In this episode of Save Corrupted, I sit down with Patrick Stokes (Associate Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University) to discuss mourning, memorial, and how games are translating or changing this timeless need. After considering the metaphysical weirdness of the concept of duties to the dead, we talk about the ways that the internet has changed how the living relate to the dead. Following a pit-stop in which we chat about monuments and funerals in World of Warcraft, we spend the rest of the episode discussing That Dragon, Cancer, an autobiographical game about two parents raising and grieving for their son, Joel, who died of brain cancer at the age of 5. The memorial is at root a work of love, and what better way to express the worthiness of the remembered dead for this work than to make the player experience this work virtually?After the main body of the episode, I've added a footnote section in which I read some passages from two works referenced in it: A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir, and Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard. Dr. Stokes' philosophy podcast can be found here: https://deakinstruction.podbean.com/For more on That Dragon, Cancer, the official website is: http://www.thatdragoncancer.com/

This episode consists of a short clip cut from the main body of the Virtual Worlds episode, but one I thought interesting enough to give people the option of checking out if they wish! Over the space of a few minutes, Tom narrates the world-hopping journey he took and how he ultimately set upon working on the Virtual Angkor project.

In this episode of Save Corrupted, I sit down to down to talk with Dr. Tom Chandler, Senior Lecturer in IT at Monash University, about the potential that virtual worlds offer to the study of history. We talk at length about his work on the Virtual Angkor project, a virtual reconstruction/simulation of the medieval Cambodian city of Angkor in the 13th Century, and the exciting prospects work like this hints at for the future of history. We then go on to discuss The Grand Museum VR, Assassin's Creed: Origins' Discovery Mode, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, how they represent different approaches to virtually representing or imagining the past, and what they might suggest about the potential of games to afford a truly novel perspective through which to examine (what we think we know about) that past. In a weird inversion of the show's premise, we move briefly from talking about the history of games to discussing games as works of history. Just to anticipate correction, when introducing the Discovery Mode in Assassin's Creed: Origins, I do refer to it as 'Odyssey' by accident. If you'd like to see some of the work Tom and I discuss in the episode, you can follow these links: https://sensilab.monash.edu/research/visualising-angkor/https://www.virtualangkor.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kU1TSLkMEkHere's the Rock Paper Shotgun article on Kingdom Come: Deliverance, for those curious: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/03/05/kingdom-come-deliverance-historical-accuracy/

QuickSaves are a new episode format for the show in which I talk about a topic of interest relating to game history, preservation, or the artistic status of games for less than half an hour. In this inaugural show, I consult recent Kotaku articles about the delisting of Minecraft: Story Mode and the retiring of Naughty Dog's PS3 multiplayer servers, and talk about the troubling implications for the future (and history) of video games. Sources: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/06/in-a-few-weeks-minecraft-story-mode-will-be-impossible-to-download/https://kotaku.com/naughty-dog-is-taking-uncharted-and-the-last-of-us-ps3-1835272348?IR=TTokyo Jungle: https://www.playstation.com/en-au/games/tokyo-jungle-ps3/

Josh McLeod joins the show to discuss Warcraft 3, a classic RTS (real time strategy) game from 2002. We talk about the basics of strategy, the pioneering of the 'Hero' mechanic which would serve as the basis for the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genre, the nature of storytelling (both formal and informal) in the RTS, the balance between accessibility and purity of design, and the game's legacy as incarnated in its two 'children', DotA (Defense of the Ancients) and World of Warcraft.

The first of our specialist interviews, in this episode I sit down with Dr. Kristine Moruzi (Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies, Deakin University) to discuss literary history and the lessons it offers to those who seek to study and organise the history of video games. Topics covered include: how literature was distributed and evaluated in the 19th Century, why the study and preservation of literature is important, literary form, the concepts of the Canon and the nature of authorship, and why the representation of historically marginalised groups in art is vital.

This episode contains some extra discussion cut from the main Dark Souls episode due to its heavy reliance upon endgame spoilers and lore speculation. For fans of the series, this episode should intrigue those who want our thoughts on whether or not Gwyn was a noble lord who kept chaos at bay with his sacrifice, or a tyrannical fool who should have taken your place in the Undead Asylum, among other questions.

In this episode, I sit down and talk with my friend Nathan about Dark Souls, the cult classic action-RPG from 2011. We discuss the context in which the game came out, the 'archaeological' nature of its storytelling, the basics and mechanics of combat, the nature of its infamous difficulty, whether the game should have an 'Easy Mode', the phenomenon of 'Soulslike' or 'Soulsborne' games in its stead, and the impact it has had on the medium as a whole.

Welcome to Save Corrupted, a podcast about video game history, archival/preservation, and why it's worth preserving in the first place. In this introductory mini-episode, I go into a little detail about myself and why I wanted to start the show, and outline the show's 'argument' and structure.