Our bags are in the trunk, Teenage Wasteland is playing on the stereo, and our coffee stained road map is on the dash: On this podcast, we're hittin' the road. This week, we draw our discussion from prolific and esteemed games writer/pseudonym L.B. Jeffries and his excellent article on Popmatters. Early last month, Jeffries discussed his thoughts on travel in videogames and raised some interesting questions. This week, Scott and I tag along with our own journey through videogame travel, hitting such topics as basic math, warp tubes, and boredom. As always, we encourage you to share your own tales of navigation in the comments section below.

Some discussion starters:

- Do you ever use out-of-game distractions during in-game travel?
- Are games allowed to be boring? Not just calm, or unexciting, but actually boring?
- Do you use landmarks, or any other tricks, to help make sense of space while traveling?
- Which games capture your definition of travel best?

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: 25 min and 53 sec
- Travel in Video Games, via Popmatters
-Music by Brad Sucks

Every week, we add to a massive list of notable news, analysis, and opinion pieces related to video games, knowing full well that most of them will never make the show. We figured it was time to sort through some of the backlog for any gems that may have been passed over and fashion them into an auditory smorgasbord.

The topics vary widely, and range from art design, memory and history, dating, and even death. Be sure to check out the show notes for links to the articles. As always, feel free to weigh in on the discussion in the comments with your thoughts on the stories, or with links to some of the stories you've enjoyed over the past months.

Some discussion starters:

-How do you keep track of your past gaming experiences?
-Have you ever learned about history through gaming?
-What is the perfect "date game?" Does such a thing exist?
-Which games do you admire for their artistry?
-Do you have any life/death stories that took place in an on-line space?
-Which recent gaming articles have you enjoyed recently?

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 and 53 sec
-"Altars," by Lara "KaterinLHC" Crigger, via Gamers With Jobs
-"Can Games Handle History," by Luke Plunkett, via Kotaku
-"The Dating Game," by Wendy Despain, via The Escapist
-"Artist Wants More Diverse Game Graphics, Says Developers Should 'Believe More in Games,'" by Steven Totilo, via MTV Multiplayer
-"Death Leaves Online Lives in Limbo," by Peter Svensson, via The Associated Press, posted on SFGate.com
-Music by Brad Sucks

Is this already episode twenty-five? My how time flies! Which is exactly the topic of the day. This week on the EXP Podcast, Scott and I stumble upon a clever idea from Reid Kimball, Gamasutra Expert Blogger and level designer for Buzz Monkey Software. Taking a cue from cinema, Reid suggests game designers implement the potentially cheesy but versatile tool that is the montage. By creating an interactive montage, the passage of time is expressed without a non-interactive cut scene or jarring jump in time. Join us while we discuss flashbacks, lumberjacks, the mighty Chronos, and how games and gamers play with time itself. Of course you can find Kimball's article in the show notes below. As always, we would love to have you share your own temporal musings in the comments section.

Some discussion starters:

- What games express the passage of time in satisfactory ways? Does their interactive, or the lack thereof, improve the experience?
- Do you enjoy playing games under a time constraint? Does this give greater meaning to the passage of time in-game?
- Are there characters or franchises you would like to see age in real-time? Do you think this would add to the immersion?

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: 26 min 48 sec
- Reid Kimball's article, via Gamasutra
- Music provided by Brad Sucks

This week, Inspired by Daniel Johnson's article about games and culture, we wade in to the fascinating-yet-nebulous realm of culture in video games.  After a brief discussion of how to define the term, we think about the cultural influences found in video games.  Whether it is a game's content, the way it was produced, or its capacity to illustrate the societies in which it exists, games carry meaning about everyone involved in the process.  As this site is largely about examining the culture that both flows through and emanates from games, we found plenty to talk about in this article.  We hope to hear your thoughts in the comments!

Some discussion starters:

- What games have you found particularly interesting in terms of the way they represented a specific culture (either positively or negatively)?  Who is most qualified to handle cultural topics in video games?
- When does a culture become stifling?  How do development techniques, business practices, social mores, and player expectation impact this?
- What do video games say about our current societies?  What games from the past do you find particularly illustrative of cultural zeitgeists?

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: 28 min 50 sec
- Daniel Johnson's Article, via GameSetWatch: "'Lingua Franca' – The Place Of Games In Culture"
- Music provided by Brad Sucks