Ep. 180 - Insert Credit 20th Anniversary

azure

the march of paradigms

Cheddahz

loved this episode so damn much; as someone who is new to insert credit, it was amazing to witness everyone recall events from years ago without a hitch and still have the same connections with each other that they probably had when they were all working together. i have to point out that i very much enjoyed azurelore’s deep dive into the gamer community, as it’s one that i feel like i share similar aspects with.

just a lovely damn episode and i can’t wait for another twenty years of insert credit

HamHam

Hello, I have never posted here before but just wanted to say this episode was fantastic, and got me a little misty eyed. So many great moments. Thank you for continuing to post this great podcast, getting a new episode to listen to has become a genuine highlight of my week with all that’s going on. Thanks all.

dicegame

banger episode. holy shit

treefroggy

dicegame

espercontrol

i don’t get Deep on episodes very often, but i figure this episode is a good one to do that!!

i try not to be Too Sentimental or anything that might verge on Fanboy (or fangirl or fannonbinary) but I believe humans have to find something they think is Important. could be anything: making art, modding stock cars, innovating in science, exploring uncharted territory. i think committing yourself to something you believe is Important is the way humanity improves, and something we’re hard wired to do. some days, I think we owe it to each other.

long ago (before i was ever involved with production in any form) i decided the kinds of conversations Insert Credit has, as goofy or frivolous as they can sometimes be, are Important, and getting to personally edit Azure’s exploration of What The Hell Is Wrong With Video Games solidified that for me. when i first heard that I knew it was something everyone should hear, and I spent my time editing that portion of the show in almost a flow state. i think those scant few minutes, which really were just crystallizing thoughts probably all of us have had in some form, gave me a new vision for what games are and could be and should be. if i died today, I would at least be able to say I had a part in presenting that segment to the world.

beyond that, I have been chatting with Jaffe and both of us are just so so so pleased with how this all turned out. brandon said on Twitter that it serves as a retrospective while still somehow feeling like a normal episode, and I want to give a big portion of credit there to Jaffe for his work crafting questions here and every week. maybe people don’t know this but when Insert Credit Podcast started, there weren’t a ton of structured podcasts. most video game podcasts especially were just “so what did you guys play this week” and having a rigid format was one of the most exciting things in that space. so thank you to my good friend Alex Jaffe and the Insert Credit panel for creating something that felt alive in a world that did not.

thank you to Brandon and Frank and tim and Patrick and Vince and Azure and Chris and Heather Anne Campbell and Ash Parrish and Mat Kumar and everyone who has played a note in this symphony, be it writing their guts out or laughing at buzzer cutoff or posting games you own with the first letter same as the last letter of the last game posted.

i love insert credit, and i love all of you!!

dicegame

esper when i first heard that I knew it was something everyone should hear, and I spent my time editing that portion of the show in almost a flow state.

hell yeah, i had to snipe that section for my personal archives. that’s the fuckin rub

goonbag

I’m gonna be thinking about that part for a good while.

beets

I guessed the suprise when I saw “and more.” in the guest list, you guys never leave guests un-credited. The real surprise for me was Frank calling in on the car phone.

Fantastic episode I’ll be adding it to my best episodes of insert credit show list.

Is there an ETA on when the new site will have the articles again? I would love to read some of the older stuff.

shane

beets No set time yet. We’re going to be organizing some things later this month so we can start getting new articles in the near future. Down the road we’re going to try and figure out what’s the best way of presenting older articles.

In some cases it can be pretty difficult. Some articles everyone would rather never see the light of day, other articles the original images are very low quality so bringing them into a new system will be difficult. It might be the case where we just make all the old articles accessible in their original website format. Truth be told we’re not entirely sure how we’re gonna do it!

yeso

we’re like 10+ years into the whole podcast medium and this is one of the few really good ones. It’s also become clear that jaffe is an elite tier podcast host. Like a 10+ WAR mike trout, NBA max contract level if I may say so

whatsarobot

@𝔞𝔷𝔲𝔯𝔢𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔢 𝔨𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔦𝔤𝔞𝔫
Just listened to your part of the podcast based on all the feedback here, and… Wow. Yes.
You’ve articulated something that’s been on the tip of my tongue for quite some time now, while also tracing its roots so much deeper. Just, thank you.

All I can really contribute is: being a fan of (some (kinds of)) video games, for me, has long come with a “guilty by association” emotion. You’ve helped me figure out why that is, and what to maybe do about it. Also, helped me feel good about what I’ve already been “doing about it” (that is, ignoring mainstream video game coverage and spending what little free time I have on experiences that feel constructive and meaningful to me, which means a steadily decreasing amount of video game playin’).

