Abnormal Mapping

Latest Episodes:

Abnormal Mapping 26: Elegy For A Dead World Apr 17, 2015

Show notes

The Mappers deal with the loss of technology and hope in the only way they know how: deep existential crisis and how it informed criticism. Good thing they’ve finally stumbled across a game that is willing to compete with them for who can be the most fatalistic, even if it means doubling down on prescriptive ideas of what educational/artistic games should be. Also, we talk about lore for almost a half an hour and nobody makes a Star Trek joke, so it’s all a minor miracle today in this post-computer episode of this post-computer podcast.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

This Month’s Game Club: Elegy for a Dead World

Next Month? TBD, sorry!

Games Discussed: Elegy for a Dead World, Pokemon Art Academy, Rock Band, Resident Evil HD, Even The Stars, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins, Dishonored, Alan Wake, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Battlefield: Hardline, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Dark Souls

Music This Episode
Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
Game Over from Sega Rally Championship
Rock the Dragon by Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahehi
Wicked Child by Kinoyu Yamashita
All I Want by Offspring

Abnormal Mapping 25: Grim Fandango Mar 27, 2015

Show notes

The Mappers take on a special guest in this very special episode, as Heather Alexandra comes onto the cast to join us on our journey through the path of the spirit. We brave forests, destroy ships, run nightclubs, and manage to recite a poem or two in remembrance of classic adventure game Grim Fandango! No fancy intro this time, just good old fashion podcasting about a classic game! I hope you enjoy!

Art for this episode was done by Em, who themself himself an amateur artist when he’s not hosting this podcast.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Heather Alexandra can be found on twitter (@transgamerthink) and at her blog. You can find her Skies of Arcadia video here.

Reading List Additions: Justice Points and Major Third

Games Discussed: Goldvision Pacifist GTA Online, Skies Of Arcadia, Far Cry 3, Beyond: Two Souls, Heavy Rain, Dead Island, Bloodborne, Cave Cave Deus Videt

This Month’s Game Club: Grim Fandango

Next Month’s Game Club: Elegy for a Dead World

Music This Episode
Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
Rubacava by Peter McConnell
Casino Calavera by Peter McConnell
Manny & Meche by Peter McConnell
She Sailed Away by Peter McConnell
Bone Wagon by Peter McConnell

Abnormal Mapping 24: Yakuza 3 Feb 27, 2015

Show notes

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Reading List Additions: History Respawned and Top Score

Games Discussed: P.T., Paris Hallway, Sci Fi Corridor Maze Walkthrough, Gone Home, GTA 4, Burnout Paradise, Sleeping Dogs, Final Fantasy VII, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Skyrim, Minecraft, Interactive Fiction, Your Actions Do Not Effect The Ending, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, Dream.Sim, Mirror’s Edge, Tony Hawk, Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time, Attack of The Friday Monsters, Persona 3/4, Resident Evil

This Month’s Game Club: Yakuza 3

Next Month’s Game Club: Grim Fandango with special guest Heather Alexandra

Music This Episode

Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
Dead Run by Hidenori Shoji
D 2 A by Hidenori Shoji
Bray of the Dragon King by Hidenori Shoji
Kamurocho Lullaby by Hideki Sakamoto

Abnormal Mapping 23: Atelier Rorona: Alchemist of Arland Feb 20, 2015

Show notes

Today we bring you our most sleepy episode yet with our celebration of all things Valentine’s Day by talking about anime girls hitting on each other, as the RPG Explorer’s Club returns to talk about Atelier Rorona Plus! We’re joined with fellow role playing spelunker Destiny Sturdivant for a journey into the dark heart of time limits and item creation as we run afoul of all the problems with trying to play RPGs on a timetable. The only solution? More RPGs! Please enjoy this short episode on this short month, when all seems nearly lost because winter refuses to give up its grip on our hearts.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Games Discussed: Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, Kindle, DS9 Books, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, Atelier Rorona Plus: Alchemist of Arland

The Next RPG Explorer’s Club Game: Final Fantasy VIII

Music This Episode

Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
Eyes of the Dragon by Ken Nakagawa
Falling, The Star Light by Yamamoto Mineko

Abnormal Mapping 22: Offline Jan 30, 2015

Show notes

The Mappers are joined in this January episode by one of the few games writers they’re genuinely intimidated by, and they go on a heady adventure into lands untold. How does anyone understand the landscape of a culture whose history keeps disappearing? What does it mean to want to work in a field and criticize works when every aspect of that production is increasingly devalued in both money and regard? What does it mean to explore the murky issues of consent in games? And how long can you exist on a ghostly train ride before it becomes a lens through which you view your own predispositions? All these questions and more are yours inside when Em and Jackson try their best to keep up with Lana Polansky in this heady, intense, appropriately metaphorical train wreck of an episode. Please enjoy!

