Misspent Youth
21 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 5 years ago - ★★★★★ - 2 ratingsA LGBTIQA+ Podcast on Video Games, Why We Play, and Who We Are. Hosted by Robert Fenner (@misanthrobob), joined by a new guest every Monday. Hella queer and in love with you.
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Episodes
#21 Erika Vale - My Rule is as many controllers as possible.
November 26, 2018 08:00 - 111 MB#21 Erika Vale My Rule is as many controllers as possible. This week we welcome Erika Vale to the podcast, host of Bristol Video Games Social. Erika tells us what it’s like to host a regular gaming-centric event, the paradox of having social anxiety and being a confident host, and what providing such a social space means to her. Also we talk Game Gear and Wonder Boy 3: The Dragon’s Trap, weird and wonderful platformers, JRPGs as comfort food, world design within Soulsborne titles, the st...
#20 Odai Quaye - "I want my friends to understand why i'm enamoured with this."
October 31, 2018 09:54 - 2 hours - 107 MBOdai Quaye (Audible Autism, STGWeekly) talks to Robert about growing up in the late 90s/early 00s as a young black game enthusiast in North London during the postcode wars, the magical off-kilter library of the PlayStation 1, and how indispensable MAME and emulation is in preserving wonderful media. Also, we discuss the state of grime and drill in 2018, fighting game trauma, Suzuki Bakuhatsu, Data East Jank and Trio the Punch, Shaq Fu diss tracks, British video games TV, G.R.O.W.L, and Meat...
#19 Matthew 2Mello Hopkins - Music that wants to punch through your heart
October 23, 2018 09:17 - 80.5 MBProlific composer 2Mello (Regular Human Basketball, Read Only Memories, Waypoint) joins us to talk about his early experiences with QBasic and NES, and his journey into becoming a full time musician and his unlikely route into composing game soundtracks. We talk about his releases Return of the Soul and Memories of Tokyo-To, and he shares exclusive details on his upcoming Silent Hill-inspired concept album. Also, we talk faking piety to play Super Metroid, what sets Hollow Knight apart from...
#17 Anne Lee - There's an ongoing conversation on what we can and can't do as researchers in Australia.
September 11, 2018 14:55 - 1 hour - 94.7 MBAnne Lee (Chic Pixel) joins us this week to share tale of her terrifying encounter with Oddworld posing a rocky start to her relationship with video games, eventually followed by an enthrallment with Final Fantasy VII and a lifelong fascination and academic interest with Otome and Boys’ Love media. Now working within the industry as a translator and localizer, we discuss questions of licensing and regulation posed to visual novels and H-games, and the bittersweet reality of creativity under ...
#16 Jeremy Wyatt - Having a character who is clear, open, and positive about her faith was a wonderful experience for me.
September 03, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 104 MBJeremy Wyatt (Astral Era Podcast) joins us this week to discuss faith and queer identity; particularly, how Final Fantasy Tactics allowed him recontextualize his evangelical upbringing and come to terms with his homosexuality. Jeremy talks about his family's struggle with poverty and addiction, as well as time as an outreach worker for at-risk youth. Together we discuss our individual issues with organized religion, and our love of Supergiant's Pyre depiction an uplifting and progressive cha...
#15 Becky Cunningham - I used to be about saving the world; if I still have to do that in my 40s I'm going to kill myself.
August 28, 2018 13:33 - 1 hour - 118 MBFreelance writer and game developer Becky Cunningham (RPGamer, OpenCritic) joins us this week to talk about her early experiences with the Apple ][ and how her love of SF and fantasy literature led to a lifelong relationship with interactive fiction, adventure games, and RPGs, and how she discovered she was genderqueer along the way. She also tells me about her upcoming otome game based on Robin Hood, from the perspective of Made Marian. Also, we talk cowardly paladin love interests, large ...
#14 Denise Ward - When you've got a problem, drop a Wind Fish on it.
August 20, 2018 20:25 - 2 hours - 96.2 MBDenise Ward (Morning Green Tea & Incorrect Vermintide) joins us this week to discuss falling in love with video games through a neighbour's Sega Saturn; the aesthetics of Nights intro Dreams, in particular. After playing cult PS1 JRPG Legend of Legaia, she began to foster relationships with individual games' lore, leading her to look at the medium in a new light, while also becoming frustrated with the hegemonic interests of the industry. Also, we discuss being a female-presenting nonbinary...
