Meaningful Play Podcast

What makes something cute, and what does a cute thing do in the context of video games? As a surprisingly (or perhaps unsurprisingly) dominant aesthetic of the contemporary era, cuteness is an area of interest for various scholars. In the episode, Sian and Heather unpack some of the developing ideas around cuteness within and outside the discipline of cute studies. We discuss Sianne Ngai, Emma Reay, Ina Saltz, Erica Kanesaka, vocaloids, vtubers, and eebly-fying of everyday life. We also catch up on what we’ve been playing recently and our favourite cute games.

Ludography

2K Boston and 2K Australia. 2007. Bioshock. 2K.

CD Projekt Red. 2020. Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt.

Game Freak. 2022. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Irrational Games. 2013. Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea. 2K Games.

Massive Monster. 2022. Cult of the Lamb. Devolver Digital.

Maxis. 2014. The Sims 4. Electronic Arts.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Nintendo EPD. 2020. Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Nintendo.

ParanoidHawk. 2022. Lookouts. Itch.io

Q_dork’s games available at https://q_dork.itch.io/ 

Sketchy Logic. Aviary Attorney. 2015.

Team Salvato. 2017. Doki Doki Literature Club!.

Triskell Interactive. 2023. Pharaoh: A New Era. Dotemu.

ZA/UM. 2019. Disco Elysium.

References

Allison, Anne. 2004. ‘Cuteness as Japan’s Millennial Product’. In Pikachu′s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon, edited by Joseph Tobin, 34–49. Durham: Duke University Press.

Annett, Sandra. 2017. ‘What Can a Vocaloid Do? The Kyara as Body without Organs’. Mechademia 10: 163–77. https://doi.org/10/ghp4mw.

Brazil, Kevin, 2020. Interview with Sianne Ngai, The White Review.

Carpenter, Nicole, 2023. Cosy games are getting darker, Polygon.

Kanesaka, Erica, 2023. The Mixed-Race Fantasy Behind Kawaii Aesthetics, Catapult.

Matsue, Jennifer Milioto. 2017. ‘The Ideal Idol: Making Music with Hatsune Miku, the “First Sound of the Future”’. In Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities, edited by Andrew N Weintraub and Bart Barendregt, 320–48. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.

Ngai, Sianne. Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting, Harvard University Press, 2012

Özdal, Öznur, and Güven Çatak. 2022. ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall in Video Games: A New Terminology and Methodology’. In Games and Narrative: Theory and Practice, edited by Barbaros Bostan, 45–59. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81538-7_3.

Pellitteri, Marco. 2018. ‘Kawaii Aesthetics from Japan to Europe: Theory of the Japanese “Cute” and Transcultural Adoption of Its Styles in Italian and French Comics Production and Commodified Culture Goods’. Arts 7 (3): 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts7030024.

Reay, Emma. 2021. Cute, cuddly and completely crushable: Plushies as avatars in video games. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 13(2), 131–149.

Saltz, Ina. 2004. “Step Out: The Aesthetics of Cute.” Step Inside Design, vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 14.

Waszkiewicz, Agata, and Martyna Bakun. 2020. ‘Towards the Aesthetics of Cozy Video Games.’ Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 12 (3): 225–40. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00017_1.

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

In this episode, Sian and Heather get stuck into the influential concept of flow. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s writing and lectures on the flow state have been applied by designers and scholars alike to understand and articulate the unique experiences of play that video games facilitate. We walk through what the concept means and discuss some later research, including Soderman’s Against Flow, that questions the way flow is understood in the wider discipline of game studies. 

Ludography

RachelDrawsThis. 2022. Elevator Hitch. Itch.io. https://racheldrawsthis.itch.io/elevator-hitch 

Motvind Studios. 2021. How We Know We’re Alive. Itch.io. https://motvind-studios.itch.io/how-we-know-were-alive

RoboBarbie. 2023. Today I’m Harvesting You!. Itch.io. https://robobarbie.itch.io/today-im-harvesting-you 

Cocoa Moss Games. 2023. A Day in the Life of Death. https://cocoamoss.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-death/a-day-in-the-life-of-death.html

Cocoa Moss Games. 2020. Hide and Seek. https://cocoamoss.com/hide-and-seek/hide-and-seek.html 

Kitfox Games. 2021. Boyfriend Dungeon. 

