Video Games | Game Designer Ian Bogost on the Past and Future of Gaming | 4
American Innovations
Wondery
4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2020
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The video game industry has certainly matured over the years. But does it still have the sense of open-ended innovation that it did in the early golden era of Spacewar and Pong?
To get a better sense of how today’s game breakthroughs compare to the heyday of Atari, Steven speaks with one of the most thoughtful observers of the video game industry, Ian Bogost. Bogost is a game designer and the author of Play Anything: The Pleasure of Limits, the Uses of Boredom, and the Secret of Games. More recently, he’s written about Animal Crossing and Untitled Goose Game for The Atlantic.
Read more about Ian and his work here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ian-bogost/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American Innovations, |
| 0:03.6 | Add Free on Amazon Music, download the app today. |
| 0:14.0 | From Wondery, I'm Steven Johnson, and this is American Innovations. |
| 0:31.0 | Video game sales have skyrocketed during the pandemic. |
| 0:41.0 | Revenue for interactive entertainment hit $11.6 billion between April and June, |
| 0:47.0 | an historic 30% jump from last year. |
| 0:50.0 | But while the industry has certainly matured, |
| 0:53.0 | does it still have the sense of open-ended innovation |
| 0:56.0 | that it did in the early golden era of Space War and Kong? |
| 1:00.0 | To get a better sense of how today's game breakthroughs compare to the heyday of the Tari, |
| 1:05.0 | I'm speaking with one of the most thoughtful observers of the video game industry, |
| 1:10.0 | Ian Bogost, the author of many books who's written for the Atlantic about games like Animal Crossing, |
| 1:15.0 | an untitled goose game. |
| 1:17.0 | In addition to his writings on the philosophy of play, |
| 1:20.0 | Ian is also a game designer himself. |
| 1:23.0 | We'll have a wide-reaching discussion about the past and future of gaming, |
| 1:27.0 | from the strange appeal of space invaders to the way today's games are helping us understand |
| 1:32.0 | the possible uses for artificial intelligence. |
| 1:41.0 | Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, host of Wondery's podcast American Scandal. |
| 1:44.0 | Our newest series looks at the trial of the Chicago Seven, |
| 1:47.0 | a case involving protests of the Vietnam War and the legal fight |
| 1:51.0 | that became a referendum on the soul and future of America. |
... |
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