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Episode 11 is up

Made it in for the end of the year. Season 1 is complete. A full lawyer’s dozen. I never get sick of that joke.  The word is FAIL. Not much to say, but I did want to link to a few things

The Aesthetics of Failure - a very brief essay by electronic musician Kim Cascone.  I discovered Cascone when I was on a Walter Benjamin kick and discovered another of his writings: "Laptop music-counterfeiting aura in the age of infinite reproduction" which titles is a bit like my man W. Ben.

While I don’t think the Pre-Show made it up, you can watch the rest of The Game Awards.  Lots to love.

Finally, Oxenfree, the game I mentioned in the episode that I helped out on a bit, is about to launch! Check it out. This is definitely a game a non-gamer could cuddle up with, there’s no hard reflex work, or real roadblocks, though there are a few mechanics to suss out, making it a great game and learning experience for those wanting to check out the world of video games.

See you in 2016 for season 2 of Game is a 4 Letter Word.

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Episode 10 - AM/FM

An (almost) one man show in three acts: AM, FM, College Radio.

(Sorry this one is late - I got mugged last night! I’m ok, but really throws a wrench into production.  Sorry, not to be glib, but after missing a week I have a bona fide excuse.  But anyways, be careful, things can happen at 7PM on busy streets that cop cars parked on them.)

This episode was partly inspired by Todd Solondz film storytelling, which features a 15 frame cameo of Gravity’s Rainbow. It was originally three parts, Fiction, Non-fiction, and Autobiography. Dewey Decimal 92 got the axe, I think it involved sodomy and Jason Vanderbeek.  

AM has odd dashes of F Zero and Fargo, and a passing glance at where the physicality of games are going. And, yes, that REM comic is real and made an impression on my 12 year old mind (and was a bitch to research.) Also, I realize the lady says she’s selling games and then says she’s not. Theater!

FM was inspired by seeing Spectre, and a love of original game songs with vocals, which was such a rarity, and is actually still pretty uncommon. Was also inspired by David Cross’ take on FM morning DJs.  My throat hurts today.

College Radio is tied to my education, being haunted by an 8-bit melody and the work of Brett Easton Ellis. All of these things register as barely.

and it’s not a real radio jingle, but how good is central services from Gilliam’s Brazil? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvo6ChoKCF4&list=PLG4CJ1wTXtPiobKLAhutDV3z9D7rchQB6

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Shane Acker’s student film Hangnail has really nothing in common with 9, but is worth watching for those with a strong stomach. Oh, episode 9 is out, the word is NINE....again! More show notes below

Shane Acker’s website is, naturally, www.shaneacker.com

Adam Gopnik’s piece on juvenile fantasy literature and it’s appeal can be found at The New Yorker

As for the Oulipo literary movement, I bow down to Wikipedia for simplicity, though the curious are invited to check out the primer 

As always, leave a comment about the show or tweet at me @OtherWhiteTofu or an email at mail@g4lw.net 

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Episode 8 is here, courtesy of Matt Walden, and it’s all NEON.

Future retro arcades founded on love and pinball, corporate clash with new wave culture, and David Foster Wallace. Yes, it's a typical episode of Game is a 4 Letter Word. Video games for everyone.

The Neon Retro Arcade can be found in Pasadena, but the Neon Retro Arcade homepage can be found here http://neonretroarcade.com/

Ex-Atari wunderkind Keith Sawyer has a lot to say about creativity: http://www.unc.edu/home/rksawyer/zigzag/  

You too can read David Foster Wallace’s short story Good Old Neon http://stanford.edu/~sdmiller/octo/files/no_google2/GoodOldNeon.pdf

And if you want to get in on the book club, feel free to tweet at Matt at https://twitter.com/sneakdoorbeta and David at https://twitter.com/davidwolinsky and catch up on David’s latest interviews at Don’t Die: http://nodontdie.com 

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Episode 7- NINE - A Stitch in Time

Robert De Niro. Torture. Ed Wood.  Game is a 4 Letter Word celebrates the fringes of numerology with the three o three's: 9.  With work from Built to Play podcast.

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Episode 6 is up! The word is Rose, and we talk about secret societies, Erik Satie, how a fine wine is like a video game, and talk with the creator of Sub Rosa.

David Wolinsky’s Don’t Die will have the full interview with Borut Pfieffer this Friday.

Alex Austin’s Sub Rosa can be found, naturally, at SubRosaGame.com

As always, we love feedback! Let us know here, send us an email at mail@g4lw.net or hit me, Ryan, up on twitter, or the you can message the show there as well.