#13 Nick Ransbottom - The angle isn't that life's unfair; it's just life.
August 14, 2018 20:11 - 2 hours - 134 MBContent Warning: This episode contains discussions on abuse and suicide. Freelance writer Nick Ransbottom joins us this week to speak about the role narrative games have played in his life, and the impact they made during hardships. We discuss his fraught relationship with his family following his coming out, and his viewpoint on What Remains of Edith Finch as an individual living with cystic fibrosis. Also, we about how Sonic the Hedgehog's water levels traumatized a generation, Ni no Kun...
#12 Raven Mulvany - Games are a window to other places… Planets, countries, viewpoints.
August 07, 2018 11:45 - 1 hour - 89.4 MBGame designer and programmer Raven Mulvaney joins Misspent Youth to talk the role Pokémon played as an alternative means of communication in her youth, and how Treasure's Gunstar Super Heroes inspired her to start making her own games. We discuss her numerous projects, including an RPG that teaches Gaelic, and her upcoming Vive game Transition Level which you can play now. Also: How Christine Love's Digital: A Love Story appeals to extremely online introverts, why Naughty Dog can only inter...
Bonus Episode - Alva Chua on Sex Work, Representation, and Dysphoria
July 30, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 87 MBWe welcome Alva Chua back to discuss representation and performativity within games, and how it relates to her past career as a pro-domme. We also touch on contextualizing trans experience through genre, negotiating empowerment, where the lines in fantasy begin and end, games' terrible track record of portraying BDSM, and we critique VA-11 HALL-A and The Red Strings Club, as well as Waypoint's review of the latter title. Follow Alva on Twitter @vinomatic, and come to her performance at Twea...
#11 Huw Owen - America had the Unabomber; We had people furiously making games. Like those twins who made Dizzy.
July 23, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 94.2 MBHuw Owen (We Don't Talk About the Weather) joins Robert to discuss the off-putting inscrutability of the ZX Spectrum, the seedy horrors found at British Computing Fairs, the time he received an Atari Lynx from an inmate of Broadmoor Hospital, and the world-ending battle between the Virgin Sony PlayStation and the Chad Sega Saturn. Also: We roast those incorrigable TERFs Graham Linehan and Mumsnet, mock the failings of the Labour Party, we figure out what Question Time is, Street Fighting in...
#10 Mike Sollosi - You want to root for these characters; you're growing alongside these characters.
July 16, 2018 21:17 - 1 hour - 140 MB#10 Mike Sollosi You want to root for these characters; you're growing alongside these characters. Mike Sollosi (RPGFan's Retro Encounter Podcast) joins Misspent Youth this week to share how he first discovered video games playing the NES at a neighbor's house, before examining the role video games played in forging important, lifelong friendships. Also: The joy of Chrono Trigger's limited cast, the golden era of game rentals, Super Sentai, Sandy Frank's iron fist, that one rich kid with...
#09 Heidi Kemps - I love researching things and pursuing stuff, which led me into writing about games.
July 10, 2018 14:13 - 2 hours - 140 MBKusoge aficionado Heidi Kemps (Gaming.moe) joins us this week to talk about her shaky introduction to video games; a one-two punch of having too much empathy for Frogger, and the assumption that the most interesting games were "for boys only." After this belief was challenged by a bizarre Super C commercial, Heidi embarked on a lifelong journey that eventually found her in possession of the only Fighting Vipers 2 cabinet in America. Also, we talk the vagueness of Phantasy Star II, the inscr...
#08 Caitlin Argyros - I didn't want to commit to a game that would make me like this couple and then kill one of them.
July 02, 2018 21:16 - 2 hours - 113 MBWe welcome law librarian Caitlin Argyros (RPGFan, Rhythm Encounter) to discuss being a romantic introvert, coming to terms with one's own body, and if gaming can still be considered "just" a hobby when it's a major part of one's life. Also: The uplifting melancholia of Xenogears, Ace Combat fulfilling air force fantasies, when entertainment metamorphoses into critical engagement, Boogerman, strong opinions on Metal Gear Solid, and Caitlin's top ten games of all time. Follow Caitlin on Twit...
