Free Play Podcast
192 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 60 ratingsThe Free Play Podcast, a conversation between a Southern Baptist, a hippie emo father of millions, and a retired Disney princess about the Love Thy Nerd community, the games they play, and the world of gaming culture at large. Part of the Love Thy Nerd Podcast Network.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Episode 46 | Google Here to Stadia?
March 29, 2019 02:57 - 1 hour - 62.4 MBTimes are a changin’! Things that were once thought impossible are becoming a reality. Technology is moving us forward at an alarming pace, and Skynet is imminent… and we, at the Free Play podcast welcome our new robot overlords. For real though… the video game scene is constantly changing. Carts to discs to downloads… and now to streaming. Enter: Google Stadia, a brand new gaming platform from the tech giant responsible for just about everything you consume on the internet. ...
Episode 45 | Games DIY
March 22, 2019 08:00 - 1 hour - 65.2 MBPlaying games is a big part of the hobby. Some would say that the other part of it is collecting games. Looking at you, Backlog… but there is a side of the hobby that we may not think about nearly as often. A side that makes playing these wonderful games possible. I’m talking about game creation. Whether it’s board games or video games, these things take time, creativity and passion to see the light of day. There are ways that you, the average joe, can go from idea to table or ...
Episode 44 | What's Up Birds?
March 15, 2019 04:22 - 58 minutes - 55.8 MBThis past week, Stonemaier games’ retail release of Wingspan wasn’t met with the response they might have hoped. Only 5,000 English copies of the game went out to game stores worldwide with far more than that pre ordered by nerds who didn’t get their copy. Though part of the story, supply and demand isn’t the main character. Jamie Stagemaier’s response to the public outcry is a master’s class on public relations… and that’s what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play p...
Episode 43 | You're Not Hardcore Unless You Game Hardcore
March 08, 2019 09:00 - 1 hour - 65.9 MBYou know what they say… “They just don’t make them like the used to.” For us… that thing is “games.” They used to be harder, you know? It used to take you WEEKS to beat a game. Now, you can get a game from RedBox and have it beat and back in the machine faster than you can say, “Cattails. Woo ooo.” Why is that? What’s changed in the gaming industry and sub culture? Well, that’s what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast.
Episode 42 | Git Gud Kate
March 01, 2019 09:00 - 1 hour - 59.4 MBGames have all kinds of inherit value that they rarely get credit for. They can help us understand the best way to act in any number of situations… one of which would be when not to throw a flash bang… the answer is into a door frame… at your team mates. There is really no end to the things we have and could learn from both video and tabletop games and that’s what we want to talk about this week on the free play podcast.
Episode 41 | Nintendogs Direct
February 22, 2019 14:53 - 1 hour - 58.4 MBSometimes, our bros over at Nintendo know what they are doing when they drop things on us during their YouTube directs. Other times they completely miss the mark by not giving us the Metroid and Animal Crossing we so rightfully deserve. Nintendo had one of those directs this past week with all of the ups and downs we’ve come to expect and that’s what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast
Episode 40 | Horse Stories & Groundbreaking Games
February 15, 2019 09:00 - 52 minutes - 48.6 MBMatt is still in mourning over the loss of his Red Dead horse, Horepens and is also frustrated with the lack of common sense of his replacement mount, Dude. Despite the emotional vulnerability, Matt continues on along with Kate and Bubba to talk about the games they have played this week. Kate also leads the community discussion about what games can be considered "groundbreaking" and why.
Episode 39 | Gaming in the Workplace
February 08, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 56.8 MBAs members of the nerd community we are sadly not strangers to the negative press that our favorite past tends to get. "You are wasting your life!", "You will become violent!" are just some of the criticisms we hear on a regular basis. However, what if we could help people understand that video and board games are not wastes of time, but can actually make you a better person to be around at work and a more productive employee? There is compelling research that lends validity to this...
Episode 38 | The Free Play Behind The Scenes VIP Demo
February 01, 2019 14:00 - 1 hour - 61 MBPodcasts are funny, right? You get a chance to listen in on a conversation you’re not a part of and for whatever reason… it’s not weird. We want to make sure that you feel as not weird as possible by telling you a little bit about ourselves and letting you get to know us.The hyped Iron Man sim “Anthem” also had an interesting VIP Demo fall into players’ hands this week that wasn’t received nearly as well as Bioware would have hoped, and that’s what we want to talk about this week ...
