Gameological In Stereo • Podcast

DmC: Devil May Cry

Episode 10: The Rated-R Edition

We sure seem to talk a lot about penises. Also: advice for young go-getters who want to write about games. (These two topics are not related.)

By John Teti • February 8, 2013

Gameological In Stereo returns at long last with some familiar voices and a first-time guest.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

The newbie is Kotaku’s Evan Narcisse, who’s here for a new segment imaginatively called “Headlines” where we chat about some recent developments in game-industry news. We don’t do newsy stuff on Gameological too often, mostly because I freaking hate writing about it. But it’s fun to do it in podcast form. If there are any stereotypical 19th-century Southern belles listening to the program, consider this a WELL, I NEVER ALERT: There is much talk of phalluses in this segment, mostly thanks to the strapping young Dante who stars in the new Devil May Cry. Plus, in response to a Gameological reader email that mentioned Evan’s Kotaku piece about “Black Cool,” Evan and I debate the mainstream game studios’ “white dudes only” problem for a spell. (By the way, I’m not sure where the audio hum in this segment came from, but apologies for that.)

After that, my mom joins me to review Pawn Stars: The Game, which lovingly renders one of the nation’s most popular reality shows in tawdry Facebook-game form. She also acts as an impromptu Dr. Ruth as the discussion takes a turn that I very much did not want it to take.

Ellie Gibson, of all people, keeps it clean. As I ponder an upcoming search for new interns, we talk about what editors do and don’t like to see from young writers who are getting started in the games field. And Ellie talks about her son, of course.

Don’t miss an episode of Gameological In Stereo: Add the podcast-only feed to your RSS reader, or your podcast app, or what have you. You can also subscribe on iTunes.

Share this with your friends and enemies

Write a scintillating comment

  • PaganPoet

    I’m PaganPoet, and I endorse the discussion topic of this podcast.

    • George_Liquor

      Pff! You say that for all the podcasts.

    • HobbesMkii

       I think Teti oversold the prevalence of penis in this podcast. It’s briefly touched upon by Evan and Mrs. Teti, but other than that, there’s far less than the description led me to believe.

      • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000590707081 Chris Ingersoll

        Well when it’s your mom mentioning it (and referencing your grandmother in the process) it tends to stick out be enhanced in your memory.

        • HobbesMkii

           If your awkwardness does not subside after four hours, call a doctor.

  • HobbesMkii

    Top 3 Least Favorite Nazis thread:

    1. Hitler, 2. Himmler, 3. Heydrich.

    • http://gameological.com/author/johnteti/ John Teti

      woah there himmler

      • George_Liquor

         Reinhardy boy.

        • Jackbert322

          HOMOSEXUELL ARSCH FANBOY HIER!

    • Electric Dragon

      So does that mean you have favourite Nazis?

      • HobbesMkii

         I mean, I suppose by definition that would mean there are Nazis that would be more favorited that others, but I can’t say I would actually call them my “favorite” Nazis.

      • Citric

        Ferdinand Porsche maybe?

    • http://www.gildedgreen.com/ Girard

      When I was five, my mom took me to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, so I have, in fact, been hating Nazis since I was five years old.

  • Drew Toal

    “Kotaku dot com. On the Internet.” Riveting.

    • Drew Toal

      For the record, I’m just upset that Narcisse beat me out for a spot on the podcast.

      • HobbesMkii

         I know this isn’t the case, but I now have this image of everyone who wants to be on the podcast having to compete in some sort of sports competition, and you losing to Evan, Ellie, and Mrs. Teti in HORSE.

        • DrunkPhilatelist

          mrs. teti always uses her sky hook from the free throw line to close it out. sure it’s old school, but it’s a damn tough shot to match.

        • EmperorNortonI

           I’d rather imagine a jousting tournament.

  • http://www.avclub.com/ B.K.

    Where do I send funds to get more frequent eps of the podcast? I’ll hang up and listen. Thanks!

  • Jeff Bandy

    Bonnie is the reigning MVP of the Gameological Society podcast. I love her bemused/exasperated pan-maternal tone of voice (e.g. her “I don’t know” response to the TiVo/DirectTV question). Great work as always John and co. Sycophantic comment, finis.

  • His_Space_Holiness

    Well hey, I can write and could use an internship. Better get to thinkin’ ’bout Nazis.

  • http://www.avclub.com/users/merve,96925/ Merve

    I hope you guys were serious about that head-to-head feature, because that sounds awesome. It would be really funny if you picked a couple of games from genres with which neither of you is familiar, so we can see/hear/read your reactions.

