Show Notes
Frank, Ash, and Brandon hang out and talk about Steam’s censorship, friendslop, and the Never Gonna Give You Up of video games.
Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, and Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.
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SHOW NOTES:
“I may be damp, but I have a cheerful character!”
Tootsie Roll
Half Price Books
Spider-Man: Spirits of the Earth
Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
Jeppson’s Malört
Carly Rae Jepsen
New car smell
Autoeroticism
1: How, if at all, should video game distribution services be screening submissions of video games? (05:15)
Game Developer: Santa Ragione co-founder Pietro Righi Riva on Horses, Steam, and possible closure of the studio
Horses
Steam
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Hyperdimension Neptunia
ESRB
Epic Games Store
itch.io
2: Where is the line between inspiration and plagarism? (11:40)
Critter Crunch
Money Idol Exchanger
AstroPop
Magical Drop
ChatGPT
Steve Engelhart
Batman: the Animated Series
Green Lantern
Batman: Dark Detective
The Dark Knight (2008)
Guy Gardner
Superman (2025)
Legends of the DC Universe
3: What are the best video game tiles? (16:43)
Chaos Engine
Vid Grid
News Tower
Loop Hero
Mahjong
Lucky That Way by Brad Fregger
4: What is the newest kind of video game? (22:36)
Extraction shooter
Friendslop
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Second Life
Ultima
Habitat
Habbo Hotel
Demon’s Souls
Soulslike
Rogue
Roguelike
Metroidvania
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Metroid
Castlevania
God Hand
Bushido Blade
Battle royale
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Minecraft
DayZ
Motoroader MC
Battle Royale
The Hunger Games
Tommy Tallarico
A Statement from Frank Cifaldi (30:01)
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
5: Esper Quinn asks, who is the best game developer in literature? (32:33)
Ready Player One
Diamond Age
Gandalf
Dragon Quest series
Akira Toriyama
Yuji Horii
Shigesato Itoi
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
The Riddler
Mary Shelley
Death Stranding
Hideo Kojima
Frankenstein
The Adventures of Batman & Robin
Batman licensees
Macaw45
Batman (1989)
The Bat Signal lights up the sky. It must be… Bat-Octoberfest.
6: Should every roleplaying game have romance options? (39:56)
Fire Emblem series
Fable
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth
7: What is the Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up of video games? (45:44)
Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up
Bugs Bunny
Among Us
Call of Duty series
Fortnite
9gag
Bored Panda
Ebaumsworld
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Dizzy series
Grand Theft Auto series
Akira slide
Cloud Strife
Legend of Zelda series
Chris Person
Aftermath
Indiana Jones
the image Frank shared in chat (53:30)
National Treasure series
Nicholas Cage
LIGHTNING ROUND: Jaffe didn’t come up with a name for this one but he’s asking the panel to name games from a specific year and they’re knocked out if they can’t (54:12)
Recommendations and Outro (01:19:29):
Brandon: Please review Demonschool on Steam if you’ve bought it, Doritos has three levels of spiciness now
Ash: News Tower
Frank: Lucky That Way by Brad Fregger
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