GWJ Conference Call 913

Really good episode this week; just finished listening on my way into work this morning. I cross-posted a shorter version of this to Discord, but the character limit is higher here, so: text away!

A few thoughts:

• For me most of the "game discourse," especially these days, is listening to the conference call and occasional participation in these forums and the GWJ Discord server. I highly recommend this approach! I cannot recommend highly enough the practice of just getting off of Facebook, Twitter/X, and similar algorithmically-driven platforms.
• I also highly recommend using a credible news grading service (I use Ad Fontes Media) to figure out a bunch of credible news sources and switching to an RSS reader for news. I assure you that even in *that* case, there's still plenty to alarm and disturb you in the world today, but at least you'll be less at the mercy of the algorithms.
• The first time I remember "the discourse" really influencing my interaction with games media was Gone Home, which was a bit pricey for as long as it purportedly was, but the curiosity (because everyone was raving and nobody was really saying anything about it other than "PLAYITPLAYITPLAYIT") just ate at me until I picked it up. It lived up to that hype, so that worked out well. The other early game that the discourse sold to me was Spec Ops: The Line. In both of those cases? Money well-spent. I think it's awful that the music licensing issues have resulted in Spec Ops: The Line being delisted, because that game was/is important.
• I'm probably a strange outlier, but I often enjoy analysis and criticism of things at least as much as the things themselves, occasionally more. I really like listening to knowledgeable, thoughtful people break down the key components and messaging of a piece of media. Side note: I really wish I had discovered/accepted this about myself as a teenager. My grades would have been better and I'd have enjoyed school more.

As far as genres go for May:

• My three great genre loves for multiple decades are the turn-based squad tactical genre (XCOM, Jagged Alliance), roguelike deckbuilders (Slay the Spire, Beneath Oressa) and the CRPG genre (Pillars of Eternity, Baldur's Gate 1, 2, and 3, Wrath of the Righteous). I'd love to hear a discussion of either or both.
• I'm not as much into soulslikes (the only ones I've successfully gotten any length into are the Lords of the Fallen games) or racing games (pretty much the only one of those I haven't bounced off of is Burnout Paradise), but I love hearing about them!
• I used to be into point-and-click adventure games back in the 80s and 90s but kind of fell off of that. I'd definitely be interested in hearing someone who's a huge Sierra/Wadjet Eye aficionado break those down too.