Tag: talks

  • GROGPOD: the Going Rogue Gaming Podcast

    GROGPOD: the Going Rogue Gaming Podcast

    I’ve complained a lot about roguelikes recently, so it’s only fitting for me to start a podcast on one. This will be a once-every-two-week show focused on the top 100ish roguelike games to release on Steam since 2011. Why so specific? Partly because Steam has the best data for this kind of thing to collect…

  • Guest Spot: Talking Edith Finch on Ultra64

    Guest Spot: Talking Edith Finch on Ultra64

    Orcas Island is a special place. When I first learned there was a critically-acclaimed game that took place where I went to high school, I ran, not walked to check it out. I was able to get my final guest spot on one of Ultra64’s last episodes to cover the game and boy was it…

  • Guest Spot: Talking Cogmind on the Ultra64 Podcast

    Guest Spot: Talking Cogmind on the Ultra64 Podcast

    I finally tricked Steve and Woody to play one of my favorite games of all time on the Ultra64 Podcast. Cogmind is 100% a hobby-grade traditional roguelike, but an investment worth making. At least, I’ve found it to be so after 80 hours in thus far. If you’ve ever wanted a game that blends The…

  • Guest Spot: Talking Halo: Combat Evolved on the Ultra64 Podcast

    Guest Spot: Talking Halo: Combat Evolved on the Ultra64 Podcast

    To celebrate Halo’s recent anniversary, I’m on another guest spot of the Ultra64 Podcast! Always a pleasure being on Steve and Woody’s show.

  • How About a Nice Game of Chess?

    How About a Nice Game of Chess?

    I had the fantastic opportunity to give a talk about the history of chess computation before a showing of the indie film Computer Chess. This was done in collaboration with Science on Screen, a series that hosts lectures related to a topic before a science-themed movie. For those interested, the slides from the talk can be…

  • The Data Science of Board Games @ PAX West

    The Data Science of Board Games @ PAX West

    I had the great privilege to give a talk on using data science on data from the board gaming world this year at PAX West. The source data and code used in the talk can be found my github account: https://github.com/scottburger/pax17. The presentation slides can be found below:   Over 300 people showed up to the talk,…

  • Sentiment Mining of Steam User Reviews

    Sentiment Mining of Steam User Reviews

    It’s often hard to figure out ways to review a product. How do we determine if it’s worth our time and focus? How do we assess what other people think about that product? In the case of the gaming sector: is it good enough to warrant me playing it? In 2015 I gave a talk…

  • The Data Science of Board Games – Exploring the BoardGameGeek Database

    The Data Science of Board Games – Exploring the BoardGameGeek Database

    Board games have changed. Much of the time when a friend suggests breaking out a board game to play, people will sigh. Monopoly, Life, dare I go so far as to say Checkers too? These are games that have been around forever (and by forever I mean the 1950s), take way too long to play,…