Our first guest episode featuring Dr. Dillon Ludemann discussing Toxicity in Gaming! Join us for this special sidequest in the anthropology, philosophy, and design of video games. Dr. Dillon Ludemann is a professor of anthropology with a focus on online communities at the University of South Carolina Francisco is a game designer and engineer, while Jason brings a scholarly, literary background to each game analysis as they piece together the why and how of our favorite games. If you'd like to support the show please join us on Discord or leave us a review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts-we've love to chat! Links and notes: https://www.thegamer.com/helldivers-2-the-least-toxic-online-game-ever-played/ perception of toxicity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnOWBrY2BQs&t=0s https://www.raisinggoodgamers.com/ Liu and Agur 2023: “‘After All, They Don’t Know Me’ Exploring the Psychological Mechanisms of Toxic Behavior in Online Games” Games and Culture 18(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen_hypothesis ---------------------------- Join the conversation on Discord Email us at: useyouritems@gmail.com Read us at: useyouritems.substack.com Chat us at: twitch.tv/useyouritems Follow Jason at: @dancingfroggame on twitter Follow Fran at: @el_frantastico on threads ---------------------------- Art by Francisco Martin Theme music by William O'Rourke