120. Friction in Video Games | S4E9

Lauryn and Nicholas take you back to the Cold War, to the '80s, when hair was big and everyone was worried about nuclear winter. We begin with the very first Metal Gear game and discuss what it means to try and make an anti-war war game. We reckon with all the ways the game teaches you how to play that were in many ways anathema to how video games were played at the time but nevertheless became the bedrock for how modern games are designed. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In this, the first episode of season 6, our YEAR OF METAL GEAR, we dive into the Kojima lore, why you shouldn't always take it at face value, and what it means to think of one's creative output as a kind of genetic legacy. ALSO: a mysterious message from an enigmatic stranger... Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

For our final episode of Season 5, before THE YEAR OF METAL GEAR, we look at the seminal Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service. We discuss what it means to come of age in a context where you are a literal outsider and how the film indirectly meditates on what it means to doubt your creative powers, lose them, and ultimately get them back. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In which we argue that Halo represents a genuinely novel approach to shooter design at a time when the video games industry was becoming but had not yet turned into what we know it to be today. Join us as we delve into the complex narrative and gameplay relationship between Master Chief and Cortana and ask... is Halo a tragedy? Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In celebration of Pride month, we take a somewhat unusual look at Oshii Mamoru's Ghost in the Shell as an allegory of trans becoming. We look at how trans individuals have read the film against their own experiences and how this highlights a queerness in Kusanagi's character that Oshii likely never intended yet is still palpably there. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In this episode, we think about games as a complete composition of many artforms and how Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 withholds the kinds of information that normally aid gameplay in order to get the player to treat the game as much as a work of art to be appreciated as be immersed in. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

Following up on our discussion of Cyberpunk 2077, we consider the Netflix series and what it means to be bodies in spaces, how we lie to ourselves and each other, and how the anime aspires to say something profound but ultimately get too caught up in its own romantic tropes to truly grapple with what it's trying to show. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

After several years we return to Cyberpunk 2077 to discover that it's a very different game! In this episode, we focus on how the game's environments blend the broad visual and aural aesthetics of the game with a really tight sense of encounter design and worldbuilding that inscribes little incidental narratives onto the streets of a fully realized city. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

In this month's free episode, we take a look at the visual and narrative aesthetics of 2024's Look Back, based on the manga of the same name by Fujimoto Tatsuki. We consider how mirroring, doubling, and reflection work not only as visual metaphors but as way of thinking about the overall narrative structure in this gut-wrenching coming-of-age story. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social

This month we tackle the topic everyone loves to hate: violence in video games. But with a twist. We discuss how Slay the Princess uses a form of narrative violence, breaking the conventions of how story gets mapped onto gameplay, to show how love, hurt, loss, and existential dread can all be thought of as facets of a greater whole in the human experience. Substack: https://gamedesigndiscourse.substack.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/furidashi Twitter: https://twitter.com/furidashipod Lauryn: https://bsky.app/profile/espressocat.bsky.social Nicholas: https://bsky.app/profile/academicality.bsky.social