18 reasons to be thankful for video games
According to 19 guests, including members of The Indoor Kids, Kinda Funny, and Triple Click
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Welcome to the first annual Post Games Thanksgiving Special!
I’ve invited 19 people from across video games to share what they’re thankful for. They could celebrate a game, a person, a place, a trend, an idea, or whatever else inspires them. Our guests come from across the entertainment and media industries, including award-winning indie game designers, a former executive from a AAA publisher, brilliant text-based critics, beloved podcast hosts, a contract-securing union leader, and a good ol’ fashioned movie star.
Here’s the party’s guest list!
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon
Kirk Hamilton
Christian Donlan
Jenny Jiao-Hsia
Lucy James
Austin Walker
Chris Novak
Tina Sanchez O’Hara
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Sarah Elmahleh
Giovanni Colantonio
Najay Greenidge
Chris Bratt
Nina Freeman
Frank Lantz
Kitty Calis and Jan Willem Nijman
Evan Narcisse
Because this episode is a holiday special, and because we have so many guests, there are no acts and no news of the week. Instead, what follows are nearly twenty notes of gratitude from our brilliant guests. And Patreon subscribers get an extra-long personal note from me, in which I talk about what I’m grateful for this year: the games, the movies, the books, the music, the people, and most importantly, the opportunity to do this show.
We have so many delicious dishes to plop on your plate, so let’s work our way around the buffet!
This week on Post Games: The Thanksgiving Special
19 guests share what part of video game culture they’re thankful for
Why I’m grateful for change and how you can create your own
On the Patreon - Only $5!!!
Bonus segment: Why I’m thankful for change (and how you can create your own)
Plus, the films, movies, books, ideas, and other things I’m thankful for
Early access to ad-free episodes
Video versions of new episodes!
Five hour-long episodes of Video Game Journalism 101, including the new episode on storytelling
Free game of the week
This week in video game links
What else I’m enjoying
All of that and more for only $5 a month!
Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon
The Big Sick (JustWatch)
Little America (AppleTV)
Welcome to Chippendales (Hulu)
Ella McCay (Hulu)
Borderlands 4 (Steam)
Kirk Hamilton
Triple Click (Triple Click)
Strong Songs (Patreon)
Strong Songs: The Last Waltz (Spotify)
Mirror (for reflecting on your greatness as a supporter of niche media) (Wikipedia)
Christian Donlan
Night and the City (Eurogamer)
The Inward Empire (Bookshop.org)
Sable review: sparseness and beauty (Eurogamer)
Rytmos review - all the tangled beauty and curiosity of music itself (Eurogamer)
Jet Set Radio Future Playthrough - Skyscraper District & Pharaoh Park (AlexTheMan8393)
The Ambience of Monkey Island (BuzzMoo)
Jenny Jiao-Hsia
Consume Me (Steam)
Post Games episode, “The award that changes the lives of its winners” (Post Games)
Jenny’s games (Itch.io)
She Counted Calories as a Teen, Then Created a Game About It (NYTimes)
Lucy James
Friends Per Second (Skill Up)
Kurt and Lucy Gotcha Covered (GameSpot)
Fireside Chat: Sam Lake and Lucy James (Fellow Traveler)
and Roger (Steam)
Austin Walker
Friends at the Table (https://friendsatthetable.net/)
A More Civilized Age (https://amorecivilizedage.net/)
Shelved by Genre (Ranged Touch)
Boshi’s Place (boshi.place)
Babycastles (Wikipedia)
Chris Novak
Chris Novak, Xbox’s head of research and design, is leaving after nearly 20 years (The Verge)
Spark Lab presents Future of the Future: Chris Novak (Spark Business Lab NZ)
Save Point (The Verge)
Elden Ring’s Erdtree (Fandom)
EverQuest (Wikipedia)
Tina Sanchez O’Hara
Dev Heads (YouTube)
God of War: Ragnarok (Steam)
Call of Duty: WWII (Steam)
Apex Legends (Steam)
Contra (Wiki)
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Kinda Funny Games (YouTube)
Kinda Funny Game Showdown (YouTube)
We Need To Fix Black Hair in Video Games - The Blessing Show (Kinda Funny Games)
Awards! Nominees Details For The Knickerbocker Award For Best Journalism! (The New York Videogame Critics Circle)
BlessingJr (Twitch)
Steam Curator, Roguelikes (Steam)
Sarah Elmahleh
Sarah Elmahleh’s credits (IMDB)
How to fight brilliant (and stupid) AI (Post Games)
Digging into SAG-AFTRA’s Stellar Win With Sarah Elmaleh (Game Developer)
The Rise of the Video Game Union (Polygon)
Giovanni Colantonio
Gio’s author page (Polygon)
Big year for hole (Polygon)
Lumines Arise is the cure for our cynical world (Polygon)
Used Sony PS2 (Ebay)
Najay Greenidge
Campus Hate Lives on the Internet. Administrators Need to Catch Up. (NYTimes)
Kids are catching ‘Ivy League Fever’ and the pressure to succeed is leaving many overwhelmed and burned out (WHYY)
Remedy (remedygames.com)
Chris Bratt
People Make Games (YouTube)
Dreams on a Pillow - a videogame experience about the 1948 Nakba, based on a true story (LaunchGood)
People Make Games (PMG) Co-Founder Chris Bratt Interview - Human Can Opener (The 41st Precinct)
The Games Press (Apple Podcasts)
Nina Freeman
Last Call (itch.io)
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Steam)
Cibele (Steam)
how do you Do It? (Steam)
The Steam Deck (Steam)
Frank Lantz
Q-UP (Steam)
What we have in common with world-ending AI (Post Games)
Universal Paperclips (Decisionproblem.com)
Frank’s blog (Donkey Space)
Roblox (Roblox.com)
Kitty Calis and Jan Willem Nijman
Evan Narcisse
Evan’s comics (Marvel)
Rise of the Black Panther (Goodreads)
The Natural: The Trouble Portraying Blackness in Video Games (Kotaku)
One Man’s Mission to Make Video Games a Little Less White (Mother Jones)
Wu-Tang Clan’s new video game project is ‘for the culture’ (The Verge)
Collaboration (Cambridge Dictionary)
Love seeing this collection of voices & such a great reminder of how much creativity and heart this industry has.