Welcome To Game Night! with Erik Kain & Jason Rose
A new bi-weekly podcast centered around video games, the news and culture of the medium, tackling them critically and whatever else hits us in the moment.
If you’re reading this, it may be because you’ve followed a link from social media or it may be because you’re a subscriber to my diabolical newsletter. Welcome to Game Night!
This is a casual, hopefully informative and entertaining new Video Game Podcastâ„¢ hosted by me (Erik Kain) and my friend and fellow podcaster Jason Rose, who came up with the idea in the first place.
We’d done a couple podcasts in the past (one I didn’t post because we got a little too inebriated!) and decided it would be fun to make it a regular thing. Since Jason is part of this, you can expect a little more consistency—I am pretty bad at keeping up with a podcast unless I have someone to podcast with!
First things first, if you are a subscriber to diabolical but have no interest in a video game podcast, feel free to unsubscribe. We hope you won’t, but we understand.
We won’t spam you, though! This is going to be an every-couple-of-weeks thing unless it takes off and that changes. But every couple of weeks feels like a good cadence.
Also, it’s free! (If we do implement any kind of paid subscription options in the future we’ll let you know, but that’s currently not in the cards). But if you do want to unsubscribe, we bid you adieu. Go in peace and with our blessing.
And if you’re not subscribed yet . . .
Thanks!
So what is Game Night?
Basically we’re going to talk about what we’ve been playing, what we recommend playing, dip into the latest video game news or controversies, and get side-tracked by other stuff we’re into. We’re going to play games and shoot the shit, basically. It’ll be fun.
We already sent out our first two episodes—Episode 0 and Episode 1—and we’re still working out the kinks and the details and all that jazz. But it’s a start! And just in time for the holiday season, God Of War: Ragnarök and hopefully a bit gamier a year in 2023. This podcast will also keep me from spending all of my gaming time on Call Of Duty and get me playing (and writing about, and making videos about) a wider array of games. Huzzah!
Introductions
Erik Kain
Hey! I’m a freelance Senior Contributor at Forbes where I’ve covered video games, TV shows and movies (and before that criminal justice, the war on drugs and education) for over a decade on my blog. I’ve also published in The Atlantic, The National Review, Mother Jones and elsewhere. I run a YouTube channel and have had a fraught relationship with Twitter since long before Elon Musk sent the Twitterati into a panic. I also run a Facebook page!
My favorite video games are Dark Souls and Call Of Duty but I love lots of lesser known gems as well, like FTL and Darkest Dungeon, and RPGs like Persona and Dragon Age. I dabble in strategy and tactics titles like XCOM or Civilization and played more of the old RTS Warcraft games than I ever played World Of Warcraft. I started PC gaming with Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Team Fortress 2 and started building my own PCs at the same time. My first game was Super Mario Bros. on the NES and I’ve never stopped playing since (though I did miss some consoles along the way).
Jason Rose
What’s up everyone? First and foremost, thank you so much for stopping by and should you decide to stay awhile and listen, I assure you that disappointment will not follow! Professionally I work outside of video games entirely right now but am on the verge of opening up my own indie development studio (stay tuned for all of that in the months to come)
I’m a father of 1, soon to be 2 children so life is as busy as it gets which is why I wanted to start this podcast/channel with Erik. There are myriad podcasts out there covering the up to date stuff in video games and while we will touch on that when we can, Game Night! won’t be beholden to the rat race of video game releases and news. We’re going to tackle the medium at our pace which means discussions of older games, cool things like game music discussions and of course you can expect that top notch critical eye from the both of us. You’ll get other stuff as well like TV and film discussion and all the other wonderful things we’re into like bourbon, sports and who knows what else?!
Previously, and how I became familiar with Erik was through writing in the video game space where I had numerous features as well as freelancing endeavors on sites like IGN, SIFTD and some lesser known outlets. You can find a lot of my previous work here in my portfolio I also dabble in YouTube infrequently and you can follow some of my nonsense there as well Lastly, I podcast on a channel called The Rose Experience where I try and interview people from all walks in the video, film and TV space.
In terms of gaming tastes, well that runs the gamut from small indies right up to the biggest and baddest. I live for Final Fantasy, hell the Crystal theme walked me out at my wedding and that is where my heart lies. Gun to my head to pick a favorite game of all time it would be some sort of combo of ChronoTriggerMetalGearSolid3RadiantSilvergunPhantasyStar4! Sorry, I can’t pick just 1! The SEGA Master System was the first console I owned, suffice to say I’ve been in love with video games quite awhile. All in all my preferences and experiences are pretty long in the tooth and I’m excited to share it all with you out there. Just be careful not to get scorched by the hot takes, welcome to Game Night! ladies and gentleman.
You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple and Spotify, and check out the Game Night! YouTube channel here. And, as always . . .