With a Terrible Fate – Details, episodes & analysis

On this week's episode of With a Terrible Fate's podcast, join Aaron and Dan in a treacherous, invigorating relitigation of domains of video-game discourse with a reputation for being too messy and inert to matter to the ordinary gamer. The two main bugaboos on the agenda are "morality" and "immersion" in gaming. What does it mean for games to have moral content, and how can this content actually help to illuminate the many reasons we have for playing games rather than leading us into often distracting conversations about whether playing games at all is "good" or "bad"? And how might "immersion" distract us from the rich experiences games give us by dynamically playing with the distance between player and avatar, and telling stories about the changes in that distance?

Listen in to find out! Along the way, we alight on topics ranging from the value of video-game adaptations into television to the potential of games to provide players with mystic and esoteric experiences. We even make time to consider Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree, and we break down how to read the philosophical debate over our emotional reactions to works of fiction—featuring exegesis of work from Aaron's undergraduate thesis adviser and mentor, Richard Moran.

Be on the lookout for spoiler-ish discussions of The Last of Us Parts 1 & 2, the TV adaptation of The Last of Us Part 1, Silent Hill 2, Tales of Hearts R, Elden Ring, and Shadow of the Erdtree (though spoilers focus more on Elden Ring than on Shadow of the Erdtree).

Works Referenced:

• Hughes, Dan (2017). "Does Silent Hill 2 Belong in the Video Game Canon?" With a Terrible Fate.
• Moran, Richard. (1994) “The Expression of Feeling in Imagination.” Philosophical Review 103.1, pp. 75-106.
• Suduiko, Aaron. (2017) "Guilt & Inequity in Silent Hill 2." With a Terrible Fate.
• — —. (2022) "How Elden Ring Turns Its Player into an Outer God." With a Terrible Fate.
• — —. (2023) "Tales of the Abyss, Kabbalah, and Gaming as a Spiritual Act." With a Terrible Fate.
• — —. (2024) "Why You Must Play Tales of Hearts R 389 Times." With a Terrible Fate.
• Walton, Kendall. (1978) “Fearing Fictions.” Journal of Philosophy 75.1, pp. 5-27.
• — —. (1990) Mimesis as make-believe: on the foundations of the representational arts. Cambridge: Harvard University. Print.

***WARNING: THIS EPISODE IS HAUNTED!*** The characters in the first game we discussed were haunting our podcasting software, so please excuse some small technical difficulties throughout the episode and a rather abrupt kickoff on account of a lost introduction. We jump directly into spoilers for Inscryption, a game that ought to be played without spoilers, so we strongly recommend only listening to this episode after playing! (Or, skip ahead to 45:30 to pass over this discussion.)

In a belated installment of the With a Terrible Fate podcast, Aaron and Dan travel back in time to Mother's Day 2024 in a discussion ranging from the horrifying, to the metafictional, to the maternal, to the personal. We kick things off (0:00:00) with a long-overdue debrief of Inscryption following Dan's completion of it and agree that it's something you simply have to discover for yourself—as well as being something that you absolutely must discuss with others who have experienced it! Later (0:45:30), we contemplate portraits of some memorable mothers from our gaming lives. Finally (0:52:54), we wrap things up with an exploration of how single-player gaming can include a range of rich, intersecting, real-life ritual practices, which can equip us to game more mindfully if only we can attend to those rituals in our conscious mind.

Be warned (again!) for thorough spoilers of Inscryption, along with some smaller structural spoilers for elements of (in the motherhood section) Tales of Eternia, Tales of Hearts R, Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, Scarlet Nexus, Returnal, God of War & Ragnorok, and (in the ritual section) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, along with some reprised spoilers for Inscryption.

Works Referenced

• Erin Waldram, "How Majora's Mask Teaches Us to Connect With All of Ourselves"
• Aaron Suduiko, "Why You Must Play Tales of Hearts R 389 Times"

With the last month of the year upon us, join the With a Terrible Fate podcast for December-themed game reflections! From the culture developing around the Game Awards, to analyzing what counts as a "holiday gaming experience," to reflecting on evolving standards around game demos, spoilers, and recommendations, this episode is stuffed with plenty of gifts for the literate gamer.

