Moving Pixels Podcast: Ideal Evil in Video Games

The Moving Pixels Podcast crew decided to follow up on last week’s discussion of “Real Evil in Video Games” with a discussion of the various villains in games that are of a more idealized nature than the simulations of real life villainy that we had previously concerned ourselves with.

The resulting discussion took several different forms, including discussion of how gamers view conflicts within games themselves, the “evils” of various forms of antagonism within game narratives and also game mechanics themselves.

As a result, some of this discussion may be concerned with villains that represent more abstracted forms of evil but may also confront the more “malicious” obstacles embedded in the design of a game.

 

This podcast is also available via iTunes.

 

Additional discussion of idealized villains and other “malacious” obstacles in video games:

Dead Rising Does Zombies Right by Nick Dinicola

An Intimate Moment With the Computer by G. Christopher Williams

The Difficulty with Difficulty in Games by L.B. Jeffries

 

Our podcast contributors:

G. Christopher Williams is the Multimedia Editor at PopMatters.com. You can find his weekly updates featured at the Neuromance blog.

Nick Dinicola is also a regular contributor to the Moving Pixels blog.

Thomas Cross contributes frequently to the Multimedia section at PopMatters.com, and he also pens the Diamond in the Rough column for GameSetWatch.

Kris Ligman contributes on a biweekly basis to the Moving Pixels blog at PopMatters.com, and she also serves as a staff editor for The Hathor Legacy.