Year: 2015

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Opens Up ‘The Beginner’s Guide’

The last episode of the year is us talking about the meta-commentary on criticism, The Beginner’s Guide. There’s a lot to talk about with The Beginner’s Guide and yet it is a game that leaves me somewhat cold. I don’t know why. To me it came across as an academic exercise. There’s a lot to say in this academic exercise and we do in fact. Yet, I enjoyed it less than The Stanley Parable. I wonder if that’s because I am the target of its message instead of the game itself? | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Minisode 08 – Breaking the Mold and Cultural Musings

And so is published the last CDC minisode of the year. This time I managed to wrangle Austin Walker to co-host with me. I enjoy this podcast. In fact, it’s a particular favorite of mine. I get to simply chat. There’s something about hearing someone talk in their own voice that changes everything you thought you knew. I like doing that. I like being able to talk and have fun. The plan is continue with them next year, which means I’m going to have to fine a whole new crop of games to talk about that no one has ever heard of before. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Concludes Our Discussion of ‘Life is Strange’

The last episode of the Life is Strange series on the Moving Pixels Podcast. After relistening to the episode I can’t think of anything I didn’t get to express in it. Sure there’s a lot of minor observations of craft and plenty of tertiary narrative lines left by the wayside, but we hit all the major points. Either in this episode or in the prior ones. Life is Strange is, frankly, a rather dense work and an hour and half may not be enough to cover everything. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Everthing’s Better Embed

And so ends this year long interview series on video game criticism publication authors and editors over at Critical Distance. There are plenty of other books still yet to come and I’m sure an online magazine or two that I missed. Not to mention the books by people I have nowhere near enough clout to ask to come on to the podcast. Still, it was super fun to talk to Cara Ellison, a writer whose skill at the craft I have so much respect for. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Life Gets Stranger

And we’re back to our series of podcast on Life is Strange. Do ignore that the title is the same as the last episode on the game. It’s been a while. This episode was recorded before the release of episode 5 and I was surprised how prescient a lot of our observations and predictions were. Even more so is that while we were right, it’s that we were also oh so wrong given how it all ended up turning out. Also, interesting how episode 5 turns some of our discussion moot. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Minisode 07 – Horror Games

It was October, so of course, I had to do a theme minisode on Horror Games. This was the hardest minisode to set up yet. Mostly because October is a notoriously difficult month for people to schedule time, because every game publisher decides now is the right time to release their game. Way back in the beginning of the year, March I think, when I was recording the first minisode with Danielle Riendeau I mentioned that I wanted to see how long I could go without having another cis-straight white guy on as a co-host. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

The Moving Pixels Podcast Spends Halloween with ‘The Music Machine’

October 27, 2015 | Filed under: External Sources, Recent Posts It’s our annual Halloween episode where we look at a horror game. This year it was the indie title The Music Machine. I don’t come right out and say it, but I do like this game. Enough that I will be trying out the rest of his catalog on Steam … (This post is lost beyond this point.) The Moving Pixels Podcast Spends Halloween with 'The Music Machine' » PopMatters "Loneliness is listing your barber as an emergency contact. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Critical Distance Confab – Minisode 06 – Relationships and Forward Motion

Minisode 06 with the lovely Gita Jackson joining me. That title took some work coming up with. The second half at least. Forward Motion may have been stretching things a bit, but I could not come up with anything else. Also, this is about when my well of games to recommend is running rather dry. There are plenty of games I would love to recommend because they don’t get what I feel is their due, but they have criticism (not much and easily missed) and therefore fall outside the scope of this experiment. | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Learning to Survive in ‘Fallout Shelter’

This week we talk about this year’s it iOS game, now ported to Android, Fallout Shelter. I’m generally amenable to playing any of the game’s we decide on, but damn was I bored with this one. I placed the tablet on my desk and work on my laptop while things … (This post is lost beyond this point.) Moving Pixels Podcast: Learning to Survive in the 'Fallout Shelter' » PopMatters "Hard work is happy work." | more

Eric Swain External Sources

Life Gets Stranger

Episode 3 of our look through Life is Strange. This might be one of my favorite podcast episodes I’ve been on. A good 45 minutes, a good half of the episode, is spent discussing the theoretical and philosophical nature of photography as a medium and its relation back to the … (This post is lost beyond this point.) Moving Pixels Podcast: Life Gets Stranger » PopMatters "Max Caulfield, moral avenger. Or self-righteous hypocrite?" | more