Do you find yourself bouncing back and forth between multiple games, or running a few different playthroughs at the same time to support different mindsets or moments throughout your day? Take a listen to this latest podcast episode, in which Dan and Aaron explore the many reasons for which we might bounce gymnastically between multiple games, and the many consequences (good and bad!) this might have for our playthroughs. From seres like Persona 5 and Tales of Arise featuring multiple explorations of the same characters, to games like Tales of Graces f and Ni no Kuni II offering timely pictures of modern struggles, to motivations like "reading," "grinding," and "bedtime routine" guiding our game curation, this conversation offers something for every sort of gaming moment—just as games themselves do!

Welcome to the latest incarnation of With a Terrible Fate's podcast: unstructured, organic conversations about current gaming experiences, how they inform our understanding of the world, and how they relate to the broader language of video-game storytelling! In this inaugural episode, Dan Hughes and Aaron Suduiko discuss their recent adventures in the Tales and Pokémon series, and they wrestle with the difference between series that lose touch with their identity through productization and series that enhance our experience through robust, thematically grounded networks of content. There's even a bit of GOTY talk, so you may walk away with some new—or very, very old—game recommendations to add to your own list!

On the spookiest day of the year, join With a Terrible Fate in a free-wheeling conversation about the past, present, and future magic of horror storytelling in video games. In a brand-new podcast episode, Dan Hughes and Aaron Suduiko haunt you with reflections on the good, bad, and ugly of scary interactive stories, including:

• Old and new glitches, from MissingNo. to headless Marvel heroes
• Dan's six-year-old ire for Five Nights at Freddy's, juxtaposed against his reception of the brand-new Five Nights at Freddy's film
• The role of horror moments in non-horror video-game genres, such as the JRPG
• The "Silent Hill" era of retelling old horror stories in a new light like campfire stories inspired by oral histories, including such works as Resident Evil and Silent Hill remakes, as well as Lies of P
• Recommendations for what you should play and watch this Halloween

Don't be afraid, and buckle up for new podcast content in the near future!

Works cited:

• Dan Hughes, "Does Five Nights at Freddy's Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Dan Hughes, "Does Dead Rising Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Dan Hughes, "Does Silent Hill Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Dan Hughes, "Does Silent Hill 2 Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Dan Hughes, "Does Silent Hill 3 Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Dan Hughes, "Does Silent Hill 4 Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Dan Hughes, "Does Undertale Belong in the Video Game Canon?"
• Lauren Spohn, "The Outset Island Effect"
• Aaron Suduiko, Tales of Praxis
• Aaron Suduiko, "Bloodborne, Lovecraft, and the Dangerous Idea"
• Aaron Suduiko, "The Horror of Code Vein is You"
• Aaron Suduiko, "Guilt & Inequity in Silent Hill 2"

This Friday the 13th of October on Pokémon Rose: from MissingNo. and a skeletal Kabutops to Drifloon and Gengar, take our hand on the spookiest day of the year and wander with us through the pokégraveyard. Stay on the lookout: if we're unlucky enough, we may just be visited by the origins of ghost stories, Ghost Pokémon, and the spooky folklore that wove its DNA into the Pokémon series and early-2000s internet gaming culture alike.

This week on Pokémon Rose: an exposition of mythopoeia, a study of the Pokémon world's perennial quest for meaning and explanation in Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, and how mechanics of exploration, Pokémania, and myth equip players to confront one burning question: "How do we dream in a shapeless void?"

Credit to Qumu Music for the music in this episode.

This week on Pokémon Rose: an introduction to Generation 4 of Pokémon (Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum), the value of taking your childhood passions seriously as you grow up, and the surprising perspective of falling in love with a game as an adult only because you chose not to play it in your childhood.

This week on Pokémon Phi Rose: five-time Pokémon world champion Dan Hughes reflects on Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and contemplates what might have been if he'd taken a different path and adopted a different dream.