Free Play

Some people, like Bubba, look upon the impending era of our AI overlords with excitement and joy. Others, like Kate, are a little unsure. And stories with headlines like “Someone turned their imaginary friend into an AI microwave and it wanted to kill them” do little to change her opinion.

Have you had a disappointment in the game space that really bummed you out? Never fear, the Free Play Podcast is here to help you recover and move on. After Kate had an underwhelming God of War Ragnarök release day, they’re talking all about gaming disappointments they’ve had and how we can all get to a better place.

LTN Con is one of our favorite weekends of the year here at Love Thy Nerd. It’s a time of coming together as a community, playing games, and learning how to love and serve our nerdy neighbors better. We had some incredible keynote and breakout sessions, vendors, and opportunities to extend our online relationships into real life. Bubba and Kate were there, had an absolute blast, and wanted to recap the weekend with all of you.

Nintendo finally reveals a teaser trailer for the Super Mario Movie at New York Comic Con. Fans are protesting online about Chris Pratt’s performance (even with barely a sentence uttered). Bubba and Kate nerd out about what we loved from the trailer, what they’re looking forward to with the movie, and speculating about what some of Nintendo’s goals are along with the partnership with Illumination and Universal.

Twitch has taken creators by surprise in a bad way with their latest announcement. They stated how revenue splits for bigger streamers will go from 70/30 to 50/50.This information has the Twitch community up in arms. As it should because this information isn’t exactly fair. Will Twitch’s mistake be the first step in leveling the playing field for competition and innovation for streaming platforms?

Well nerds, it’s the moment Matt has been waiting for. For 6 whole years. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will allegedly be released on May 12, 2023. It’s it TEARS of the kingdom as in crying? Or tears of the kingdom as in ripping? The internet debates. We cover what we know so far about the new game and Matt rants about how Kirby got an anniversary party while the Zelda series got the cold shoulder.

In this lost episode from the earlier days of the Free Play Podcast, Bubba, Matt & Kate welcome Justin Bowers to discuss games perfect for family gatherings - ones that you can play easily right out of the box.

When both social media and nerd culture have placed an emphasis on live streamed gaming content, what happens when an industry giant like Facebook/Meta begins to shut down its connection to gaming bit by bit starting with it’s Facebook Gaming App? Do we even need Facebook in this aspect of gaming when we have industry giants YouTube and Twitch?

This week, Community Content Producer NextGenNerd25 submitted a topic for us to chat about on the recasting of Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa in the MCU. There are two sides to the argument with fans starting a petition in favor of recasting (with over 60,000 signatures) and Marvel holding strong on their “we will not recast” stance. Is recasting disrespectful to the legacy Chadwick left behind? Or is it the best thing to do to keep T’Challa’s character actively involved in the MCU? That’s what we want to talk about this week on the Free Play Podcast.

This might shock some of you, but Matt, Bubba, and Kate have been co-hosting a podcast together since 2017! Before the Free Play Podcast with Love Thy Nerd, they hosted the Arcade Podcast with GameChurch, the place where they all met and started this crazy journey. Over the course of these two shows, they’ve done just over 200 episodes together! In this show, they share some favorite memories from the past 200 - and some of yours too.