Moving Pixels Podcast

The cutscene in games has arguably taken many forms, from the simple and minimal narrative vignettes of Ms. Pac-Man to the lushly animated FMVs that were once one of the prime selling points of the Final Fantasy series. Many now view these experiences as intrusive moments in a game world that disrupt visual consistency or serve as storytelling short cuts that don't do the medium justice.

This week the Moving Pixels podcast crew discuss the history of the cutscene in video games, what they may or may not have evolved into, and whether or not they still have a place in video game storytelling.

The boss fight has been a part of gaming since very near to the time of its inception. Serving a variety of roles in offering greater challenge, suggesting the climax of a game and plot, and just simply creating a spectacle for the player, has the boss fight merely become a cliched and expected "requirement" of games?

This week we consider the history and evolution of the boss fight in gaming, as well as the possibility of alternatives to this most expected of medium conventions.

With the holiday game season upon us, the Moving Pixels blog and podcast crew have turned their atention to some of the biggest releases of the year. The ostensible "final chapter" of the Gears of War saga is, of course, one of these most anticipated of titles.

Given Gears importance in this console generation, as one of the titles associated with the Xbox 360's early days, the crew discusses how the trilogy has been brought to an end, its approach to multiplayer play, and speculates a bit on where this franchise may be headed in the future.

So, as my colleague in podcasting, Rick Dakan, observed, this week's episode is a little self indulgent (but that's okay, I guess, as I just wrote a little about the relationship between self indulgence and gaming last week).

We have been wanting to discuss a bit about how it is that "the gamer" identity is formed, so we spent some time chatting a bit about our own relationship to games and gaming and how we came to play the ways that we do. We consider our relationship to chess, sports, board games, and RPGs and what these things might have to do with who we are. Confessional as some of this discussion might be, there are some interesting similarities that emerge between our experience of growing up as gamers.

High scores, achievements, leveling up. The system runs on points, measures us in points, validates us in points.

This week the Moving Pixels podcast considers the value of points. What points matter to us? Why do we want them? Why do they matter?

Nothing says vacation quite like a beach full of zombies.

After the controversy and excitement surrounding the release of its trailer earlier in the year, many gamers wondered whether that possibly exploitative, possibly sophisticated bit of a teaser for Dead Island was really representative of what this open world, survival horror hybrid would be.

This week the Moving Pixels podcast attempts to answer that question as well as considers other elements of the zombie-infested beach fronts of Dead Island.

So, our Moving Pixels podcast crew spent a couple of weeks playing in fits and starts (well, because that's the way you have to play social games) the beta version of Sid Meier's CivWorld.

The game seems an effort to capture a narrower audience of Facebook gamers, a more hardcore crowd, or possibly to introduce casual players to the Civilization universe. We consider the game's success at doing so and whether or not social games can legitimately appeal to a hardcore audience.

Maybe serving as a follow up to our discussion of difficulty in games comes a discussion of something that usually makes gaming "easier", cheating.

We consider whether cheating matters in both single and multiplayer gaming as our discussion strays from the most malicious hacking and griefing to even the seemingly benign use of FAQs and video walkthroughs to help us "get through".

Difficulty can be frustrating. It can also create challenge for the player.

This week the Moving Pixels Podcast considers how difficulty contributes to the pleasure and pain of gaming.

This week regular podcast contributors G. Christopher Williams and Nick Dinicola are joined by veteran podcaster Scott Juster of ExperiencePoints.net for a discussion of auteur theory and how it may or not apply to a discussion of video game development.

Playing fast and loose with the concept of the auteur, we consider both some aesthetic concerns, issues of intentionality in communicating such a "signature" of self in a game, and how marketing and commerce might be affected by the way that game developers present themselves to the public.