Episode 38 | The Free Play Behind The Scenes VIP Demo
February 01, 2019 14:00 - 1 hour - 61 MBPodcasts are funny, right? You get a chance to listen in on a conversation you’re not a part of and for whatever reason… it’s not weird. We want to make sure that you feel as not weird as possible by telling you a little bit about ourselves and letting you get to know us. The hyped Iron Man sim “Anthem” also had an interesting VIP Demo fall into players’ hands this week that wasn’t received nearly as well as Bioware would have hoped, and that’s what we want to talk about this week on the ...
Episode 37 | Retrospectives At PAX South 2019
January 25, 2019 11:00 - 1 hour - 55.8 MBWe can't think of a better way to kick off a new convention year than at PAX South 2019! Bubba and Matt are on hand with Chief Content Nerd Drew Dixon to talk about the games they've played and the developers, attendees they've loved on, and look back on how far Love Thy Nerd has come in a short year!
Free Play 36 | LTN: Year One (Free Play Finale)
December 21, 2018 19:50 - 1 hour - 115 MB2018 is almost over and that means so is the first year of Love Thy Nerd. It’s been a crazy 10 or so months and we’ve seen some amazing things happen. Our community has grown to over 1,300 people, we’ve done 2 recon trips and our website, podcasts and social media presence are all killing it online! We were also able to use our new show model to continue to develop relationships with our friends, new and old, in the gaming industry. God is truly blessing what we are doing and w...
Free Play 31 | Nintendo Sixty Foooooooooooour Classic
November 16, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 87.3 MBIt’s finally allegedly happening! We will definitely probably get the Nintendo 64 Classic just in time for Christmas 2018… if the leaks are true, which they are… because I read them on the internet.So, in order to prepare our hearts and minds for what has the potential to be the Turbo Man of this holiday season we are throwing out all of the games we would like to see on this throwback classic. No game or franchise is off limits as we speculate wildly. Did we affirm or throw shade...
Free Play 30 | Red Dead Reflections
November 09, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 85.3 MBI scream you scream. We all scream for games. We scream with joy because of how great they are and also scream in empathetic agony for what it cost the creators in time, money, relationships, and sanity just for you and I to have a few hours of fun. What is it that drives our need to bash the very thing we find so much joy and rest in? If we boycott is it honoring to those who sacrificed so much to create it? I believe it was the famous philosophers, the Wu-Tang Clan, who sai...
Free Play 29 | Staying Current
November 02, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 108 MBLet’s face it: There just isn’t enough time or money to do all of the things that we need or want to do. A real-life example, happening right now, is that I’m trying to play through Spider-Man as I edit this podcast. We can’t play all the games, watch all the movies and tv shows or read all of the comics. We have to do things like: work, eat sleep bathe, etc. So… how do we do as much as we possibly can to stay current in our favorite areas of nerdom while still acting as a resp...
Free Play 28 | Spoopy Games
October 27, 2018 07:14 - 1 hour - 92.5 MBYou may be wondering if you’re too old to trick or treat. A good rule of thumb is: if you have to ask… you probably are. But who needs trick or treating? Why not just head on over to the grocery store, grab a bag of candy and play some games at home?! We’ve compiled a list of tabletop and video games to tie you over this Halloween, and that’s what we want to talk about this week on the free play podcast.
Free Play 27 | Let's Get Digital, Digital!
October 19, 2018 17:39 - 1 hour - 86.7 MBIf you’re old enough to remember the feelings of both frustration and relief when your Nintendo Entertainment System cart wouldn’t play but blowing on the contacts… letting it hang over the lip of the system and pressing down always seemed to do the trick, then you grew up in a great time. Now, we have digital downloads. No more dragon breath required, but you do find yourself at the mercy of the game’s servers when you want to play. Which is better, physical carts or digital d...
Free Play 26 | Easter Eggs
October 05, 2018 08:00 - 51 minutes - 71.3 MBHunting Easter eggs is equal parts rewarding and frustrating. But the pay off always seems to be worth it. We are conditioned to look for things in peculiar places from a young age with books like Highlights and Where’s Waldo? And who can forget, Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? To this day I have no answer to that question. Easter eggs in video games can be either a long journey or a complete accident. We think that each has its own merit, and that’s what we want to talk...
