Bookwarm Games

Welcome back, it's summer again and we have much to discuss. If you'd like to get honest feedback on original work, read books with us, or suggest a future game, visit https://videogameacademia.org/  Another look at RPG history from Gamemaker's Toolkit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJiwn8iXqOI  

Time for the final showdown with the evil AI du jour. Three personalities and nanomachines galore MAIK may have, but with feelings and friendship we can prevail--feelings like disappointment, annoyance, regret... but also relief at World's End Club being over. Music from the OST. Visit us at https://videogameacademia.org/ 

We come up to the mid-game twists and turns and stop just shy of the obligatory bad end. Apologies for the delay posting this episode, but camping last week was a lot of fun. Provided the rolling blackouts here in Spokane hold off another day or two, we'll be back on schedule. Visit us at https://videogameacademia.org/ for more. Music from the OST. Edit: The Ezra Klein interview mentioned is...

We discuss the long-lost EarthBound script files recovered and analyzed by The Video Game History Foundation: https://gamehistory.org/earthbound-script-files/. Then, as we make our way to Osaka in World's End Club, there's a twist you may or may not have seen coming a mile away. https://videogameacademia.org/ 

We chat summer plans and run through the first hour or so of World's End Club. Music from the OST. For more on visual novels: https://videogameacademia.org/courses/video-game-studies/intro-to-visual-novels/ 

Here we are at the end(s) of NieR: Automata. If it's a bit too abstract to understand at this time, if it feels like carrying the weight of the world, we're here for you. The Video Game Academy: we get that being alive is pretty much a constant stream of embarrassment. Music comes from the OST. https://videogameacademia.org/ 

We discuss the meat box and soul box, sand worms and cannibal machines; or in other words, the mind-body problem, Hegel, Nietzsche, and Pascal. For more un-compressed conversation, see https://videogameacademia.org/ or tune into https://www.twitch.tv/3rdstrongest Music comes from the OST. Thanks for listening. 

Could it be we're at the start of yet a third game? It's hard to tell with all that static and visual distortion, but we're soldiering on. The Operator says we're doing great. For more, check out our twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/3rdstrongest and read more from the grimoires housed at https://videogameacademia.org/ Music comes from the OST. Thanks for listening, and let us know what...

Content warning: we discuss the possible meaning of the four-letter word uttered by Adam in asterisks. On the hologram forms glimpsed towards the end of the second game, however, we maintain (mostly) a dignified silence. Music comes from the OST. Join us on Tuesdays at https://www.twitch.tv/3rdstrongest For more on this course and others see http://videogameacademia.org/ Thanks for liste...

Like the head of Emil bounding away through the abandoned shopping mall, we've punted the remainder of Nine S' story into next week. This gives us a chance to cast an eye over the pop-cultural landscape and generally catch up. Music comes from the OST. Join us on Tuesdays at https://www.twitch.tv/3rdstrongest  For more on this course and others see http://videogameacademia.org/  Tha...

We cover the first half or so of the game once more with some assists from 9S. Music comes from the hacking sequence. Our data suggests that mankind gained great intelligence from consuming fruit. For more insights, see https://videogameacademia.org/

We start our Video Game Academy spring read: The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Along those lines, we share some of the ideas that have been possessing us lately, mainly to do with health and wealth, and reflect on the games we've been playing aside from NieR: Automata. Visit videogameacademia.org for more about the reading group and the vanishingly rare GameCube title Lost Kingdom...

We investigate scientist-Adam and sympathize with mecha-dragon-Eve, drop in on the torchlit factory for a revival meeting, and reach the first main ending of NieR: Automata. Visit videogameacademia.org for more on this course and others. Thanks for listening! (Music from the OST)

We cross swords with a renegade android, disturb the Forest Kingdom, and launch missiles at the ancient super-goliath out at sea. Visit videogameacademia.org for more on this course and others. Thanks for listening! (Music from the OST)

We introduce an occasional new format this time, Burns and Apologies, with the Professor roasting the puntastic 2019 Spike Chunsoft visual novel while 3rdStrongest defends it. After the back-and-forth, we mend fences with a little curricular development and discuss the options for learning programming through games, along with some memorable teaching technologies of the past. Music comes from...

We frolic after sisters, stamps, chips, and fangirls on a few side-quests and swoop in to save the city. Then, way underground, we make a discovery about the aliens and their offspring. But wait, you gotta tell us, how do you make children? These are the deep questions we like to ask at the Video Game Academy . Music comes from the OST, audio hiccups from the internet. Thanks for listening.&n...

We're off to the amusement park beyond the sewers, then the machine village beyond that. Humans sure are strange creatures... Hey, listener, people who know us well usually call us " Video Game Academy -s ," so... Music this time comes from the OST. Thanks for listening. 

After a short review of Cybertext, by Espen Aarseth, we traverse the desert and discover the apartment-dwellers' secret. That secret proceeds to kick us in the face. Join the discussion, watch the playthrough, or find a torn book or two, plus other crafting/reading material, at videogameacademia.org. Music this time comes from the OST. Thanks for listening. 

We explore the spaceship Bunker, then touch down quite a ways from the Resistance Camp and run through the city ruins.  Join the discussion , watch the playthrough , or find a torn book or two, plus other crafting material, at videogameacademia.org . Music this time comes from the OST . Thanks for listening. 

We discuss the opening sequence of NieR: Automata and eye some of the game's paradoxes. Additional audio this time comes from the first boss battle, taken from a video embedded in Jennifer Smith's medium article "A Beautiful Song - The Adaptive Music of NieR: Automata."   Join the discussion , watch the playthrough , or find a torn book or two, plus other crafting material, at videogameacadem...

From the abyss to the platform: on ch 26-27 of The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman. 

Steve, Wes, Quorey, and Ben (asynchronously, but thank goodness for time travel) respond to the new Majora's Mask title from Boss Fight Books .  Music clipped from the Keaton Quiz.  We invite you to join us for future discussions. 

Steve takes the lead opening our investigation of the visual novel form. See the course page for more resources.  We invite you to join us for future discussions.  Music this time comes from two productions of Maeterlinck's Blue Bird, the first a clip of incidental music from the 1909 Theatre Royal run (performed by Fiona Cox and recorded in 2006) , the second from a 1980 anime .&nb...

On ch 24-25 of The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman.  Please see the course page to learn more and ask questions. Thanks for listening, sharing, or lending your support. 

Ben, Steve, and I bid farewell to a perfidious year and discuss what we've been playing to help us make it through.  We invite you to join us for future discussions.  EarthBound music comes courtesy of the trove at starmen.net.