Blog Post #8
Analyzing Podcasts
MLA Citation of podcast # 1
The Mad Man. “Episode 05 — Symphony is Dracula Backwards” Audio blog post. Game or Die. TheMadMan007, 9 May. 2019. Web. 18 February. 2021.
Summary of podcast
This podcast focuses on the author’s take on the game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in terms of mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics. The author, MadMan007, describes in detail his experience as being rather discouraged to play Symphony, claiming to have started it many times but only recently taking time to fully complete the game. He speaks of the frustrations of going back to the same rooms to find every “nook and cranny” and details going through the first ending of killing another protagonist, Ritcher, and the second ending of releasing the same protagonist from an invisible force, resulting in extra content called the “inverted castle”. Towards the end of the podcast, the author states his standing on the game and plays the end credits music of the game. This podcast grabs my interest because it’s not scholarly and centered on one’s personal intake of a game they played. I’d like to integrate the aspect of freely commenting my thoughts about the subjects I’ll be covering, but for copyright purposes, I may hold off on the kind of music played during my podcast and video essay.
Argument(s) made in podcast
The author argues that Castlevania: Symphony of the Night became very “boring” to play from the coined “Metroidvania” genre which consists of constant retracing and non-linear exploration in order to uncover all of a game’s secret areas and items. In addition, the limited variance in enemies makes the game very predictable and further caused a loss of interest for the author as he played through. He also addresses that a special item the player picks up near the beginning of Symphony makes the character extremely overpowered and renders all other items “useless”, at which he questions Konami’s decisions and criticizes their efforts on the creation of the game. The shape-shifting abilities the player acquires in-game are also rarely used, rendering them obsolete according to MadMan007, and by the end of the podcast, he stresses not to attempt to fully complete the game unless the player feels like it is worth their time to do after finishing the main story arc. MadMan007 also describes how Alucard, Dracula’s son, is half-vampire, and the abilities Dracula doesn’t have as a boss are part of the player character. The fact that the player has so much power inclines me to think Konami purposefully made this mechanic so the player can get a sense of empowerment. At the cost of such empowerment, in order for the player to avoid getting “bored” as MadMan007 expressed, the player could be encouraged to find different ways of playing and provide themselves with a challenge by prohibiting the use of certain items or combos.
Most interesting contributions to the topic
The author is very straightforward with his thoughts and opinions about Symphony and gives his own critical view on what could be better in the game. MadMan007 also inadvertently describes the effect of being incredibly powerful in a game, highlighting that continued growth in difficulty is needed to keep a player invested in playing further. I’d enjoy expanding out of topic in my podcast, but not too far, and bring things back to the main points so as to keep things cohesive while not tying myself down into something too formal for my comfort. I want to give facts but also expand on my interpretation of them, which gives me the idea of following a kind of chain reaction that is solid while allowing myself to speak my mind at discretion.
New information (what did you learn?)
I learned that there are people who independently create reviews and podcasts, giving their personal views on a game or topic. I also learned that the Castlevania series is talked about very critically in relation to other vampire games and the horror genre. I’ll be engaging with this information by bouncing off what has some of these individuals have created, bringing parts of their arguments together to aid in my own and create a strong base for my own insights, and I’m hoping to introduce the information informally in the podcast.
Works Cited (follow up reading/research)
Parish, Jeremy. “The 12 Best Indie Metroidvania Games.” Polygon, Polygon, 10 Oct. 2018, www.polygon.com/features/2018/10/10/17952674/the-12-best-indie-metroidvania-games.
By definition, “Metroidvania” games are games that focus on exploration and “character progression”, and the Castlevania series apparently were what helped coin the term. Despite this type of game genre is frustrating for some people, there are games that follow this style today like Hollow Knight, Steamworld Dig 2, and more.
MLA Citation of podcast # 2
Edwards, Tink and Cookson, Stu and Howard, Scott and Lily, Brian. “Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines” Audio blog post. RebrewTV. Game Drawl, 20 Oct. 2018. Web. 20 February. 2021.
Summary of podcast
The team introduces themselves and begin talking about how each was drawn into the Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines and they also complained about there being bugs even after the patches the game received. The hosts talk about various movies, shows, and video games that have come out since 2004, including a broad brushing over the dividing community when Halo was released. The team of hosts also touch upon the limitation of video games inspired by tabletops and at the end they talk about the next game to possibly talk about, which is Spider-Man 2. This podcast included a lot of tangents as multiple people providing more input on top of the other led to veering completely off-topic, so I’m refraining from working with a group for the podcast partly in spite of this possibility. However, I would like to be abv to address the audience to make it feel like there is a conversation going, mostly in hopes of my podcast more engaging and allowing time for the audience to think of their opinion on what will be spoken.
Argument(s) made in podcast
The main argument about the game is that it “tried to be more than it could be” according to one of the hosts. The reason being, Activision was attempting to recreate a tabletop game, and tabletop games depend on the player’s imagination and “a dice roll”, while video games are able to construct a few of the many possible visuals. This feat was compared to an attempt of making DnD into a movie, which the hosts agreed would be extremely unlikely and to happen because there is such a large scope that is too big for video games. Although there isn’t any point in the podcast about the mention of the role vampires have in the video game, there is talk about a variety of other games that have released and how each have their own stories associated. This could correlate to the limitations of stories existing independently within their media, such as Count Dracula existing in Bram Stoker’s novel who is different to eh Count Dracula in film and video game adaptations.
Most interesting contributions to the topic
The most interesting contribution wasn’t about the game itself, but rather the collective knowledge the hosts had as a group which gave rise to a lot of conversation even though most of it was out of topic, and each gave their own story about how they were drawn to said game as well. I won’t be working in a team for this podcast nor is my knowledge but similar to the previous podcast, I would like to include my own experiences about the subject to not only make the podcast a little more personal but to also provide some humor if possible.
New information (what did you learn?)
I learned that World of Warcraft on launch day had very heavy lag, which is obscure but psychologically speaking, we as humans tend to remember something strange better than remembering something that doesn’t catch our interest. I also learned about the game Vampire: The Masquerade which I had never previously heard of or seen, along with a variety of other games and shows which were talked about in the podcast. By delving into some research about Vampire: The Masquerade, I can gather more information and see for myself how this game portrays vampires and if it would prove useful to my topic on empowering the player through the use of vampires and supernatural abilities.
Works Cited (follow up reading/research)
McNamara, Tom. “Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines Review.” IGN, 17 Nov. 2004, www.ign.com/articles/2004/11/17/vampire-the-masquerade-bloodlines-review-2
Author, Unknown. “Tremere.” Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines Wiki, 2019, vtmb.fandom.com/wiki/Tremere.
Bloodlines apparently has a complex backstory and the player is able to choose between a few different clans, each with their strengths and weaknesses, one of them being the “Tremere” who are good with magic from having “stole[n] the secrets of vampirism ages ago” (McNamara). According to the Vampire: Masquerade Wiki, the Tremere are seen as mages related to the undead and are “hated” by many other vampire clans, which means that this clan is vampirical but not the same as Count Dracula (Wiki).