We are lucky enough to get another episode of Robert Ashley’s A Life Well Wasted this week and it starts out on the question of “Why do you play video games?” This is an interesting question that few, even when they are asked, take too seriously. Would many be just as thoughtless with their answer to “Why do you watch films?” or “Why do you read books?” Are those questions even really comparable?
The bulk of this show is spent hearing about and listening to Jason Rohrer. In the December issue of Esquire magazine Jason Fagone wrote an article on Rohrer and has a lot of insight into the man. He is a man who lives his life minimally and is trying to figure out how to make expressive games. The game industry could do with more designers who approach game design as Rohrer does.
The final segment here is an interview with a game developer who has made some horrible games. His voice is masked to protect his anonymity and he provides some insight insight the darker sides of the industry and goes into how games end up bad and what that can mean for everyone involved.
Robert Ashley wonders why he spends his free time playing videogames, asks random people on the street about it, talks to a researcher whose work attempts to harness the brain power wasted on gaming, gets to know an eccentric, forward-thinking game designer who lives sustainably with his family of four on $14,000 a year, and gets a first-hand account of what it’s like to work on terrible games (and what it’s like to get terrible reviews) from an anonymous game developer.
Runtime – 53:00
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