Gaming Broadcast

Meredith Wilson is participating in rural flight, virtually speaking. As young people from Appalachia increasingly move out of the region, Meredith Wilson has done something strange: moved to rural Virginia to make virtual reality video games. 

Meredith Wilson is a public health epidemiologist turned video game developer who was a participant in Oculus Launchpad 2017. Wilson used to do public health research at Virginia Tech's Biocomplexity Institute, designing mobile games about diseases that were literally going viral, and appears to have been permanently infected with the game development bug. She's the founder and lead game designer for Bedhouse Games, a small independent video game studio based out of rural Virginia that is currently developing a GearVR science fiction flight simulation-esque video game.

While not originally from the Appalachian region, Wilson's work, as well as the way she works, has been impacted by her experience living there. From the types of characters she designs, to how she thinks about the relationship between ethics and education, and even her opinion on eating rabbit, Appalachia has clearly had an impact on this tenderfoot transplant.

This episode is part three of "Playing Appalachia", a series of conversations with Appalachian and Appalachian adjacent gamers and game makers. To start at the beginning, check out Ep. 18: What Games Are Getting Right About Appalachia with Dr. Elizabeth Catte. You can also take a listen to our conversation with Cardboard Computer about Kentucky Route Zero, their game set in rural Kentucky, to learn more about the relationship between magical realism and Appalachia.

Stuff We Mentioned...
VR.5
Games for Change Summit
Kiya 
Epidemiology 
Virus Tracker 
Microsoft Flight Simulator 
Descent 
Star Wars: TIE Fighter 
Alien (film)
Battle of Blair Mountain
"Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, VA 
The "Harvey Weinsteins of Science" 
@darbianSRL (a Super Mario speedrunner)

JD (The Broad)
Website: GamingBroadly.com
Twitter: @JayDeeCepticon
Instagram: @JayD

In the golden age of massively multiplayer online games like Overwatch and Destiny, why are some players choosing to go it alone? Is it a radical act of self-care, anti-social tendencies, an effect of online harassment, or something else? Take a break from Gaming Broad(cast)'s regularly scheduled programming and tune in to this special LIVE recording of a Gaming Broad(cast) moderated panel, "Reclaiming Basements in a Multiplayer Era: Why We Game Alone". Join Andrea Ayres (Lemonsucker Games) and Ian Danskin (Innuendo Studios), as well as the main broad herself, JD Mallindine, at PAX South 2018 to explore the social and psychological reasons players are reclaiming their alone time. Don't forget to check out #ReclaimTheBasement on Twitter to see what the community had to say about gaming alone! 

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Research...

JD (The Broad & Moderator)

Andrea Ayres (The Cast & Panelist)

Ian Danskin (The Cast & Panelist)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Ben Cohn for the music for this episode!

In the golden age of massively multiplayer online games like Overwatch and Destiny, why are some players choosing to go it alone? Is it a radical act of self-care, anti-social tendencies, an effect of online harassment, or something else? Take a break from Gaming Broad(cast)'s regularly scheduled programming and tune in to this special LIVE recording of a Gaming Broad(cast) moderated panel, "Reclaiming Basements in a Multiplayer Era: Why We Game Alone". Join Andrea Ayres (Lemonsucker Games) and Ian Danskin (Innuendo Studios), as well as the main broad herself, JD Mallindine, at PAX South 2018 to explore the social and psychological reasons players are reclaiming their alone time. Don't forget to check out #ReclaimTheBasement on Twitter to see what the community had to say about gaming alone! 

Download Presentation Visuals

Research...
Playing alone v playing with others: Differences in player experiences and indicators of wellbeing (Vella, et. al 2015)
At Least Nine Ways to Play: Gamer Mentalities (Kallio, et. al 2011)
Online-only friends, real-life friends or strangers? Differential associations with passion and social capital in video game play (Perry, et. al 2018)
Social Context of Video Game Play (Vella, et. al 2016) 
Teenage Girls Are Playing Video Games. You Just Might Not Hear Them from Kotaku (Suellentrop, 2015)
Teens, Technology and Friendship by the Pew Research Center (Lenhart, et. al 2015)
The Emergence of Solitude as a Constructive Domain of Solitude in Early Adolescence (Larson, 1997)
The "social" facilitation of eating without the presence of others: Self-reflection on eating makes food taste better and people eat more (Nakata, et. al 2017)
When Novels Were Bad For You in Smithsonian Magazine (North, 2014)
Public Displays of Play: Studying Online Games in Physical Settings (Taylor, et. a. 2014)
Children of the 80s, Never Fear Video Games Did Not Ruin Your Life from Smithsonian Magazine (Newman, 2017)
The Fierce Triumph of Loneliness from Catapult (Fitzgerald, 2016)
How to be Alone by Sara Maitland