  • http://www.gildedgreen.com/ Girard

    The discussion about the industry not having many people of color (in the West, obviously) got me thinking about how typically the burgeoning indie scene is touted as a platform for voices that aren’t typically represented in the larger game industry – but how that scene is still overwhelmingly (to my knowledge) white and male. I remember being kind of vicariously embarrassed at the trailer for Indie Game Movie a film trying to document this emerging phenomenon, but which was pretty much entirely populated by 20-something white dudes.

    Off the top of my head, the only black indie developer that occurs to me is 
    Auriea Harvey from Tale of Tales. Vander Caballero is the only Hispanic indie developer that occurs to me. I feel like there’s more representation by Western indie developers of East Asian descent, but I can actually only come up with two, Derek Yu and Jenova Chen (I suspect the “feeling” that that demo is more represented might be because of the obvious presence of numerous big-name Japanese creators).

    Is there something (or someone) I’m missing, or is the nominally more diverse world of indie development actually just about as whitebread as the AAA dev world? Maybe it’s not so much a lack of representation in the dev community so much as a lack of coverage by gaming press?

    • EmperorNortonI

       The guys who made FTL are located in Shanghai, and I’d be damned if I lived there for fun.

      • EmperorNortonI

         Though now that I think about it, as an indie developer looking to absolutely maximize how far one can stretch limited dollars, especially when it comes to paying rent and food while still having internet, then China might not be that bad.  Shanghai is pretty expensive, though.  Chiang Mai in Thailand would be pretty awesome.

    • http://twitter.com/Misc_Studios Miscellaneum Studios

       We’re here! and more people of colour and women are making their way through the scene. Check out Dames Making Games, and Pixelles as well.

  • http://www.gildedgreen.com/ Girard

    Bonnie Teti: “Well..but it’s good to eliminate them.”
    John ‘Johnny Boy’ Teti: “Woah there Hitler.”

  • Fyodor Douchetoevsky

    Whoa, who invited the Nintendo hater?

    Get it? It’s like I’m being a stupid jerk on the internet! 

    • http://www.avclub.com/users/merve,96925/ Merve

      You might even say that you’re being a…douche.

      *rimshot*

      • George_Liquor

        Oh, you are a caution!

      • Fyodor Douchetoevsky

        You’ve gotta a lot of MERVE! HAHAHAHA.

        Alright, no more ironic shitposting for me today. 

  • EmperorNortonI

    This is, perhaps, the best episode of Gameological in Stereo that I can remember.  Really excellent.

    The discussion with Mr. Narcisse got me thinking of a somewhat different kind of Afro-centric list – games in which slaves, slave-owning, or the slave trade show up in a game-mechanic-related way.  So, a game in which you could buy, sell, or own slaves would count.  A game in which you were a slave, or freed slaves, would also count.  Heck, even a game in which you visited a slave auction or slave plantation would count.  Off the top of my head, only Europa Universalis (some areas of Africa have “slaves” as their trade good) and Puerto Rico (in which small brown tokens, called “colonists”, work on sugar plantations) qualify.

    Or how about this – a FPS game, where you are a slave in the Antebellum south and you have to escape to freedom in the North.  Choose the time and method of your escape, evade the master and his riders, link up with the underground railroad, scavenge for food while remaining undetected, and make your way towards freedom.  You could have a branching mission structure, depending on the route you choose and the choices you make.  Difficulty could be raised or lowered by having you start further north, or in the Deep South.  Capture would end the game, but as a consolation prize they could watch their slave be tortured to death in truly horrific, yet historically accurate, ways.  For the DLC, you could defend your town of freedmen from a posse trying to enforce the letter of the Fugitive Slave Act!

    Or, how about this – Plantation Simulator 2013!  YOU are a slave-owning planter!  Lay out your fields, choose your crop rotation, hire overseers, build slave housing, whip slackers, and impress your neighbors with your Neo-Classical Plantation House!  Featuring real maps based on the plantation homes of prominent Founding Fathers!  See if you can manage your estate better than George Washington or Thomas Jefferson!  

  • http://twitter.com/Misc_Studios Miscellaneum Studios

    Hi, my name is Lateef Martin,  Creative Director of Miscellaneum Studios
    out of Montreal. I’m a Black game developer and our game features
    positive black characters. We’re making a game called The Firemasters,
    come check us out  here:

    thefiremasters.tumblr.com

    executionlabs.com

  • spongebob

    I love your podcast and I love the fact that it is back. Don’t stop.

  • Bryanna Parker

    Despite the fact that no one will see this, I’m saying it anyway: This podcast was (is) amazing. I wish I knew more gaming podcasts that were engaging in these types of discussions, both in terms of the “news” aspect of it and the cultural impact (gender, race, sexuality, etc.) of games and gaming. Whoop!