Level 30 Plus

Our friend and Tokyo comedian David Gutteridge joins us to tell us why he plays games but isn't a "gamer," and what gaming was like in Ye Oldene Dayes before the arrival of the NES.   Find us at --Facebook: Level 30+Twitter: @level30podcastInstagram: worst_finest (JonJon)                 yojimbojapan (John with an H) website: www.levelthirtypluspodcast.com

Things dip into the realm of After School Special in this, the second half of our conversation with the great bear wrestler, Zangief of Russia. Tune in to learn the wisdom that comes from survival in the cold wastes of Siberia. 

Pretty much what it says on the tin.

[PART 2 OF 2]  The Juans continue their discussion of their video game pasts, and lay out the responsibility the gaming community has to not be jerks.  Or, more specifically, to be inclusive and nurturing yet non-pushy and non-creepy non-jerks.

John and JonJon discuss their video game pasts, and reexamine some of their opinions.

The Stanley Parable is a game full of some stupid shit: a giant inescapable room of rotating colored buttons that accomplish nothing, a mini game where you yank a cardboard baby away from a fire for four hours straight, and an achievement for not playing the game for five years.  And this is how it gets real with you.  Being self-examining, weird and challenging is part of any artistic medium’s development. We love The Stanley Parable for doing just that. Enjoy the show! Check us out at www.levelthirtypluspodcast.com for the full show notes and links.

Games have a long standing tradition of combat as conflict resolution. But we also know that games are capable of so much more. This week we touch on the discussion of what non-combat games can do for this growing artistic medium by talking about two great examples -- Gone Home and Papers, Please.

John with an H and Jon Jon bring in their friend Dr. Travis Love to talk about a recent resurgence in games that revel in difficulty. FTL, Super Meat Boy, Spelunky. All of these are examples that we use. 

Back from a well deserved break the boys delve deep into the realm of TellTale Games' properties. Main focus? The Wolf Among Us but The Walking Dead can't help but jump scare out of nowhere time and time again. 

This week is our first guest, Ben!! We talk about family and Minecraft in a plethora of stupid, silly voices. 

On this episode John with an H and Jon Jon try to untangle the complicated web that is community in games. With shout outs to the show Community and the FGC. 

The fellas try to untangle the murky web of the free-to-play model. It's tricky ya'll. 

Your hosts get deep into that mission statement about should games be held to the same standards as other artistic media. At least in terms of how they should go about selling out for bags of wonderful cash. 

Grand Theft Auto 5 is freshly beaten and as such dominates most of the conversation. We do manage to talk a bit about how it feels to go back to older games after their time has passed. And don't worry, we'll be sure to mention Skyrim somewhere down the line. 

The fellas download GTA5 and during the wait they go over the trials and tribulations of time management in the modern world. 

Today's episode we attempt to parse the Free-to-Play economic model and gush about Skyrim...again... Music from Bleak House and Flex Vector

We dive deep this week into Portal 2 and MMO addiction based on John with an H's personal experiences. Also introducing a brand new feature, Error Correction!

In this episode our hosts spin candy-floss tales of games that could, nay should be developed. It's a bunch of fandom mish-mashing. Yes I just verbed that. 

The past few episodes we've been talking about "deep" thoughts when it comes to games. This week, we take a break from all that and just talk about the actual games we enjoy.

This week's episode is about games and ideas that were ahead of their time. Shout outs to Dreamcast and Saturn.