It's near impossible to talk about Appalachia and video games, and games that "get Appalachia right", without talking about Kentucky Route Zero. The game itself is mysterious, filled with empty space and people with featureless faces, a five-part digital theater that leaves enough room for Appalachia to rush in. What is it about this surreal point and click adventure game that feels so real?

In part two of Gaming Broadcast's "Playing Appalachia" series, we're joined by Cardboard Computer, the makers of Kentucky Route Zero, to learn what the magical has to say about the real (especially as it relates to Appalachia) and the surprising ways Appalachians responded to seeing their home reanimated in digital form.

Cardboard Computer = games by Jake Elliot, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt. They're currently working on Kentucky Route Zero, a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky, and the mysterious folks who travel it. Acts I-IV of Kentucky Route Zero are available now, with Act V available sometime other than now.

For part one of Gaming Broadcast’s series Playing Appalachia, a collection of conversations with Appalachian and Appalachian adjacent gamers and game makers, check out Ep. 18 What Games Are Getting Right About Appalachia with Dr. Elizabeth Catte.

Stuff We Mentioned...

JD (The Broad)

Cardboard Computer (The Cast)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Ben Cohn for the music for this episode!

In 2016, the United States collectively pointed a trembling finger of accusation at the Appalachian region. The verdict was in: America was screwed, and “Trump Country” was to blame. Journalists began to flock to the region, looking to demystify and correctly identify the dysfunctional roots of Appalachia and its people. Think piece after think piece was published, many (if not most) reducing the complex and nuanced history of the region into a singular narrative about a backwards and impoverished white working class that were desperate and foolish enough to vote against their best interest. But being exposed to only this narrative does more than just oversimplify, it also obfuscates and distracts from more sinister stories of power and greed.

Elizabeth Catte, author of What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, joins us to start a new and more nuanced conversation about Appalachia. In this episode, Dr. Catte frankly assesses the history of Appalachian stereotypes and the reasons why these stereotypes became and remain so popular. By providing us with examples of writing, art, and video games that “get it right” about Appalachia, Elizabeth reveals why it matters so much that we complicate the current Appalachian narrative not just for Appalachia’s sake, but for the sake of the United States as a whole.

Elizabeth Catte is a historian and writer originally from East Tennessee. She has a PhD in history and currently lives in Staunton, Virginia (pronounced Stanton) and is the director of Passel, a historical consulting firm. Her book, What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia will be out from Belt Publishing February 2018.

This episode is the first in Gaming Broadcast’s new series Playing Appalachia, a collection of conversations with Appalachian and Appalachian adjacent gamers and game makers.

Stuff We Mentioned...

JD (The Broad)

Elizabeth Catte, PhD (The Cast)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Ben Cohn for the music for this episode!

What does it mean to work in AAA game development? In the gaming community, the term "AAA" (pronounced “triple A”) comes with a lot of baggage. While at face value AAA is just an informal way to classify games and games studios that have the highest development and marketing budgets, the category also comes with negative conotations. You’d think more money meant less problems for game developers, right? Wrong! AAA studios are often seen as giant, painfully selfish corporations that care about one thing and one thing alone: money. From "lazy" to "immoral" and "untalented", game developers at AAA studios are often accused of having a myriad of moral failings, regardless of how much control they have over the final product. 

Rachel Hammond, a ten-year veteran of the gaming industry, explains the big ol’ sad bits that are part of these big ol' games projects. From dealing with bad decisions made by top executives and being unable to respond directly to fans because of corporate gag orders, to emotionally coping with the vitriolic comments and death threats directed towards AAA studios (and the people that work there), Rachel has seen it all!