#07 Hannah Flynn - I love strange singular experiences, novelty, and tat.
June 25, 2018 08:47 - 1 hour - 60 MBHannah Flynn (Failbetter Games) joins Robert to discuss her journey from being a Sega kid, through the world of publishing, to her career as communications manager for a studio that specialises in flexibile interactive narrative, and how exciting it can be when interests and hobbies intersect. Also: Failbetter's upcoming Sunless Skies, the importance of authenticity when writing representation, beating teenage boys at Sonic 2, musical theatre, chasing actors at PunchDrunk performances, The ...
#06 Seb Grey - Everyone hates the Water Temple. It's my favourite.
June 18, 2018 09:05 - 1 hour - 107 MBDeveloper and Musician Seb Grey (Fashion Shuriken) comes in for a freewheeling discussion on the wonder of the N64, fantastical open worlds, how strong localization can elevate a work, what it means for a game to be "good", and using Link's Awakening as a conduit to conquer anxiety. Also: the positive influence of Shovel Knight, Xenoblade Chronicles 2's merman aviator pastry chef, and the failed romance between Jeremy Corbyn and Grace Jones. Intro Music "Summer Vacation in Scanline" by Nur...
#05 Emily Rose England - Final Fantasy VII is, unintentionally, very feminist.
June 11, 2018 11:04 - 55 minutes - 49.4 MBArtist and photographer Emily Rose England (Sassitude) joins us to talk about how she processed depression and anxiety through the joy of emulation, feminine power dynamics in Final Fantasy VII, and how the graphical limitations of Link's Awakening allowed her to interpret Link as gender-ambiguous. Follow Emily on Instagram @emilyroseengland, and buy her art so she can get a Playstation 4. Intro Music "Summer Vacation in Scanline" by Nurvuss Outro Music "トワイライトでHEART-BEAT" by パフェ♥カフェｐａｒｆａｉ...
#04 Samer Farag - Where can I get the video game narrative equivalent to East of Eden?
June 04, 2018 09:24 - 2 hours - 142 MBSamer Farag of Cocoa Controller joins Robert to discuss his early experiences playing The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening and Ocarina of Time back-to-back, learning to read through fantasy novels and RPGs, and the elusive search for good writing inspiring his drive to critique. We also talk cyberpunk, rediscovering the joy of fighting games through Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st], the need for progressive games communities, how representation in Watch Dogs 2 and Assassin's Creed Origins...
#03 Alva Chua - "Beloved fiction franchises are stories told around the spirit of something."
May 28, 2018 08:00 - 1 hour - 96.7 MBAlva Chua (MisanthroPlay) shares tales of her misspent youth across the globe; from getting drunk on Babycham and playing Space Invaders at age 4 in an English beer garden, seeing the first McDonald's open in Yugoslavia, to scouring (and working in) a physical black market for computer games in Singapore. We also talk coding Eliza on an Atari 2600 PC, teaching oneself spells in Ultima IV without a manual, illicit console ownership, the beauty of shmups, playing Leisure Suit Larry in school,...
#02 Jonathan Sims - "The suburb wasn't a collection of 90s American dreams, it was a labyrinth and we were imprisoned there."
May 21, 2018 08:00 - 2 hours - 135 MBFilmmaker and VFX artist Jonathan Sims (DREAMTIME VR, Upcoming Invader Zim Feature, American Gods) joins Robert Fenner for an in-depth discussion on dreams and the imagination, how The Legend of Zelda informed childhood exploration in vaporwave-y `90s Arizona, RPGs of the Price Club bargain bin, the World of Darkness tabletop setting as a means of storytelling, trolling in Overwatch, devious brothers at Christmas, Swedish death metal and Bloodborne, and reading James Joyce on the toilet. Fo...
#01 Robert Fenner - "That's so hetero male."
May 13, 2018 08:00 - 24 minutes - 50.5 MBMisspent Youth is a LGBTIQA+ podcast on video games, why we play, and who we are. In the pilot episode, host Robert Fenner (@misanthrobob) talks about his experiences as an awe-struck toddler Yu Suzuki's arcade oeuvre, before consuming (and being consumed by) Phantasy Star as an early push-back against Midwestern masculine ideals. Later, he discovers Shin Megami Tensei, before falling in love with ZZT and its community as a means of queer expression and acceptance.