Bookwarm Games

Sorry, no Tom Bombadil here. Well, a brief mention... Moses Norton, aka the Well-Red Mage, joins me to dig into the recent film adaptation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien, Dune 2, Dragonslayer, and lots of Gamelogica references round out our discussion of the film's visuals, characters, story, and themes. Enjoy! Gamelogica youtube channel The Pixels We're still hoping for a Criterion Collection of video games, but in the meantime, we'll do our part to bring you thoughtful critique and analysis of games' deeper meaning, with a healthy dash of the ridiculous. https://videogameacademia.org/

Dylan Holmes joins me to discuss his history of storytelling in video games, A Mind Forever Voyaging. Read his book if you're interested in games like FF7, MGS, Deus Ex, and Dear Esther, or in questions about cinematic technique, player choice, power and escapism. Read Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin all the way to the end and you'll find it among her acknowledgments. Plus, it's translated into French as ⁠Little Big Stories: Voyage au coeur de la narration⁠ (surely not a reference to another great novel, Little, Big, by John Crowley?!) Read more from Dylan at Nightmare Mode and Augmented Vision. See my review over on ThePixels. The Secret of Monkey Island audio comes from the SCUMM Bar fansite. Thanks for reading and listening.

We come full circle, as it were, Alex and I, discussing his recently published paper "Popularizing Paradiso: On the Difficulties of Podcasting Dante’s Most Academic Canticle" and his work bridging popular culture with the field of comparative literature.

At long last, Alex and I wander off on another side quest, discussing Miyazaki's recent film, The Boy and the Heron, and its resonances for us with myth and history. (As always, I wish I knew more about the language, like how to translate "How Do You Live?") Other episodes in this series on the storied Studio Ghibli can be found most readily on Alex's youtube. Thanks for listening.

Concluding thoughts on the visual novel. Thanks for listening! More resources at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

Home stretch! More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

Twists! https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

Onward! https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

Continuing discussion of the sequel to AI: The Somnium Files. More on visual novels at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

The lost audio recovered, continued. More at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

The lost audio from last spring recovered at last--mostly--as we discuss the sequel to AI: The Somnium Files, NirvanA Initiative. Thanks for listening and sticking with us. More resources on visual novels at https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/

A conversation with Alyse Knorr, 'achiever' (to cite her Super Mario Bros 3, where I first encountered her work and reviewed it for The Pixels). In which we discuss: - Sweetbitter Podcast, with new episodes coming soon about Mary Magdalen and a fourth season in the works - Switchback Books, which she edits with her wife - Regis University, where she teaches alongside colleagues such as Russ Arnold - her poetry, research, and the novel she's writing - Annotated Glass and Sappho fragment 31 - 'Bright Star,' Keats, Eliot, Carson's Autobiography of Red; Gilgamesh and Enheduanna - 'Anatomy Exam' - Ardor, a book of eco-queer domestic life and love - Every Last Thing, a book of tantrums and embarrassed apologies - Micaela Tore's MA thesis on Copper Mother (and around here you'll get a musical interlude from moonbowmusic) - Topophilia: Elizabeth Bishop's 'The Map'; Henry Jenkins' 'Complete Freedom of Movement'; Sean Fenty's nostalgia piece in

MG Prezioso, PhD candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, joins me to discuss her work on the role of enchantment in promoting literacy for young readers, particularly in the case of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Her article appears in Children's Literature in Education; for more on Pullman's view of education, see his essays in Daemon Voices and sundry remarks available online. Thanks for listening!

Cross-pollination and housekeeping here at the break at the end of the year, stirring up dust and sending out links to past broadcasts:  First, here's the link to a recent conversation with Evan Minto on Season 3 Episode 3 of His Dark Materials, The Intention Craft.  Then, listen on for one of my semi-monthly discussions from the Middle-earth to EarthBound series on Signum Academy, an introduction to classic JRPGs like  Dragon Quest and MOTHER/EarthBound in the light of Tolkien's influence on storytelling.  There's more bookwarm games and gamecool books to come in the new year, starting with a new Video Game Studies module in SPACE. Happy holidays, and thanks for listening! 

Professor Kozlowski spins us a yarn of the high seas. Pirate opportunism, whale physics, development metafiction, and a polyphony of voices and moral gray areas--it's a good game, but is it actually an Assassin's Creed? Well, yeah. It says so on the box. 

Along for the ride as Professor Kozlowski weaves together the 2012 PS3 game's disparate threads better than the Ubisoft team does: Patriots and Loyalists; colonizers and oppressed; East coast cities and homesteads; first hour fake-outs and begrudging good riddance to the Desmond stuff. But hey, the naval battles are pretty cool. See also: The Year Project Moon Took Over Ben's Life and Fahrenheit 451

No, not Animal Crossing, and not alternating current. It's Assassin's Creed 2's half-baked follow-up games, and Prof Ben has thoughts about them.  Join the discussion at videogameacademia.org and professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ Thanks for listening. 

Professor Kozlowski returns. Our resident guest lecturer is back with a discussion of Assassin's Creed's splashy sequel, and... it's complicated. After the let-down that was their Prince of Persia reboot, the developers had to go big. So Renaissance Italy, andiamo~! More variety! More da Vinci! More weapons! But. It's kinda. Not as fun.  Join the discussion at videogameacademia.org and professorkozlowski.wordpress.com/ Thanks for listening.

Another guest lecture, after a fashion. Joe and I started a new series on being a dad. Share it with a dad or thoughtful caretaker in your life!  Show notes: First episode! We share thoughts on news sources, TV at dinnertime and screen time in general; the "Tiger Mom" Amy Chua interview on Honestly with Bari Weiss and what sorts of dads we are; backyard baptisms and letting the kids help build things. Intro/outro: Wesley and William playing 'Undertale' Share determination and send us questions: thoughtfuldadpodcast at gmail. Thanks for listening.