How the ESRB works
Age ratings – where do they come from? What are the good for? And how accurate are they? – Come along as we venture into the workings of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Shownotes
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Games in the Box (with Claudius Clüver)
We might nostalgically look back at the beauty of game boxes and fail to realize how strongly they are linked to the economization of games. With our guest, game studies scholar Claudius Clüver, we trace how games got into the box and how, with the advent of digital distribution, they made their way back out….
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PS5 Giveaway, Essential Tips and Settings
Indeed, it is true – we are giving away a brand new PS5! And for all of you who already have one or plan to get one soon we have collected some essential tips and settings. For example, did you know that the integrated microphone in the DualSense controller impacts the intensity of haptic feedback?…
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PS5 Giveaway
We have had a wonderful start this year and this is in no small part due to you out there. We sincerely appreciate your love for Studying Pixels and thus want to give you something in return, a Christmas gift, namely: a PS5. What you get A brand new PlayStation 5 Disc Edition including one…
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Title Blunder
It’s at the tip of my tongue! Have you ever forgotten the title of a video game and instead just given it a ridiculous description? Well, that is exactly what we do for this week. Enjoy our title blunders! In our side quests, we share our initial impressions of Shin Megami Tensei V, give a dreary…
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Why are all games about time loops these days? (with Federico Alvarez Igarzábal)
What if we could start all over again? – These days, a whole bunch of games tries to answer this question. From Hades to Returnal, from Loop Hero to 12 Minutes, and most recently: Deathloop. To help us understand why there is such an abundance of time loop games, we are joined by game studies scholar Federico Alvarez Igarzábal. Shownotes 00:05:24 Why are all…
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How Yakuza works
Nearly everyone seems to have heard of Yakuza – primarily as this quirky Japanese series that is a small yet dedicated following. If you feel that way, then you came to the right place, because we dive into what Yakuza is, why it is so idiosyncratic, and what makes it specially in the way it…
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Halloween Special: Cursed Games
“I am god here.” A strangely unsettling sentence, especially if uttered by a character in a game that might very well be cursed. For this Halloween we collect and retell our favorite gaming-related creepypastas and urban legends. Shownotes 00:05:08 The Lavender Town Incident (Pokémon Red/Blue) Pokémon Lavender Town Original Score 00:13:44 BEN Drowned (The Legend…
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The Myth of Missing No.
Could that school friend really be right about this Pokémon that is not supposed to exist? Is there really a way to infinitely multiply items as this Nintendo magazine suggests? – We’re diving back into our childhood to unravel how Missing No. changed the ideas about how video games work and who owns their lore….
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Squid Game
Everyone is talking about it and so are we: the South Korean survival drama Squid Game. Its astounding popularity aside, we are especially curious about what the show tells us about games, play, and their relation to very real class disparity. (Our main story is spoiler free, so no to worry. We’ve got a separate and…
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