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Episode 5 - FIVE - Gigs and Giggles

Well, we did it. Our first “gimmick” episode. We turn to the burgeoning gig economy on the internet and see if they can make a better episode than us, for around five bucks.

Episode 5 Testimonial from Game is a 4 Letter Word on Vimeo.

People have such nice things to say about the show! And if you don't play video games, or sometimes just can't make the effort to roll out of bed and grab a joystick, producer Matthew Walden consigned this gentlemen for a little motivation:

Episode Five Teaser from Game is a 4 Letter Word on Vimeo.

Ok, this episode didn't go off completly as planned, but I think that's ok. I actually think we'll re-explore this idea in another season, maybe Five 2.0? If you did find the gig economy idea intriguing and you like podcasts, make sure to check out Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything. He recently did a multipart podcast with a somewhat similar theme, except he just found one guy to make his podcast, and made him work "gig" jobs for an entire month, you know, stuff like Uber. Really great. As always, would love your feedback, and if you like the show, and as I said, even if you didn't like this particular episode, tell a friend! See you next time - Ryan

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Episode 4 - ICBM

We ask you to reimagine the most striking imagery of the Cold War - nukes. These missiles could end civilization, and we turn look at some games that deal with that very question: ICBM and to be fair to the Reds, Super Soviet Missile Mastar. Plus, adult puppets. As always follow us on twitter @otherwhitetofu @sneakdoorbeta @G4LWshow and visit g4lw.net for show notes!

Time for some links!

You can get ICBM the game at, well, www.ICBM-GAME.com 

Super Soviet Missile Mastar is on iOS at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/super-soviet-missile-mastar/id406395545?mt=8

And you adorn yourself with SSMM clothing as well http://store.thebehemoth.com/products/super-soviet-missle-mastar

The Genesis (the band not the console) gets funky with creepy puppets, including a puppet Phil Collins in the Land of Confusion  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pkVLqSaahk

And finally, Betty White does a striptease for the puppet version of Jimmy Carter. Kinda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g8EO5fDYMI

As always, if you like the show, let us know, tell a friend, write a review! Follow us on twitter and all that jazz.

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Episode 3 - CULT

We go Earthbound and down to explore every aspect of what makes a game a cult classic, along with the first coproduction with David Wolinsky's Don't Die series looking at what it means to be in the cult of personality in the indie games space and as a video game journo. Plus, Matt joins a cult for a night. It does not go well.

I’m Ryan Stevens, thanks for listening. And reading this.

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Episode 2 - WHAT

Is it navel gazing or getting back to basics? Either way, episode two is here and we're asking: What is a video game?  Professors, game enthuisiasts, and a slew of other podcasters weigh in on the eternal debate.  And let me ask you, right now, what do you think a video game is?

Thanks to Strangers, Criminal, Song Exploder, Pop Rocket, Take Two, and everyone at E3 and beyond.

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Episode 1: ‘PINK’ Show Notes

Our first episode! We even broke an hour, wow.  

Welcome to Game is a 4 Letter Word, and our first episode: PINK - It’s a Lifestyle, show notes.

You can listen here.

And a quick word if you happened to blunder onto this post somehow: I had an idea around Christmas to do a podcast, a video podcast at that time actually. While the video component has shrank, the general premise hasn’t changed all that much, which is to bring the great video game stories to people that like great stories, even if they don’t like video games, along with the beauty of design in games as well. Think of it as adding sugar (stories) to the medicine (the tech/design stuff.)  Each week we take a 4 letter word as inspiration for the episode.  (I know style guides would have me write 4 as four, but we’re talking about building a brand here, people.) 

OK! Enough explaining.

The Pink Links and the LikeLike:

Jo Paoletti’s work can be found at http://www.pinkisforboys.org/ where you can see an uncensored cover to her new book Sex and Unisex. 

Pink Gorilla’s retro charm and games can be visited virtually at http://www.pinkgorillagames.com/ and they are now rocking 3 locations in the Seattle area!

If you want to get into the real nitty gritty of the Donkey Kong case you have to read David Sheff’s Game Over, a ridiculously detailed history of Nintendo’s most glorious decade: The 80’s.

Still no sign of the S.S. Donkey Kong, but if we ever get a photo, we’ll post it. I go to Connecticut sometimes, maybe I can sneak a peek.

You can do it for Ducky and get Pretty in Pink at the same time other at Legacy Games http://www.legacygames.com/download-games/21/PC/Pretty+in+Pink and there’s even free trail.

Check out Kevin Smokler’s website at, where else, http://www.kevinsmokler.com/

Brad Smith’s Moon8 is here http://rainwarrior.ca/music/moon8.html with links to listen and more.

