Shows
Gaming BroadcastEp. 27: Savepoint (The Game's Not Over Yet)Hi! It's been a wild year. Thanks to Ian Danskin of Innuendo Studios for a conversation on loss, life, happiness, and home (and a little bit about games).
Special thanks to Ben Cohn for the music ("File Select" from Land of the Gods, Vol II).
2019-06-081h 18
Gaming BroadcastEp. 26: Appalachians Play Everquest, II (Playing Appalachia Part 7)I know it's been a while, but I'm here to prove that this podcast isn't history! Even though this episode is all about history! This week we're joined by Josh Howard, public historian, Everquest enthusiast, bacon admirer, to dig down deep into what it means to love precarious places. From childhood gaming groups and the awkwardness of leaving home to Everquest memorials for dead children, this episode runs the emotional gauntlet. What precious places are you poised to lose?
This episode is the finale of "Playing Appalachia", a series of conversations with Appalachian and Appalachian adjacent gamers...2018-10-171h 03
Gaming BroadcastEp. 25: Death Mountain Lifestyle (Playing Appalachia Part 6)So what exactly is a mountain lifestyle? Is it a marketing phrase? A type of view from your window? A bonified set of cultural practices? Whatever it is, it must be pretty awesome, considering how awesomely expensive the mountain lifestyle is getting these days!
This week we're joined by Shaun Martin, a Nintendo loving editor working for an educational nonprofit in Greensboro, North Carolina. Originally from Marshall, NC, with family roots dug several generations down, Shaun has first-hand knowledge of the different styles of lives you can find in the Appalachian region of ye Old North State. We...2018-05-2345 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 24: Gaming Religion (Live Recording from SXSW 2018)Hey Broadbeans! Today we’re interrupting our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a special live recording! On March 13th 2018, JD had the great honor of sitting alongside Dr. Gregory Grieve, Dr. Vit Sisler, and Helen Osman for a panel at SXSW titled “Gaming Religion: Finding Faith in Digital Games”.
As it turns out, religion and games have a lot to say to one another. Religious themes have supported the story lines of many mainstream games, from World of Warcraft to Halo and Civilizations. Gaming has also been described as a spiritual endeavor by avid gamers, and religio...2018-04-021h 00
Gaming BroadcastEp. 23: The Streamers of Madison County (Playing Appalachia Part 5)Creeks aren't the only types of mountain streams in Appalachia. We also have video game live streams! This week we're joined by Renee Hill, a pastry chef, gamer, and video game live streamer known as "The Caked Crusader". Renee currently lives in Madison County, the same county in Western North Carolina where JD (the host) grew up. For some weird reason, a lot of the people Renee meet are in disbelief that an anime loving, tattooed, pink-haired cosplayer could also be an Appalachian native? Weird.
Tune in this week to hear more about representation, mental health, crying dur...2018-03-1154 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 22: Modding Appalachia (Playing Appalachia Part 4)What do Minecraft and Appalachia have in common? They both have people trying to modify them. So could Minecraft mods teach us something about how to go about ethically modding Appalachia?
This week we're joined by Jerel Culliss (aka King Lemming), an Appalachian-raised engineer who moonlights as a reknown Minecraft modder. Jerel is founder of Team CoFH, the group responsible for Thermal Expansion, a mod that adds technology, like machines, to the world of Minecraft. Coincidentally, there's also been some recent media hype about bringing big names in tech to the Appalachian region (like Amazon HQ, for instanc...2018-02-231h 02
Gaming BroadcastEp. 21: Rural Flight, Virtually Speaking (Playing Appalachia Part 3)Meredith Wilson is participating in rural flight, virtually speaking. As young people from Appalachia increasingly move out of the region, Meredith Wilson has done something strange: moved to rural Virginia to make virtual reality video games.
