Say It Like You Play It

Ibi Baxter-Webb & Joe Baxter-Webb

The podcast about games, language and culture. With hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe. Dr. Ibi has a Ph.D. in Linguistics and likes to play games. Dr. Joe has a Ph.D. in Media & Cultural studies, and designs games for a living. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

  1. 08/29/2025

    Blue Prince: puzzles, puns, and politics

    In this episode we discuss the puzzle adventure game Blue Prince by Dogubomb. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: The game's world & loreWord play in puzzles, as clues, & for funColour semioticsSign versus noise ratioThe (un)translatability of the game Songs that are low-key about playing Blue Prince: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6DbDTBrBK23NIV4u077vcx?si=d8ed31681e964979 Contains some strong (and other types of) language. ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  2. 06/30/2025

    Semiotics and (video) games

    In this episode we discuss a concept which has been important – but implicit – in many previous episodes: semiotics, or meaning-making through signs. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: The linguistic foundations and broad applications of semiotics;Definitions and different types of signs;Multi-modal semiotics in (video) games;Genre-specific and genre-independent semiotics;The relationship between signs and ludemes;Examples such as UI, rarity colours, and controls; Contains some strong (and other types of) language. ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Resources: Blomberg, J. 2018. 'The Semiotics of the Game Controller', Game Studies, 18(2). https://gamestudies.org/1802/articles/blomberg Chandler, D. 'Semiotics for Beginners'. https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~chazelle/courses/BIB/semio2.htm Hawreliak, J. (2018). Multimodal Semiotics and Rhetoric in Videogames. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315159492 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  3. 06/04/2025

    Chants of Sennaar & Sethian reactions: what makes a good language puzzle game?

    In this episode we talk about our experience playing two language puzzle games, 'Chants of Sennaar' by Rundisc and 'Sethian' by Duang! Games, LLC . Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: language puzzle and translation mechanicsembedding conlangs in game worldsplayer versus player-character knowledge of conlangscomplexity of conlangs and how to make them decipherable Contains some strong (and other types of) language. ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  4. 04/28/2025

    Language, character design, and world building

    In this episode we talk about the role of language in character design and world building. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: language ideologies, stereotypes, and otheringcharacters with different accents or speech impedimentsspelling in conlangs inspired by real languagesreal-world associations mapping onto fictional worldsgames such as the Dragon Age franchise, Pillars of Eternity, Cyberpunk 2077, Disco Elysium Contains some strong (and other types of) language. ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Resources: Burrell-Kim, Danielle (2023). Stuttering Matt: Linguistic ableism and the mockery of speech impediments in video games. Game Studies, 23(2). Available here: https://gamestudies.org/2302/articles/burrellkim Villanueva, Emily & Ensslin Astrid (2021). Divine intervention: Multimodal pragmatics and unconventional opposition in performed character speech in Dragon Age: Inquisition. In: Planchenault, G. & Poljak, L. (eds.) Pragmatics of Accents. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 205-228. Available here: https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2993691/villanueva_ensslin_preprints.pdf?sequence=1 'Constructed Languages and Intuitive *~ Culture Feels ~*', forum thread. Available here: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63958-constructed-languages-and-intuitive-~-culture-feels-~/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  5. 03/30/2025