Here’s the passage about Quinty/Mendal’s Palace from the Famicom book. Did they do a fair English translation?  (John Water’s mustache now has two twitter accounts: https://twitter.com/johnwaterstache and https://twitter.com/jwatersmustache)

Visit the the www.Femicom.org Museum today, and don’t forget to listen to Rachel Weil’s podcast - oh! It’s seem to have gone AWOL for now, but I’m sure it will resurface, and remnants are on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/femicom/

And now you - yes, you - can play Theresa Duncan’s Chop Suey and more thanks to Rhizome and some amazing cloud computing. Discover the magic at http://rhizome.org/editorial/2015/apr/17/theresa-duncan-cd-roms-are-now-playable-online/

In the Pink of Health with Show Notes

Pink was never going to be the first episode. I literally have a list of of nearly 200 episode ideas, some with 4LW (typing out 4 letter words gets old,) some without. Pink was not there.  

Then my friend Matt (THANK YOU MATT!), who had expressed interest in helping out with the show, said he was going to Seattle and wanted to talk to the Pink Gorilla folks. This was actual action, not the meticulous planning and backsliding I was doing. Pink was formed, and I cast a net.

The word of the show is haberdashery. 

As I mentioned in the episode, I didn’t want this to be a girl game episode, and the Jo Paoletti interview was actually the first piece, meant to anchor the idea and explore gender binaries. As time went on, as you can see, I rethought the “no girl games” issue. You see, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to look at it, I just didn’t want to go with the obvious choice. Challenge expectations.  But with the Pretty in Pink game, I decided it really had to come back, full circle, and be discussed.

I decided not to re-record my lines at the end of the Paoletti piece, and instead evolve the thesis as the episode went on, ending with the fabulous Rachel Weil. 

The John Kirby piece, with him becoming the possible namesake for the pink puffball might seem like a little bit of faded trivia, but I do find it fascinating that Kirby (the puffball) was literally whitewashed for his US premiere, with the character being white on the box art, and it being a Game Boy game, he was just tints of green and yellow on the tiny screen. Today, he stands majestic and pink.

And yes, Mario is Jump Man in Donkey Kong, but let’s compress history, shall we?

Pink Floyd is just a word link, but I still find it amazing.  I tried to synch the Moon8 version with original via YouTubeDoubler, but, the timing is a bit off… Brad did this project years and years ago, and it was covered in the press, even NPR got in on it, but part of G4LW, and I decided this early on, isn’t about being first, but being different, and at least try to bring the human story out a bit more.  

(I realized retreading is not the devil, when my tote-bag world exploded, like when an episode of Radio Lab was a retelling of New York Times Sunday Magazine article I had read about Disney movies and autism. Likewise, when This American Life had a new David Sedaris piece, I bristled with excitement, but what’s this, I had read this essay myself in the New Yorker just a few months ago.)  

As for the Pretty in Pink film ending… I knew there was a reason I liked Some Kind of Wonderful better.  I haven’t seen it since I was 11, but it may of had to do with Mary Stuart Masterson. Wearing boxer shorts with short hair.

As for the John Waters/Pokemon thing, well, my pal Patrick Davison I think said it best when he listened to the piece, we had a conversation to deliver a bit of trivia.  He liked it. Did you? Here’s the English description of Quinty from the Famicom book:

Pink Slip

We never did do a story on pink slips… maybe in Pink 2.0

Well, this went on for a bit longer than I expected. Thanks for reading, and if you haven't yet, please listen (and subscribe…. and rate and review, etc.)

As always, you can follow me at @OtherWhiteTofu and Matt at @Sneakdoorbeta, and even follow the show @G4LWShow.

Yeah, so we have a Patreon set up, but at this point, I’d rather get feedback than financial support. Some burning questions follow:

What did you like?

What didn’t you?

Are you into games?

Was something unclear?

Who has more vocal fry, Ryan or Matt?

Mail us at mail@g4lw.net or send tweets, or leave a comment below, if I get it set up in time.

And if there’s a few random sound effects you heard in the episode that you are wondering about, check out the RSS and listen to episode zero, where I discuss some of the show’s leitmotif and for more background of how this show came together in the first place.  

Next week we look at just WHAT a video game is. Again, the general idea is that the odd numbered episodes are going to be bigger, even smaller. We are doing this so we don’t die.  

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Testing some stuff

This is a test of the html editor. If anyone ever digs into this old stuff, sorry, pretty boring.

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#GreatGAFthread

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13 reasons to be thankful for games

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never forget