Why the former editor of Polygon is making a podcast for old gamers

In a recent episode of After gamesChris Blante hosts how video games can help players understand death. He is an interview with Kaitlin Treblay, who works on him The sky of AmbrosiaA game of death.

“What is the very useful games to explore the topic?” Planet asks.

“I think there is a really beautiful thing about the way the games invite the players,” says Trimlay. There is “a very beautiful thing about the person’s demand for cooperation and to be part of the story, and to move across space.”

It is a tone, conversation materials, unlike anything I heard on the podcast for games before. It confirms what is unique After games – And how it can emerge from other games, by behaving more like a slower and more brain NPR width.

Within weeks of departure ribbedWhere was the editor -in -chief, Blancity started After gamesHe describes it as “a weekly podcast about how and why we love video games.” It targets old demographic models After games After NPR format with tightly edited slices and weekly rings lasts for about an hour. The fans are required to support Patrion to help continue.

Many other video game podcasts “almost entirely for people under the age of 30 who can withstand the costs of listening to multiple four -hour long -week long offers,” freedom. “From a practical point of view, it targets everything in young media games – because it is produced by young people and because it believes the demographic sales teams that they have the best snapshot.” But players over 35 years old, he says, have “very different interests and expectations.” There are many people who fall into this category, as the Entertainment Programs Association has reported that more than half 205.1 million Americans play video games greater than 35.

“It is really a basic offer for demand and demand,” he says. “However, very few places that want to meet this request. The publications gave the largest fans to get information – newspapers, magazines and sound – gave scraps of games culture at best, and worse, completely ignored them.”

Before I go further, I must make some disclosure. Plannet, until May, was the editor -in -chief ribbedpreviously freedomSquare for games and entertainment. He was a co -founder of ribbed When it was launched in 2012, he later worked in freedom From September 2014 to July 2017. I never worked with him directly, but I met Blancley for the first time in person earlier this year at dinner at the game developer conference.

This means that when Vox Media announced on May 1 that it was sold ribbed to Game of ranting The owner Valnet, and Plante said that he will not be part of the site moving forward, I felt annoyed for it. But by the end of the month, he had published the first episode of After gamesAnd it has been published a new episode every week since then. It is a great podcast.

Each loop is about an hour long and divided into three works. A lot of presentation revolves around interviews on a specific topic, and a third Plante law is characterized by news of the week. But the broader themes of the episodes are not always in line with the current thing in games.

The first episode was about the history of the Independent Games Festival award, for example. The second was about exciting games. When the episodes deal with the subjects of the moment, Plante tries to put on things; when Death Stranding 2: On the beach I went out, Blanci scored a rare interview with Youtuber VideoGedungey, who first hated the first They cut off death But reconsidered two years later.

The offer is available for free with ads, but people who pay a $ 5 per month on Patreon get early access to ads without ads with an additional sector and access an exclusive video every month. While planning when After games “It would be logical, if I was not ready to spend $ 5 on it, so why is anyone else?” Blunt says. The offer has just reached 1,000 paid subscribers, and even if things are consistent from there, “it will be enough to cover my family’s health insurance.” If the exhibition gets 2000 by the end of the year, “I will feel confident to be my future.”

The game journalists who leave or have been increasingly displaced from traditional gaming posts, like the owned worker after Before Kotaku The book and Patrick focus on your parents Crossplay Researcher post. While publications everywhere face pressure from things like search engines of artificial intelligence and Google Zero, Plannet argues that there are many fans who have more traditional business models because of their dependence on the scale.

“As a person in the media, you hear a lot about the splendor of the independent media because of its benefits for people who make the media, but I think there is a greater conversation that needs to be obtained the benefits it enjoys for the public, for readers,” says Blant. “I think if you focus on readers and the public, you will find more commercial opportunities for more independent creators or more of the younger creators.” He also says that if the prevailing publications do not want to serve a “concrete and growing fans” for the older players, “I am happy with that.”

He sees Blant After games As something for him for a long time. “My only dream for the future of the show is that I have been doing this for 10 years.”