Extra Credits (2010)

S8E1 - Strategic Uncertainty - Keeping Strategy Games Fresh

Too many strategy games are over hours before you actually win the game. Once you build up enough of a lead, you have the resources you need to respond to all the game's minor challenges. The key to fixing this problem is uncertainty: hidden information or unexpected events that make you change your plans and keep the game dynamic.

Jan. 18, 2017, midnight

S8E2 - Video Games and Gambling - When Does a Game Cross the Line?

Casinos and online gambling sites have begun to recognize the potential to use video games as a new source of revenue. With more and more skill-based games being re-purposed for gambling - sometimes legally, sometimes not - it becomes important for developers to look ahead at the features these adaptations may have.

Jan. 25, 2017, midnight

S8E3 - Intro to UX Design - User Experience and You

User experience designers act like translators between the game and the player, crafting everything from menus and tutorials to in-game effects to help players learn and interact with the systems.

Feb. 1, 2017, midnight

S8E4 - Basic Game Literacy - Why It's Hard to Learn How to Play

Even if we reduce game literacy to just "being able to play," the number of genres and platforms make it surprisingly difficult for even experienced players to claim well-rounded literacy. But the creative rewards for a game literate community could be immense.

Feb. 8, 2017, midnight

S8E5 - Advanced Game Literacy - Finding Meaning in Games

Advanced game literacy lets us analyze our games beyond the surface level, finding meaning in the mechanics and much more. To get there, we need developers, consumers, and academics to help create a community of analysis.

Feb. 16, 2017, midnight

S8E6 - Non-Professional Game Dev - The Joy of Making

Why are hobby and personal games important? Even though they rarely make waves in the mainstream game industry, they are a fantastic outlet for expressing a wide range of creative possibilities.

Feb. 22, 2017, midnight

S8E7 - TV You Might Not Have Tried - Check Out New Shows

Want to binge watch some TV shows that are interesting, different, and off the beaten path? We've got you covered. Here are some of our favorites from the world of television!

March 1, 2017, midnight

S8E8 - De-Gamification - Flexibility to Play Your Way

Progress bars and other forms of gamification have begun to crop up everywhere. But what about the pure joy of undirected play?

March 8, 2017, midnight

S8E9 - Co-Pilot Mode - Better Together

Xbox quietly introduced a new feature that creates family sharing, more accessibility, and custom co-op modes. Let's examine Co-Pilot mode.

March 15, 2017, midnight

S8E10 - Politics in Games - All Media is Political

We can't remove politics from games. They express our perspectives and understanding of the world, just like movies, books, or any other art form. We can agree or disagree with the stances they express, but all media is political.

March 22, 2017, midnight

S8E11 - The Stress of Game Development - Tips for Survival

Making games is hard. You need all kinds of technical and creative skills, but most importantly, you need to know how to manage the many kinds of stress that come with it.

March 29, 2017, midnight

S8E12 - The Auteur Myth - Lone Visionaries... and Their Teams

When a game comes out, blame or praise often falls on the one person we think of as its "auteur," the lone visionary who directed its creation. This skews the reality of development: games are the product of a whole team whose diverse contributions all help shape what it becomes.

April 5, 2017, midnight

S8E13 - Liminal Space - Incorporating Real Life into Games

As games grow connected to our online accounts, they start learning about us: our names, our friends, and so much more. That connected information has the potential to create really cool experiences, but only if it's not abused.

April 14, 2017, midnight

S8E14 - A Case for Cutscenes - Everything Old is New Again

Cutscenes have long been the whipping boy of "bad" game design, but Yakuza 0 shows us they can still be amazing in a modern game if done well. What was Sega's secret?

April 18, 2017, midnight

S8E15 - Localize Everything - Finding Hardcore Fans Worldwide

Nothing feels worse than seeing a game you really like but can't play because it's only being released in another part of the world. But does it have to be that way? Here's why we think every console game should be published worldwide.

April 26, 2017, midnight

S8E16 - Lifestyle Games - The Play's the Thing

Sometimes a game is more than just a game: it's a lifestyle. You play it enough for it to become a part of your life. Often these games have different playstyle genres, but the way we play them makes them "lifestyle games."

May 3, 2017, midnight

S8E17 - Why Do We Ship Buggy Games? - A Look Behind the Scenes

When launch day bugs ruin a game, why don't publishers just delay the release to fix everything? While it's definitely bad business for them to make such broken games, it's worth taking a look at how the problems get that bad instead of just blaming "lazy developers."

