Overthinking Games

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Send us an email! [email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses

Send us an email! [email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky 

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Tutorials and Hooks Dempsey, Seth, and Katie (she lives!!) tackle tutorials and pedagogy, and discuss the difference between the moment that makes you keep playing and the moment the player understands what the game is actually about. What’s your favorite hook, the moment in a game when you knew you were going to keep playing?

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You...

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Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses 

[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses

Thanks to Jake from the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast for joining us! 

Find the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast where ever you get podcasts. 

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RogueLike vs RogueLite Criteria

The episode wherein Professor Seth gives us a primer on what ACTUALLY constitutes a roguelike, with the sole intention of proving Katie wrong about Peak.

What do YOU think constitutes the criteria for a roguelike?

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Here is our interview with Skate Story creator Sam Eng. 

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Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

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Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

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What are our plans for the new year? Yay 2026!!

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[email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

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12 Games of Christmas Oh GOTY Games, Oh GOTY Games, how lovely are your pixels!

Join the four of us as we discuss the GOTY awards- sure, the “real” ones, but also the ones that really matter; our personal round up of the best games we played this year! 

Send us an email with your top game of the year! [email protected]

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Nature vs. Nurture

This episode evolved like a Pokemon. What started as “what makes for a game with mass appeal for kids and adults, or non gamers and gamers?” shifted to “how do people tend to become gamers at all?”

Every now and then, we just gotta go on a wild hare.

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Coping

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What video games can't do. 

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Email us at: [email protected]

Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky

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Adaptations

With more and more movie and TV show adaptations of video games, join us as we dig into what is lost or gained when games are adapted to the big screen. Dempsey, our resident film expert, has some strong opinions, Katie is excited about allusions, and Brett would love an adaptation of Mass Effect (the book….not the game…).

What game adaptation is your favorite or least favorite?

What game do you wish they would adapt?

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When do we quit? 

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Morality Systems

This week, we discuss morality systems in games: from the simplest, binary choices in Bioshock, to the non-linear, complex, and unpredictable branches of Detroit: Become Human, morality systems have been a tool used by game developers for ages to evoke emotion, create disparate narratives, and make their players feel like paragons of virtue and heartless villains.

Do you go for the morally-bankrupt, but often rewarding, options, or are you “Lawful Good”, choosing your own moral compass, or even an idealized moral compass, when faced with difficult in-game choices?

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Share your thoughts, or suggest a topic for our next episode by sending us an email! [email protected]

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Empathy and Games

Maybe it’s just because Seth and Katie teach teenagers, but it seems that there’s a bit of a crisis of empathy…”back in my day, I could put myself into somebody else’s shoes! Kids these days…” - Katie as the oldest member of the team, the next step is “get off my lawn!” Jokes aside, this week we look at empathy and gaming; are video games a good medium for encouraging/teaching empathy?

What ways do games and gaming culture discourage empathy? Plus, Seth says we’re overthinking things (it’s in the title, m...

A very horny episode

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Loneliness

Join us as our loneliness diminishes because Brett, of Lore’d to Death, joins the whole gang for a regular episode of Overthinking Games!

We discuss loneliness in videogames; dissect isolation vs. solitude; repeatedly talk over each other as we learn to be a 4-person band; and everyone wishes they could just play Silksong instead of being adults with jobs.

Also, check out our YouTube!

We’ve got more Shorts and content coming your way! Share your favorite lonely-vibes game, tell us which game helps you feel a little less lone...

Its Silksong Day!!! 

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We finally talk about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

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This week, Katie picked yet another topic she didn’t really understand well, and maybe we all will understand it a smidgeon better by the end. Maybe… Teleological thinking is “means to an end” kind of thinking, and non-teleological thinking is more like “the journey, not the destination” thinking.

We discuss the way these two kinds of thinking can influence the games we play and how we play them, and also, and also a rather-longwinded discussion of how the way one approaches gaming relates to chores….

Do you approach games the same way you do the dishes? Ar...

This week, Dempsey and Katie play shoulder advocates on either side of Seth’s quandary: should he get a Nintendo Switch 2? This existential question leads us into the question of “value,” and what it takes for something to be “worth it.”

Katie continues to be alarmingly anti-Nintendo, Dempsey wants to watch the world burn, and Seth is not helped much by either one.

Are you getting a Switch 2? Why or why not? Send us an email and let us know what you think! [email protected]

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This week, Dempsey’s real-life action adventure game called “being a documentarian” leads us into dark, claustrophobic caves, wide open worlds, environmental story-telling, and the power of setting in video games.

Send us an email with your favorite video game setting, or a place you’d love to see a game set; we’d love to hear from you! [email protected]

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What do Celeste, The Binding of Isaac and Hellblade have in common? Interesting approaches to talking about mental health, of course!

This week we get into the weeds about mental health in games, the relationship between player mental health and games, and society’s portrayal of and broader conversation about mental health.

Games also discussed: Elden Ring: Nightreign, Balatro, Crush House, Arcade Paradise, and, at some length, Death Stranding.

Send us an email with your thoughts on this week’s topic, a suggestion for an episode, or whether you think themes are real or n...

Waiting sucks! Except for when it…doesn’t.

Why can waiting for an upcoming, scheduled release feel like Advent (thank Seth for that one), but waiting for Silksong incites insanity among its fanbase? Is there a difference between delayed gratification, and gratification delayed(that one was Katie’s fault…)? How does player agency tie into all this?

Join us as we discuss waiting and video games, as well as the decline of the human attention span, and Elden Ring: Nightreign.

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In this special episode, we miss Seth, and Dempsey and Katie are joined by Nicholas Crawford, philosopher and author of the upcoming book, "Where We've Made it Dark," a literary apocalypse novel available at Barnes and Noble on October 21st, 2025.

Nicholas has been making excellent content on Tik-Tok about The Last of Us season 2, and we take the opportunity to go into a deep dive with him about identity, subjectivity, and more with regards Joel, Ellie, and the violent world they inhabit.

Find Nicholas Crawford at: www.nicholascrawfordauthor.com https://www.tiktok.com/@nicholas_crawford<...

Games and Gender

This week, we circle back round to a topic that continues to be a font of curiosity and conversation: games and gender! Are games gendered? (Dempsey repeatedly says “girl games”, much to Katie’s chagrin) How does a person’s identified gender impact their relationship or interaction with games?

We don’t know, but we had a good time talking about it! We also share a listener email from the fantastic cohost of The Old Switcharoo! If you’d like to send in your thoughts about a recent episode, we’d love to hear from y...