With a Terrible Fate

Mass Effect Revisited

It's been nearly a decade since the original Mass Effect Trilogy ended, and now veterans and new players alike are experiencing the story of Commander Shepard and the Reapers. In this episode, we discuss what it's like to go back to a series after so long, how distance can add a new perspective to your understanding of a game, and how the controversial ending to Mass Effect 3 comes off today.

In our side quests, we discuss Ubisoft's acknowledgement of politics in Far Cry 6, how developers try to recreate games as they were years ago, and the extent to which our mode of engagement changes based on how many games we play at a single time.

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• Main Story
  • 00:02:50 Mass Effect Revisited
    • "I Would Not Plant Apple Trees If the World Will Be Wiped: Analyzing Hundreds of Millions of Behavioral Records of Players During an MMORPG Beta Test" (Ah Reum Kang, Jeremy Blackburn, Haewoon Kwak, Huy Kang Kim)
• Side Quests
  • 00:37:15 The Politics of Far Cry 6 (Navid Khavari)
  • 00:51:43 "‘Blizzard 2.0’ Storms In to Make the Games Blizzard No Longer Wants To" (Jason Schreier)
  • 00:59:21 How focused do we need to be on a single game?

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What We Owe to Ourselves and Avatars (with Daniel Muñoz)

Philosopher Daniel Muñoz begins his "Wronging Oneself" with the following anecdote:

"Earlier today, without asking permission, I took a bike belonging to someone in my neighborhood and rode it to work. I later noticed that this same person, who works in my office, was looking tired. So I pinched their arm, opened their mouth, and poured hot coffee inside. As if that weren’t enough, I took some cash from their wallet to buy my lunch, and I even spent my break thumbing through their private emails.

Before you reach for any moral sanctions: this 'neighbor' of mine was me."

The question of whether we owe anything to ourselves is surprisingly controversial in philosophy because it seems as though we stand in a different relationship to ourselves than we do to other people. It also has potentially interesting implications for ethics in video games: fictionally, what do we, as players, owe to avatars—those characters whose actions we determine, through whose eyes we see the worlds of video games?

In this week's episode, Aaron sits down with Daniel Muñoz, a moral philosopher and one of Aaron's mentors and friends, to discuss the many insights that philosophy, ethics, and video-game storytelling have for one another—including how these analytical tool kits may open the way to an understanding of The Last of Us Part II that others have missed.

Later, in a side quest, Stefan shares a new article by Sky LaRell Anderson and Karen Schrier analyzing the concept of accessibility in video games, as well as the ways in which game design and game journalism approach disabilities in gaming.

(Spoiler warning for The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.)

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• Main Story
  • 00:01:58 What we owe to ourselves and avatars (Daniel Muñoz)
    • Daniel Muñoz's personal website
    • "The Paradox of Duties to Oneself," Daniel Muñoz
    • "The Role of the Player in Video-Game Fictions," Aaron Suduiko
    • "Naughty Dog's Game Design is Outdated," NakeyJakey
• Side Quest
  • 01:02:22 "Disability and Video Game Journalism: A Discourse Analysis of Accessibility and Gaming Culture" (Sky LaRell Anderson & Karen Schrier)

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Glitches

Falling through the floor, stalked by a burly viking, or plagued by boss self-destruction? Listen in as we discuss the good, the bad, the ugly, and the hilarious of glitches, trading stories and trying to determine what, if anything, makes glitches different from much more mundane divergences from authorial intent.

In our side quests, we share our impressions of the critically acclaimed Disco Elysium and admire the "immersive" engagement with literary and performative arts in Final Fantasy IX.

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• Main Story
  • 00:03:54 Glitches
    • Immediacy and hypermediacy: Remediation: Understanding New Media, Jay Bolter & Richard Grusin (1999)
    • Literal and implied authors: The Rhetoric of Fiction, Wayne C. Booth (1961)
    • The psychology of speedrunners: "More Than Just a Game: Inside the Minds of Speedrunners," Matt McGill
    • The vagueness of 'immersion': "Why 'Immersion' is a Dirty Word in Gaming Discourse," Dan Hughes & Aaron Suduiko
    • Application of the distinction between literal & implied authors: "Video Game Structural Aesthetics: Why The Beginner's Guide is Masterfully Confusing," Aaron Suduiko
    • Immediacy vs. hypermediacy in video games and virtual reality: "Listen to My Story": The Problem of Storytelling in Virtual Reality," Aaron Suduiko
    • Nihilism in Majora's Mask: "Critical Review: Majora's Mask Should Terrify You, and This is Why," Aaron Suduiko
• Side Quests
  • 01:01:07 Disco Elysium
  • 01:12:39 Final Fantasy IX

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Kingdom Hearts as Digital Disneyland (with Anh-Thu Nguyen)

Join With a Terrible Fate for a special podcast episode fully dedicated to explorations into the Kingdom Hearts series.