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Our guest this month is Lana Polansky, who you can find at Sufficiently Human and on Patreonand Twitter.

This Month’s Game Club Game: offɭine

Next Month’s Game Club Game: Yakuza 3

Music In This Episode

Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
the soundscape of offɭine by NAWKSH
Snowflakes by Shoji Meguro

Things (All Of Them, Until We Can’t Link Anymore) Discussed in This Episode

Arcade Review
Five out of Ten
ZEAL
Cahiers du cinéma
Critical Distance
Good Games Writing
@OldGamesWriting
Zoya Street
Reading EGM
Celia Pearce
Tracy Fullerton
Jacquelyn Ford Morie
A Game of One’s Own
Computers as Theatre by Brenda Laurel
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Hélène Cixous
Simone de Beauvoir
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Virginia Woolf
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin
Leigh Alexander
“You Can Sleep Here All Night”: Video Games and Labor by Ian Williams
Forska
TJ Thomas
Austin C Howe
Espen Aarseth
Roland Barthes
Susan Sontag
Gita Jackson
Mike Joffe (Check out our prior episode featuring an interview with Mike!)
Theatre of the Oppressed by Augusto Boal
Videogames of the Oppressed by Gonzalo Frasca
The Crew Review: Postcard America by Austin Walker
Level 99 Capitalist by Stephen Beirne
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
80 Days
Justice Points podcast
.error404
Bayonetta and .error404: Two Concepts of Nudity by Katherine Cross
Consensual Torture Simulator by Merritt Kopas
Hurt Me Plenty by Robert Yang
Flushed: A Toilet Gaming E-Zine
Pol Clarissou
Myst
Zork
Twine
Las Meninas, Diego Velazquez
Glitchhikers
night tune
Stars
Even The Stars
Andi Mcclure
2:22AM
Beeswing
Actual Sunlight (and Jackson’s old writing on that game)
There Are Monsters Under Your Bed
Everyone’s Hot For Worf (Lana’s upcoming parody game)

Abnormal Mapping 21: The Winter of our Disk Content Jan 16, 2015

Show notes

The Mappers return from the holidays to a heaping helping of holiday ennui, an alliteration obliterating miasma from which there is no escape. They soldier on, in this dark era where the PS3 has not ascended, trying to put together the pieces of a now uncertain future. What is around the bend?

It might be doom, it might be untold riches, but it’ll certainly be adventure. If only there were a … group? Of people who were dedicated to … exploring? Nah, that’d never work.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Games Discussed: Bayonetta 2, 80 Days, Batman: Arkham Origins, .error404, DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, How to Be a Great Artist in 10 Seconds, Star Trek Theme Songs, Sleeping Dogs, The Fall, Alan Wake, Final Fantasy 7’s Gay Sexual Tension

Next Month The RPG Explorers Club Returns with: Atelier Rorona Plus: The Alchemist of Arland

Music This Episode:

Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
Another Winter by Anamanaguchi
Digimon Main Theme by Paul Gordon

Abnormal Mapping 20: Minecraft Dec 26, 2014

Show notes

This final Abnormal Mapping of 2014 begins with a bit of introspection, as the Mappers go over the year that is quickly fading behind them, and look forward to the year to come. Then, joined by oft-guesting Destiny, they explore the endless realms of Minecraft, doing their best to stave off the expected and inevitable slide into existential terror as they look to the horizon and ponder just how many blocks one has to dig up to be alive. Join us on this, the Eve of the Year of the PS3, as we head towards the future, hearts heavy but heads held high.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

This Month’s Game Club: Minecraft

Next Month’s Game Club: offɭine

Music in This Episode
Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
Christmas in Nightopia by Tomoko Sasaki
Stal by C418
Toy Day by Manaka Kataoka & Atsuko Asahi

Next month’s guest, Lana Polansky, can be found at Sufficiently Human, or support her Patreon!

