Scandalous Games

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Andy Hunter, and Ryan Weaver. This time around, we continue our look at the  relationship between crypto and gaming by taking a closer look at the mainstream games industry's brief but notable foray into NFTs.  We examine the crypto escapades of the likes of Atari, Konami, Square-Enix, and...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. This time around, we dive into the world of cryptocurrency and its relationship to gaming. We examine the basics of blockchain technology, decentralized digital currencies, and NFTs as well as some of the hopes (and very, very real problems) with the current crypto...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. This time around, we look at Thrill Kill , an unreleased 3D fighting game created by Paradox Development for the Sony PlayStation that was supposed to come out in October 1998. We look at its surprising evolution from Mesoamerican-themed sports game to BDSM-themed f...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We finally wrap up our series explaining how video games got age ratings in the United States. We address the December 9, 1993, Congressional hearing about video game violence and how this led to the games industry creating a trade organization--the Interactive Digi...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. As we work our way towards learning how video games got age ratings in the United States by learning about how violent video games, led by Mortal Kombat, made people anxious about the impact of games on kids. This increased attention to Mortal Kombat and its imitato...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In our (unprecedented) second episode of this month, we continue our look back at early 90s tech fads that influenced the conversation over video games. This is part of our multi-part series on how video games got age ratings in the United States.  This time around,...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. We celebrate one year of video game controversies with a mulit-part series on how video games got age ratings in the United States.   In today's episode, we  look back at tech fads that influenced the way people thought about video games, starting with virtual...

Celebrating the end of our first year of deep dives into video game controversies, we bring out of the vault our pilot episode. Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and John Dukes. In today's episode, we  look back at the Health Hero series, a set of health educational games from the 1990s. We talk about Captain N...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Kate Lynch. In today's episode, we take a deep dive into the research that claims playing violent video games leads to aggression, antisocial behavior, and violent crime. The gang examine the evolution of "violent video games" as a political issue in the United St...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In today's episode, we go back to the Postal series to look at Postal ’s 2003 sequel: the “anti-PC” PC game Postal 2 . We look at its development, the fortunes of its maker (Running with Scissors), and how the company handled criticism. Also, Kevin makes an arg...

 Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Ryan Weaver. In today's episode, we take a deep dive into "Hot Coffee," the infamous 2005 mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that unlocked a hidden sex mini-game left in the game's code, prompting denunciations from moral crusaders, calls to regulate viol...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, Phil Thomas, and Andy Hunter. In today's episode, we examine Edmund G. Brown, Governor of the State of California, and Kamala Harris, Attorney General of the State of California v. Entertainment Merchants Association and Entertainment Software Association aka Brown v. EMA , a landmark 2011...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we examine the aggressively controversial 1997 "murder simulator" Postal . We talk about the history of creator Running with Scissors, their aggressive attempts to spark a controversy and the ways they have massaged the truth about the impact of...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, John Dukes, and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we examine the career of infamous director of bad video game movies, Uwe Boll aka "The Raging Boll," "The Deutschland Destroyer," "The Teutonic Terror," and the "Worst Director Ever."  We talk about his...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, John Dukes, and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we take a closer look at the "erotic" themed 1982 Atari 2600 game Custer's Revenge. What on Earth did people find offensive about a racist, sexual assault-themed game? We also examine whether American Multiple Industries, the g...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, John Dukes, and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we tackle the infamous 1992 FMV game Night Trap and how the game became the "ultimate violent video game." Topics discussed include:  alternative titles Digital Pictures could have used instead of Night Trap, why would anyone bother...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, John Dukes, and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we take on part two of our two part series on Jack Thompson, the one-man anti-video game moral crusader. In Part Two, we take a deep dive into his crusade against video game violence, his personal feuds against game developers and journalists...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, John Dukes, and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we tackle Jack Thompson, the one-man anti-video game moral crusader. In Part One of our two-part series, we examine Jack Thompson's early life; the start of his war against obscenity; his personal feuds with rappers, DJs, and Janet Reno;...

Historian Kevin Impellizeri shares a story of a video game controversy to his friends: Elford Stephens, John Dukes, and Phil Thomas. In today's episode, we take a closer look at the Turok naming contests, a pair of 2002 marketing campaigns for the GameCube/Xbox/PlayStation 2 game Turok Evolution where publisher Acclaim tried to convince people to change their name to "Turok."  Topic...