References

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2008). Flow (2nd edn). HarperCollins e-books.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi (2008, 25 October). Flow, the secret to happiness. TED Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXIeFJCqsPs

Jin, S.-A. A. (2012). “Toward integrative models of flow”: Effects of performance, skill, challenge, playfulness, and presence on flow in video games. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 56(2), 169–186. https://doi.org/10/gfgxhv

Mansfield, B. E., Oddson, B. E., Turcotte, J., & Couture, R. T. (2012). A possible physiological correlate for mental flow. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(4), 327–333. https://doi.org/10/ghp4t6

Soderman, Braxton. (2021). Against flow: Video games and the flowing subject. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Teng, C.-I. (2011). Who are likely to experience flow? Impact of temperament and character on flow. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(6), 863–868. https://doi.org/10/fnqxq4

Tien, Amanda. (2021, 27 August). ‘In defense of Boyfriend Dungeon and its troubling content’. The Punished Backlog. https://punishedbacklog.com/in-defense-of-boyfriend-dungeon-and-its-troubling-content/ 

Zimmerman, Eric. (2022). The rules we break: Lessons in play, thinking and design. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

Happy new year! In this episode Sian and Heather talk about failure in video games. Failure has been an aspect of gameplay that has fascinated many scholars studying video games. We walk through the theories of several scholars, including Jesper Juul, Jane McGonigal, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ronald Tocci, Christopher Paul, Bonnie Ruberg, and Jack Halberstam, reflecting on their theories in the context of our play of video games in various genres. We think about what the word failure means in the context of gameplay, and moments of failure in gameplay we find joyful and interesting.

Ludography

Bethesda Game Studios. 2011. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Bethesda Softworks.

Bethesda Game Studios. 2018. Fallout 76. Bethesda Softworks.

Blizzard Entertainment. 2012. World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. 

Game Freak. 2022. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Kyle Horwood. 2022. Security Booth. Itch.io. https://3dkyle.itch.io/security-booth 

Majick. 2022. Last Bus Home. Itch.io. https://majikgames.itch.io/lastbushome 

Northway Games. 2022. I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. Finji.

Volition. 2011. Saints Row: The Third. THQ.

Volition. 2013. Saints Row IV. Deep Silver.

Warrrkus. Harvest Festival 64. Itch.io. https://warrrkus.itch.io/harvest-festival-64

References

Halberstam, Jack. 2011. The Queer Art of Failure. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Juul, Jesper. 2013. The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games. Playful Thinking. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Ruberg, Bonnie. 2017. ‘Playing to Lose: The Queer Art of Failing at Video Games’. In Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games, edited by Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea M Russworm, 197–210. Indiana University Press.

Ruberg, Bonnie, Jack Halberstam, and Jesper Juul. 2017. ‘The Arts of Failure: Jack Halberstam in Conversation with Jesper Juul’. In Queer Game Studies, edited by Bonnie Ruberg and Adrienne Shaw, 201–10. University of Minnesota Press.

Tocci, J 2008, ‘“You Are Dead. Continue?”: Conflicts and Complements in Game Rules and Fiction’, Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 187–201.

Adinolf, S. and Turkay, S. 2018. ‘Toxic Behaviors in Esports Games: Player Perceptions and Coping Strategies’,

Paul, CA 2018, The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

McGonigal, J 2011, Reality is Broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world, The Penguin Press, New York.

McQuown, Nino. ‘Why I Hope HBO’s “The Last of Us” Is Nothing Like the Games’. Catapult. Accessed 26 January 2023. https://catapult.co/stories/nino-mcquown-the-last-of-us-hbo-zombie-apocalypse-postapocalyptic-stories.

Messner, Steven. ‘Meet WoW’s Biggest Hippie, a Panda Who Reached Max Level by Picking Thousands of Flowers’. PC Gamer. Accessed 11 January 2023. https://www.pcgamer.com/meet-wows-biggest-hippie-a-panda-who-reached-max-level-by-picking-thousands-of-flowers/.

