Adam and Steph are back after a long break for Season 3 of Game Academy! They chat about the struggles with layoffs in academia and the games industry that has been all over the news lately. Then, they bring on special guest William Mellamphy, a PhD candidate an expert in all things nostalgia, video games, and, much to Steph's delight, Pokemon! A long chat ensues around the commodification of nostalgia, the newfound ability for parents to share gaming passions with their children, and what it all means for capitalism. We then zero in on some Pokemon myths, the mechanics of gender in the series ..read more

New Year. Not Happy New Year. Just New Year. - Adam Just kidding! Happy New Year everyone! In our first pod of 2023, Adam and Steph catch-up on everything they've been up to over Christmas and look ahead to the excitement (and exhaustion) of a new university semester. They chat about Steph's Christmas present, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" by Gabrielle Zevin, a very fictional book about game development because one character gets too much maternity leave, and also realistic rendering engines for blood didn't exist in 1996. It is nevertheless a really good book, so it gets a hearty reco ..read more

Game Academy returns! Adam and Steph are back podding (and arguing) together after Steph's break for a very special episode reflecting on the Mass Effect trilogy after MultiPlay's 10 year anniversary conference on N7 Day. Adam and Steph are joined by the conference host Calum Evans to discuss what made the series unique and just why, so many years on, fans still can't get over that ending. Game Academy also hears from Mass Effect fans Danee, Hannah and Ravi, who share their personal experiences on why Mass Effect meant so much to them. People Make Games' chat to Mass Effect developers: https ..read more

On the seventh episode of Game Academy, Steph and Adam present an incredibly delayed podcast. We battled freshers' flu to be here and we'll never leave! Long live Game Academy! Steph is more thrilled at the prospect of the academic year than Adam, who has been the target of some angry Twitterers again, having written an article NOT ABOUT GAMERGATE. It's about values. Obviously. Instead, they get dragged into the mire, and discuss the lingering impact of gamergate on the field of video game studies and the internet in general. Steph even gives her most outrageous take yet about Anthem (and sinc ..read more

On the fifth episode of Game Academy, Adam and Steph take a breath after a hectic month! Adam fills us in on how this year's DiGRA conference went - and to Steph's despair - starts another ludology vs narratology debate. They continue, joined by Adam Crowley, to talk about his latest book "Representations of Poverty in Videogames". He opens our eyes to some fascinating approaches to dealing with socioeconomic factors in games, and finally blows our minds with his hopeful take on the future of the games industry and the m-m-metaverse. Yes, Steph made us talk about the metaverse, and typing that ..read more

Adam and Steph may have been hibernating throughout August, but at least the summer is over and their PhDs are almost done! And Steph got a new job! Yay! This month, they actually talk about video games. Steph discusses how FIFA/EAFC had made her fall back in love with football amidst the chaos of the Women's World Cup, while Adam regales with tales of nearly falling asleep at the wheel with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Why can't open world games just respect players' time?! In the most unlikely saviour, in swoops two MOBILE GAMES?! We also had a lot of fun playing Good Pizza, Great Pizza and ..read more

On the third episode of Game Academy, Adam and Steph apologise profusely for the lateness of the episode release amidst the craziness of marking season, submissions and new puppies! In this episode, we talk all about our hot takes on video game crunch, how it could be solved, or if it's just a symptom of creative industries. Then, Steph delves deep into Cyberpunk 2077, how it's changed since release, how it influences her research and whether "bad" endings were really good endings all along. Finally, we talk a bit about the future of Mass Effect. Will we end the entire podcast because we simpl ..read more

This month, Adam and Steph are joined by a special guest, Dr. Emma Reay. Contrary to what we say in the podcast, we're not early though! Sorry to our three listeners! This month, we dive deep into the work of Dr. Emma Reay, who guests to tell us all about her work on childhood in games, her upcoming monograph, and the logical next step: a project about death. We talk about the horrors of the PhD experience (what would a Game Academy podcast be without it?) and Emma's tips on making it better before looking at Emma's work on the various ways children are portrayed in games, and what that might ..read more

Adam and Steph are back together again! It has been a long time, but they promise they're back and better than ever, with so much to catch up on! They unpack Adam's PhD game, What We Take With Us (yes, the one he's been advertising non stop on the podcast for months) and the recent workshop for it that Steph went to. They also talk about all the other amazing events from the Massively Multiplay conference, including the amazing events by podcast favourites Dr. Matt Higgins and Lisa Meek. They then both briefly give PhD updates and dive into a discussion of the dark side of conferences. Steeri ..read more

On the first episode of Game Academy, Adam and Steph are joined by special guest and games scholar Imo Kaufman to discuss sex and romance in video games. How are games handling aspects of sex and romance right now? Are games creating queer characters or queer stories? Will Imo - or the rest of us - ever get over our love for Dragon Age's Dorian? Find out in episode 1 of Game Academy! CFP for the Last of Us journal: https://multiplaynetwork.org/cfp-journals/ Check out our upcoming events, including the Queerness conference on 1 June!: https://multiplaynetwork.org/events/ Follow us on Twitter ..read more