What is it about collecting things that makes it fun? How can finding all the moons in Mario Odyssey be super fun while other collections feel tedious, holding you back from the good parts of the game? Greg and Muxl dive into these questions to understand the relationship between collections and games.

This week we played Perfect Dark. The last of a now-extinct breed of single-joystick shooters with fast-pace action and fun multi-player. Looking back on this game with fresh eyes it's hard to imagine how it must have felt back in 2000.

We have a special announcement about Gerg and Muxl going forward this episode! Also stick around for some clips from a lost recording we did on horror presentation. Unfortunately tech ate our podcast and you really don't want to sit through the distortion for the second half so we just cut that out.

What makes a good monster? Gerg and Muxl go over some of our favorites and how they uniquely embody the environment that they are a part of. Join us for this Halloween themed break down.

How can the creators of horror games use the absence of stimulation to provoke a scary moment and what role does absence play in the development of fear. Gerg and Muxl discuss on the first October Horror Cast!

The latest WoW expansion has ruffled some feathers for a number of understandable reasons. Gerg and Muxl take a look at the subjective experience of players under different progression systems as well as the difficulty of maintaining freshness and quality in the design of complex games.

Characters in video games are often more powerful than the average bear (let alone human) but something strange starts to happen as heroes approach deity levels of control. Join Mark and Greg and we discuss super hero games; what works and what doesn't when it comes to these beloved icons.

We wrap up Gaming Mechanics season 1 with this analysis of the way three different games organize their pacing into cycles and discuss the impact that has on the player's experience. Find out what kind of games lend themselves well to periodic time to slow down.

Gamification is becoming increasingly popular. Taking an everyday task and distilling it down to its most basic, measurable and rewardable elements is making its way into education, the work place and scheduling. This week we're discussing our experience with Overcooked and how it has managed to make players feel like they were managing a kitchen while still having them only press three buttons.

Over the last decade in gaming it's becoming increasingly popular to add network and multiplayer modes to games. Even games which don't really need it... In this episode we discuss various multiplayer blunders in games and what happens when a game grow to very large scales.