Episode 26: Being Big Brother in Orwell
First, an important note: This will be our last episode for a while. Brandon and I have both developed outside commitments that keep us from...
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Unlocking Games
A show about social impact games and how they provide a new way to explain the things you care about. Every week we cover how a game applies (or misses) the lessons of our work and research...
Episodes
20 of 26 episodesEpisode 25: We Wanted to Be Chicago
Released in early February, We Are Chicago is a serious game with serious goals: to put players in the shoes of a teenager amid the problems...
Episode 24: Getting Punched by Interesting People in This War of Mine
The game is more than two years old and based on an event from the 90s, but This War of Mine still feels fresh and relevant. This War of Min...
Episode 23: Naked in the Desert on the Migrant Trail
With immigration and a border wall in the news this week, it's a good time to look at 2013's The Migrant Trail . Released as a tie-in for Ma...
Episode 22: Freezing Rain and Dysentery on the Voter Suppression Trail
Welcome back to season two! We're slightly shifting focus to social impact games: games that explore social issues like elections, climate c...
Episode 21: Agents and Avatars in Final Fantasy XV
Many games put you in the role of someone else. It's right in the name of at least one genre: Role-Playing Game. We identify with each of th...
Episode 20: Putting Console Controllers on Your Resume
We’ve talked often before about how games can use a GUI to teach you a skill or task useful in real life. But is another angle on this ide...
Episode 19: Boom, Headshot!
It’s not often there’s breaking news in the world of academic articles on gaming, but a potential retraction of an article is worth talk...
Episode 18: The Power of Not Believing in Yourself: Part 2 (Self-efficacy and Bloodborne)
Last week we talked about self-efficacy, particularly how it relates to the high difficulty of the Dark Souls series. But Dark Souls actuall...
Episode 17: The Power of Not Believing in Yourself – Part 1 (Self-efficacy and Dark Souls)
How good are you at Dark Souls ? Or put another way: What's your perception of your related self-efficacy? The Dark Souls series is hard. Re...
Episode 16 – Accessibility is Better for Everyone
Ben Heck's clever customization of an Xbox One controller for one-handed use.[/caption]The word “Accessibility†might bring to mind ramp...
Episode 15 – Synthesizing and Salvaging Discovery Learning
Happy Thanksgiving! If you’re looking for an escape from the post-turkey awkward conversations, check out the conclusion of our series on...
Episode 14 – Adventure Games and Discovery Learning Gone Crazy
Discovery learning remains very popular today, BUT! All is not well in the land of self-guided education. Every time the research catches up...
Episode 13 – Discovery Learning in The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a 2014 all-around spooky game that doesn't hold your hand. There's even a note at the beginning stating tha...
Episode 12: User Testing and Moral Choices in the Bioshock Series
Bioshock is one of the most critically lauded games of all time. Released in 2007, today it still holds a place in Metacritic’s top 25 gam...
Episode 11: Metagaming and Knowledge Management
Instead of examining one game in detail, this week the broader concept of metagaming caught our attention. From Dungeons & Dragons to Tekken...
Episode 10: Managing Expectations for No Man’s Sky
We made it to episode 10! Double digits! Released in August, No Man's Sky was one of the most hyped new games of 2016. Promotional materials...
Episode 09: Incentives and Emotional Impact in Papers, Please
This week we concluded our three week Arstotzkan travelogue with a look at how Papers, Please handles incentives and emotional impact. The g...
Episode 08: User Experience in Papers, Please
After our discussion of Papers, Please ’s lessons in instructional design , this week we found the game’s interesting and sometimes coun...
Episode 07: Instructional Design in Papers, Please
In Papers, Please players step into the shoes of a border control agent faced with increasingly byzantine rules to admit or deny entry into...