Episode 4
1h 13m | Nov 2, 2025We're confused. We're trying our best
0:00 - intro
20:14 - I try again, kind of
32:57 - I make a note that there's a weirdly "serious" digression later, though I maybe overstate its seriousness, though maybe not
33:49 - Back to the "action"
49:35 - Aforementioned digression
1:01:36 - "Block Koala" Level 4
Stuff I mention and context etc.:
Eggplant: The Secret Life of Games Discord // http://discord.gg/eggplant
Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux, Metagaming // https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816687169/metagaming/
Joey Schutz, "To Kill a Dragon: Video Games and Addiction" (the blog post I was talking about) // https://blog.joeyschutz.com/to-kill-a-dragon-video-games-and-addiction/
Bernard Suits, The Grasshopper ("The Suits Book") // https://broadviewpress.com/product/the-grasshopper-third-edition/#tab-description
Alfred Archer, "How to Destroy an Epistemic Game: Epistemic Triflers, Cheats and Spoilsports" (An academic paper I found on Google and looked at while riffing on the trifler/cheater/spoilsport trifecta. The website title is pretty funny) // https://philarchive.org/archive/ARCHTD
World of Warcraft // https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/en-us/
"Best Fishing Locations in World of Warcraft Classic" // https://www.wowhead.com/classic/guide/best-fishing-pools-farming-locations-classic-wow
AnyAustin, "Where Do Skyrim's Rivers Come From?" // https://youtu.be/69u_Pxb_8zI?si=H9b6kCZD5llmXJmt
AnyAustin, Unemployment Count Playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs1_AOpP2yz4rroQz25ezXH_iT8_KGufR
(Secret zones in World of Warcraft: https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Old_Ironforge // https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mount_Hyjal#The_zone_before_Cataclysm)
Hollow Knight: Silksong // https://hollowknightsilksong.com/
Scott Rigby, "Intrinsic and Extrinsic Player Motivation: Implications for Design and Player Retention" (GDC talk that I don't think is the one I'm thinking of but whatever) https://gdcvault.com/play/1015568/Intrinsic-and-Extrinsic-Player-Motivation
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Victoria M. E. Bridgland, Payton J. Jones, and Benjamin W. Bellet, "A Meta-Analysis of the Efficacy of Trigger Warnings, Content Warnings, and Content Notes" // (https://doi.org/10.1177/21677026231186625)
Natasha Dow Schüll, Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas // https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691160887/addiction-by-design (here's an NYU Game Center talk about the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y2HTYGLCiA)
Balatro // https://store.steampowered.com/app/2379780/Balatro/
Luck be a Landlord // https://store.steampowered.com/app/1404850/Luck_be_a_Landlord/
CloverPit ("evil slots") // https://store.steampowered.com/app/3314790/CloverPit/
I mention, once again, as if I hadn't before, Joey Schutz, "To Kill a Dragon: Video Games and Addiction" // https://blog.joeyschutz.com/to-kill-a-dragon-video-games-and-addiction/
Nathan Grayson, "'One More Turn' Doesn't Always Mean a Game is Good" (critical article on "One More Turn") // https://aftermath.site/aftermath-hours-podcast-civilization-vii-one-more-turn
Paul Solotaroff and Eli Senor, "There's Now a Casino in Everyone's Pocket. For Some Young Men, It's A Near-Fatal Gamble" (one emblematic "young men doing crazy parleys on the toilet" article) // https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/mobile-sports-betting-gambling-addiction-fanduel-draftkings-1235444172/
Wikipedia, "Binge Watching" // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binge-watching
Austin Perlmutter, "The Truth about Dopamine and Your Brain" // https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-modern-brain/202403/the-truth-about-dopamine-and-your-brain
Peter Grinspoon, "Dopamine fasting: Misunderstanding science spawns a maladaptive fad" // https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/dopamine-fasting-misunderstanding-science-spawns-a-maladaptive-fad-2020022618917
Diablo // https://www.gog.com/en/game/diablo
Genshin Impact // https://genshin.hoyoverse.com/en/
Sara Abdul Qader, "Doomscrolling and the Dopamine Loop: How Endless Scrolling Is Rewiring Our Brains" // https://www.medreport.foundation/post/doomscrolling-and-the-dopamine-loop-how-endless-scrolling-is-rewiring-our-brains
Jody Macgregor, "Every Warhammer 40,000 Game, Ranked" // https://www.pcgamer.com/best-warhammer-40k-games/
"Horus Heresy Omnibus XIV: Shadow of the Warmaster II: Lords of Death" // https://www.heresyomnibus.com/omnibus/xiv-shadow-of-the-warmaster-ii-lords-of-death
UFO50 // https://50games.fun/
Twilight Imperium // https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/twilight-imperium-fourth-edition/
"The Pin, In Case You Want Proof" // https://i.imgur.com/wDgUb4i.jpeg
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Locke's Political Philosophy: 4. Consent, Political Obligation, and the Ends of Government" // https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/#ConsPoliObliEndsGove
Fred Block, "The Problem with a Job Guarantee" (for a critique of the job guarantee as a political stance with which I think I'm broadly sympathetic) // https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-problem-with-a-job-guarantee/
Erik Baker, Make Your Own Job: How the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic Exhausted America // https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674293601 // (I haven't read this one but I did listen to this PODCAST EPISODE about it lol https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/know-your-enemy-the-entrepreneurial-ethic/)
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Wikipedia, "Lupercalia" // https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupercalia (I want the record to show that I am not endorsing a return to this particular ritual practice)
Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (an example of scholarship about the symbolic and religious significance of food of which I have only read the first chapter but I've heard it's really good and have been wanting to read it for literally ten years so maybe I will soon idk) // https://www.ucpress.edu/books/holy-feast-and-holy-fast/paper
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Qualia" // https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qualia/
"Block Koala" // https://ufo50.miraheze.org/wiki/Block_Koala
Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: The Sacred Work of Grief (I read this a long time ago idk take rec with a grain of salt if you want ????? Idk???????) https://www.francisweller.net/the-wild-edge-of-sorrow-the-sacred-work-of-grief.html
The Dhammapada, Chapter 17, Anger ("the Buddhist tradition...holds that anger is not something to be exorcised") // https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/dp17/
Sophie L. Kjærvik and Brad J. Bushman, "A meta-analytic review of anger management activities that increase or decrease arousal: What fuels or douses rage?" ("punching a punching bag")// https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735824000357
Suzie Pileggi Pawelski and James Pawelski, "Why Venting Might Not Actually Be Good for You" (I say this is a study and it's definitely actually just an article by a couple of randos but it links to studies) // https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/suzie-pileggi-pawelski-mapp-and-james-pawelski-phd
Cinco Paus // https://smestorp.itch.io/cinco-paus
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Mordaak, "Block Koala Level 4" // https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCDrchVxHog&list=PL8LHCrRpkbTreIXdAdySxx0EIimZSA0Vw&index=5
GuyWithLegs, "Block Koala's Cherry + Ending! | UFO 50: The Gold Disk Journey!" // https://youtu.be/GAwa1OffiXA?si=lnpFqeBMeAKKcLX6
Isles of Sea & Sky // https://islesofseaandsky.com/
Theodor Adorno, "51. Memento," from Minima Moralia (for what I was like maybe basing this utterly nonsensical bit on? Re: "fundamental aesthetic coherence") // https://read.seas.harvard.edu/~kohler/z/adornoonwriting.html
