Make It Sound Fiction

Tyler and Nico talk about the season (SERIES?) finale for Steven Universe and dig deeper into the nature of franchises not stopping where they should. Mentioned: Steven Universe, Sandman, Dark Souls, Avengers/MCU Links: Canon is an Abyss (Mike Rugnetta)

Tyler and Nico talk about what they've been watching on TV lately: the lack of interest in True Detective season 3, as well as Sex Education. Mentioned: True Detective, Sex Education, Sharp Objects Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSdY5joEfR0 (interview with Nick Pizzolato about episode 1 of S3) Soldier: 76 Is Gay, but Overwatch Still Makes Fans Work for Queer Representation

Tyler and Nico go deep on Overwatch's first short story, Bastet and why Blizzard ultimately fails at telling stories. Mentioned: Overwatch Links: Bastet Overwatch’s Latest Gay Hero Is Great, But Let’s Not Praise Blizzard Just Yet (Paste Games) Blizzard confirms Overwatch Contenders player Ellie was actually someone’s “fun” idea of a “social experiment” (Blizzard Watch)

Tyler and Nico go deep into the "Ellie" controversy and what sexism contributes to the e-sports community at large. Mentioned: Overwatch League Contenders Links: https://twitter.com/AnneDroMedia/status/1081348982876655616 Women in Overwatch Esports List Overwatch Contenders controversy has once again made things more difficult for women in esports (Rock Paper Shotgun)

Tyler and Nico talk about their end of year picks in movies, music and life in general. Mentioned: Widows, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Black Panther, Avengers, Tacoma, Dance Gavin Dance Links: Tacoma Playthrough Artificial Selection on Spotify

Tyler and Nico talk about Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse as well as answer a reader letter about the responsibility of gaming press. Mentioned: Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse Links: The Root review: https://www.theroot.com/i-expected-to-hate-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-t-1831076221 Kyle Kenworthy tweet: https://twitter.com/kyle_kenworthy/status/1073651237374095361

Tyler and Nico talk about last week's Game Awards - the highlights, the low moments and also what happens when games journalism stops doing it's job. Mentioned: Red Dead Redemption, Return of the Obra Dinn, Dead Cells, Celeste, SonicFox, GoG, CD Projekt Red Links: This is a Challenging Segment SonicFox Steals The Show At The Game Awards Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy? Troubling GOG tweets, a fired CD Projekt employee, and the spectre of GamerGate GOG's Community Manager Was Fired For Offensive Tweets

Tyler and Nico talk about the passing of Stephen Hillenburg, Spongebob Squarepants and growing up with animation in their lives, as well as answer reader letters. Mentioned: Spongebob Squarepants, Rocko's Modern Life, Bojack Horseman, Steven Universe, Animaniacs, Thundercats, She-ra, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, The Punisher, Overwatch League Links: SpongeBob Squarepants: The reasons we love it, and always will Neon Genesis Evangelion is heading to Netflix (Verge) Live-Action Cowboy Bebop is coming to Netflix (Kotaku)

Tyler and Nico talk about Riot's latest offerings with K/DA and Neeko, and what gay representation and re-envisioning characters looks like. Mentions: League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch Links: K/DA - Pop Star K/DA Explained (Polygon) Fortiche Productions Worlds 2018 Opening Ceremonies with K/DA AR Neeko Champion Page Neeko Revealed to be League's First Openly LGBTQ Champion Tyler's Work on Fanbyte Ashe is Everything Wrong with Hero Diversity

Tyler and Nico give a full breakdown of Blizzcon - the highs and lows. Mentioned: Diablo: Immortal, Overwatch, World of Warcraft Links: https://kotaku.com/blizzard-explains-why-overwatch-still-doesnt-have-a-bla-1830241379

Tyler and Nico talk about everything Red Dead Redemption 2: labor exploitation, consuming culture produced in inequitable situations, as well as why the game tries to ape the cinematic. Mentioned: Red Dead Redemption 2 Links: http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/the-making-of-rockstar-games-red-dead-redemption-2.html https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-10-15-rockstar-has-been-working-100-hour-weeks-on-red-dead-redemption-2 https://kotaku.com/inside-rockstar-games-culture-of-crunch-1829936466 https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/red-dead-redemption-2-interview https://kotaku.com/red-dead-redemption-2-the-kotaku-review-1829984369