Abnormal Mapping 19: Michaela Joffe Nov 28, 2014

Show notes

Welcome, one and all, to another very special episode of Abnormal Mapping: our second Gameography! For those unfamiliar, a Gameography episode is where we take a close look at the work of a game maker, and approach it as a whole. This time, we chose to take a gander at the games of Michaela Joffe, who is here for an incredibly fun and interesting interview!

Join us for talk of twine, trees and thanksgiving, as we dive into discussions of improvisational play, the function of anthropomorphism and the limits of authorial intent. And yet, all this is perhaps overshadowed, as Em brings unto Jackson the most horrifying of all revelations: The true meaning of Thanksgiving.

This is only our second Gameography, and we’d love for your feedback about our process, as well as any other random questions or comments. As ever, you can bother both of us on Twitter, or send us an email at: abnormalmappingpodcast@gmail.com.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Gameography: Joffe

Benthic Love

Final Fantasy VI Recast

Invisible Cities: The Party Game

Dream of the Acacia Tree

The Handsomest Echidna

Mother She Killed Me, Father He Ate Me

Babirusa Pig Game

Pet Loris Simulator

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

Will o’ Wisp

Pangolin Valentine

Eft to Newt

Eufriesea: A Game of Orchid Bees

The Handsomest Echidna Remastered

Scribbly Walrus

Next Month’s Game Club:

Minecraft

Music This Episode

Blown Away by Kevin McLeod
The Good, the Bad and the Loris by Ennio Morricone and Michaela Joffe

Abnormal Mapping 18: Final Fantasy VII, Part Two Nov 14, 2014

Show notes

Hope lies in ruins. The calamity hangs overhead. People look up, wishing that some savior will come. But nothing will save us from the inevitable: extended CGI anime movie sequels to games that didn’t need them. Alas, in this darkest hour, when all that is Holy is buried and the stigma of the planet taints even the bravest of us, the Abnormal Mappers are all that stand between the inevitable void and salvation. But worry not, this is just the last dream of all of us. The ultimate vision. One might even say … no, that’s not for mortal mouths to speak. It drives people mad, sputtering nonsense words like ‘shilly shally’ and ‘memetic legacy’. Fearing this fate, we dwell on the inconsequential: snowboarding, a few good Turks, and our own tiny hope for the future.

You can get our podcast on iTunes, on Stitcher, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

Games Discussed: Sims 3, Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Resident Evil 4, Broken Age, Bayonetta 2, Hatoful Boyfriend, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

Music This Episode:
Blown Away by Kevin MacLeod
Those Who Fight (Piano Ver.) by Nobuo Uematsu
Tenrai ~Divinity II~ by Nobuo Uematsu
One Winged Angel by Nobuo Uematsu

Abnormal Mapping 17: Dishonored Oct 24, 2014

Show notes

We don the masks of the harvest reaper to stalk the dank halls of a far off land of clockwork intrigue and steam-powered assassination, perched on the balustrades of our own mental palaces, poised to strike in the blink of an eye. What are we waiting for? Only the final strike of the witching hour, when we will descend and offer up that vengeful mantra of horror that was granted to us by the great Machiavellian evil: Thnks fr th vidya gms. It’s enough to make a person’s blood run cold, robbing even the most comforting evening of matching three or grinding levels of hope and rendering it an empty shell of its former self. This is where fun goes to die. This is where For Glory is only a long-forgotten menu option, and not an ideal to strive for. This, my friends, is Dishonored Halloween.

On a serious note, the Lana Polansky article we reference heavily in segment 2 can be found here.

This Month’s Game Club Game: Dishonored

Next Month: Gameography: Mike Joffe

I’ll be putting up a list of Mike’s games in the next few days, and I’ll link them. Until then, check out his website, found here.

Music This Episode:
Blown Away by Kevin MacLeod
Job Anthem 1 by Nobuo Uematsu
Knife of Dunwall Ending Theme by Daniel Licht
Find Me on a Whim by Devin Vibert
Dance of Gold by Michiru Yamane

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