grokludo

Junglist

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VIDEO GAMES
UPDATED BIWEEKLY

grokludo is about understanding games. It's a snappy way to hear the latest research on game design, cognitive psychology, business in gaming, and policy & regulation.We'll speak to everyone at the intersection of all those fields -- developers, academics, policymakers, and community enthusiasts -- anyone with a story or an idea that can deepen our understanding of play.

MAR 27

Kriegsspiel and the Prussian Pioneers of Wargaming - Jon Peterson | grokludo 22

Jon Peterson is the author of Playing at the World, a deep dive into tabletop gaming leading up to Dungeons & Dragons, which just released its 2nd edition. Jon is a fantastic source of knowledge on all things tabletop, and has personally traveled to several museums to see and translate wargaming publications dating as far back as the 1600s. I took the opportunity to quiz him about Kriegsspiel -- a wargame that Prussian officers used as a training tool in the 1800s. As Jon illustrates, it's more than just interesting history; Kriegsspiel is a giant whose shoulders support many modern gaming staples. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GMbpa2aTZi8dBa0VVbsU1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grokludo/id1736667050

49 min
MAR 20

How Gaming Habits Affect Life, Sleep, and More - Nick Ballou | grokludo 21

Nick Ballou researches gaming habits and their effects on quality of life. He recently released a study with an unprecedented amount of data collected about gamers' play habits, and in addition to showing us his findings, the database is now open for anyone to use. Some of the main early lessons include a confirmation that time spent gaming has no bearing on quality of life -- nor does it affect quality of sleep. In terms of study participants, there was a high representation of gamers identifying as ADHD/Autistic -- echoing the estimate of of our previous guest, Tony Attwood, who speculated that the gaming community would have a higher representation than the general public. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:30 - Does time spent matter? 08:12 - Neurodivergence higher than expected 10:30 - Building trust with publishers 16:50 - Self-determination theory and games 20:20 - BANG (Basic Needs in Games) 30:00 - Gaming habits and demographics 32:20 - Cultural differences in datasets 35:00 - Gaming habits and sleep 41:20 - Future research, open data Find the Open Play study here: https://nballou.github.io/open-play-demographics/index-typst.pdf Nick's website: https://nickballou.com/ Nick's study on BANG: https://zenodo.org/records/18370608 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GMbpa2aTZi8dBa0VVbsU1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grokludo/id1736667050

47 min
12/15/2025

The Evolution of Play as Our Learning Superpower - Peter Gray | grokludo 20

Why do we play? Not only play -- why do we play more than any other animal, and for longer? Well into adulthood? Raph Koster, who's been on the podcast before, brought out A Theory of Fun in 2006, which aimed to put an evolutionary psychology lens over fun. The theory, was that FUN is LEARNING. But back then, it felt more like a theory. After 20 years of new science connecting fun and learning, it's starting to feel more like fact. So I sought out Peter Gray, research professor of psychology and neuroscience at Boston College. He's the author of the incredibly well-researched Free to Learn, as well as his Substack, Play Makes Us Human. Peter has spent decades on the question of why we play, and how a playful state of mind is kind of a learning superpower. He joins grokludo now to talk about our evolutionary drive to play, as well as how these ideas weren't taken seriously for almost a century, and how we can use that info in designing our lives. Find the book Free to Learn here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15843125-free-to-learn Peter Gray writes on Substack here: https://petergray.substack.com/ Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:35 - Is fun just learning? 08:37 - Mammals have the most to learn 11:28 - From Karl Groos to modern times 19:10 - Hunter gather play vs agricultural groups 29:35 - The Bartle Matrix and competition 39:48 - The kids are alright 44:33 - Does social media change things? 47:15 - Should we design games for more modern compulsions? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GMbpa2aTZi8dBa0VVbsU1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grokludo/id1736667050

57 min
12/08/2025

The Joy and Stress of Gaming With Autism - Tony Attwood | grokludo 19

**Content Warning** This episode contains discussion of depression and suicidal ideation. For those with autism, gaming can be a great boon. Where others see social barriers, the autistic mind sees the removal of those barriers. The symptoms disappear. In the words of this week's guest, "often when you play the game, you're not autistic." Tony Attwood is an expert in Autism, and an adjunct professor at Griffith University in Queensland. He ran a private practice for decades, specialising in Level 1 autism, formerly known as Asperger's Syndrome. Among other books, Attwood is the author of The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome. This week, Attwood joins us to talk about how those with autism experience games, the positives as well as the dangers, and how we can better design habits and games around it. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:04 - Asperger's rolled into Autism 06:00 - The "lost generation" 07:35 - Girls and women harder to diagnose 09:38 - Media representations of autism 11:45 - Evolutionary advantages 15:00 - Emotion suppression 17:40 - Status, fame, and bullying 23:00 - Being manipulated by criminals 25:25 - Emotion regulation 28:30 - Gaming disorder 30:45 - Designing games to help people with autism 35:30 - Moderation & healthy habits 42:35 - Designing for high stress 45:25 - What Tony wished people knew --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social

