The Games Press

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Episode 8: Lucy James (Senior Video Producer at GameSpot) Mar 28, 2022

Show notes

Lucy James is the head of GameSpot's video team, managing a team of hosts around the world. Having moved from London to San Francisco, you'll have likely seen her face on all sorts of GameSpot video stuff, as well as her more recent appearances on Giant Bomb's The Very Online Show. In this episode we talk about the differences between the UK and US games media, the effect COVID has had on GameSpot's flagship shows and I get to quiz Lucy about the brilliant Audio Logs series.
"Typically game development is not this shiny process. It's not 'oh I have an idea, I'm going to make the game'. It's iterative. It's killing your darlings. It's hard. So we wanted to break down those stories and discover what game development is really like."

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Episode 7: Ethan Gach (Senior Reporter at Kotaku) Dec 07, 2021

Show notes

Ethan Gach is a senior reporter at Kotaku and has been responsible for a lot of the site's coverage of the Activision-Blizzard lawsuit, in which the company has been accused of a staggering number of gender discrimination and sexual harassment charges. Back in July, Ethan's reporting revealed details and photographs of the "Cosby Suite", a Blizzcon hotel room described by the lawsuit as a place for one high profile Blizzard developer to hit on and harass female employees while at the show.
"The screenshot spoke for itself in a way. This is the top level allegation that's being made against this studio, that all of these different behaviours, misconduct, mistreatment fall under this larger umbrella that people who have any conception of frat culture will understand to be often white male dominated, aggressive and sexually predatory. And here was this suite and this screenshot that are showing that exact behaviour."

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Episode 6: Tina Amini (Editor-in-Chief at IGN) Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

Tina Amini is the Editor-in-Chief at IGN, one of the largest video game publications in the world. With over one hundred staff making up the content team she's responsible for, Tina finds herself in a position unlike almost any other in the games media business.
"We're not just encyclopaedic. We're not just churning through the news everyday in an unreflective way. We're not just using our access to bring you First Looks and exclusives. We're also thinking about the larger, deeper stories that you're interested in. And we're putting in the work to do these investigations because we think there's an inherent, informative value to them."

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Episode 5: Jacob Geller (Video essayist) Oct 06, 2021

Show notes

Jacob Geller is a video essayist and critic who draws upon modern art, architecture and politics in order to reframe how we think about the games we play. He's also really into Beat Saber.
"I think people haven't been shown why they should care about this history yet. And that is partly our job to say, like, it's important that you know this term, not just because you can throw it around, but because by knowing this and by knowing the conversations that have happened previously about it, you can expand your knowledge of games. You can make these things more meaningful for yourself if you engage in a little study."

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Episode 4: Aoife Wilson (Head of Video at Eurogamer) Sep 06, 2021

Show notes

Aoife Wilson is the head of Eurogamer's video team, as well as an established freelancer working with the likes of BAFTA, the BBC and Wizards of the Coast. She also used to be a colleague of Chris' before he started People Make Games!
"It’s lessened now because I’m a bit more established in the industry, but I think when I started, I really… I felt there was a bit of classism especially where my accent was concerned. I still get a little bit prickly when people take apart the accent because there’s just an underlying current of ‘oh, that’s cute’ and everything. And I’m like, no, I know my shit. I know what I’m talking about."

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Episode 3: Mark Brown (Video essayist) Aug 04, 2021

Show notes

Mark Brown is the creator of Game Maker's Toolkit, an enormously popular YouTube channel that's home to a wide range of video essays about game design.
"Reaching the goal of a million subscribers, I knew that was going to feel weird because I'd done a lot of reading about goals and how we set them for ourselves and how it can feel strange when we reach a goal, because we spend so much mental energy thinking about what we're going to do when we get there and that sort of stuff. And then you get there and you're like, well, what am I going to do next? So I kind of pre-empted that that was going to be strange. And then it just kept feeling strange for months."

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Episode 2: Patricia Hernandez (Editor-in-Chief at Kotaku) Jul 05, 2021

Show notes

Patricia Hernandez is the new Editor-in-Chief of Kotaku, having now returned to the site after beginning her career there some ten years ago.
"I think, in some senses, it's not just an ambitious idea, it's how do I make this hard, ambitious idea happen while also giving my writers a realistic workload that does not have video games just completely taking over their life? And I think it's especially a concern of mine, because early on in my career I feel I was able to get ahead as much as I did because I basically gave away my life to games and it's worked out for me, but I don't want to see that for other people."

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Episode 1: Austin Walker (Waypoint) Jun 04, 2021

Show notes

Austin Walker is the host of Waypoint Radio and Friends at the Table, having previously launched Waypoint back in 2016 and having been a part of Giant Bomb's New York office before then.
"You have to reset your goals. Your goals cannot be 'I'm going to change the conversation'. It has to be 'I'm going to have a good conversation'. I'm going to build a space that is comfortable, and warm, and critical, that I get to be in and that helps me pay my bills, but also, helps me bring joy to some amount of people."

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