"Are video games okay?" - Gaming's First Annual Physical
Added 2025-07-04 16:12:38 +0000 UTC
Welcome to Post Game’s first annual physical, in which a special guest joins me to assess the health and stability of gaming, from the creators to the players, the industry to the culture. I’ve invited one of the smartest, analytical, and forward-thinking minds in video – writer, developer, publisher, critic, analyst, and occasional voice actor Xalavier Nelson Jr. – to give video games a thorough workup
Bonus Patreon Prologue: The state of games 10, 20, and 30 years ago
Act 1: The best of times - Why 2025 could be the golden age of video games
Act 2: The worst of times - Why video games feel doomed
Bonus Patreon interview segment: Xalavier on gaming’s past, present, and future
Act 3: The news of the week, including the ghoulish mass layoffs at Xbox
Today's episode's act-interstitials feature music from the games of Strange Scaffold!
Bonus: The state of video games 10, 20, and 30 years ago
30 Years Ago: The Games of 1995 - How Many Did You Play? (Gary)
The Sony PlayStation in 1995 (Classic Gaming Quarterly)
GameSpot's Best and Worst of 2005 awards kick off (GameSpot)
A fun Reddit thread on gaming in 2005 (Reddit)
2015’s Games of the Year (Polygon)
A huge forum post on gaming in 2015 (Resetera)
Act 1: The golden era of gaming
Strange Scaffold games
GDC Vault (Game Developers Conference)
‘Skibidi Toilet’ Film and TV Franchise in the Works From Michael Bay, Adam Goodman — Listen to the Exclusive Interview (Variety)
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Is an Astounding, and Sometimes Frustrating, Masterpiece (Inverse)
Act 2: Video games are doomed
Paradox Interactive's leaders think you deserve an explanation (Game File)
If You Don’t Count Everyone Else, All Devs Are Solo Devs (VGbees)
No, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 wasn't "made" by 30 people (RPS)
Inside the Dragon Age debacle (Bloomberg)
Glen Powell’s face (Glen Powell’s parents)
Fortnite’s Darth Vader Is A.I.-Powered. Voice Actors Are Rebelling. (NYTimes)
Bonus: The past, present, and future of games
The word of the moment (Merriam-Webster)
Xalavier Neslon Jr. (TikTok)
Act 3: The News of the Week
Xbox has mass layoffs, cancels games, and closes the studio making Perfect Dark reboot (Eurogamer)
Fears for 100 jobs at Galway-based Romero Games (RTE)
I’m Getting Real Tired Of Not Being Able To Trust That A Video Game Doesn’t Have AI Crap In It (Aftermath)
Death Stranding 2's most important reference isn't a movie, it's a really depressing novel
Extinction entity. (Eurogamer)
Red Dead Online gets a big update… after being presumed dead (YouTube)
The launch of Endless Mode (Endless Mode)
G/O Media sells Kotaku to Gizmodo owner Keleops (Axios)
This week in video game links
Weird little places in Mario Kart World (AnyAustin)
The Freelance Camaraderie of Death Stranding (Endless Mode)
Chris Plante (Me!) On Life After Polygon (MinnMax)
Solid Gear Metal (Videogamedunkey)
Ahead of next week’s Atari episode: the history of Berzerk (PatmanQC)
Enter Elektro (Fudgebudger)
Free game of the week: Autopeli
This split-screen retro-style racing game runs on Windows and Mac. Meaning you should download it onto your laptop so you always have some local multiplayer ready to play with friends, co-workers, or classmates! (Itch.io)
What else I’m enjoying
Pete Docter and the Inside Out of Pixar’s Process (Mike Birbiglia)
Japanese Urban Legend Films (Accented Cinema)
Waterworld’s Trimaran: The Greatest Movie Boat Ever (The Atoll)
How Knockoff Jerseys Became Better Than Real Ones (Joon Lee)
Inside NPR's Tiny Desk Concert Set (Architectural Digest)
Comments
Hey! First, I'm so sorry to hear you were affected. That royally sucks. It's a miserable how something like this can so dramatically impact your life, when the reason for the action is and was far outside your control. For your question about action: This is such a great comment, and I've been thinking a lot about it. Though my answer will sound like a bit of a contradiction. I think the answer is you shouldn't be obligated to act on this. A challenge with the current state of the world is that we often seek ways to provide order and support as the consumer, largely because we have such little say beyond "vote with your dollar." Folks could totally choose to stop buying Microsoft games, but that won't hurt Microsoft (which is already shifting to AI anyway), but could (in the collective) hurt individual game studios. I think the best thing people can do is be informed. Show compassion where they can. And involve themselves in their communities. When people see this stuff happening, it's a reminder to be involved in small scenes where you can collaborate and support real people, often face-to-face. The bummer reality is we can't easily fix big problems. But we can have signifcant impact in the small and the local. So I guess that is an action, but it's sort of my universal recommendation that I'd put at the end of every episode.
Chris Plante
2025-07-10 20:40:14 +0000 UTCWhat an insightful person in the industry. Perfectly summarized the eventual result of AI.
Morgan Suhm
2025-07-10 04:53:03 +0000 UTCLoved this episode, Chris! One thing I would have liked to have received was some sort of opportunity for action during the Worst of Times section. I totally agree that the (I think well intentioned) approach of the less polished games mantra is not realistic or actually wanted. But what do players and industry people do then to support a positive future of gaming? Also, as a person affected in the 9000+ msft layoff, and I worked no where near gaming, I sincerely appreciated your take on it all. Thanks for saying anything at all about it.
geopet
2025-07-08 14:56:11 +0000 UTC
