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Ep. 418 - Keep Cringe Alive, with Vanessa B

Added 2025-12-08 08:49:54 +0000 UTC

Crystal Dynamics and GDQ Community Manager Vanessa B joins Ash and Brandon to talk about Horses discourse, engaging with game communities, and Juri’s feet.

Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield, and Vanessa B. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.

SHOW NOTES:

1: What’s the best community in speedrunning? (04:57)

2: How does a community manager keep the fanbase of a series engaged between release cycles? (13:23)

3: Here in 2025, how do you explain the significance of Lara Croft? (20:54)

4: What is Gex like in real life? (30:17)

5: spencergifs asks, how would one make a video game that had the fewest amount of players while generating the largest amount of discourse and content? (37:07)

6: Are there specific racial stereotypes within the video game industry and community that we have to contend with? (43:29)

LIGHTNING ROUND: Synestheatre (50:05)

Recommendations and Outro (01:10:21):

Vanessa: Back to Black 2026, Speeding Through the Holidays
Ash: Sit with art that makes you uncomfortable
Brandon: Under Siege (1992), the blu-ray commentary for The Hunted (1995) if you’re interested in the craft of making movies, Unglued - Way Back When
Jaffe: Demonschool

DIRTBAGS:

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