Case By Case
By Alexandra Cardinale
Case By CaseMay 17, 2021
The power behind the stan
Why fans are so much more than the media they love.
Thank you so much to Claudia Rebaza and the Organization for Transformative Fanworks. You can see the work that Claudia and other volunteers do for the OTW at transformativefanworks.org.
People Make Games can help you understand Blaseball here
“Let Me Into the Blaseball” was created by Josh Millard. Listen to it again here
The Washington Post’s coverage of Gamergate, circa 2014
You can subscribe to Case By Case here
Our full interview with Claudia will be sent to paid subscribers on Wednesday, May 19.
You can read the accompanying pitch for this episode at casebycase.substack.com.
We’ll see you on the wire.
What lurks below fitness' body-friendly language
Through the lens of "pretty" sports, body-positive language and ignoring changing norms still masks a skinny-obsessed culture.
We’re trying something different with this week’s podcast!Listen in to hear how we vet this pitch and as we dive deeper into deciding how to greenlight a story like this.
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, dropping Monday mornings: just in time for your pitch meeting or team stand-up. Stories that get the most engagement will become our own independent investigations, to be published in print and podcast form.
If you’d like to learn more about our pitch process and what goes into Case By Case (and what doesn’t), please check out our FAQ.
Why pain is addicting—our brains explained through Dark Souls and video games
Ask any player if they like the game Dark Souls. Chances are, you’ll get the world's weirdest reaction. Simultaneous sheer rage… and elated almost-addiction. Games like Dark Souls comprise an entire genre, almost entirely based on their oppressively painful difficulty.
We spoke to Professor C. Thi Nguyen, professor of Philosophy and Tech, to understand exactly what goes on in our heads when we commit ourselves to something wonderfully painful… and we uncovered the good and the bad.
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Thank you so much to Professor Nguyen for sharing his research and knowledge with us. You can find him at objectionable.net and check out his book, “Games: Agency as Art” from Oxford University Press where books are found.
Professor Nguyen also mentioned Natasha Dow Schüll's book “Addiction by Design,” Bernard Suits’ “The Grasshopper,” and Jane McGonigal’s work, which you can find at janemcgonical.com.
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, dropping Monday mornings: just in time for your pitch meeting or team stand-up. Stories that get the most engagement will become our own independent investigations, to be published in print and podcast form.
If you’d like to learn more about our pitch process and what goes into Case By Case (and what doesn’t), please check out our FAQ.
Neopets, Runescape, and the little internet graveyards that won't die
You’ve heard their names. Runescape. Neopets. Toontown. LiveJournal. Myspace. Gaia Online.
Logic might dictate that these sites should be dead. They can’t possibly be alive. Right? Wrong.
We spoke to the people who are still on these sites two decades later and asked cyber psychologists to help us understand why.
The answer? A mix of nostalgia for bonding with a community, a desire to feel like a competent expert in something you value, and a need for consistency and control in a world that feels on fire. These sites likely won’t be managed forever—everything expires on the internet—but a look into the minds of these evangelists proves that they’ll hold on for as long as they possibly can.
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Thank you so much to Professors Harley and Debb, and our player interviews—Jaye, Sage, Felipe, Sara, and David.
You can learn more about Dr. Scott Debb and his research here, and you can learn more about Dr. Dave Harley and his research here.
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, dropping Monday mornings: just in time for your pitch meeting or team stand-up. Stories that get the most engagement will become our own independent investigations, to be published in print and podcast form. If you’d like to learn more about our pitch process and what goes into Case By Case (and what doesn’t), please check out our FAQ.