Tyler and Nico talk about Eighth Grade, the new indie film written and directed and Bo Burnham, and what they liked and disliked about the film. Mentioned: Eighth Grade Links: Eighth Grade Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8lFgF_IjPw Eighth Grade Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFs4Dp-VBjI Build Series interview with the Cast of "Eighth Grade": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUzFkqby6-c&t=2639s (Skip to 10 minutes in)

Tyler and Nico talk about why media has such a love of making men with very low moral character entertaining, or worse, sympathetic. Mentioned: Bojack Horseman, Breaking Bad, House, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black

Tyler and Nico talk about how to navigate comprehensive media criticism and what it means when artists use outside analytics to adjust their content. Special thanks to Twitter user @donniemnemonic for his tweets about Fukanaga. Mentioned: Insecure, Girls, Maniac, Westworld, Steven Universe, Wonder Woman (film), True Detective, Black Mirror Links: https://www.gq.com/story/cary-fukunaga-netflix-maniac http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/race-and-pop-culture-a-roundtable-conversation.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/10/03/magazine/morality-social-justice-art-entertainment.html https://variety.com/2015/film/news/cary-fukunaga-it-exit-1201584416/ https://www.express.co.uk/showbiz/tv-radio/1026396/Black-Mirror-season-5-interactive-episode-choose-your-own-plot-Netflix https://slate.com/culture/2018/10/wesley-morris-morality-wars-response.html

Tyler and Nico talk about what precisely keeps them from watching a lot of horror and horror-adjacent content, as well as a review of the film Mandy. Mentioned: It Follows, The Witch, American Horror Story, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Mandy

Tyler and Nico talk about how they've come into their media consumption habits as well as the closing of Telltale Games. Mentioned: Artifact, Overwatch, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege Links: https://twitter.com/Binkysaur/status/1043263777477517312 https://www.pcgamer.com/rainbow-six-toxicity-ban/ https://letterboxd.com/appleciderwitch/film/gone-girl/ https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/09/21/telltale-games-reportedly-shutting-down?abthid=5ba548581f4dbfd10b0000f1

Tyler and Nico talk about where exactly World of Warcraft's story is heading next, if anywhere and we go into why games with persistent end-game content like Warcraft and Destiny 2 can be unhealthy for players. Mentioned: World of Warcraft, Destiny 1 and 2, Shonda Rhimes' TV oeuvre, World of Warcraft: Chronicles book series Intro and outro music courtesy of Maddy Myers (http://midimyers.net)

Tyler and Nico talk about the new actor cast for Netflix's upcoming Witcher TV series, the simplicity of creativity in woodworking videos as well as what Tyler believes the point of the Dark Souls series is. Mentioned: The Witcher series, Four Eyes/Chris Salomone, Frank Howarth, Dark Souls Links: https://twitter.com/_poneria/status/1037442610695233537 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7yfkBbsiw (How to Woodturn a Sphere) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCi8u_fXTfI (Concrete Coffee Table with Lego Inlay) https://www.pcgamer.com/netflix-witcher-series/

Tyler and Nico discuss what Hollow Knight is missing, why Warcraft is messing up the gear scaling, and why Netflix doesn't have social features. Mentioned: Hollow Knight, Dark Souls, World of Warcraft, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, MUBI, Blockbuster Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8BwUh3XOk (The Verge's doc on the Last Blockbuster) https://www.twitch.tv/videos/300939546## (World of Warcraft developer Q & A)

Tyler and Nico discuss Cyberpunk 2077's team as well as CD Projekt Red's overall image issues, and the new D.va cinematic, "Shooting Star." Mentioned: Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3, Overwatch Links: CD Projekt Red's apology: https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-tweets-transphobic-joke-studio-apologiz-1828502562 D.va Cinematic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7j2d6YCQbg