Season 3 Ep 2: Games of the Age

Preamble

Welcome, young listener, to the wise and venerable MindGames podcast! In this month's episode, we discuss ageing, both in terms of growth ('coming of age') and decline ('senescence').

This month, we tackle big questions around how games have 'come of age' over the past 40 years; do they age gracefully, or are we perpetually enraptured by the cult of the new? In what ways have games presented the process of getting older and experiencing more about the world and ourselves, and how does this reflect the life journeys of their players and designers?

Sit back and rest those weary bones as we ramble about all these questions - and stick around to the end for a real nail-biter of a MindGames Game!

Today's Games (in order of appearance):

GoldenEye 007 (Rare)

King's Quest (Sierra Entertainment)

Passage (Jason Rohrer)

Pokémon (GameFreak)

Final Fantasy VII (Square Enix)

The Last of Us (Naughty Dog)

Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Intelligent Systems, Koei Tecmo)

The Longing (Studio Seufz)

Massive Chalice (Double Fine, Brad Muir)

Crusader Kings 3 (Paradox Interactive)

Wildermyth (Worldwalker Games)

Chronos: Before the Ashes (Gunfire Games)

Did we miss any games that you think we should have discussed? Let us know at [email protected]

**This Month's Weird Games**

One Hour One Life (Jason Rohrer)

Paul Matijevic, 'Ah, dang! Mothman won't move out (he said it was just for the weekend)' (Check it out here, and support the creator as much as you can: https://ettin.itch.io/mothman?download)

Agarest: Generations of War (Idea Factory, Red Entertainment and Compile Heart)

**The MindGames Game**

MINDGAMES BLACKJACK

Rules: You’ll be asked to provide games that meet a certain criteria. You must give answers that, collectively, are as close to 21 years old as possible. At any point you can ‘stick’, banking your collective years. You will each take turns to give responses until each person has decided to stick. If you exceed 21, you strike out and get no points. If a game has been used, it cannot be used for the remainder of the game. 1 point if you win, 0 points if you lose or 'strike out'.

Oldest player goes first (age before beauty)!

Questions:

Give me games that feature a male main character.

Give me games that have a female main character.

Give me board games.

Give me games that start with a vowel.

Special thanks to the following Reddit users, who helped with the research for this episode:
u/DrunkenMonkeyNU
u/ZakAmetyst
u/savaghost
u/fishwithfish
u/King_Allant
u/OneManFreakShow
u/catinterpreter

Don't forget to follow us at @mindgamespod for updates whenever new episodes go live, and subscribe on your favourite podcast app.