51 min
12/01/2025

What the Core Elements of Game Design Teach Us - José Zagal | grokludo 18

Jose Zagal is a professor at the University of Utah, teaching game design, and ethics in videogames. In 2005 he put forward the Game Ontology Project, which attempts to break down games to its core elements, categorise them, and study them. It's a process every science eventually comes to -- be it physics, chemistry, various fields of mathematics, philosophy, and language... Eventually you learn more by breaking it down and studying it piece by piece. Although Jose more readily compares this project to the psych ontology from computer science. Today, Jose joins us to talk about the Game Ontology Project, and the more recent research it has led to, around goals in games, and ludo narrative dissonance, which occurs when there is a conflict between gameplay and its narrative. Timecodes 00:00 - Intro 01:25 - History of the Game Ontology Project 11:05 - What does the ontology give us? 17:00 - Representational elements 23:48 - Game design is a bottomless pit 26:10 - Applying the ontology 30:45 - The GFI Framework and ludonarrative dissonance 46:45 - Solving the main example of ludonarrative dissonance 48:00 - The Nintendo Virtual Boy The Game Ontology Project: https://gameontology.com/index.php/Main_Page The MDA framework: https://users.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf The GFI framework: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346426218_GFI_A_Formal_Approach_to_Narrative_Design_and_Game_Research Find the new book on the Nintendo Virtual Boy here: https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5781/Seeing-RedNintendo-s-Virtual-Boy --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GMbpa2aTZi8dBa0VVbsU1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grokludo/id1736667050

49 min
11/24/2025

The Inconvenient Truths of 'Stop Killing Games' - Paul Kilduff-Taylor | grokludo 17

Gaming has an end-of-life problem. While we've made some progress in preserving games as cultural artifacts, new questions have arisen about when it's okay for publishers to end support for their games, and what that means. Paul Kilduff-Taylor is an indie dev and publisher with multiplayer games such as Frozen Synapse under his belt, which I've been playing since 2011. In a subject area that's been sorely lacking in nuance, Paul has been trying to communicate some inconvenient truths about the complexities of end-of-life support. You can find Paul's recent blog post on Stop Killing Games here: https://modecollapse.substack.com/p/stop-killing-games-will-become-an Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:28 - Remembering Frozen Synapse 05:35 - Stop Killing Games 10:44 - Govt regulation vs industry self-regulation 28:26 - How liable should publishers be 32:50 - Middleware solutions 41:00 - Can any legal language capture everything we need? 44:15 - Regulators in Australia 48:37 - Paul's hilarious press releases --------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GMbpa2aTZi8dBa0VVbsU1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grokludo/id1736667050

58 min
11/17/2025

The Game Club's Cheat Code for Community - Guy Blomberg and Shay P Leighton | grokludo 16

Guy Blomberg and Shay Leighton have started a book club. It's called The Game Club, because it's not really about books, it's about games. But it's not really about games, it's about friends. With loneliness on the rise, these two excel at bringing people together. Blomberg has been behind several conventions such as PAX and DreamHack, as well as GIG, the Games Industry Gathering. Leighton is a community organiser who gives talks to unions, activists, and more. Using the standard book club model, The Game Club sends members an interesting game every month with prompts, for people to meet up and discuss. So far, so normal, but behind it all is extensive research into loneliness and community building, and I had a few discussion prompts of my own, about how a hobby with automatic guild invites and elo matchmaking can ditch the mantra of "alone together", and simply be together. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:33 - Why don't we play together anymore? 03:52 - Our cognitive limits for friendships 09:35 - How important is it to meet in person? 11:30 - The health benefits of friendship 16:09 - What makes the friendships high quality 18:25 - We don't play the same games anymore 21:48 - The technical limitations of a game club 27:26 - The quiet part 30:15 - Articulating why you hate something 31:30 - Having tough conversations 37:09 - How male friendships differ 40:00 - How do we replace missing institutions? 44:22 - Size limits on chapters 45:56 - The AI companion space 50:30 - The next business venture 51:09 - Joining The Game Club

53 min
11/10/2025

How to Experience Games as Art - Tracy Fullerton | grokludo 15

Tracy Fullerton is head of the renowned games lab at the University of Southern California, and is on the Board of Directors for Square Enix, and Games for Change. For years, her book Game Design Workshop has taught pixel pushers that finding the fun is a process, not a vision. And her students include the makers of Journey, Threes!, and Outer Wilds, among others. Her new book is called The Well-Read Game, and she joins grokludo to talk about a deeper way of playing games, building on things like reader-response theory, and arguing that it can not only be adapted to games, but in some ways, games are even more of a natural fit for a reading, than a book. Timecodes: 00:00 - Intro 01:07 - Why well "read"? 05:45 - The importance of journaling 09:36 - Games as art 18:12 - A new way of playing games 28:00 - What games are best for readings? 36:14 - What games have a variety of readings? 40:53 - Leaving out info to encourage interpretation 49:40 - Creating a suitable space to talk about games 58:21 - Advice for creating book clubs for games You can find The Well Read Game here: https://www.thewellreadgame.com/ —--------------------------------------------------------------------- Get grokludo in your inbox at grokludo.com, or catch it on the big podcast platforms! I always write a bit more on the grokludo website: https://grokludo.com/ YouTube: youtube.com/@TheJunglist YouTube Playlist: youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3cxb6pzUE9Z7PXjIVbmr5qiohoq5wTdo Follow on X: https://x.com/TheJunglist Follow on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/thejunglist.bsky.social Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6GMbpa2aTZi8dBa0VVbsU1 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grokludo/id1736667050

1h 2m

grokludo is about understanding games. It's a snappy way to hear the latest research on game design, cognitive psychology, business in gaming, and policy & regulation.We'll speak to everyone at the intersection of all those fields -- developers, academics, policymakers, and community enthusiasts -- anyone with a story or an idea that can deepen our understanding of play.

Creator

Junglist
Years Active

2024 - 2026
Episodes

22
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2026 grokludo
Show Website

grokludo