We've mentioned on the show in the past that a large portion of Mav's job is teaching in the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design(DNID) program at the University of Pittsburgh. Hence the occasional shows dealing with Game Jam. However, we've never talked about it in detail. Why is an English department so involved with this sort of thing and what's the value in studying games anyway? Well, ever since Mav's been employed there, he's been working on getting his friend, video game designer, author, and friend of the show Cheryl Platz a spot doing a guest talk at his school. Well, we finally did that this week, as Cheryl stopped by Pittsburgh while on her tour for her new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide. And her talk was a...
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e280. The VoxPopcast Protagonist Movie Calendar Playlist Game
We watch a lot of movies. Like really a lot of movies. Similarly, our friends over at the Protagonist Podcast watch a lot of movies. How many? Really a lot! Maybe more than anyone should ever watch in a year? But what if you DID want to watch all of them in a year? in…
Call For Comments: The End of The Greatest Show on Television
From Mav: In a way, the CW’s Riverdale is sort of ingrained in the DNA of this podcast. We talked about it at length on the sixth episode and it has been a constant refrain that I have returned to ever since. I say “I”… not we… because the truth is, everyone else has bailed…
e279. Is Sucker Punch a Bad Movie?
So the truth is, when we do our “is ____ a bad movie?” episodes, we expect that the listeners are going to be predisposed to say “yes, obviously it sucks. No one cares about that garbage movie” and we are attempting to do kind of a reparative reading of it. That’s what we were expecting…
Call for Comments: Is Sucker Punch really a bad movie?
“To be frank, the people I’ve run across who’ve come to me and said ‘Sucker Punch is my favorite movie’ are normally angsty teenage girls.” -Zack Snyder, 2023 From Monica: In 2011, I was a deeply depressed femme goth who was assaulted by a man, subsequently realized I was gay, tried coming out, and was…
e278. Hollywood is on Strike! (But, what does that mean?)
If you’re a fan of current American popular culture it’s pretty much impossible to not know that Hollywood is on strike right now. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike since May 2, 2023 with the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joining them on July…
Call For Comments: Hollywood is on Strike
From Mav: I think it’s fairly safe to assume that pretty much anyone who listens to our show already knows the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) are on strike. You likely are also in favor of the workers who are on strike. I suppose…
CFC: No Country For Old Men
From Wayne: I had been noticing a trend in a lot of recent media that hadn’t really fully formed in my mind until a couple of weeks ago when we recorded our Indiana Jones episode. Dial of Destiny was very much a movie about an old man, facing the ravages of time. Indy is o…