Messner, Steven. ‘World of Warcraft’s Pacifist Panda Just Hit Level 60 by Picking Millions of Flowers’. PC Gamer, 12 December 2020. https://www.pcgamer.com/world-of-warcrafts-pacifist-panda-just-hit-level-60-by-picking-millions-of-flowers/.

Wakeby, Jacoby. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@JacobyWakeby/playlists 

/r/Skyrim. ‘Ever just had a normal playthrough, such as a farmer, or trader or mercenary?’. https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrim/comments/662aax/ever_just_had_a_normal_playthrough_such_as_a/ 

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

Welcome to our last episode of 2022–and what a year it has been! Sian and Heather take it light and breezy and discuss some of their favourite games from this year, titles they loved, titles they spent a lot of time on (hello Genshin Impact …) and those with some interesting mechanics. We catch up on a few titles on the horizon for 2023 that we’re looking forward to and those we’ll be playing during the summer. We wrap with a discussion of festivity in games–moments of light and levity that punctuate the flow of game time with joy and playfulness.

We wish everyone a happy new year and look forward to catching up with you all in 2023!

Ludography

CD Projekt Red. 2020. Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt.

FromSoftware. 2022. Elden Ring. Bandai Namco Entertainment.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Niantic. 2021. Pikmin Bloom.

Square Enix. 2010. Final Fantasy XIV.

Toylogic and Square Enix. 2021. Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…. Square Enix.

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

Happy Halloween! In this episode Sian and Heather catch up on what they’ve been playing and researching lately before moving into a discussion of the gothic, the horrible, and the spooky in video games. We reflect on some different ways of thinking about these genres and their appearances in different video games, discussing scholarship, the sublime, southern gothic and beyond! We close by discussing some of our favourite scary or horrible moments in video games, including moments from Bioshock, Fatal Frame, Elden Ring and of course, The Sims.

Ludography

Blizzard Entertainment. 2022. Overwatch 2. 

BlueTwelve Studio. 2022. Stray. Annapurna Interactive.

CD Projekt Red. 2015. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone. CD Projekt.

Future Games. 2003. The Black Mirror. The Adventure Company and GMX Media.

Housemarque. 2021. Returnal. Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Ion Lands. 2020. Cloudpunk. Maple Whispering Limited.

Massive Monster. 2022. The Cult of the Lamb. Devolver Digital.

Maxis. 2000. The Sims. Electronic Arts.

Rockstar San Diego. 2010. Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar Games.

Rockstar Studios. 2018. Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar Games.

Supermassive Games. 2021. The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes. Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Tecmo. 2005. Fatal Frame III: The Tormented. Tecmo and Take-Two Interactive.

Toylogic and Square Enix. 2021. Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…. Square Enix.

References

Kirkland, Ewan. (2021). Videogames and the Gothic. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003026501

Bjerre, Thomas Ærvold. (2017). Southern Gothic Literature. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.  https://oxfordre.com/literature/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.001.0001/acrefore-9780190201098-e-304

Derrida, Jacques. (1994). Specters of Marx : the State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International. Routledge.

De Rochefort, Simone. (2022, June 21). Leave me alone, Elden Ring dogs. Polygon. https://www.polygon.com/videos/23176905/elden-ring-dogs-git-gud

Ngai, Sianne. (2012). Our Aesthetic Categories : Zany, Cute, Interesting. Harvard University Press.

Tomkinson, Sian. (2022). “She’s Built Like a Tank”: Player Reaction to Abby Anderson in The Last of Us: Part II. Games and Culture. https://10.1177/15554120221123210.

Williams, Linda. (1991). Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess. Film quarterly, vol. 44, no. 4, 1991, pp. 2–13, https://doi.org/10.2307/1212758.

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

Bandai Namco sends a prolific Elden Ring player a sword and God gives you a phone in Pokemon Arceus. This episode, Sian and Heather dive into the idea of generous play. While over the years there has been plenty of discussion on the more negative emotions associated with games and play, there is plenty to be said on how games facilitate experiences of generosity, collaboration and kindness. We discuss interactions in various MMOs, including Destiny 2, World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and Runescape. We also talk about generosity by design, talking about some of the design process behind Journey. We wrap with a discussion on recent NieR: Automata news and the recent hacking of the Neopets database.

