed State) to discuss Final Fantasy VII. They touch on the generative capacities of technological limitation for gameplay and narrative, what motivates the various graphical iterations of the game's characters, and the role of paratext in the experience of playing.

Find Christopher Jason Bell at https://linktr.ee/christopherjasonbell

Have questions or comments? Email us at [email protected]