Emotive Pixels — Marginalia on Videogames

Nate, Craig, Will, and sometimes Pauly
  • 4.4 (7)
  • Video Games

A one-game-at-a-time deep dive podcast where we treat videogames like texts worth reading closely. Each episode, we pick a game, spoil its story, and dig into it the way you would with a book club—except we’re usually reading an academic book alongside it and using it as a lens for discussion. Season 5 focuses on AAA games and what that label actually means in practice. Friendly to listeners who haven’t played the games, but unapologetically spoil-heavy and discussion-driven.

  1. Stellar Blade — K-Feminism 101 (AAA in 2026: First Studio Releases)

    Apr 7

    Stellar Blade — K-Feminism 101 (AAA in 2026: First Studio Releases)

    We explore the empty procedural rhetoric of changing Eve's clothes, and probe if we have *feelings* about the matter. We also cover two books, Elise Hu's "Flawless" and "Practicing Feminism in South Korea: The women's movement against sexual violence" by Kyungja Jung.

    2h 21m
  2. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden & Dragon Age: The Veilguard (AAA in 2026: Polish)

    Mar 2

    Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden & Dragon Age: The Veilguard (AAA in 2026: Polish)

    We find more in common between two seemingly different tiers of 2024 games than we expected, generating questions about interactivity and polish.

    1h 47m
  3. Book Club: Ender’s Game — Getting to Know Will

    Feb 2 ·  Bonus

    Book Club: Ender’s Game — Getting to Know Will

    We get to know our cohost Will with his life's companion piece.

    2h 47m
  4. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Wanderwunder (AAA in 2025: Ludomaximalism)

    Jan 5

    Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 — Wanderwunder (AAA in 2025: Ludomaximalism)

    We discuss the 2025 charmer that would go on to sweep the Keighleys, while slowly continuing to investigate and yet unravel our gaming personalities.

    2h 12m
  5. Blue Prince — Three Mediocre Mechanics (AAA? in 2025: Death of Monoculture)

    12/01/2025

    Blue Prince — Three Mediocre Mechanics (AAA? in 2025: Death of Monoculture)

    We journey through 45 rooms and a permanent foundation in a game about becoming a character from Divinity: Original Sin 2. The hardest dungeon EVER designed, the video Will was recently watching, about Maze: Solve the World's Most Challenging Puzzle by Christopher Manson

    1h 47m
  6. Emotive Pixels Episode 100: The Bracket Battle (Part 1)

    11/10/2025 ·  Bonus

    Emotive Pixels Episode 100: The Bracket Battle (Part 1)

    We subject many of our games covered so far against each other in only 2 of 8 brackets of a double elimination match, to be concluded sometime in the future. For the long-time fans 💖 Featuring the following: The NPC Award, The Experimental Excellence Award, The Should Have Been Huge Award, Put It On Repeat Soundtrack Award, The Photomode or It Didn't Happen Award, The Inventory Tetris MVP Award, The If You Build It, They Will Cry Award, The Wait... What Just Happened? Award, The Came Out of Nowhere Award, The Haunting Vibes, No Jumpscares Award, and The Most Satisfying Button-Press Award. And producing the following quotes: "Bro, are you serious? [Game 1] launched broken; [game 2] launched to economic collapse and heartbreak!""This game was Factorio 10 years before Factorio existed!""I don't have any lovers to be in my dangerous space-time!""[This game] was great, back in like, 1960...""It's a fart, but it's a dragon punch.""Whereas, everybody has made a Duck Tales game by this point, which is what [this game] is."

    3h 16m
  7. Metaphor: ReFantazio — Political Personas (AAA in 2025: JRPGs)

    07/07/2025

    Metaphor: ReFantazio — Political Personas (AAA in 2025: JRPGs)

    We get deep into the plot of this large JRPG political election story, its metatextual commentaries (or lack thereof) on 16th century English authors, and its intertwining of Medieval royal succession and liberal democracy.

    2h 45m
  8. Baldur's Gate 3 — Mile Wide, Inch Deep (AAA in 2025: Awards & Expectations)

    05/05/2025

    Baldur's Gate 3 — Mile Wide, Inch Deep (AAA in 2025: Awards & Expectations)

    We break the hearts of fandom as we are baffled by the rampaging success of Baldur's Gate 3, an interesting game made of many spectacular details that don't cohere for us into something that we like playing - a game whose reception and accolades led us to be very confused: "It's all informed by the next sentence you don't get to pick." Part 2 in our evolving series of wrestling with understanding the inherent appeal of all-consuming and frictional media objects.

    2h 28m
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About

A one-game-at-a-time deep dive podcast where we treat videogames like texts worth reading closely. Each episode, we pick a game, spoil its story, and dig into it the way you would with a book club—except we’re usually reading an academic book alongside it and using it as a lens for discussion. Season 5 focuses on AAA games and what that label actually means in practice. Friendly to listeners who haven’t played the games, but unapologetically spoil-heavy and discussion-driven.

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