    Hearthstone deep dive: when game studies meets linguistics

    In this episode we take a close look at the online collectible card game 'Hearthstone', which is part of Blizzard Entertainment's 'Warcraft' franchise, and three research papers which study the game in relation to language and communication. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: Humour, puns, and wordplay in Hearthstone;Linguistic differences between rule texts and flavour texts;The functions and forms of keywords and card names;Localization, with a focus on the use of Kanji in Japanese;Communicative affordances and limitations of the in-game emote system;Players' perceptions of "bad manners"; Qualitative versus quantitative research approaches and the obstacles of research cultures; Contains some strong (and other types of) language. ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Resources: Arjoranta, J., & Siitonen, M. (2018). Why do players misuse emotes in Hearthstone? Negotiating the use of communicative affordances in an online multiplayer game. Game Studies, 18(2). Available here: https://gamestudies.org/1802/articles/arjoranta_siitonen. Jacquin, J., & Xanthos, A. (2021). Evolution of linguistic complexity in Hearthstone: a resource and an example in linguistic game studies. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 36(4), 907-918. Available here: https://serval.unil.ch/resource/serval:BIB_FA8B6BCC9CA2.P001/REF.pdf Robertson, W. (2020). Unspeakable puns: kanji-dependent wordplay as a localization strategy in Japanese. Perspectives, 28(4), 606-624. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0907676X.2018.1548628. 'German translations messy since last update', forum thread: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/german-translations-messy-since-last-update/126281. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    Hearthstone deep dive: when game studies meets linguistics

  6. 02/26/2025

    Gamified language learning: neither fun nor educational?

    In this episode we discuss our experiences of using language-learning apps. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: What is gamification?Loss aversion, quizzes, and immersive learningThe (im)balance between vocabulary and grammarDifferent needs for different audiencesApps such as Duolingo, LingoLegends, Memrise, Influent, and Earthlingo Contains some strong (and other types of) language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Further resources: Alvi, I. (2022). Gamification interaction features in language learning apps, brand engagement, and brand-consumer relationship quality. Journal of Content, Community and Communication, 15(8), 210-226. Available via: https://www.amity.edu/gwalior/jccc/pdf/june-2022-15.pdf. Shortt, M., Tilak, S., Kuznetcova, I., Martens, B., & Akinkuolie, B. (2023). Gamification in mobile-assisted language learning: A systematic review of Duolingo literature from public release of 2012 to early 2020. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 36(3), 517-554. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.1933540. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  7. 01/26/2025

    'The gostak distims the doshes': deciphering gibberish-English in a text-based adventure game

    In this episode we discuss Carl Muckenhoupt's challenging 'The Gostak'; a text-based adventure game in which the player has to decipher a gibberish version of English. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: How the game worksTranslation as game mechanicThe syntax of English and what it tells us about the meaning of wordsVerb transitivity, direct objects, and indirect objects Thinking of nouns and verbs as building blocks of games more generally If you would like to play 'The Gostak' youself, you can do so on the Interactive Fiction DataBase: https://ifdb.org/viewgame?id=w5s3sv43s3p98v45#:~:text=The%20reference%20is%20to%20the,can%20be%20distimmed%20by%20a Contains some strong (and other type types of) language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt 📚 Resources: Ingraham, A. (1903). Swain school lectures. Open Court Publishing Company. Available at: https://archive.org/details/swainschoollectu00ingruoft Ogden, C. K., & Richards, I. A. (1927). The Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influence of Language upon Thought and of the Science of Symbolism. Harcourt, Brace. Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff, Tenielle. ‘Beyond the Basics: Transitive, Intransitive, Ditransitive and Ambitransitive Verbs’. The Advocate, Feb. 2015, p. 54-55. Available at: https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=lawfaculty Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    'The gostak distims the doshes': deciphering gibberish-English in a text-based adventure game

  8. 11/30/2024

    Real cultures in games: humour, accents, and how you hold your pizza

    In this episode, we talk about the representation of real cultures in video games. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe discuss: The scope of ‘culture’, from architecture to penis jokesNationality, regionality, mainstream, and stereotypesAccents and how people feel about themGames such as Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, Life is Strange, Thank Goodness You’re Here, Night in the Woods. Contains some strong (and other type types of) language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt 📚 Resources:  Bardwell, Thomas. 2020. 'Why Do the Children in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Have American Accents?'. URL: https://www.ccn.com/why-do-the-children-in-assassins-creed-valhalla-have-american-accents/ Moser, Cassidy. 2017. 'Ubisoft Discusses the Lack of French Accents in Assassin's Creed Unity'. URL: https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/15/ubisoft-discusses-the-lack-of-french-accents-in-assassins-creed-unity Spencer-Oatey, Helen. 2008. Culturally Speaking. Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory. London: Continuum. Williams, Raymond. 1976. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  9. 11/01/2024

    Social simulation in games: what is it and why isn’t there more of it?

