Bookwarm Games

And Nabokov, again. Alex and I join a conversation that has been going on for some time-- Reviewed by Edmund Wilson: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1965/07/15/the-strange-case-of-pushkin-and-nabokov/ Nabokov replies: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1965/08/26/letters-the-strange-case-of-nabokov-and-wilson/ The text of Nabokov's translation of this timeless, elegant, bizarre "Novel in V...

Exploring Ultimecia's Castle and all but one of its boss battles, we spend some time thinking about the implications of the end cutscenes and final thoughts the game wants to leave us with. This brings us to the end of our FFVIII discussions for now, but join the weekly discord to connect, Ellone-like, anytime. For more FFVIII study resources, see https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-seme...

Justin joins us to discuss the Dostoevsky book most people who ever read him read first--or if not Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground. Over the past year, we've read most of his major works, and we'll be back at some point with a discussion of The Brothers Karamazov. Also mentioned: Mr Grenke's essay on Chekhov: https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sjcdigitalarchives/original/6...

Back from summer break here at the Video Game Academy, and this time we delve into Lunatic Pandora, battling Fujin and Raijin, Mobile Type 8, Seifer, and Adel, crossing into Disc 4. We have one more week to go in FFVIII. So what's next? Alex speculates about starting right over to play more cards. I'm thinking Tactics or FFIX would be the move. Let us know your thoughts! For more FFVIII study reso...

Welcome to the return of Night School, a segment Alex and I had going for awhile back in the day reading and discussing classic literature. We're calling this installment Night School Pt Deux: The Ennightening. With Babcock, our friend from St John's, we read/play and reread/replay Nabokov's Pale Fire. Text: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.458629/page/n214/mode/1up?view=theater Conte...

Approaching the end of disc 3, President/Dad Laguna has a plan! A corny, foolproof plan to overcome time compression with love, friendship, and courage! For more, Ragnarok on over to https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!

Space romance and Ragnarok blasting "Eyes On Me". For more, see https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!

On the space station built for keeping an eye on the moon and the sorceress in stasis, we get it. Thanks for listening! For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/

Laguna's making movie magic with a Ruby Dragon and rescuing Ellone in Esthar, while Squall carries Rinoa piggyback from the White SeeD Ship to that same futuristic city hidden by dragon bones in the salt lake. Thanks for listening! For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/

Boss rushes and aerial choreography above the melee, with pauses to discuss Squall's ring. Most challenging of all: playing cards with the random rules, stacked onto sames and plusses... Ultimecia/ Artemisia makes her appearance, plotwise, along with Cerberus and Alexander in quick succession, and Rinoa goes into a coma after Seifer departs. Welcome to Disc 3. Thanks for listening! For more FFVIII...

Back from our momentous side quest to Manchester, we debrief the Multiplatform 2025 Rituals of Play conference and share some takeaways. See https://videogameacademia.org/2025/06/06/rituals-of-play-a-side-quest-to-manchester/ for more. Next time, we'll dive back into FFVIII proper with the Garden Battle and mosey on to the end of Disc 2. Thanks for listening! For more FFVIII study resources: https...

Lengthy description of a trio of side quests (Shumi Village, Chocobo Forest, and Tonberry King) leads into reflections on Fujin and Raijin as foils to Squall and the team, busy with their own long conversations at last revealing lost memories on the broken basketball court of Trabia Garden. Leapfrogged in release order by our episode 16 on Game Studies and Side Quests to make sure that one was out...

Time to prep for Manchester Game Centre's Multiplatform 2025 Conference: Rituals of Play , where we'll be presenting on FFVII and FFVIII, respectively. Shout-outs to Signum University and the Game Studies Study Buddies , among other scholars and sources. For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening

Rinoa rage quits on most runs, but with just the right (wrong) choice of instruments, the romance on the solar panels plays out at more leisure. Perhaps it's fitting that our audio is even rougher than usual? Sorry about that! For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening

We clamber over Fisherman's Horizon and consider Parallel Lives and horospheres among its disciples of the way of nonviolence (aside from inadvertent miscasts by the shop). For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening

Balamb Garden as Midgar; as Ithaka overrun with suitors; as Inferno. Encounters with the luciferean capitalist empodded in one of the basements and magic machinery larded with fossil fuels in the layers of several others. Both power a Garden that moves, dodges missiles, comes unmoored and comes dangerously close to wrecking the town before it squalls out to sea. For more FFVIII study resources: ht...

Missile Base Mission, feat. Selphie, Rinoa, and Irvine. Is Squall Dead is one thing, but after this part the better question looks like "What about Selphie and whoever else went to the missile base?" For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!

Desert transformations in the D-District Prison. For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!

In conversation with Dr Tim Summers of Royal Holloway, University of London, and Ludomusicology, the video game music research group. https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/timothy-summers https://www.ludomusicology.org/ His new book is Pixel Soundtracks: Exploring Video Game Music Through Twenty Games You'll hear snippets of audio from Buck Rogers; Uematsu's FFVI Opera (and Toby Fox/Undertal...

We're at the start of Disc 2, beginning again in Winhill and then finding ourselves in the Galbadian Prison with nary a save point in sight. From music-box idylls to techno-crucifixions--what's that, Moomba? Laguna's been watching over Squall just as we've been dreaming of him...? For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-...

A botched sorceress assassination takes us up to the end of Disc 1, drawing dispel from her and casting reflect with the aid of a Guardian Force drawn from the statues she animates. For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!

What happens when gacha mechanics meet mythic storytelling on the latest Project Moon mobile game, Limbus Company? We discuss Professor Kozlowski's proposal for Manchester Games Centre's Multiplatform 2025 conference on the theme "Rituals of Play". More on https://videogameacademia.org/ Thanks for listening!

In the Tomb of the Unknown King, turning right and contemplating brotherhood and perspective. For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!

Remember that mini game where you can dig up the mop? In this conversation we take a step back and revisit Final Fantasy VII, since Steve has been speedrunning it lately. For more FFVII study resources, see http://videogameacademia.org/courses/past-semesters/final-fantasy-vii/ To be continued, with a closer look at Ben's essay: http://videogameacademia.org/2024/09/03/a-crystal-darkly-the-growi...

Dante carried in his sleep by angels; Don Quixote in the Cave of Montesinos; Squall and his young mercenaries learning their history through the medium of a dream. We yap this time from the Laguna dream sequence in the forest to the drama in Galbadia Garden. For more FFVIII study resources: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/current-semester/final-fantasy-viii/ Thanks for listening!