Free Play 25 | A Sad Telltale
September 28, 2018 10:00 - 57 minutes - 79 MBIn 2012, Telltale’s “The Walking Dead Season 1” received several game of the year awards as well and single-handedly brought back a genre of video game that lay dormant for almost 30 years. So, what went wrong? How could a company, doing so many things right, end so abruptly? That’s what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast.
Free Play 23 | Escape Rooms
September 14, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 97.8 MBHave you ever done an escape room? Various scenarios designed to stretch your mental capacity and force you to solve inane riddles and puzzles by thinking outside of the box… sometimes literally. Are they all they’re cracked up to be, or is the most challenging puzzle, “why are we still paying for these things?” That what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast.
Free Play 22 | Conquering Nerd Rage
August 31, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 99.5 MBDue to the graphic nature of this week’s content, listener discretion is advised. Sometimes gaming just isn’t fun. People can make you feel like you’re not good enough, or it may just be that you don’t meet your own expectations. Either way, feelings of anxiety and inadequacy can make you act in a way that is either uncharacteristic of your normal self or in a way that is not socially acceptable. Dealing with the emotions caused by the games we play is a very real problem, but...
Free Play 21 | To Not Be Continued
August 25, 2018 16:52 - 1 hour - 87.8 MBWell, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Logic would dictate that thousands of moving pictures spread out over upwards of 18 movies are easily more words than anyone will ever be able to follow or remember, and that's what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast.
Free Play 20 | Not-So-Violent Video Games
August 17, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 86.4 MBDid you know that there are games without a single shred of violence in them? Scout’s honor, I looked it up online just to be sure. Turns out that contrary to popular belief, not every game culminates in a chicken dinner. Passive, peaceful games are a thing, and you can build farms, climb mountains, solve puzzles and farm goop on every major platform. Though there are a time and place for Call of Duty, there is also more to gaming than KDs and headshots ant hats what we want ...
Free Play 19 | The Best of GenCon 2018
August 10, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 123 MBGenCon 2018 is in the books! And oooooo weee, there were so - many - games this year. If you had a week to walk the expo hall you still wouldn’t have been able to even see all the games, let alone demo them. This week we sit down with Chief Content Nerd and host of our very own Humans of Gaming podcast to figure out what we thought was the best of the best from GenCon 2018, and that’s what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast.
Free Play 18 | GenCon 2018 Preview
August 03, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 94.7 MBIf you love tabletop games, conventions, and repurposing super jocky sports venues to fulfill nerdy needs, then you’re gonna’ LOVE GenCon. 4 days chocked full of way more board games than you can throw your wallet at. All of the biggest review sites will be there to check out the latest and greatest the industry has to offer this season and I’m happy to report that Love Thy Nerd will be there as well. There is so… so… so many games to see that there’s almost no way to really see...
Free Play 17 | SDCC 2018
July 27, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 94.3 MBSan Diego Comic-Con is the best of the best. All of the new things in the nerdy movie, comic book and small-screen are shown at this convention. We watched a few trailers, so I think that makes us experts, and we want to give you our thoughts on what went down.
Free Play 16 | The Retro Revolution
July 20, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 94.7 MBThis week on the Free Play podcast we're talking graphics. With all of the advancements that we are making with technology, why is it that the graphics in video games seem to be trending backward?
Free Play 15 | Streaming Vs. Single Player
July 13, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 91 MBOn this week's episode, Bubba and Kate talk about the state of rich, single-player experiences in video games. Is it worth it to go buy a game if you've already had it spoiled by watching it online? Do you think that there should be some sort of compensation paid to the developer if you decide not to buy the game yet watch an entire playthrough online? Matt would have loved to be a part of this conversation, but he was busy being a super dad.
Free Play 14 | Music in Video Games
July 06, 2018 17:10 - 1 hour - 91.3 MBWe all have that one song from our favorite game that floods our minds during the silent parts of our day. They make you think and feel certain things during the game and that's what we in the biz call "manipulation by design." Bubba, Matt, and Kate talk about their favorite video game soundtracks this week on the Free Play Podcast.
Free Play 13 | Nintendo's Success
June 29, 2018 19:12 - 1 hour - 95.5 MBWith the Switch, Nintendo is winning in every sense of the word. We know that this isn't always the case, but for the time being... Nintendo is doing pretty well. We want to celebrate that this week on the Free Play podcast.
