Scandalous Games

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We continue our deep-dive into self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman starting a deep dive into how exactly Dave waged war on video games. We start we Dave's information-based battle, the types of organizations Dave felt comfortable calling comrades-in-arms, and ho...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. We continue our deep-dive into self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman seeing how he became a media-anointed expert on video game violence in the wake of a school shooting in his home town, and how Dave managed to insert himself into future violent video game conversatio...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch and Andy Hunter. Whether you want it or not, we return to our long series on the self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman, and we finally get to Dave's entry into the violent video game fray as he peddled his killological wares in the wake of the March 24, 1998, Westside Middle Schoo...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch,   Kayt Ahnberg , and Ryan Weaver. We wrap up our four-part series on Manhunt , Rockstar North's snuff film inspired follow up to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City . As we close the book on Manhunt , we try to figure out what might have inspired people to think Manhunt caused a real-world murder in 200...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Kayt Ahnberg, and Ryan Weaver. Today, some of us are still here and alive to cover part three of our four-part series on Manhunt , Rockstar North's brutal 2003 survival horror title. This time, we examine whether Manhunt caused a real-life murder (spoiler alert: it did not), and how the British...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch,  Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We're back for part two of our four-part series on Rockstar Games' 2003 snuff film inspired stealth/horror game Manhunt . This time, we look at the moral backlash against Manhunt leading up to and following its 2003 and try to place that within the context of...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch,  Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. This month, we finally keep our promise and take a break from Dave Grossman for a four-part series on Manhunt , Rockstar North's 2003 snuff film inspired follow up to Grand Theft Auto: Vice City . Today, we go into the game's inspirations and its early recepti...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends...except it's Halloween and we want to do something fun and scary, so buckle up for our second synchable audio commentary. This time, Kevin, Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, Elford Stevens, and Andy Hunter are ripping and tearing through the 2005 film adaptation of DOOM (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419706/) direct...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Elford Stevens, and Phil Thomas. We finally close the book on On Killing and three whole months on Lt. Col. Dave Grossman by taking a closer look into more of his profoundly sad so-called accomplishments and wrap up by a look at the popular reception to Dave's first book. Topics discussed includ...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Elford Stevens, and Phil Thomas. Sorry, folks, but it's one more month on everyone's "favorite" "killologist" Dave Grossman.  This time, we shift away from Dave's debut book On Killing to some of his other alleged accomplishments (Spoiler alert: they're not muc...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We continue our deep dive into self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman and his foundational work On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995). This time around, we take a closer look at...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We continue our deep dive into self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman and his 1995 book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995). Today, we tackle Dave's central argument--that...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We continue our deep dive into self-proclaimed "killologist" Dave Grossman and his 1995 book On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1995), dissecting his claims that America is in the midst...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In honor of our second full year of doing this show, we start a deep dive into a guy who may be the single most influential figure in the violent video game discourse over the last 30-odd years: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. Starting our six-month (don't worry, we'll...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In our jam-packed grand finale of our (longer than expected) deep dive into Pokémon fan projects, we examine how fans responded to Nintendo's legal strike against Pokémon Uranium and Pokémon Prism and whether legal attacks against fan projects actua...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In part six of our look at Pokémon fan projects, Nintendo finally sets its sights on Pokémon Uranium and Pokémon Prism , and we look at Nintendo's quest to destroy emulation by any means necessary.   Topics discussed include:  Nintendo vs. emulators...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Elford Stephens, and Andy Hunter. In part five of our look at Pokémon fan projects, we finally edge ever closer to Nintendo's response to Pokémon Uranium and Pokémon Prism by examining the ways other game companies have responded to fan-developed games that use their IP.  Topics discussed includ...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Elford Stephens, and Andy Hunter. In part four of our look at Pokémon fan projects, we finally get into the controversy around Pokémon fan games and ROM hacks by looking at probably the two most famous/infamous unauthorized Pokémon games: Pokémon Uranium and Pokémon Prism, focusing on their developme...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In part three of our look at Pokémon fan projects, here is the second part of this month's episode. This time, we take a closer look at the motivations behind fan projects and we get closer to the actual controversy behind this series and address whether Pokémon fan...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In part two of our look at Pokémon fan projects, we shift from ROM hacks to fan games, Pokémon inspired games developed by fans that are built from the ground up, usually with third-party game engines.  Topics discussed include:  Fascists don't like Pokémon, that ti...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Kate Lynch, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In this episode, we start a three part series on Pokémon, specifically fan-developed Pokémon projects, beginning with the history of Pokémon ROM hacks, original games made by fans that are built on commercially released Pokémon games. Topics discussed include:  An introd...

 Historian Kevin Impellizeri usually shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends. However, this month Phil Thomas takes the lead and teaches Kevin, Elford Stephens, and Andy Hunter about the (as of this recording) ongoing global computer chip shortage and why it has been so hard to get a next-gen game system (or a car or ballistic missiles or anything else you might need). Topics dis...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends...except this month we're doing something a little different with our very first syncable commentary track!  Join Phil Thomas, Andy Hunter, Elford Stevens, and Kevin as we sit down and watch the 2003 video game flop The House of the Dead , directed by infamous maker of bad video game movies (and subject of a...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In this episode, we take a closer look at Destructive Creations, the team behind previous episode Hatred .  We examine the other controversy connected to Hatred , one that was connected to the beliefs of its creators, and how a team that claimed to make a statement against politics...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In this episode, we look at Hatred, the 2015 PC game developed by Destructive Creations where you play out a mass shooting enacting by a guy whose name is not important (aka Alan). We dissect the controversy and how this was a game designed by trolls for trolls. Top...