The Hey Robot board game

Today, we’re playing with voice assistants and thinking about the role of voices in gaming with our guest, game designer and NYU professor Frank Lantz. 

Over the past nightmare year of the coronavirus, many of us have been hunkered down, trying to figure out how to pass the time with our families. Board game sales on Amazon were up 4,000% percent in March, when Americans began sheltering in place. And, of course, we’ve also spent way more time interacting with digital technology. These two things have come together in a weird and delightful way in Lantz’s game Hey Robot. 

Created by Lantz’s family-owned company Everybody House Games, Hey Robot is a guessing game you play with a group of friends—including your voice assistant or smart speaker. The premise is simple: Make Google Home or Alexa utter the words written in a deck of cards. The questions it raises are complex: What are these digital entities that many of us interact with daily? How have web searches and voice-based computing changed the way we talk? And what does this reveal about language itself? 

Hey Robot is available in a free online Quarantine Edition that you can play remotely with your friends. The board game edition is available on Amazon.

Today’s show was written and edited by Mack Hagood. 

Fake Cumbia music by Mack Hagood. 

Ambient music clip taken from Hiroshi Yoshimura’s album Green.

 [0:00]

Mack Hagood: Hey, Siri.

[iPhone Beep]

Mack: What’s Phantom Power?

[iPhone Beep]

Siri: Phantom Power, in the context of professional audio equipment, is DC electric power transmitted through microphone cables.

Shall I continue?

Mack: Uh, how about a podcast?

Siri: I don't see an app for that. You'll need to download one.

Mack: Oh no. I meant a podcast called Phantom Power.

Hello?

[Sigh]

[00:35]

[Intro Music]

Mack: Okay, Google. What is the Phantom Power Podcast?

Spacey Voice: This…is…Phantom Power

[Intro Music]

Google Assistant: According to Apple Podcasts, on Phantom Power Mack Hagood explores the world of sound in the arts, music, and culture.

Each episode features the sounds and ideas of a contemporary artist, musician, or sound scholar.

Mack: Good job, Google.

Mack: Hey everyone. Welcome back and happy new year. It's me Mack Hagood. Close enough, Google. Close enough.

Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of Phantom Power. We have a lot of good things in the works for you in 2021. One thing I'm excited about is guest producers.

We have a number of critics and scholars working on Phantom Power episodes, including features on the work of sound artists, Brian Harnetty, Kate Carr and Yoko Ono.

We also have a fascinating piece on voice and disability with influential sound scholar, Jonathan Stern, coming for you this year.