Meredith Wilson is a public health epidemiologist turned video game developer who was a participant in Oculus Launchpad 2017. Wilson used to do public health research at Virginia Tech's Biocomplexity Institute, designing mobile games about diseases that were literally going viral, and appears to have been permanently infected with the game development bug. She's the founder and lead game designer for Bedhouse Gam...2018-02-1051 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 20: #ReclaimTheBasement (Live Recording from PAX South 2018)In the golden age of massively multiplayer online games like Overwatch and Destiny, why are some players choosing to go it alone? Is it a radical act of self-care, anti-social tendencies, an effect of online harassment, or something else? Take a break from Gaming Broad(cast)'s regularly scheduled programming and tune in to this special LIVE recording of a Gaming Broad(cast) moderated panel, "Reclaiming Basements in a Multiplayer Era: Why We Game Alone". Join Andrea Ayres (Lemonsucker Games) and Ian Danskin (Innuendo Studios), as well as the main broad herself, JD Mallindine, at PAX South 2018 to explore th...2018-01-2558 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 19: Kentucky Route Zero and the Route to Appalachia (Playing Appalachia Part 2)It's near impossible to talk about Appalachia and video games, and games that "get Appalachia right", without talking about Kentucky Route Zero. The game itself is mysterious, filled with empty space and people with featureless faces, a five-part digital theater that leaves enough room for Appalachia to rush in. What is it about this surreal point and click adventure game that feels so real?
In part two of Gaming Broadcast's "Playing Appalachia" series, we're joined by Cardboard Computer, the makers of Kentucky Route Zero, to learn what the magical has to say about the real (especially as i...2018-01-1156 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 18: What Games Are Getting Right About Appalachia (Playing Appalachia Part 1)In 2016, the United States collectively pointed a trembling finger of accusation at the Appalachian region. The verdict was in: America was screwed, and “Trump Country” was to blame. Journalists began to flock to the region, looking to demystify and correctly identify the dysfunctional roots of Appalachia and its people. Think piece after think piece was published, many (if not most) reducing the complex and nuanced history of the region into a singular narrative about a backwards and impoverished white working class that were desperate and foolish enough to vote against their best interest. But being exposed to only this narr...2017-12-1457 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 17: Triple A Blues (Developer Doldrums Part 3)What does it mean to work in AAA game development? In the gaming community, the term "AAA" (pronounced “triple A”) comes with a lot of baggage. While at face value AAA is just an informal way to classify games and games studios that have the highest development and marketing budgets, the category also comes with negative conotations. You’d think more money meant less problems for game developers, right? Wrong! AAA studios are often seen as giant, painfully selfish corporations that care about one thing and one thing alone: money. From "lazy" to "immoral" and "untalented", game developers at AAA studi...2017-11-191h 14
Gaming BroadcastEp. 16: Long Distance Bromance (Developer Doldrums Part 2)Long distance relationships are enough to make anyone sad. Throw in making a game together? Even sadder! How do long distance game developers stay in the game? As hard as it is to build something together when you’re not, you know, actually together, Michael and Ben of Hydezeke are proof that with the right person (and for the right project), even distance can’t hold you back. Equal parts funny as it is emotionally honest, this episode gives hope to the idea that you can find a project partner to help you stay afloat in the sometimes turbulent wate...2017-11-041h 07
Gaming BroadcastEp. 15: Grief, Game Development, and the Emotional Significance of Oatmeal (Developer Doldrums Part 1)
Andrea Ayres, creator of The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne, makes me feel a lot of things about hot cereal. The making of the Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne shows that oatmeal has more to do with grief and game development than you might expect. Born on the heels of grief at the loss of a parent, and influenced by Andrea's personal experiences with social anxiety and an eating disorder, The Average Everyday Adventures of Samantha Browne is an interactive story about a painfully introverted college student who needs to make oatmeal in the communal kitchen of h...2017-10-191h 09
Gaming BroadcastEp. 14: The Violent Femmes of Women's Rugby (Violence & Video Games Part 5)
There’s a lot of assumptions folks make about violence and video games, from beliefs that violence in video games cause real life violent crime, to the stereotype that violence in video games is intended only for our more dudely players. But what about the violence that happens in real life sports? Does tackling and dragging someone to the ground for a ball make you more likely to tackle and drag someone to the ground out in the real world? And do women really like all that brutal physicality anyways?
