Space-Cast! #2. Chugging Meltwater
As the world is ravaged by toilet paper shortages, Dan Thurot is joined by Erin Lee Escobedo to discuss the ins and outs of tactical starvation in her game Meltwater, how its spiritual grandparents would make for history’s oddest couple, the artificiality of some of gaming’s biggest narrative choices, and the difficulty (but value) of conceding defeat. Cheery stuff for the second episode of the Space-Biff! Space-Cast!
Listen over here or download here. Timestamps and information about our next episode can be found after the jump.
Timestamps
2:33 — Meltwater as an elevator pitch
4:36 — the inspirations behind Meltwater
12:19 — Thomas Malthus and starvation
38:06 — board games as models of systems and feelings
43:32 — Spec Ops: The Line and moral decisions in games
54:00 — conceding in games
Next time, Dan chats with a longtime personal inspiration.
(If what I’m doing at Space-Biff! is valuable to you in some way, please consider dropping by my Patreon campaign or Ko-fi.)
Posted on April 9, 2020, in Podcast and tagged Board Games, Hollandspiele, Meltwater, The Space-Biff! Space-Cast!. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
SPACE-BIFF! 
Great Episode Dan! I am really surprised and happy that I could hear something on Malthus in a board game podcast. I am currently working on a paper about his famous essay. Although notorious and conclusively wrong in fact, I think his methodology still has profound consequence on governmental policy-making. The current Covid-19 situation seems make this more obvious…
Thanks for listening, Yi Sun, and I’m glad we could produce something relevant! The pandemic certainly has a way of illustrating how we default to certain modes of thinking regardless of their efficacy or factuality.
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