Ludography

Adam Kwapiński. 2018. Nemesis. Awaken Realms.

Blizzard Entertainment. 2004. World of Warcraft.

Bungie. 2017. Destiny 2. Activision and Bungie.

FromSoftware. 2022. Elden Ring. Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Future Games. 2003. The Black Mirror. The Adventure Company and GMX Media.

Game Freak. 2022. Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Game Grumps. 2017. Dream Daddy.

Jagex. 2001. RuneScape.

Independent, Viacom and Nickelodeon, and Jumpstart Games. 1999. Neopets. 

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

PlatinumGames. 2017. NieR: Automata. Square Enix.

Square Enix. 2013. Final Fantasy XIV.

Stephen Hand. 2019 (4th ed). The Fury of Dracula. WizKids Games.

Thatgamecompany. 2012. Journey. Sony Computer Entertainment.

Toylogic and Square Enix. 2021. Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139…. Square Enix.

Volition. 2021. Saints Row Boss Factory. Deep Silver.

References

Blakey, H. (2021). Designing Player Intent through “Playful” Interaction: A Case Study of Techniques in Transistor and Journey. M/C Journal, 24(4). https://doi.org/10.5204/mcj.2802

Gach, E. (2022). ‘Elden Ring’s ‘Let Me Solo Her’ Gifted Actual Sword By Devs, Because He’s A Legend’. Kotaku. 2022. https://kotaku.com/elden-ring-solo-her-malenia-fromsoftware-expansion-1849151918 

Jenson, J., Taylor, N., De Castell, S., & Dilouya, B. (2015). Playing with Our Selves. Feminist Media Studies, 15(5), 860–879. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1006652

Muddled Times. (2004, March). A Group Discussion on Female Players. Muddled Times, 26. http://mud2.net/muddledtimes/site/article.fod_IssueId_25_ArticleId_1491

Muddled Times. (2004, June). A Group Discussion on Male Players. Muddled Times, 27. http://mud2.net/muddledtimes/site/article.fod_IssueId_26_ArticleId_1514

Todd, C. (2012). “Troubling” gender in virtual gaming spaces’, New Zealand Geographer, 68(2), 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-7939.2012.01227.x

Webber, Jordan Erica. “The Road to Journey.” Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt. Eds. Marie Foulston and Kristian Volsing.  V&A Publishing, 2018. 14–31.

Voll, K., & Hart, W. (2020). Designing for Multiple Minds: Crafting the Craft of Player Dynamics. Game Developers Conference. https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1026819/Designing-for-Multiple-Minds-Crafting

Yee, N. (2021, August 5). About one out of three men prefer playing female characters. Rethinking the importance of female protagonists in video games. Quantic Foundry. https://quanticfoundry.com/2021/08/05/character-gender/

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

In Episode 24 of Meaningful Play, Sian and Heather catch up on some recent research projects before diving into a thinking exercise around the recent discussions on open world games—their MacGuffins, beauty, and all the quirks in between. What is it about this prolific genre (and its mechanics) that is at times so wonderfully compelling and at others critiqued for being tired and repetitive? We talk about spatial design and interaction as well as zeitgeist moments in the popularity of open world games in the last decade. We wrap with a chat about archiving games and the exciting news about Untitled Goose Game (House House) being preserved by some major Australian institutions in acknowledgement of its cultural significance—ensuring it will be accessible to generations of players for enjoyment and study.

You can access q_dork’s collection of free games at: q_dork.itch.io

Ludography

Bethesda Game Studios. 2011. The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim. Bethesda Softworks

BioWare. 2011. Dragon Age II. Electronic Arts.

Blizzard Entertainment. World of Warcraft.

Cosmonaut Studios. 2022. Eternal Threads. Secret Mode.

FromSoftware. 2022. Elden Ring. Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Guerrilla Games. 2017. Horizon: Zero Dawn. Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Hello Games. 2016. No Man’s Sky. 