As far as brutality goes, the sport of...2017-10-051h 01
Gaming BroadcastEp. 13: The Unbearable Anxiety of Tweeting (Violence & Video Games Part 4)Subtweeting is all the rage these days. And no, we don't mean tweeting from a Subway. Rae Sterling, writer and twitter role-player, joins us this week to talk about how (and why) passive-aggressiveness crops up in online gaming spaces. Join us this week to learn more about Twitter roleplay, the benefit and detriment of anonymity on the internet, and the toxic effects of passive-aggression on community-building.
While the anonymity of the internet is what has allowed Rae to really delve deep into the cathartic (and often therapeutic) world of role-play, Rae thinks that anonymity also makes space for...2017-09-211h 00
Gaming BroadcastEp. 12: Why Are You Afraid of Virtual Reality? (Violence & Video Games Part 3)The next frontier of video game development is the virtual one, and research about the impact of violence in Virtual Realiy (VR) has started to gear up (if Dr. Chris Ferguson of Episode 10 is any indication). This week JD continues the conversation about violence in video games by chatting about violence and VR with Gijs Molsbergen, a virtual reality gamer with experience developing an award winning VR experience. Gijs is a VR advocate, and has been awed and inspired by the experience and potential of virtual reality for quite a while.
But loving something also means acknowledging h...2017-09-0656 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 11: Why Are You So Angry? (Violence & Video Games Part 2)Ian Danskin of Innuendo Studios joins JD this week to talk the WHY of violence. Specifically, why does violence matter so much to so many people who play games? Ian explores why the mission to keep violence in video games feels so personal to so many people, and why conversations about the cultural implications of violence in video games get so heated. A particularly relevant conversation, seeing as the past few years have seen a flurry of intense (and somewhat scary) responses to critiques of the ubiquity of violence in video games (Gamergate and the harassment directed towards Anita...2017-08-231h 03
Gaming BroadcastEp. 10: Moral Combat--Why the War on Violent Video Games is Wrong (Violence & Video Games Part 1)In a time of nation-wide unrest and division, it's surprising to hear that politicians from both sides of the aisle are united on one thing: violent video games are bad and must be stopped. Blamed for everything from school shootings, suicide, and even rickets, video games have been shouldering the burden for our society’s ills for a long time now (or, at the very least, ever since comic books and ozzy osbourne have taken a back seat as the source of all evil).
Politicians, pundits, and even psychologists, are quick to point a finger at the gu...2017-08-0958 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 09: Improv Games and the Art of Failure (Video Games with People Who Don't Like Playing Video Games Part 4)Tune in to witness something that some might say is impossible… the changing of one man’s heart. This week JD interviews Jeremy Moran, a filmmaker, artist, and improv actor, whose consistent failure in the gaming arena USED to mean he disliked playing them all together. In Episode 09: Improv Games and the Art of Failure with Jeremy Moran, we'll learn more about failure, the tyranny of rules, improv games, and ways to find the art in everything. Even a door!
Jeremy historically has been pretty bad at games, and the consistent number of losses he experienced while gaming...2017-07-2658 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 08: Learning the Language of Rules vs. Creativity (Video Games with People Who Don't Like Playing Video Games Part 3)Join JD and Lisa P. for Episode 08 as we unpack the question of rules. When are rules in games fun? When are they a real snore-fest? What's the value of rules vs. creativity in play and language-learning? Lisa P. is a full-time public school teacher for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing finishing up her Master's in special education at the University of Northern Colorado. Lisa doesn't play video games, but loves to play regular old games (aka board games and tabletop games), and the differences between the two makes all the difference for her.
Growing up, Lisa...2017-07-1355 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 07: The Pleasures of Back-Seat Gaming (Video Games with People Who Don't Like Playing Video Games Part 2)JD brings it home this week... by literally interviewing the other person who lives in her home, Nora Green.