May 17, 2017, midnight

S8E18 - Indie Advice - Fire Early

Firing somebody is hard, but if one team member isn't keeping up, it's better for everyone if the team leader fires them early before their part of the project falls behind. It's better for the team, better for the game, and often even better for the person being fired.

May 24, 2017, midnight

S8E19 - The Legality of Using Your Data - Games of Tomorrow

Games driven by personal data have the potential to change the medium in exciting new ways, but they also have the potential to cross boundaries. What laws regulate a game's ability to harness player data, and what responsibility do devs have to use that information wisely?

June 7, 2017, midnight

S8E20 - Perversion Subversion - Examining Hentai Sensibility

Some recent Japanese games have tried to examine the hentai sensibility, with varying degrees of success. Where Yakuza 0 succeeds in finding a new perspective through bawdy humor, Persona 5 tries a more serious look that falls flat when the game thoughtlessly engages in sexual objectification.

June 14, 2017, midnight

S8E21 - Games You Might Not Have Tried #12 - Find New Console Games

If you want to try games that feel different, that always feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried - Console Edition! We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated console games for you to discover and enjoy.

June 21, 2017, midnight

S8E22 - Persona 5 and Jungian Psychology - Masks, Major Arcana, and Meaning

Did you know Persona 5 is based on Jungian psychology? Learn about the symbolism behinds the masks and major arcana! These concepts can be surprising helpful when analyzing or even writing games.

June 28, 2017, midnight

S8E23 - Getting Started as a Game Journalist - Practice, Prepare, and Pitch

So you want to be a game journalist! Where to start? Freelancer Rob Rath shares his experience and advice, from practicing writing on a personal blog to researching the types of articles sites publish and even how to write a good pitch.

July 5, 2017, midnight

S8E24 - One Million Subs - Thank YOU for Supporting Extra Credits!

Whether you've been with us from the beginning or just found us on YouTube, you are what makes Extra Credits special. Your support and encouragement keep us going. And the conversations and questions you bring with you to your friends, your family, and your world are the reason we started this show in the first place.

July 6, 2017, midnight

S8E25 - Injustice 2: Trauma Survival - Harley Quinn's Greatest Fear

Content Warning: Abusive Relationship. Harm doesn't end when physical or emotional abuse stops. In Injustice 2, Harley Quinn is a hero who's still dealing with the aftermath of her trauma - and neither of those aspects of her character detracts from the other.

July 12, 2017, midnight

S8E26 - Arts Funding - Helping Games that Help Us

Games have made great strides in the last few years towards public recognition and arts funding in the United States, but all that could fall apart unless we step up to support the programs like the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities which make it possible.

July 19, 2017, midnight

S8E27 - How Games Speak - Learn the Language of Design

Game design is a language and games speak to us in ways that we can understand. But how does that work? By understanding three simple ideas, we can both make better games and learn what makes the ones we play and love so special.

July 26, 2017, midnight

S8E28 - Peace Games - Gaming for a Better Future

Since the founding of the Olympics, games have been a tool to bring people together, allowing us to compete but also to recognize the humanity in our opponents. Although online games have become a breeding ground for toxicity, they still have the potential to teach us about each other and find role models in professional players.

Aug. 2, 2017, midnight

S8E29 - Marginal Mechanics and Red Herrings - Why So Weak?

Every game has some skills or abilities that are just weaker than other abilities. Players wind up ignoring them or resenting them, so why include these "red herring" mechanics? While it can be just lazy design, there are also some very good uses for these marginal mechanics!

Aug. 9, 2017, midnight

S8E30 - Game AI - Funtelligence

Games often advertise their complex AI, but in truth, offering a wide variety of simple NPC behaviors unique to each enemy often feels more engaging AND challenging to the player than putting them through multiple hours of facing a bunch of NPCs operating on the same AI behavior tree.

Aug. 16, 2017, midnight

S8E31 - Keep Cutting - Sunk Cost Fallacy and Game Development

Once development begins on a feature, game developers often get drawn into a sunk cost fallacy that compels them to keep working on that feature even when it's failing. Cutting those features is hard, but often the right choice to make the game better.

Aug. 23, 2017, midnight

S8E32 - Accessibility - The Curb Cut Effect

Accessibility design makes the game better for all players, not only the disabled. By planning ahead and making more options available, designers can give players the tools to customize their experience in a way that fits them best.