To many, Kingdom Hearts might initially appear to be a curious amalgamation. Its infamously complicated plot aside, the series stands out for its integration of original characters and Final Fantasy characters with the worlds and characters of Disney. In this episode, we discuss the work of our guest, media and video-game studies graduate student Anh-Thu Nguyen, who argues that Kingdom Hearts employs a tourist gaze by letting players explore a digital Disneyland.

We also join Dan Hughes in a discussion of his latest article on With a Terrible Fate, Understanding Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II: a study in one of the most puzzling lines from the game's finale, which Dan believes sheds light on the game's themes of player agency and the plight of NPCs. We discuss the article itself, his philosophy of Kingdom Hearts, his analytical method, questions from his readership, and his plans for follow-up articles in the future.

(Spoiler warning for the Kingdom Hearts series.)

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• Kingdom Hearts Ending LIVE Utada Hikaru Simple and Clean
• 00:04:13 Main Story
  • The theme park experience: Kingdom Hearts and the franchise (Anh-Thu Nguyen)
• Side Quest
  • 00:40:57 Understanding Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II (Dan Hughes)

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Origin Stories

In Episode 2 of With a Terrible Fate's new podcast, we explore the structure of origin stories in video games: where does the concept of the origin story come from, how can it help us to understand our favorite games differently, and how can the special interactive nature of video games tell alarmingly nuanced origin stories unavailable to other media?

 

Also on the agenda: studying the ways in which we talk about players and avatars in video games; a peek into the academic study of video-game storytelling; how video games can disrespect your time; what the PS3 and PS Vita stores tell us about the future of gaming libraries.

 

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• 00:03:53 Main Story (spoilers for The Last of Us and The Last of Us: Left Behind)
  • Background on Joseph Campbell's "Hero's Journey"
  • The storytelling of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
  • "Breath of the Wild: The Hero Who Never Was"
  • "Critical Review: The Quandary of Responsibility in Breath of the Wild"
• Side Quests
  • 00:39:54 "Ordinary language" in player-avatar relations
    • "The Role of the Player in Video-Game Fictions"
  • 00:56:14 Why Stefan quit Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
    • Analyzing the use of aliens in Assassin's Creed vs. Majora's Mask
    • "On Nier: Ought a Game's World to be Fun to Explore?"
  • 01:07:58 The Ethics and Implications of Digital Stores Shutting Down

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Pressing Start

Welcome to the inaugural episode of With a Terrible Fate's podcast exploring the storytelling of video games from every angle. We press start on this very first episode, introducing ourselves, the publication, and the concept of the podcast.

Further, we ponder the review discourse surrounding Returnal, the personal and cultural significance of NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139 as a work of literature, and the implications of an economic shift towards "games as a service."

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• Main Story
  • 00:03:42 Meet Aaron Suduiko
    • Bio & work on WaTF
    • "The Role of the Player in Video Game Fictions"
    • Original theory of Majora's Mask
    • "The Missing Soul Mate in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch"
  • 00:17:17 Meet Dan Hughes
    • Bio & work on WaTF
    • Now Loading... the Video Game Canon!
    • Understanding Ocarina of Time through the lens of the monomyth
  • 00:26:13 Meet Stefan H. Simond
  • 00:40:54 Meet With a Terrible Fate
    • About With a Terrible Fate
  • 00:46:52 What to expect from this podcast
• Side Quests
  • 00:50:00 "I’m struggling with Returnal, and I play Dark Souls to relax" (Gene Park)
    • "What Makes a Successful Souls Successor?"
  • 00:59:40 A tribute to NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139
    • Comparative analysis role-playing dynamics of NieR Gestalt and The Man in the Iron Mask
    • A speech about using NieR to better understand the identities of your fellow gamers and friends
    • How humanity in NieR derives from the player's real humanity
  • 01:07:34 "The Industry of Landlords: Exploring the Assetization of the Triple-A Game" (Alexander Bernevega, Alex Gekker)
    
    • The Philosophical Justification for FromSoftware's DLC

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Trailer

It has been a hard secret to keep, but now we can finally lift the veil and present to you: the With a Terrible Fate podcast! Starting in May 2021, you can tune in on our weekly conversations about game studies, gaming culture, and the significance of storytelling in video games.

Feel free to hit the 'subscribe' button. And if you want to help us get this project off the ground, you can support us on Patreon and/or spread the word on social media. We would be eternally grateful!