May 2, 2021

Emma and Gil welcome returning visitor
Eric Zimmerman, who final appeared on the present on
Episode 79 to debate the magic circle in
gaming.

This time, Eric discusses his thought
of the twenty first century being a “ludic century,” and what makes video games
particularly essential right this moment. We additionally focus on how video games’ powers can
be used for evil, if tabletop video games can grow to be extra environmentally
sustainable, and see if there will be an equal to farmers’
markets or sluggish meals in tabletop sport.

SHOW NOTES

1m26s: Eric’s earlier tabletop
video games: Quantum, The Metagame (with Colleen Macklin and John Sharp).
He additionally mentions Gamelab, Diner
Dash, Sissyfight, Dear
Reader, NYU Game
Center (the place Gil and Geoff are additionally adjuncts), and
Rules of Play.

Eric additionally mentions his large-scale
artwork set up video games that he is completed together with his companion Nathalie
Pozzi. Here are a number of of them: Interference,
Starry Heavens, and
Waiting Rooms.

5m34s: Here is Eric’s
unique Ludic Century essay/manifesto,
revealed in 2013.

16m27s: More data about Bernie De Koven and his influential ebook The Well-Played Game.

18m13s: More data concerning the slimy
observe of gerrymandering. Eric additionally mentions the board sport
El Grande.

21m45s: More data about systemic racism.

24m17s: More data about Ultimate, also referred to as Ultimate
Frisbee.

25m53s: One factor to notice right here is
that neutral referees in sports activities are a comparatively latest
improvement. In the mid-Nineteenth century, each baseball and affiliation
soccer (soccer) initially had every group carry their very own umpire,
who would try to agree on calls. Back then, umpires didn’t
make calls proactively; gamers needed to enchantment to the umpire in
order to get a choice. 

This modified as groups acquired extra
aggressive and team-based umpires didn’t be neutral. Both
sports activities introduced in a impartial referee who may resolve disputes
between the umpires; baseball in 1857, soccer in 1881. Eventually,
the team-based umpires have been dropped completely, with soccer protecting
the only referee (although they finally added two linesmen to
assist make calls) and baseball renaming the referee again to “umpire”
and including three extra umpires to deal with calls at every
base.

(Sources:
Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball,
Richard Hershberger, and
The Ball is Round: A Global History of
Soccer, David Goldblatt.)

30m52s: Jane McGonigal’s ebook

Reality is Broken.

36m34s: The influential behavioral
psychologist B.F.
Skinner.

48m32s: Cheapass Games has made many
of their older “envelope” video games obtainable as print-and-play downloads.

49m00s: The
gone-and-gladly-forgotten CD
longbox.

50m15s: The Zoomable sport RATS: High Tea at
Sea by Eric and Josh DeBonis. 

55m42s: More details about the

environmental issues round
cryptocurrency.

1h03m10s: Slow
Food is a corporation associated to the
sluggish motion that pushes again in opposition to the quick tempo of
fashionable life.

1h09m35s: The sport Gil mentions is

Avatar Stalker, from the oldsters at
Project Avatar. He additionally mentions The Nest,
which was first talked about on the present by Hayley Cooper of Strange
Bird Immersive on
Ludology 214 – Escape from Reality.

1h12m27s: Eric mentions the artists
Alex
Katz and Kara
Walker.

1h15m55s: Eric’s
web site, the NYU Game
Center, and Eric’s companion Nathalie
Pozzi.