EXP Podcast #30: The Father of All Podcasts

With Father's Day coming up this weekend, we decided to dedicate a podcast to exploring the role father characters in video games.  Starting with an eclectic list of various game dads, we examine them in terms of their gameplay functions, back-stories, and their narrative importance.  A number of surprising patterns crop up that link even the most dissimilar-seeming game fathers.  We finish by theorizing about how father characters will continue to develop in forthcoming games.  As always, feel free to share your thoughts about anything we mention in the podcast, as well as your analysis of any game dads we passed over.

Some discussion starters:

- Who are your favorite game dads? 

- How is fatherhood portrayed in games?  What makes dads important to the gaming experience in terms of story and gameplay?

- Has your perception of fatherhood in games changed over the years?  Will the portrayal of fathers in games change as more gamers have children?

To listen to the podcast:
- Subscribe to the EXP Podcast via iTunes here. Additionally, here is the stand-alone feed.
- Listen to the podcast in your browser by left-clicking the title. Or, right-click and select "save as link" to download the show in MP3 format.
- Subscribe to this podcast and EXP's written content with the RSS link on the right.

Show notes:

- Run time: 31 min 04 sec
- The Story of Being Homeless in Sims 3: "http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/"
- "The Absent Dad," by Michael Abbott of The Brainy Gamer
- Music provided by Brad Sucks