The Longest Rainy Sunday

Play Make Write Think
The Longest Rainy Sunday

Welcome to The Longest Rainy Sunday Podcast, a production by Emory University students in David Morgen’s Play, Make, Write, Think class. Time has stopped, everything is uncertain, we’re physically distanced and socially disconnected as a pandemic and fights for justice rage around us. The world might be forever changed after the events of 2020 but where does that leave us in the meantime? It’s felt to a lot of us like one almost unending rainy afternoon staring at video screens, either to escape, to connect, or to imagine a better way forward. Even the World Health Organization, one year after designating video game addiction as a mental health disorder, is now urging people to play more video games and celebrating the “important messages” that the video games industry can communicate. So in this series, we’ll turn our critical gaze to the games we have been playing, examine what they have to offer right now. How do these games define identities, foster a sense of belonging, encourage empathy, or subvert systems? How do they encourage certain types of problem solving and learning? What sorts of values do they promote? The world hit pause, lets hit play.

Episodes

  1. Time To Settle This With Catan

    28/11/2020

    Time To Settle This With Catan

    The Settlers of Catan is a game that almost everyone has at least heard of, if not played. Although released in 1995, its popularity is only growing all these years later. There are so many layers and facets to this game, that a single 10-minute podcast episode cannot do justice to it. Still, we try our best to touch upon some of the factors that make this game unique and relevant. ‘Strategy’ is a word that comes up very often while talking about Catan, and we talk about what kinds of strategies we need to use in the game, the way we need to think while playing, and why this is relevant to everyday life. We also talk about why Catan is a more accurate representation of how Capitalism works, as compared to other games, like Monopoly. Lastly, we also mention how the game has an underlying message of Colonialism, and why it is important to recognize that every part of the game has not aged well. Sources Keyes, Scott. “Settlers of Catan: How a German Board Game Went Mainstream” The Atlantic. June 7, 2011,Lee, Jonathan Rey. “One thought on “Capitalism and Unfairness in Catan: Oil Springs”” Analog Game Studies. March 20, 2017.Taylor, Chris. “Forget Monopoly: Six financial lessons from Catan” Reuters. June 28, 2016.Vesa, Markku. “Capitalism and Unfairness in Competitive Board Games” Playlab!. April 24, 2017.Poulos, James. “The Death Of Self-Centered Capitalism” Forbes. June 29, 2013.Bennet, J. Matthew. “Does Capitalism Promote Selfishness? - Capitalism” Capitalism.com. March 23, 2017.Pearlstein, Steven. “Five myths about capitalism” The Washington Post. September 28, 2018.ImageMusic Transcript Download transcript

    11 min

About

Welcome to The Longest Rainy Sunday Podcast, a production by Emory University students in David Morgen’s Play, Make, Write, Think class. Time has stopped, everything is uncertain, we’re physically distanced and socially disconnected as a pandemic and fights for justice rage around us. The world might be forever changed after the events of 2020 but where does that leave us in the meantime? It’s felt to a lot of us like one almost unending rainy afternoon staring at video screens, either to escape, to connect, or to imagine a better way forward. Even the World Health Organization, one year after designating video game addiction as a mental health disorder, is now urging people to play more video games and celebrating the “important messages” that the video games industry can communicate. So in this series, we’ll turn our critical gaze to the games we have been playing, examine what they have to offer right now. How do these games define identities, foster a sense of belonging, encourage empathy, or subvert systems? How do they encourage certain types of problem solving and learning? What sorts of values do they promote? The world hit pause, lets hit play.

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