Continuing our visual novel kick, we take a look at Christine Love's visual novel Analogue: A Hate Story. 

Points of discussion: 

1.) Mediation on the nature of hate
2.) The historian as gamer (or historical regression)
3.) The game mechanic of changing outfits
4.) Cheerful misogyny 
5.) Meta-gaming

You could also just consider it an ode to Christine Love's mysterious (and talented) mind. 

Waffling Around Games Ep. 4 - Analogue: A Hate Story

In honor of March being National Women's Month, we are releasing a series of short podcasts, "waffle bites" if you will, to celebrate women in gaming. 

For our first waffle bite, we explore female characters that have personally made an impact on us. 

0:34 - Seth (Acagameia.com) talks about Damoi Sochua from Civilization: Beyond Earth, and how she fills the "smartest man in the room" trope. 

2:47 - Seth discusses the character of Juhani from Knights of the Old Republic and her brush with the dark side. 

6:05 - Kate (k8monstrsCloset.com) discusses  Rikku, Paine, and Yuna from FFX-2, Bayonetta, Aveline from Assassin's Creed: Liberation, Ellen from Folklore and the identity-switching mechanic inherent in each game. 

9:40 - Kate discusses gender equality in the Gauntlet series, and what an impact that had on her at an early age. (Valkyrie Rules!!)

13:25 - Tim (Acagameia.com) talks about his admiration of Huang "Hannah" Shuyi and Major Greenland from Battlefied 4, in the larger context of first person shooters. 

16:05 - A few general shout-outs characters we didn't get to talk about in depth. 

Stay tuned for more Waffle Bites throughout the month!

Waffle Bites: Women Characters in Gaming

In our second Waffle Bite celebrating Nation Women's Month, the gang goes gaga over some of their favorite female game developers. 

To start things out, Kate talks about Jennifer Hepler known for her work at Bioware (0:50), Emily Carrol known for her webcomics and also half the dev team for The Yawhg(2:20), and Tanya Short the creative director at Kitfox Games(2:55). 

Next up, Tim fanboys over Brenda Romero who has been attached to too many major projects to list (4:25), and then raves about Lizzie Magie, the original mind behind Monopoly (7:22).

Finally, Seth reminisces about 90's adventure games in his disccusion of Jen Jansen (10:05), extols the virtues of Kim Swift who helped give us games like Portal and Left For Dead 11:30) and talks Aristotelian virtues while applauding Sheri Graner Ray (12:07).  

Since we obviously couldn't end the podcast without talking over fifteen minutes, we start a discussion on Auteur theory in regards to gaming, Kate's hatred of Hideo Kojima, and the difficulty of navigating fame as a female developer. 

Waffle Bites: Favorite Female Game Developers

As we continue to celebrate Women's Month, the gang takes a look at reproduction - mechanically and narratively - in several popular video games. 

Highlights include a discussion of birth control in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age Series, breeding mechanics in games like Crusader Kings II and Massive Chalice, and mothers as horror figures in games like Parasite Eve and The Binding of Isaac. 

It's important to remember that while reproduction is an important issue to many women, but it's not part of all self-identifying women's experiences

Waffle Bites: Reproduction in Video Games

The fifth episode of Waffling Around Games delves into the two available episodes of Life is Strange. The game features Max, a female protagonist, who learns she can rewind time. 

This is a pretty meaty podcast,  so here's a breakdown of our main talking points: 

2:00 - Trigger Warning (Suicide and Date Rape)and discussion of the "big thing" that happens in Episode 2. 

8:40 - Discussion on who we chose to accuse at the end of Episode 2 and why. 

12:34 - Two rants from Seth and Kate, as well as a discussion of cliche vs. archetypes in the virtual reality of high school. 

17:23 - Can men write realistic women? We talk about the writing behind Life is Strange and discuss moments of clumsiness. 

24.53 - Rant on Warren - he's a bad role model for stereotypical male gamers. 

29:10 The meat of the podcast otherwise known as a debate about the intersection of story and game mechanics through the characters of Chloe and Max. Also agency, but can fictional characters even have that? 

42.08 - There are totem poles, harmony, and spirit animals, but where are all the Native Americans in the game? Will Episodes 3-5 make this seem less like cultural appropriate? 

46:09 - Predictions about future episodes and farewells. 

Feminism & Geekery