    In this episode, we talk about social simulation in games, taking as our starting point Mitu Khandaker's talk ‘Thinking about people: Designing games for social simulation’. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe discuss: What’s a social sim?Autonomous behaviour versus authored branching storiesSocial simulation in tabletop gamesWhat are NPCs for?The multiple functions of communication and interaction in real life and gamesGames such as The Sims, Baldur's Gate 3, Skyrim, Dragon Age, Redshirts, and Ctrl.Alt.DEL Contains some strong (and other type types of) language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt 📚 Resources:  Jakobson, Roman. 1960. ‘Linguistics and poetics’. In T. Seboek (ed.) Style in Language, MIT Press, 350-377. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/download/33061075/Jakobson_Eks_15_F12.pdf Khandaker, Mitu. 2015 ‘Thinking about people: Designing games for social simulation’, Game Developers Conference, San Francisco. Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haNy1kSHMt8&t=2591s  Mathiot, Madeleine & Garvin, Paul L. 1975. ‘The functions of language: A sociocultural view’, Anthropological Quarterly, 48(3). 148–156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3316921 Searle, John R. 1975. ‘A taxonomy of illocutionary acts.’ In K. Gunderson (ed.) Language, Mind, and Knowledge, University of Minnesota Press, 344–369. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  10. 09/28/2024

    Ludemes, ‘game as language’, and other metaphors

    In this episode we try to wrap our heads around the concept of 'ludemes'. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe discuss: The origins of the term 'ludeme'Different games scholars' and game designers' definitions of ludemesComparisons between ludemes, memes, genes, and linguistic concepts such as phonemes and morphemesUnderlying metaphors used to describe games as systems, such as ‘game as language’ and ‘game as organism’The ‘language as organism’ metaphor in historical linguisticsThe economy of metaphors in academia Contains some strong (and other type types of) language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt 📚 Resources:  Bojin, Nis. 2010. ‘Ludemes and the Linguistic Turn’. Futureplay '10: Proceedings of the International Academic Conference on the Future of Game Design and Technology, Vancouver, 25–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1920778.1920783  Browne, Cameron. 2021. ‘Everything’s a Ludeme. Well, Almost Everything’. Proceedings of the XIIIrd Board Game Studies Colloquium (BGS 2021), Paris.  Available at: https://sorbonne-paris-nord.hal.science/hal-03737317/document Depaulis, Thierry. 2019. ‘On the Origins of the Word ‘Ludeme’ (French Ludème)’. In Browne et al., Foundations of Digital Archaeoludology. Report on Dagstuhl Research Meeting, Saarbrucken, 23–26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1905.13516 Available at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1905.13516 Koster, Raph. 2005. Conference notes for ‘A Grammar of Gameplay (Game Atoms: Can Games be Dia- grammed?)’. Game Developers Conference (GDC ’05), San Francisco. https://www.theoryoffun.com/grammar/gdc2005.htm  Koster, Raph. 2006. 'A bit on how I think games work' https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/03/05/a-bit-on-how-i-think-games-work/ Koster, Raph. 2006. Comment made March 7, 2006 at 2:44 pm https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/03/05/a-bit-on-how-i-think-games-work/#comment-3827 Koster, Raph. 2006. Comment made March 7, 2006 at 4:26 pm https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/03/05/a-bit-on-how-i-think-games-work/#comment-3836 Parlett, David. 2006. ‘What’s a ludeme?’ https://www.parlettgames.uk/gamester/whatsaludeme.html Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  11. 08/25/2024