House House. 2019. Untitled Goose Game. Panic Inc.

Insomniac Games. 2021. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Mediatonic. 2020. Fall Guys. Devolver Digital and Epic Games.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Nintendo EPD. 2017. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo.

q_dork. 2018. Wobble Yoga. Itch.io. https://q_dork.itch.io/wobble-yoga

q_dork. Morning Makeup Madness. Itch.io. https://q_dork.itch.io/morning-makeup-madness 

Square Enix. 2013. Final Fantasy XIV.

Ubisoft Montreal. 2007. Assassin’s Creed. Ubisoft.

References

Barkman, C. (2021). “There’s no point in saving anymore”: Diegesis and Interactional Metalepsis in Pony Island and Doki Doki Literature Club. Journal of Games Criticism, 5(1), 22.

Ngai. (2020). Theory of the gimmick: aesthetic judgment and capitalist form. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674245365

Nguyen. (2020). Games: Agency As Art. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190052089.001.0001

Ruppert, L. (2021, March 8). Dragon Age 2 Was a Phenomenal Game Buried Beneath Repetition And A Rushed Timeline. Game Informer. https://www.gameinformer.com/opinion/2021/03/08/dragon-age-2-was-a-phenomenal-game-buried-beneath-repetition-and-a-rushed arts 

Stuart, K. (2022, May 31). Pushing Buttons: ‘Open world’ games are in need of a reboot. Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/may/31/pushing-buttons-open-world-games 

Williams, L J. (2022, July 11). ACMI, NFSA and The Powerhouse team up to preserve video game history. Gameshub. https://www.gameshub.com/news/news/untitled-goose-game-preservation-acmi-powerhouse-video-game-history-australia-23646/ 

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

In episode 23 of Meaningful Play, Sian and Heather get stuck into a discussion on difficulty in video games—a subject that has resurfaced in significance with the release of FromSoftware’s latest title Elden Ring. While touching on some of the rich scholarship around community behaviour and polarisation in relation to difficulty, the discussion branches out to consider game difficulty in its broader sense and makes the distinction between accessibility and difficulty. They consider how time factors into assessments of difficulty, recent changes in how difficulty is represented, how different player typologies influence perceptions of difficulty, and the narrative function of difficulty in some games.  

Ludography

CD Projekt Red. 2020. Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt.

FromSoftware. 2016. Dark Souls III. Bandai Namco Entertainment.

FromSoftware. 2022. Elden Ring. Bandai Namco Entertainment.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Parabole. 2017. Kona. 

PlatinumGames. 2017. NieR: Automata. Square Enix.

P-Studio. 2016. Persona 5. Atlus and Deep Silver.

Square and Square Enix. 1987-present. Final Fantasy (series).

Supergiant Games. 2017. Pyre. 

References

Bycer, J. (2021) ‘Why Accessible Design Can’t Save Inaccessible Gameplay’, SuperJump, 23 August. Available at: https://superjumpmagazine.com/why-accessible-design-cant-save-inaccessible-gameplay-c9b287cef2fa (Accessed: 30 August 2021). 

Chess, S., & Paul, C. A. (2018). The End of Casual: Long Live Casual. Games and Culture, 14(2), 107–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412018786652

Consalvo, M., & Paul, C. A. (2019). Real Games. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

Hanford, N.A., 2018. At the Intersection of Difficulty and Masculinity: Crafting the Play Ethic, in: Taylor, N., Voorhees, G. (Eds.), Masculinities in Play. Springer International Publishing, Cham, pp. 149–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90581-5_9

Juul, J 2010, Casual Revolution Reinventing Video Games and Their Players, MIT Press, Cambridge.

Kivijärvi, M., & Katila, S. (2021). Becoming a Gamer: Performative Construction of Gendered Gamer Identities. Games and Culture, 15554120211042260. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120211042260.

Paul, CA 2018, The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

In Episode 22 of Meaningful Play, Sian, Heather and Jordana discuss one of the most controversial topics in the realm of videogames – NFTs! In discussing NFTs, they attempt to define and understand NFTs and how they can be used in relation to videogames as a distinct medium.

