Studying Pixels

The annual Game Awards have become a staple of video game culture. Combining an award show with high-profile announcements, musical performances, and lots of advertisements, the event is a force to be reckoned with. Join us as we dissect this year's Game Awards, including the way it engages with the problems of the industry...

In the early days of video game studies, or so the story is told, there was a raging conflict between narratologists and ludologists. However much of an exaggeration this might be, Gonzalo Frasca's Simulation vs Narrative is still an important contribution to this debate...

We might nostalgically look back at the beauty of game boxes and fail to realize how strongly they are linked to the economization of games. With our guest, game studies scholar Claudius Clüver, we trace how games got into the box and how, with the advent of digital distribution, they made their way back out...

Indeed, it is true – we are giving away a brand new PS5! And for all of you who already have one or plan to get one soon we have collected some essential tips and settings...

It's at the tip of my tongue! Have you ever forgotten the title of a video game and instead just given it a ridiculous description? Well, that is exactly what we do for this week. Enjoy our title blunders!

In our side quests, we share our initial impressions of Shin Megami Tensei V, give a dreary outlook on the availability of the PS5, and discuss the intricacies of caring in video games...

What if we could start all over again? – These days, a whole bunch of games tries to answer this question. From Hades to Returnal, from Loop Hero to 12 Minutes, and most recently: Deathloop. To help us understand why there is such an abundance of time loop games, we are joined by game studies scholar Federico Alvarez Igarzábal...

"I am god here." A strangely unsettling sentence, especially if uttered by a character in a game that might very well be cursed. For this Halloween we collect and retell our favorite gaming-related creepypastas and urban legends...

Could that school friend really be right about this Pokémon that is not supposed to exist? Is there really a way to infinitely multiply items as this Nintendo magazine suggests? – We're diving back into our childhood to unravel how Missing No. changed the ideas about how video games work and who owns their lore.

00:06:05 The Myth of Missing No...

Everyone is talking about it and so are we: the South Korean survival drama Squid Game. Its astounding popularity aside, we are especially curious about what the show tells us about games, play, and their relation to very real class disparity. (Our main story is spoiler free, so no to worry. We've got a separate and clearly coded spoiler part at the very end of the episode...

Many have tried (and many failed) to bring various games together in a set of comprehensive categories. Roger Caillois is one of them and we are diving into his Classification of Games to explore the categories and how they apply to contemporary video games.

In our side quests, we discuss the biggest leack in the history of Twitch, Sora's introduction to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and our impressions of Kena: Bridge of Spirits...