Aug. 30, 2017, midnight

S8E33 - PAX WEST 2017 Extra Credits Panel

The Extra Credits crew gathered at PAX West in 2017 and did a panel! We hope you enjoy our answers to audience questions and the debut of Scott's yearly secret video.

Sept. 20, 2017, midnight

S8E34 - The Anchoring Effect - Why Review Scores Matter

The first data we see affects our opinion about everything afterwards - so a good review score makes us like the game more, and an apparent sale makes us more eager to buy a game with a higher price point. This anchoring effect is even built into game design itself.

Sept. 27, 2017, midnight

S8E35 - The Problem with Power Fantasies - We're Not Always Right

Games embrace power fantasies that let the player do whatever they want, to whomever they want, without anyone questioning the morality of their actions. But questioning and re-evaluating our choices is an important part of life, and players don't need to be treated so delicately that we never address these issues in game.

Oct. 4, 2017, midnight

S8E36 - Prey: The Enemy Inside - Testing You Softly

What we want to believe about ourselves and what's actually true may be very different things. Prey: The Enemy Inside starts with a simple psychological test... and then puts you in situations that may reveal your answers to be lies.

Oct. 11, 2017, midnight

S8E37 - One More Level - The Arbitrary Endpoint Trap

When we stay up later than we wanted just to hit a progress point in our games, we have fallen into the arbitrary endpoint trap. Some games deliberately manipulate us to do one more level, but many times we're doing it to ourselves and making playtime a chore.

Oct. 18, 2017, midnight

S8E38 - Games You Might Not Have Tried: Horror - Find New Games for Halloween

If you want to try games that feel different, that feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried - Halloween Edition! We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated games for you to discover and enjoy.

Oct. 25, 2017, midnight

S8E39 - The Pacing of PUBG - The Thriller Tension of Battlegrounds

Why have we become obsessed with a game where nothing happens for minutes at a time? It's because PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is something rare in games: a multiplayer thriller. CORRECTION: This episode was co-written by Rob Rath, not only James Portnow as listed in the endslate.

Nov. 1, 2017, midnight

S8E40 - Games You Might Not Have Tried #13 - Find New Games

If you want to try games that feel different, that feel new and ambitious even if they're not necessarily the most polished experiences, then check out this list of Games You Might Not Have Tried! We review and recommend interesting but under appreciated games for you to discover and enjoy.

Nov. 8, 2017, midnight

S8E41 - A Eulogy for Quintet - Melancholy and Wonder

We loved games from Quintet back in the Super Nintendo era: ActRaiser, Soul Blazer, and Terranigma touched our hearts with their gentle, melancholy exploration of themes like working through tragedy or facing the dark experiences in our lives.

Nov. 15, 2017, midnight

S8E42 - Big Huge Charity - Giving in the Games Industry

The games industry gives less to charity than any other major entertainment industry, but charity events can be great both for business AND for making the world better. DomiNations (Big Huge Games) shared data from their own charity events to help us show how!

Nov. 22, 2017, midnight

S8E43 - The Warhammer License (Again) - Did Games Workshop's Gamble Work?

Games Workshop started handing out bits of the Warhammer License like candy - but did it work? We think so! They used the great detail of the Warhammer Universe to distribute risk and create tiers of investment in games with varying quality levels, resulting in a test bed for small studios and a template for working with big ones.

Nov. 29, 2017, midnight

S8E44 - Losing Player Trust - The Data Dilemma

Companies rely on metrics to tell them how players respond to a game, which can mean that short-term bumps (like revenue gained by adding microtransactions) disguises real player unhappiness with a game's quality and a publisher's integrity over time.

Dec. 6, 2017, midnight

S8E45 - DayZ - Tragedy of the Commons: The Game

When resources are limited, self-interest works against itself. We see that in games like DayZ, where players could team up to fight a common threat, but the fear that someone will backstab you leads everyone to assume the worst and therefore behave as enemies.

Dec. 12, 2017, midnight

S8E46 - Hidden Game Mechanics: Design for the Human Psyche

Sometimes games trick us into having a more engaging experience by simulating near-death escapes and gently massaging the odds to be kind to us. These hidden game mechanics play into the expectations of our human psyche to give us the results we expect.

Dec. 20, 2017, midnight