    Deciphering the Nebula: language, history and narratology in Heaven’s Vault

    In this episode we discuss the brilliant Heaven's Vault; a narrative adventure videogame about decyphering a constructed language in order to learn the history of a fantastical world. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: How the game worksIdeographic vs Alphabetic writing systemsSemantics and Morphology in languageScience fiction, media representation, and attempts at avoiding orientalismTranslation and archaeology as game mechanics To hear Jon Ingold of Inkle talk about Bladerunner and writing game dialogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vRfNtvFVRo For an excellent GDC talk on the making of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o02uJ-ktCuk Contains some strong (and other type types of) language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt 📚 Resources: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, n.d. 'Language in brief'. https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/spoken-language-disorders/language-in-brief/. Accessed 11 September 2024. Condis, Megan. 2016. Building Languages, Building Worlds: An Interview with Jessica Sams. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, 4(1), 150–161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5250/resilience.4.1.0150 Daniels, Peter T., 2017. Writing systems. In Mark Aronoff and  Janie Rees-Miller (eds.), The Handbook of Linguistics. Wiley, 75-94. Olson, David R., 23 Aug. 2024. 'writing'. In Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/writing. Accessed 11 September 2024. Rogers, Stephen D., 2011. The Dictionary of Made-Up Languages: from Adunaic to Elvish, Zaum to Klingon—The Anwa (Real) Origins of Invented Lexicons. Simon and Schuster. Rowe, Bruce M., & Levine, Diane P., 2022. A Concise Introduction to Linguistics. Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003268369. Schreyer, Christine, 2021. Constructed languages. Annual Review of Anthropology, 50(1), 327-344. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-101819-110152. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  12. 07/26/2024

    From Elfsperanto to Orcstralian: The Languages of D&D

    In this episode we discuss the languages used in Baldur's Gate 3, and in Dungeons & Dragons more broadly. Hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe cover topics including: What is a lingua franca?What is a constructed language?Fantasy races (species) and the signs and sounds they make.How the needs of tabletop roleplay leave D&D's designers to "leave something to the imagination". Contains some strong and other types of language. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt 📚 Resources: Cheyne, Ria, 2008. Created languages in science fiction. Science Fiction Studies, 35(3), 386-403. Gobbo, Federico, 2005. The European Union's need for an international auxiliary language. Journal of Universal Language, 6, 1-28. URL: https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1715700/1/J.2005.2.gobbo2005-jul-unish-edition.pdf Monson, Melissa J., 2012. Race-based fantasy realm: Essentialism in the World of Warcraft. Games and Culture, 7(1), 48-71. URL: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=1023f3922c7417dcc752eb8da9557520b07a3a52 Premont, Antoine and Heine, Samuel, 2021. The human fantasy: Exploring race and ethnicity through Dungeons & Dragons. In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games, 1-11. URL: https://dl.acm.org/action/showFmPdf?doi=10.1145%2F3472538 Rogers, Stephen D., 2011. The Dictionary of Made-Up Languages: from Adunaic to Elvish, Zaum to Klingon—The Anwa (Real) Origins of Invented Lexicons. Simon and Schuster. Schreyer, Christine, 2021. Constructed languages. Annual Review of Anthropology, 50(1), 327-344. Young, Helen, 2015. Race and popular fantasy literature: Habits of whiteness. Routledge. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  • 12 Episodes

About

The podcast about games, language and culture. With hosts Dr. Ibi and Dr. Joe. Dr. Ibi has a Ph.D. in Linguistics and likes to play games. Dr. Joe has a Ph.D. in Media & Cultural studies, and designs games for a living. 📜 If you would like more Say It Like You Play It content, you can find our BLOG here: https://ibibaxterwebb.wordpress.com/blog-podcast/ ☕ If you would like to support us, you can buy us a coffee here: buymeacoffee.com/sayitlikeyouplayit 📺 We're also on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SayItLikeYouPlayIt Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Ibi Baxter-Webb & Joe Baxter-Webb
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    12
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Ibi Baxter-Webb & Joe Baxter-Webb
  • Show Website
    Say It Like You Play It