In this episode we speak with Filip Jankowski on his chapter “Sorry, You Had Won: Satirical French Digital Games Responding to National Sociopolitical Crisis (1984 - 1986). " We talk about the history of French digital games, arcades, and personal computers in France, and the relationship between satire and social politics.

In this episode we speak with Alesha Serada. We look at the history of post-soviet humour, the long lost format of the anecdote, and how they stack up to memes and NFTs as a new basis for humour in games.

It’s surreal to think back on this first year of TAG Critical Watch, given how many offhand discussions Marc and I have had over the years of programming a slate like this. Before we ever committed to this, there were smaller viewing parties around campus, and at folks homes, and one recurring tension that popped up was how cinephiles felt about game movies, and conversely how players felt about movie adaptations of their favorite games. It seemed like the discussions would always come back to why. Why adapt this game, when it works better as a game? Why this director, or this year, or this genre?

In this episode we’re joined by Wyatt Moss-Wellington and learn about benign violation theory and the role of psychological distance in creating humour out of tragedy and puzzles.

On this episode, Manuel Garin speaks to us about his book chapter “On Nintendo’s Visual Humour: Slapstick Cinema and Comic Theatre in Super Smash Bros.” We chat about sight gags across film and games, slapstick, and consider the relationship between Buster Keaton and Mario.

 “On this episode of the podcast we talk with Daniel Hessler about the relationship between puzzles, jokes, and humour’s role in narrative design. Plus you get to learn the answer to the age-old Finnish riddle “One pig, two snouts: what is it?” 

Revisiting the Mass Effect trilogy (BioWare, 2007-2012) provides a glimpse into the starry-eyed cultural liberalism of the early 2010s. It is a space opera molded into the shape of an action-RPG, depicting a multicultural galaxy resisting against annihilation by making peace across species and cultures. Since its release, a lot of scholarly attention has been paid to the worldbuilding of the trilogy, which is the basis of its representations of multiculturalism.