I’m no longer the same human who, in the awkward teenage years, found comfort and meaning in the video games of that time. It’s important to interrogate the nostalgia and love I still have for that time in life, and sort out what about it is and was problematic, while still holding on to and boosting the positive aspects.

I think that’s something we all do here, and what helps us feel like a community.

Thank you to everyone here at Insert Credit. Insert Credit is an expression of love, and I love you all.

LaurelSoup

Azure’s fantastic answer mid episode reminded me that way back in 1982 on their album Pack Jam, the electro band Jozun Crew warned that Pac Man was an addictive corruption of the free form expression of the OVC light show system used by Sun Ra and the Grateful Dead, and that tech should instead be developing in that direction.

DavidNoo

Great episode! As a pretty new listener/reader it was a lot of fun to hear the history.

gsk

I hadn’t quite realised it until this podcast but I really do think my prevailing memory of the old forums was the constant influx of people trying to pick fights with and/or ingratiate themselves with Tim.

treefroggy

gsk god I am so glad that’s not a thing now!
I wondered who of the old garde still came here at all though, question answered!

IsopodBod

Obsessed with this promotional image of the Nokia N-Gage. Touch God with the Game Phone.

Also I should say- this episode is such a gift for someone with no perspective on what the internet was like 20 years ago. Every topic here is so specifically informed and deconstructed, really engaging, sentimental, and critical all in the right ways!

Blrb

IsopodBod So one of the car materials I like to use in Rocket League is that same 3-D cubes thing the N-Gage has (only realised it now)… wonder if it’s a reference.

robinhoodie

What a weird feeling of history this episode gave me. Reminding me that I have been interacting with video game websites for 25 years now. All the ups and downs. All the sites that have come and gone. And how strange it is that here after all this time, this forum is where I finally found some sense of community in gaming culture. The section about the forum really hit me hard as it is like, “oh yeah, this is what I HAVE WANTED for a very long time.” And even then it still feels like it came at just the right time.

exodus

Yeah, I don’t think I really fully unpacked the history myself - for example it’s wild that 20 years later it’s very easy to find people to help with insert credit things. To me that’s one of the biggest testaments to the legacy - when Blaine had to step down from editing, @esper was ready basically within the week to step in. When we needed a web site made, we needed look no further than Nick Splendorr, a long time insert credit friend. Heck, I’m pretty sure necrosoft programmer shane came from insert credit somehow, though I don’t quite remember, and our own Kerwin and Brent Porter are also insert credit peripheral.

To have something that 20 years on you can be like “hey, insert credit needs a thing” and someone will show up out of the ether to help, that tells me it was really worth doing.

And I’m glad the forums came at a good time for everybody - they definitely came at a good time for me! The pandemic kind of accelerated it but I think a lot of us were missing a sense of community in a medium we really enjoyed. I mean we all agree that “gamers suck” and yet we play (or have played) a whole bunch of games ourselves. That dissonance is weird and isolating, so a place where we all can agree to support enjoyment of games in a positive way while also being accepting of every (progressive minded) sort of person was needed, at least for me!

It’s hard to articulate, but overall I’m glad everyone’s here!!

kory

Thank you so much to the whole Insert Credit crew (past, present, and future) for this episode and everything IC has come to encompass. I think @goonbag articulated above some feelings that really resonate with me here. Gaming and it’s more quirky and obscure ephemera have been a part of my life basically as long as I can remember and, whatever life throws at me, can at least serve as something of an anchor to keep me sane.

I’ve been a pretty passive follower of various sites, podcasts, and communities for decades now, with old Destructoid and Giant Bomb in particular being sources of some real fun writing and personalities. I felt a bit more adrift as of late, though something about IC really clicked when I first started listening to the podcast last year. I had been reading Action Button dot net since its founding and following Frank’s work with the VGHF (and his stellar GDC talks), but I am really disappointed in myself for somehow orbiting IC for all these years without every quite landing on it.

At the beginning of this year I was able to finally pay off a loan that had been following me around for quite a while, and I made a resolution to start putting some Patreon money toward creators that I really thought were elevating the online experience. Insert Credit was a no-brainer here. I made another resolution to seek out positive ways to engage online, tailoring or cutting out big, loud, anonymous Social Media proper. It was a big step for me, personally, to begin posting–even though a lot of it is silly or frivolous, IC has encouraged me to at least begin to think about longer form writing and even trying out creative mediums that I never thought I would (special shout out to the Art Jam, as well as @fridgeboy for issuing the sketch-a-bird-with-your-copy-of-Ace-Combat challenge). There’s a strong core of intellectual good faith around here that somehow imbues everything from sonic GIFs to Azure’s powerful soliloquy on this episode with meaning, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

Most of all, I just appreciate reading, seeing, hearing, and watching the amazing and diverse contributions of everyone here–Thank you IC!

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