Ludography

CD Projekt Red. 2020. Cyberpunk 2077. CD Projekt.

Game Freak. 2022. Pokémon Legends: Arceus. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company.

Independent, Viacom and Nickelodeon, and Jumpstart Games. 1999. Neopets. 

Kinetic Games. 2020. Phasmophobia.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Pendulo Studios. 2019. Bladsad: Under the Skin. Microids.

Square Enix. 2013. Final Fantasy XIV.

The Game Kitchen. 2013-2016. The Last Door. 

The Game Kitchen. 2019. Blasphemous. Team17.

References

D’Angelo, W (2022). [Update] Nintendo on Metaverse & NFTs: ‘We Feel the Potential in This Area’ – News. VGChartz. https://www.vgchartz.com/article/452460/nintendo-on-nfts-we-feel-the-potential-in-this-area/

Gach, E (2022). EA’s Boss Went From Calling NFTs The ‘Future’ To Running Away From Them. Kotaku. https://www.kotaku.com.au/2022/02/eas-boss-went-from-calling-nfts-the-future-to-running-away-from-them/

Gunner, S (2021). Tolkien Society purchases historic collection of Tolkien photos and letters. The Tolkien Society. https://www.tolkiensociety.org/2021/12/tolkien-society-purchases-historic-collection-of-tolkien-photos-and-letters/

JellyNeo (2021). Say it with us: #NoNeoNFTs. JellyNeo. https://www.jellyneo.net/nfts/ 

Jiang, S. (2021). Good Riddance: Steam Bans Games That Feature Crypto and NFTs. Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/good-riddance-steam-bans-games-that-feature-crypto-and-1847874385

Knoop, J. (2021). Steam bans all games with NFTs or cryptocurrency. PC Gamer.https://www.pcgamer.com/au/steam-bans-nfts-cryptocurrencies-blockchain/

Lawler, R. (2022). Another gaming company just gave up on NFTs. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/1/22913110/team17-worms-nft-metaworms-gaming-playtonic-overcooked

Tolkien Society Tweet – https://archive.is/NMyVL 

Steamworks. (n.d.). Onboarding. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/onboarding

Articles about NFTs

Boscovic, D (2021). How nonfungible tokens work and where they get their value – a cryptocurrency expert explains NFTs. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/how-nonfungible-tokens-work-and-where-they-get-their-value-a-cryptocurrency-expert-explains-nfts-157489

Clark, M (2021). NFTs, explained. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/22310188/nft-explainer-what-is-blockchain-crypto-art-faq

Groux, C (2022). What are NFTs in video games? 9 publishers on the future of the technology. Inverse. https://www.inverse.com/gaming/nfts-in-video-games-square-enix 

Jordan, H (2021). No, NFTs aren’t copyrights. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/16/no-nfts-arent-copyrights/ 

Stead, C (2022). Interview: Ubisoft responds to angry NFT Digits and Quartz reaction. Finder. https://www.finder.com.au/ubisoft-interview-nfts

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.

*Apologies for the audio quality – due to COVID-19 we were not able to record with our usual equipment*

In Episode 21, Jordana, Sian, and Heather discuss what games they have been playing recently, and consider what makes their favourite boss battles so memorable. 

Ludography

Kinetic Games. 2020. Phasmophobia.

miHoYo. 2020. Genshin Impact. HoYoverse.

Pendulo Studios. 2019. Bladsad: Under the Skin. Microids.

Square Enix. 2013. Final Fantasy XIV.

The Game Kitchen. 2019. Blasphemous. Team17.

References

McMullan, T. (2019, 7 October). How the Video Game ‘Blasphemous’ Embraces the Catholic Gothic Tradition. Frieze. https://www.frieze.com/article/how-video-game-blasphemous-embraces-catholic-gothic-tradition

Shanley, P. (2019, 10 September). ‘Blasphemous’ Team Took “Purist” Approach to Game’s Pixel Art Style. The Hollywood Reporter.https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/blasphemous-designer-purist-approach-games-pixel-art-style-1238370/

Credits

Music created with Per Nyblom’s Abundant Music.