We welcome Ian Renfroe (@glennfinito) onto the show to talk about difficult games, the nature of challenging work, and why music might be the best analogue to games yet.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome longtime friend of the podcast Alex Hinman to talk Red Alert, ideology, and cut scenes, among other Soviet psyops.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome back Erica (@lavosxii) to talk with us about MMORPG theory, FFXIV, and the nature of cooperation.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Jesse @bronzehammer Farrar and Stefan @boring_as_heck Heck on the podcast to talk about streaming, toilets, and the nature of home ownership.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Lena (@lbourgie), long time friend of the podcast and of me, to the podcast to talk about quitting gaming, addiction, and fulfillment.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Michael Lutz, creator of "The Uncle Who Works at Nintendo" and "My Father's Long Long Legs", on to talk about narrative, horror, expectations in gaming, and even a bit of dramatic theory.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We invite Jesse Farrar (@BronzeHammer) on to help me tweak the final details of my indiegogo pitch with his YKS knowledgeSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Brandon Zaboklicki (@sexualjumanji) onto the podcast to talk Rainbow Six: Seige, multiplayer gaming, why he's not a fan of PUBG and more!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome longtime friend of the cast Ed Zitron (@edzitron) on the show to talk about Gacha games, Fortnite, and the slow and painful death of the single player title.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome RS_Benedict on the show to talk about pacifism, gaming, agency, and player choice -- and RS' ongoing novel!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Andrew (@illybocean) onto the podcast to talk a wide range of topics from censorship laws to open world gaming to being scared when the sun goes down!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Donald Borenstein (@boringstein) onto the podcast to talk about licensed games, mediocrity, capitalism, and the particular joys of bad cash-ins.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We're lucky to have Chris Person (@papapishu) on the podcast to talk about game length, narrative structure, and 100 hour monster games.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Andrew Dunn on the podcast to talk about history, representation, mechanics, and the ways we understand the nuanced flows of the visions given to us by historical reenactment.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We bring Josh Boerman (@boshj) on to talk narrative, theater, and the rising action of video games!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We invite Kamel Altamimi (@kamel_altamimi) on to offer a rebuttal and expansion on Matt Christman's analysis of gaming in Episode 23. Politics, gaming, and hope!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We invite Brock Wilbur on to talk religion, revenge, agony, ecstasy, and of course video games.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

What he said.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We have Jonathan Bernhardt (@jonbernhardt) on to talk Prey, Bethesda and Arkane's new part-stealth part-shock game Prey, among other things!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Hazel Monforton onto the show to talk about her experience as a writer on the upcoming Dishonored: Death of the OutsiderSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Bleeding Green Nation's Dave Mangels joins us to talk No Man's Sky and the way the famously outre and disappointing game reflects, unexpectedly, the Trump campaign and election.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Part two of Scott Benson's deep conversation with us on life, punk, and the nature of the road in Kentucky Route Zero.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Scott Benson, one third of Infinite Fall, the studio that brought us Night in the Woods, returns to the podcast to talk about art, punk, video games, theory, and everything in-between in part 1 of this two part conversation.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Kara (@QaraKoyunlu) to the podcast to talk about baseball simulations, sabermetrics,and the particular value judgements of late capitalist sports.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Matt "Cushbomb" Christman comes on to meet me in the squared circle, where I will fight for the honor of gaming. Or, well, we'll chat animatedly anyway.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We invite Paul (@fender_splendor) on the podcast to talk VR in terms of his own experience in development, its future, its aesthetics, and how we can understand it as a conceptual apparatus.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We have Hazel Monforton (@hazelmonforton) on to talk about gaming and narrative, architecture, and the lovely What Remains of Edith Finch. By far our most academic conversation yet -- no don't leave, it's good!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Chapo Trap House's Felix Biederman joins us to talk about the aestheticization of war, the melancholy of the deep state, and the prescience of Hideo Kojima.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

I talk with Matt Brady (@mattvbrady) about Fallout, gaming in your thirties, Australia, and why Skyrim's civil war was such a downer.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We welcome Roger Clark (@rogerclark) and Trent (@goodboytrent) on the podcast to talk rhythm games, their seemingly timeless appeal, immersion, abstraction, and more!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Erica (@LavosXII) and I talk sequels, indirect concepts, RPG plots, and even a little schlocky action in this extra-long episode of No Cartridge Audio!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

A No Cartridge Update and Manifesto followed by a serious consideration of why I like side quests so much.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We talk creepypasta and narrative window dressing in relation to Night in the Woods' adept use of the supernatural.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Scott Benson, one third of Infinite Fall, the studio that brought us the charming cult-hit Night in the Woods, stops by to talk game design, narrative, aesthetics, depression, capitalism, and politics. Seriously, it's good.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

I theorize open world gaming as a genre and as an aesthetic, loosely upon the occasion of Breath of the Wild being so so good.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We invite Alex Navarro on the show to talk Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, as well as the history and legacy (and perhaps future) of the classic wrestling franchise. Oh and we talk smarks, too.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We talk genre in Nier: Automata and the idea of constrained aesthetics. We also get a guest appearance from Ira Glass (NOTE: Not really Ira Glass).Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We delve into what exactly appeals to me about Sunless Sea, a game I have played for hours and hours with no clear ultimate outcome.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We discuss narrative, RPG history, irony, and how we tell stories in this, a double-sized No Cartridge Audio episode 6Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We cover two twinned but importantly distinct video game homages to Twin Peaks in Alan Wake and Deadly Premonition in episode 5!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Patron only work...free for the launch! We talk Euro Truck Simulator and the nature of work versus play.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

We play Devil Daggers and ask if difficulty counts as an aesthetic condition for video games or whether we're still in the realm of personal artistic appreciation.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/no-cartridge-audio/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands