Professors Play

As part of their first impressions of BG3, the Professors discuss the difficulties of playing BG3 without prior Dungeons and Dragons knowledge--one of the Professors is having a hard time--how that relates do cognitive dissonance, and may affect enjoyment with the game. Further, the Professors each relate how they dealt with the same encounters in vastly different ways, which is representative of the amount of choices available to players in BG3.

Welcome back and to Season 2 of Professor's Play! We are back from our summer hiatus, and in all our hubris, we decided kick off Season 2 with Baldur's Gate 3--the recently-released CRPG by Larian Studios, heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. In this episode, we discuss D&D, how it is a post-structural game, why that makes it difficult to transmediate into a video game, and much more.

*We have some new audio equipment we are trying out, that we hope will solve some of the issues we had in past videos. Thanks for your patience :D

In the last (and longest, sorry about that we got excited) episode of Season 1 of Professors Play, the Professors discuss the narrative of P4G, how it made them feel (spoiler: one of them cried), how the characters feel like real people, whether the villain is a worthy one, and all the incredible small details that are layered into the gameworld.

In the second episode of the Persona 4 Golden series, the professors discuss playing P4G in their own unique ways. Since the game affords much freedom regarding day-to-day activities, the professors have personalized their playthroughs to fit their own preferences. They then discuss playing a game that is a simulation of high school is fun, some of the clever gameplay mechanics, and a little bit of the symbolism in the game regarding the characters--with much more on this to come in the next episode!

In the newest series of Professors Play, the Professors will play Persona 4 Golden, the 2012 cult hit RPG by Atlus. One of the professors has played other Persona games and loves the series, but the others will be experiencing it for the first time. The discussion in this episode focuses on the depth and breadth of lore of Persona 4 and Persona series in general, including topics like Jungian psychology, consequences in video games, and world folklore.

In the final episode of their foray into the Portal series, the Professors discuss both Portal and Portal 2 with full spoilers, focusing the incredible lore and storytelling of the series, the clever writing, and what they would like to see if there was to be a Portal series Director's Cut. Stay tuned to the end for an announcement of the next game the Professors will play, as well as a surprise musical act.

In this episode of Professors Play, the Professors discuss what we worked and what didn't work for them while playing Portal--spoiler alert, for most of the panel, there was a lot more that didn't work than did. However, the Professors still enjoyed the experience, and one of them even came out of the episode reflecting more positively on the game than before! Join us for a discussion on fun and enjoyment, video game familiarity, and expectations for what Portal 2 will be like.

This week, we begin our new series here at Professors Play! Over the next few weeks, we'll be playing our way through the Portal series (both Portal and Portal 2). For this series, we also have a special guest, fellow gamer (as she admits herself, after some coaxing) and professor, Dr. Amelia Chesley!

In a feisty and spoiler-filled episode of Professors Play, the professors discuss their favorite and not-so-favorite moments and mechanics in Hades, as well as discuss and digest the tragic nature of Zagreus' story arc in the game. Also, as is tradition, the professors end this episode with a Rose(lia)-(Ferro)thorn-Bud(ew) moment, and talk about what they would like to see in the sequel. Finally, stay tuned to the very end to find out which game the professors will be playing next!

In this week's episode, the Professors provide their first impressions on Hades. Spoiler alert: We did not make it out of Hades yet—but we tried, and we tried a lot. Join us for a discussion on what worked and didn’t work for us, passive storytelling (a feature only possible in video games), our play styles in roguelites, and our preliminary score of Hades!