Dragon’s Dogma II, Chaos, and Dogs

Everybody's Talking at Once

ETAO PODCAST, EPISODE 180.

Dragon’s Dogma II is full of inventive, quirky flourishes, meaningful frictions, and… shameless micro-transactions that capitalize on those exact quirks and frictions. We can, of course, get meaning and joy out of art that comes us compromised. Which is good news, since most art, if not all art, comes to us compromised. But the details matter.

So let’s dig into the details, and along the way let’s talk about monetization, opera, high art, low art, and how Dragon’s Dogma II is like a D&D campaign where all of the other players are dogs.

This episode contains discussions of death, dying, and mourning.
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• Dia Lacina has written a bit about Dragon’s Dogma II, and a bit about Dark Arisen.

• Podcasters helping podcasters, here’s a good summary of the weird relationship of dogs to Octavia Butler’s work.

• Here’s Alexis Ong’s piece about pawns.

• And here’s Dan Olson’s video about Fortnite.

• You can hear the Met’s Saturday Matinee Broadcasts on lots of still-extant terrestrial radio stations and their websites. My mom and I usually go with KUSC.

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“All The People Say (Season 5)” by Carpe Demon.
Messa da Requiem by Guiseppe Verdi, performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, featuring Leah Hawkins, Karen Cargill, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitry Belosselskiy. Recorded September 27, 2023. Broadcast March 30, 2024.

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Logo by Aaron Perry-Zucker, using Icons by by Llisole, Dávid Gladiš, Atif Arshad, Daniel Nochta, Mike Rowe, Jakub Čaja, Raji Purcell and IconsGhost from the Noun Project.

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