But it’s not all bad. Rachel’s love for programming video games (which started when she was 5 years old), hasn’t been squished by the pressures of the AAA space. Rachel, even after all this time, still loves her work in the games industry, even if the games industry doesn’t always love her back! Seriously. It's amazing. She genuinely loves making games that other people will love. Tune in to Episode 17 to learn about the issues that face AAA developers, and what we can do to help make the gaming community just a TEENSY WEENSY bit more empathetic.

Rachel Hammond has been making video games of all sizes for more than 10 years, and she still remembers the game review "Congratulations, you made a 6 year-old cry". She currently works in the AAA game space at a company that will inevitably be a poorly kept secret as the podcast goes on.

This episode is part three of the “Developer Doldrums” series, a collection of conversations with game developers about the not-so-happy bits that pop up when making play objects. For part one, check out Episode 15: Grief, Game Development, and the Emotional Significance of Oatmeal with Andrea Ayres of Lemonsucker Games to learn how the loss of a parent and an eating disorder (plus therapy) can lead to making a video game. Or, for something with a little less death, check out part two, "Episode 16: Long Distance Bromance" to hear from indie game studio Hydezeke on the pleasures and pains of being in a long distance game dev relationship. Oh, did I mention there's also a mini game in that episode? It's games, all the way down!

Stuff we mentioned...

JD (The Broad)

Rachel Hammond (The Cast)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Los Kurados for the use of their song "Rojo Y Azul" for the intro and outro music of our podcast.

What does it mean to work in AAA game development? In the gaming community, the term "AAA" (pronounced “triple A”) comes with a lot of baggage. While at face value AAA is just an informal way to classify games and games studios that have the highest development and marketing budgets, the category also comes with negative conotations. You’d think more money meant less problems for game developers, right? Wrong! AAA studios are often seen as giant, painfully selfish corporations that care about one thing and one thing alone: money. From "lazy" to "immoral" and "untalented", game developers at AAA studios are often accused of having a myriad of moral failings, regardless of how much control they have over the final product. 

Rachel Hammond, a ten-year veteran of the gaming industry, explains the big ol’ sad bits that are part of these big ol' games projects. From dealing with bad decisions made by top executives and being unable to respond directly to fans because of corporate gag orders, to emotionally coping with the vitriolic comments and death threats directed towards AAA studios (and the people that work there), Rachel has seen it all!

But it’s not all bad. Rachel’s love for programming video games (which started when she was 5 years old), hasn’t been squished by the pressures of the AAA space. Rachel, even after all this time, still loves her work in the games industry, even if the games industry doesn’t always love her back! Seriously. It's amazing. She genuinely loves making games that other people will love. Tune in to Episode 17 to learn about the issues that face AAA developers, and what we can do to help make the gaming community just a TEENSY WEENSY bit more empathetic.

Rachel Hammond has been making video games of all sizes for more than 10 years, and she still remembers the game review "Congratulations, you made a 6 year-old cry". She currently works in the AAA game space at a company that will inevitably be a poorly kept secret as the podcast goes on.

This episode is part three of the “Developer Doldrums” series, a collection of conversations with game developers about the not-so-happy bits that pop up when making play objects. For part one, check out Episode 15: Grief, Game Development, and the Emotional Significance of Oatmeal with Andrea Ayres of Lemonsucker Games to learn how the loss of a parent and an eating disorder (plus therapy) can lead to making a video game. Or, for something with a little less death, check out part two, "Episode 16: Long Distance Bromance" to hear from indie game studio Hydezeke on the pleasures and pains of being in a long distance game dev relationship. Oh, did I mention there's also a mini game in that episode? It's games, all the way down!

Stuff we mentioned...
AAA (video game industry)
Bratz
SpongeBob SquarePants
Transmedia storytelling
Ratatouille (video game)
Rats are very smart and gr8 at games
Sesame Street: Cookie’s Counting Carnival
Video Game Crash of 1983

Long distance relationships are enough to make anyone sad. Throw in making a game together? Even sadder! How do long distance game developers stay in the game? As hard as it is to build something together when you’re not, you know, actually together, Michael and Ben of Hydezeke are proof that with the right person (and for the right project), even distance can’t hold you back. Equal parts funny as it is emotionally honest, this episode gives hope to the idea that you can find a project partner to help you stay afloat in the sometimes turbulent waters of  “creative collaboration”.   

