Ep 70: Empathy and Games

Empathy and Games

Maybe it’s just because Seth and Katie teach teenagers, but it seems that there’s a bit of a crisis of empathy…”back in my day, I could put myself into somebody else’s shoes! Kids these days…” - Katie as the oldest member of the team, the next step is “get off my lawn!” Jokes aside, this week we look at empathy and gaming; are video games a good medium for encouraging/teaching empathy?

What ways do games and gaming culture discourage empathy? Plus, Seth says we’re overthinking things (it’s in the title, man!)

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:38 What we've been playing this week
• 1:46 Dempsey: Silksong
• 5:31 Katie: Hollow Knight
• 9:48 Seth: Silksong
• 14:11 Seth: Borderlands 4
• 17:33 Topic: Empathy
• 19:15 What game shifted your perspective and changed your experience?
• 19:29 Bioshock
• 20:32 The Last of Us: Part 2
• 24:50 The Beginner's Guide
• 25:25 Hotline Miami
• 28:19 Detroit: Become Human
• 29:40 Layeres of empathy: internal & external
• 33:51 The difficulty in teaching empathy
• 39:09 Can games create the same spark as a movie or book?
• 44:39 Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
• 50:22 Empathizing with villains & media literacy
• 1:00:57 Is empathy required in gaming?
• 1:12:23 Outro