Tag Archives: Massachusetts

Polygamer #105: T.L. Taylor on Twitch streaming

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Dr. T.L. Taylor is a professor at M.I.T. and the author of several books, including Watch Me Play – Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Her ethnographic research into esports and online game streaming have led her to co-found AnyKey, an advocacy organization that supports diversity, inclusion, and equity in competitive gaming; and to be one of the founding members of Twitch’s Safety Advisory Council.

In this episode, I ask T.L. how esports led to Twitch and vice versa; how an external advisory council can sway an organization as large as Twitch; how one can write a book about a medium that is so quickly evolving; the AnyKey pledge that over 750,000 million streamers have taken; whether esports could survive without Twitch, or vice versa; what gaming can tell us about the future of our country’s culture and politics; and about her current research into amusement parks as commercialized play spaces.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Mixcloud, Amazon Music, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Polygamer #90: Athena Z Peters of Adventure Pub

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Athena Z Peters is the founder and co-owner of Adventure Pub, a gaming gastropub located in the suburbs of Boston in Arlington, Massachusetts. Friends, families, and strangers can order from a full food and drink menu, borrow from a library of 400 board games, card games, and role-playing games, and even reserve event space for their Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Whether you’re looking to try a game before you buy, discover something new, revisit a favorite classic, or enjoy a good meal, Adventure Pub will accommodate all these tastes.

Prior to Adventure Pub opening its doors in December 2018, Peters worked in the video games industry, most recently as an executive producer at Turbine, where she managed such projects as Lord of the Rings Online and Batman: Underworld. In this interview, I ask Peters what prompted the career change from digital games to physical; what’s behind the emerging trend of gaming cafés; whether the popularity of Game of Thrones and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has driven players to board games; what rare or unusual games visitors might find in the pub’s library; whether she might open an indie game studio next; and how she juggles all this with her performance group, Incantrix Productions.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Mixcloud, Amazon Music, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:02:37 — 29.5MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #65: MIT’s Prof. Kishonna Gray on justice studies

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Kishonna Gray is a visiting scholar at MIT’s Comparative Media Studies/Writing department, where she teaches Women & Gender Studies. She comes from Eastern Kentucky University, where she founded the Critical Gaming Lab; and from Arizona State University, where earned her Ph.D. in justice studies. She is the author of Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live, in which she examines deviant behavior in online gaming.

In this episode of Polygamer, I ask Kishonna about the correlation between justice studies and media studies; how her relationship with gaming evolved from being a gamer to an academic; why games became less diverse after the 1990s; whether entertainment media shows a rise in violence toward women, and the ways in which that is paralleled in online harassment and offline violence; her goal in founding EKU’s Critical Gaming Lab; what her time at MIT has allowed her to do that she couldn’t do at EKU; and the hope to be found in indie game development.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 51:43 — 24.5MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #20: Sarah Como of Zephyr Workshop

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Sarah Como is the Chief Operating Officer of Zephyr Workshop, developer of tabletop game A.E.G.I.S. and computer game Flora Fiora. Zephyr was born amidst Sarah’s recent education in the game design program at Becker College, which landed her on the PAX East panel "Full-Time Student, Part-Time Indie", in which she discussed juggling these dual roles. Since graduation, Sarah has become active in all aspects of Boston’s indie game scene, including working as PR manager for the Boston Festival of Indie Games (BostonFIG) and consultant for Green Door Labs.

In this episode of Polygamer, Sarah and Ken talk about the value of having a formal education in game design; the lasting appeal of board games in a digital age; best practices for Kickstarter crowdfunding; the role of geography and networking in getting your projects off the ground; and the occasional need to "lawyer up" before embarking on a new venture.

Download the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:12:50 — 34.2MB) | Embed

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