Nora, JD's roommate, is an avid video game spectator. Rather than playing games, Nora prefers to spend countless hours WATCHING people play games. She spectates in a number of ways: by sharing time with her gamer friends, viewing video game walkthrus on Youtube, or following Counterstrike competitions on Twitch. While Nora has played games before, and has even used some games as stress relief when crying in the bathroom at work, being a "back-seat gamer" just FEELS better th...2017-06-3058 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 06: Crying in a Closet (Video Games with People Who Don't Like Playing Video Games Part 1)This week JD goes solo, interviewing Bailey Morrison as part of a new series of interviews about video games with people who don't like playing video games. Inspired by Brie Code and a panel from SXSW (titled "Video Games for People Who Don't Like Video Games"), JD delves deep into the reasons Bailey finds video games off-putting. Bailey didn't always dislike playing video games, but grew to consider them an emotional danger zone as she started to realize her performance was being judged (or COULD BE judged) by the people around her. From struggling with perfectionism and anxiety about...2017-06-141h 06
Gaming BroadcastEp. 05: Imagining Religion, Play, and Education with Dr. Gregory GrieveDr. Gregory Grieve visits with JD and Kyle this week to discuss the intersections of religion, play, and education (as well as the recent publication of his new book on Buddhism and Second Life). Grieve is a Professor and Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he researches, teaches, and creates at the intersection of Asian religions and popular culture. He specializes in digital religion, particularly the emerging field of religion and video games, and his current research uses video games to explore the category of evil in contemporary life. He...2017-05-311h 13Gaming BroadcastEp. 04: Bestor on DecksThis week Kyle and JD are joined by Nick Bestor, a PhD candidate studying card games and licensing in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin, for a rollicking journey through card games. Bestor talks about the journey that led him to studying card games professionally, from not knowing how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game and living in Japan, to critiquing the My Little Pony Collectible Card Game rulebook, Hearthstone's Pity Time, gaming adjacency, transmedia, and how card games engender an emotional intimacy with a franchise's world that's unique in comparison to bo...2017-05-0656 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 03: Gaming AloneWelcome to the end of JD's childhood! Just kidding. But also this episode really is about childhood. In this episode you'll hear a lot about what growing up with games was like for JD and Kyle. JD and Kyle can trace their different styles of gaming back to when they were wee gamers, with JD leaning more towards solo play and Kyle preferring to maximize the power of friendship. Of course, the lack of ladies in multiplayer and public gaming spaces is nothing new, but JD questions whether harassment is the only reason women don't want to whip out...2017-04-111h 05
Gaming BroadcastEp. 02: South by South Cast (SXSW Gaming 2017 Retrospective)See SXSW Gaming like you've never seen it before... through audio. Tag along with JD and Kyle as they frolic through the retelling of JD's FIRST EVER and Kyle's DEFINITELY NOT FIRST EVER SXSW experience. Highlights include talking about video games for people who don't like video games, trying to understand what the heck "fun" means, irritating question askers (one of whom may or may not be JD herself), Kyle stealing all of JD's potential friends, Kyle the Illustrator (but not the Kyle you're thinking of), JD's strange and passionate love of bloody cymbal crashes, and three tabletop games fro...2017-04-011h 01Gaming BroadcastEp. 01: Jews--A Fandom for Moses?Jayme Dale and Kyle ANSWER THE BIG QUESTIONS in Episode 01 of Gaming Broad(cast). Is JD actually a fan of anything? Are Jews (and other religions) kind of like high-stakes fandoms? Why is it so tempting to be jerks about other groups you're not a part of? Why did Kyle eat a dog cookie?
Stuff we mentioned...
Bounce House
Animal Crossing: New Leaf
Sailor Moon Drops
Girls Who Code
Judaism
Sailor Moon R: The Movie
Legend of Zelda
Episcopalian
Nondenominational Christianity
McElroy Brothers
The Pope
Su...2017-03-0958 min
Gaming BroadcastEp. 00: A Gaming Intervention from HellA beta episode of Gaming Broad(cast) (of GamingBroadly.com) in which Jayme Dale and Kyle test their sound setup, compare Diablo 3 to Sailor Moon Drops and Tetris, realize they can beat a game seven times and STILL have no idea what's going on, and decide they don't want to play a game they kinda sorta love/hate until they're 80 years old.
Stuff we mentioned...
Diablo 2
Diablo 3
Sailor Moon Drops
Tetris
Gauntlet
JD (The Broad)
Website: GamingBroadly.com
Twitter: @JayDeeCepticon
Instagram: @JayDeeCepticon
Kyle (T...2017-02-241h 00