Legend of Khimari promised an ambitious horse game set in 13th-century Mongolia: an open world built around exploration, survival, horse care and the journey itself. Then came corrupted zones, angry spirits and combat and its Steam reviews dropped from Very Positive to Mixed.

Returning guest Georgia joins Alex, Jem and Matt to unpack what happened. Did players reasonably believe they were buying a cosy horse game without combat, or was this always part of the developers' vision? And when a passionate community has backed a game through Kickstarter and followed its development through Early Access, how much say should they have when that vision isn't what they expected?

We also get into what makes the horse-game community unusual, the extraordinary level of detail Khimari puts into its horses, why Georgia actually likes the controversial corruption system, and whether trying to make the game bigger and more dramatic risks losing what made people excited about it in the first place.

Part 2, up next, will continue the conversation with Kickstarter, Early Access and the complicated relationship between developers and the communities funding their games.

#LegendOfKhimari #HorseGames #CozyGames #CosyGames #IndieGames #EarlyAccess #KickstarterGames #GameDevelopment #GamingCommunity #SteamReviews #OpenWorldGames

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

GTS is back off holiday and we got a lot of gaming done.

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

Getting to know even more about us.

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

We play 20-ish questions in a bid to get to know each other better.

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

In June, the UK government announced it will ban under-16s from social media platforms Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X, with the rules due to take effect in spring 2027. We ask whether any of it will actually make young people safer.
 

Age verification and the digital ID question, why Australia's version doesn't seem to be working, and the awkward truth that where there's a will there's a VPN. Matt makes the case that this is a cheap policy from a government that has ducked the expensive ones, and Alex argues you can't ban children out of the world they were born into.
 
We don't have a lot of answers, but we got a lot off our chests!
 
 Over to you

If you could design this properly — how do we keep young people safe online without wrapping them in cotton wool? What would actually work? Let us know, because we didn't crack it in 36 minutes.

Links from this episode

- The government's announcement, 15 June 2026
- Growing Up in the Online World consultation response totals (116,211 responses)
- Growing Up in the Online World government response, July 2026
- Australia's under 16 ban is failing, study finds (Al Jazeera, August 2026)
- What the new rules actually do a plain-English breakdown
- Defend Digital Me FAQ on the ban and the digital ID question
 
 
#SocialMediaBan #Under16s #OnlineSafety #AgeVerification #DigitalID #DigitalLiteracy #ScreenTime #ParentingInTheDigitalAge #UKPolitics #Ofcom #TeensOnline #TechAccountability
 

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis looked like a genuine return to form, and then the Steam page went live with an AI disclosure, and fans started counting Lara's guns. Crystal Dynamics says generative AI was only used for placeholders, all "refined or replaced" before release. Fans aren't buying it; the PR team shut down the questions, all against a backdrop of four rounds of layoffs in a single year.

What does "refined" mean? It's doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Let's be honest, the red flags matter more than the reassurances. And what if AI isn't the cause of the industry's job losses, just a convenient thing to blame them on? 

Then we discuss Alex Wilton Regan walking away from X, because, in her words,  "men and boys are creating child pornography, deepfakes of women, violent images against women, girls, and other minority groups without any repercussions". This leaves us thinking that women and girls are disproportionately feeling the heat of AI, especially when we bring in the unfettered use of the AI-cloned voices in the Remastered Tomb Raider trilogy. 

#TombRaider #LaraCroft #LegacyOfAtlantis #CrystalDynamics #AlexWiltonRegan #GenerativeAI #AIInGaming #AIArt #GamesIndustryLayoffs #VoiceActing #AIVoiceCloning #DeepfakeAbuse #GameDevLabour #CrunchCulture #AIRegulation #TombRaiderRemastered 

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If you love Gaming The System, consider supporting us:
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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

What if George Orwell made video games?

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

It's the end of the world as we know it.

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If you love Gaming The System, consider supporting us:
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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

It's just Jem and Alex this week, unpacking the tangled and often very gendered paths that led them to gaming. 

They talk printouts of Tomb Raider walkthroughs, MUDs, WoW guilds, boardgaming and family influences.

The chat gets into how the men in their lives and later, the women, shaped how they played and how they differed. 

There;s also a shoutout for a women's gaming retreat that's already booked out its next round. 

 #PlayerTwo #GamingOriginStory #TombRaider #LaraCroft #RetroGaming #90sGaming #MUDs #WorldOfWarcraft #BoardGameCafe #WomensGamingRetreat #GamingNostalgia #HowIGotIntoGaming 

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If you love Gaming The System, consider supporting us:
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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast

We discuss the recent State of Play showcase.

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🎙 Gaming The System releases new episodes every Thursday

Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨

#GamingTheSystem #GamingCulture #FeministGaming  #feministgamingpodcast​ #feministgamers​ #intersectionalgaming​ #equalityingames​ #GamingRepresentation #AccessibleGaming #IntersectionalGaming #GamingTheSystemPodcast