Michael Savage-Benoist [Benwa] is a game designer and dog enthusiast from Fairfax, Virginia. Ben Cohn is a music composer and banjo enthusiast from Orlando, Florida. What started out as a middle-school friendship has, 8 years later, became Hydezeke [Hide-zeek], an indie game studio. 

This episode is part two of the “Developer Doldrums” series, a collection of conversations with game developers about the not-so-happy bits that happen during the creation of these digital play objects. For part one, check out Episode 15: Grief, Game Development, and the Emotional Significance of Oatmeal with Andrea Ayres of Lemonsucker Games.

Stuff we mentioned...

Hydezeke (The Cast)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Los Kurados for the use of their song "Rojo Y Azul" for the intro and outro music of our podcast.

Andrea Ayres, creator of The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne, makes me feel a lot of things about hot cereal. The making of the Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne shows that oatmeal has more to do with grief and game development than you might expect. Born on the heels of grief at the loss of a parent, and influenced by Andrea's personal experiences with social anxiety and an eating disorder, The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne is an interactive story about a painfully introverted college student who needs to make oatmeal in the communal kitchen of her dorm. While the game challenges you to find the right words to help Samantha as she embarks on her journey to the other side of her bedroom door, the development of the game itself challenged Andrea to explore her own relationship with mental health, anxiety, and loss. 

This episode is part one of the “Developer Doldrums” series, a collection of conversations with game developers about the not-so-happy bits that hide behind the curtain of our digital play objects.

Andrea Ayres is a founder and the head writer at Lemonsucker Games. She also writes about politics and representation in pop-culture and beyond. She enjoys coffee, cats, and phasing between inter-dimensional realities.

Stuff we mentioned...

Andrea Ayres (The Cast)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Los Kurados for the use of their song "Rojo Y Azul" for the intro and outro music of our podcast.

There’s a lot of assumptions folks make about violence and video games, from beliefs that violence in video games cause real life violent crime, to the stereotype that violence in video games is intended only for our more dudely players. But what about the violence that happens in real life sports? Does tackling and dragging someone to the ground for a ball make you more likely to tackle and drag someone to the ground out in the real world? And do women really like all that brutal physicality anyways?

As far as brutality goes, the sport of rugby is about as brutal as they come. Sometimes it hurts to watch rugby, much less play it. Legend has it that rugby was invented in England in 1823, when William Webb Ellis decided the rules of soccer (“football”) didn’t apply to him, picked up the ball with his hands, and ran the length of the pitch to score the first ever try. The Tulane Women’s Rugby Team follows in this great rugby tradition of smashing expectations, and are currently ranked third in the country after only two years of competitive play. This week we're joined by members of Tulane University's Women's Rugby Team, Emma Peterson and Hayley Alexander. Emma and Hayley want folks to know that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to the "violence" in rugby, and that the respect and comraderie of rugby is actually the selling point of the sport... not the bruises and the black eyes (however fetching they can be).

Unfortunately, Hayley and Emma have found that rugby isn’t always thought of as a “women’s sport”, mostly due to assumptions about what genders are interested in physically brutal gameplay. And when people DO think of women rugby players, they often assume the women are all hyper-masculine drunken lesbians who are into bar fights. While there undoubtedly are rugby women who fall into those categories ("shoot the boot" is a real and terrifying thing, apparently), Hayley and Emma discuss some of the stereotype-shattering aspects of the women’s rugby community, from teams filled to the brim with sorority girls, to winning kicking competitions at rugby tournaments in pencil skirts.

Stuff we mentioned...

Tulane Women's Rugby Club (The Cast)

Gaming Broad(cast) is the official podcast of GamingBroadly.com. Thank you to everyone who has liked, subscribed, and commented about Gaming Broad(cast) on Apple Podcasts! You can also follow this podcast on Spotify, Podbean, Stitcher, Google Music, or subscribe directly using our RSS feed. Want some gamey goodness in your email inbox? Sign up for some occasional(ly) playful newsletter updates. Thanks to Los Kurados for the use of their song "Rojo Y Azul" for the intro and outro music of our podcast.