Free Play 12 | E3 Pt. 2
June 22, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 121 MBOn the chopping block in this week's episode are Sony, Nintendo, Square Enix and PC's E3 2018 conferences. We look at the good the bad and the ugly as well as let you know who we feel did the best and worst this year at E3.
Free Play 11| E3 2018 Part 1
June 15, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 110 MBE3 is a media circus... and we want to ride the elephant. In this, the first of a two-part series, Bubba, Matt and Kate look at the EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Bethesda press conferences.
Free Play 10 | Communal Gaming - DEEP DIVE
June 08, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 111 MBStepping outside of the normal week-to-week nonsense, Bubba, Matt and Kate take a look at the importance of the gaming community as well as a few of the problems it may cause. They also leave you with a list of a few games, both video and tabletop, that you can pick up and get a community game night going with little to no lead time.
Free Play 9 | Console Hardware Flops
June 01, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 96.5 MBThis week, Bubba rants about how good Starbucks is at handling pressure, Matt rants about how good Starbucks is at listening to reggae, and Kate rants about her grandpa who rants about Starbucks policy on leggings. They also look at some of the biggest home console flops in history... and boy... are there some doozies.
Free Play 8 | UFOs and XACs
May 25, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 92 MBWith the band all back together for this episode, it doesn't take long before they are swapping stories about UFO sightings and the possibility of time travel. If you manage to make it through all of that nonsense, there is actually a bit of useful information hidden in episode 8 as Bubba, Matt and Kate talk about the importance of Xbox's new Adaptive Controller (XAC for short).
Free Play 7 | The Back Row Baptist
May 18, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 145 MBIn this week's MASSIVE episode (it kind of got away from us...) Bubba catches up with longtime friend and Founder/Ministry Leader of the Back Row Baptist. If you're an avid listener of the BRB Podcast, you've heard the first part, already. Go ahead and skip to 35:45 for our interview with Matt Coker about why he makes games and the barriers he sidesteps to make his dreams become reality. Matt Warmbier and Kate Kadowaki get the week off, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of...
Free Play 6 | Dreaming In 4K
May 11, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 97.7 MBThis week Bubba is more than a little under the weather, Matt has an abscessed tooth and Kate... well, Kate seems to be okay. Outside of health problems, the team talk about what its like to dream in different frame rates and how the way you consume media might help influence your dream resolution.
Free Play 5 | Infinity Star Wars
May 04, 2018 10:00 - 1 hour - 104 MBWe kick off our weekly Free Play Podcast release schedule on May the 4th with a special Star Wars themed episode! OUtside of a little trivia from a Galaxy far, far away... Matt complains about how technology is getting out of hand, Kate read a bit from her childhood diary and Bubba just really wants everyone to go and see Infinity War so he can talk about it. Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review! LoveThyNerd.com/partner
Free Play 4 | What Dreamcast May Come
April 27, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 97.3 MBGames... games... GAMES this week! Holy freakin' cow so many games! Matt and Bubba have been up to their ears in games and it's helping to pad those BGG stats. Kate... well... she played a game, too. Also, Matt got a free Dreamcast and Kate walks us all through the process of selling a pig. That last part is not a joke.
Free Play 3 | Super Dice Throne Bros.
April 11, 2018 11:00 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MBNate Chatellier and Manny Trembley of Dice Throne join Bubba and Matt for a pretty dang good interview... if we do say so, ourselves. Join the conversation and buy a copy of Dice Throne Season 1 if you don't already have one. Go, now. We'll wait. Pre Order Dice Throne Season 2https://roxley.com/dts2-preorder/
Free Play 2 | The Series Has Landed
March 31, 2018 00:43 - 1 hour - 60.6 MBBubba, Kate, & Matt are back this week to talk about whatever! This week Bubba attends a funeral and confesses a disturbing secret desire related to the somber event while Matt shares what it is like to game with his children as they grow older and can appreciate the finer points of gaming. Kate, is still making slime and testing it on her chickens....not really.
Free Play 1 | Pilot
March 31, 2018 00:40 - 57 minutes - 52.4 MBWhat happens when a Southern Baptist, hipster father, and retired Disney princess get together and record a show about board and video games, slime production, and rogue chickens? You get the pilot episode of The Free Play Podcast with Bubba Stallcup, Matt Warmbier, and Kate Kadowaki. In this episode, the trio reunite to talk about what they have been playing over the past few weeks, what the future plans are for Love Thy Nerd, and how you can get involved with the new endeavor! ...