Morality Systems This week, we discuss morality systems in games: from the simplest, binary choices in Bioshock, to the non-linear, complex, and unpredictable branches of Detroit: Become Human, morality systems have been a tool used by game developers for ages to evoke emotion, create disparate narratives, and make their players feel like paragons of virtue and heartless villains. Do you go for the morally-bankrupt, but often rewarding, options, or are you “Lawful Good”, choosing your own mor...
All content for Overthinking Games is the property of Overthinking Games and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Morality Systems This week, we discuss morality systems in games: from the simplest, binary choices in Bioshock, to the non-linear, complex, and unpredictable branches of Detroit: Become Human, morality systems have been a tool used by game developers for ages to evoke emotion, create disparate narratives, and make their players feel like paragons of virtue and heartless villains. Do you go for the morally-bankrupt, but often rewarding, options, or are you “Lawful Good”, choosing your own mor...
Morality Systems This week, we discuss morality systems in games: from the simplest, binary choices in Bioshock, to the non-linear, complex, and unpredictable branches of Detroit: Become Human, morality systems have been a tool used by game developers for ages to evoke emotion, create disparate narratives, and make their players feel like paragons of virtue and heartless villains. Do you go for the morally-bankrupt, but often rewarding, options, or are you “Lawful Good”, choosing your own mor...
Check out our YouTube! We’ve got more Shorts and content coming your way! Share your thoughts, or suggest a topic for our next episode by sending us an email! overthinkinggamespodcast@gmail.com Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses
Empathy and Games Maybe it’s just because Seth and Katie teach teenagers, but it seems that there’s a bit of a crisis of empathy…”back in my day, I could put myself into somebody else’s shoes! Kids these days…” - Katie as the oldest member of the team, the next step is “get off my lawn!” Jokes aside, this week we look at empathy and gaming; are video games a good medium for encouraging/teaching empathy? What ways do games and gaming culture discourage empathy? Plus, Seth says we’re overthinki...
A very horny episode overthinkinggamespodcast@gmail.com Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses
Loneliness Join us as our loneliness diminishes because Brett, of Lore’d to Death, joins the whole gang for a regular episode of Overthinking Games! We discuss loneliness in videogames; dissect isolation vs. solitude; repeatedly talk over each other as we learn to be a 4-person band; and everyone wishes they could just play Silksong instead of being adults with jobs. Also, check out our YouTube! We’ve got more Shorts and content coming your way! Share your favorite lonely-vibes game, tell us ...
Its Silksong Day!!! overthinkinggamespodcast@gmail.com Find us on: Youtube Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.com/@Pixverses
This week, Katie picked yet another topic she didn’t really understand well, and maybe we all will understand it a smidgeon better by the end. Maybe… Teleological thinking is “means to an end” kind of thinking, and non-teleological thinking is more like “the journey, not the destination” thinking. We discuss the way these two kinds of thinking can influence the games we play and how we play them, and also, and also a rather-longwinded discussion of how the way one approaches gaming relates to...
This week, Dempsey and Katie play shoulder advocates on either side of Seth’s quandary: should he get a Nintendo Switch 2? This existential question leads us into the question of “value,” and what it takes for something to be “worth it.” Katie continues to be alarmingly anti-Nintendo, Dempsey wants to watch the world burn, and Seth is not helped much by either one. Are you getting a Switch 2? Why or why not? Send us an email and let us know what you think! overthinkinggamespodcast@gmail.com F...
This week, Dempsey’s real-life action adventure game called “being a documentarian” leads us into dark, claustrophobic caves, wide open worlds, environmental story-telling, and the power of setting in video games. Send us an email with your favorite video game setting, or a place you’d love to see a game set; we’d love to hear from you! overthinkinggamespodcast@gmail.com Find us on: Apple Podcasts Spotify Tik Tok/Instagram Bluesky Theme music is copyright free and from: https://www.youtube.co...
What do Celeste, The Binding of Isaac and Hellblade have in common? Interesting approaches to talking about mental health, of course! This week we get into the weeds about mental health in games, the relationship between player mental health and games, and society’s portrayal of and broader conversation about mental health. Games also discussed: Elden Ring: Nightreign, Balatro, Crush House, Arcade Paradise, and, at some length, Death Stranding. Send us an email with your thoughts on this week...
Waiting sucks! Except for when it…doesn’t. Why can waiting for an upcoming, scheduled release feel like Advent (thank Seth for that one), but waiting for Silksong incites insanity among its fanbase? Is there a difference between delayed gratification, and gratification delayed(that one was Katie’s fault…)? How does player agency tie into all this? Join us as we discuss waiting and video games, as well as the decline of the human attention span, and Elden Ring: Nightreign. If you’d like to sen...
In this special episode, we miss Seth, and Dempsey and Katie are joined by Nicholas Crawford, philosopher and author of the upcoming book, "Where We've Made it Dark," a literary apocalypse novel available at Barnes and Noble on October 21st, 2025. Nicholas has been making excellent content on Tik-Tok about The Last of Us season 2, and we take the opportunity to go into a deep dive with him about identity, subjectivity, and more with regards Joel, Ellie, and the violent world they inhabit. Fin...
Games and Gender This week, we circle back round to a topic that continues to be a font of curiosity and conversation: games and gender! Are games gendered? (Dempsey repeatedly says “girl games”, much to Katie’s chagrin) How does a person’s identified gender impact their relationship or interaction with games? We don’t know, but we had a good time talking about it! We also share a listener email from the fantastic cohost of The Old Switcharoo! If you’d like to send in your thoughts about a re...
Nintendo Direct Welcome to Overthinking Games, a…current events podcast??? Nah, not really, but this week, we give it a shot because we needed to discuss the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct! (Including a 2 second shot of Silksong…we feel that maybe Nintendo didn’t understand the impact that was going to have on their audience) Also discussed: Dempsey has played a lot of games in the past few weeks, and they’ve been real bangers! Katie loves books-level boring games, and Seth has unlocked a new achie...
This week's topic was suggested by Seth's girlfriend, thanks for your great idea! This week, we discuss character creation- do aesthetics matter? (hint: yep, they sure do...sometimes) Who do we want to be in games - idealized versions, accurate representations, outlandish others? What kind of representation makes us more engaged in a game? Also discussed: Cat Needs, Black Ops Zombies, Minecraft, and the Rocky Mountains. If you have ideas for a topic you'd like us to discuss, or thou...
Morality Systems This week, we discuss morality systems in games: from the simplest, binary choices in Bioshock, to the non-linear, complex, and unpredictable branches of Detroit: Become Human, morality systems have been a tool used by game developers for ages to evoke emotion, create disparate narratives, and make their players feel like paragons of virtue and heartless villains. Do you go for the morally-bankrupt, but often rewarding, options, or are you “Lawful Good”, choosing your own mor...
