PRIME MEMBER EXCLUSIVE | 3 Months Free Trial

Auto-renews at INR 199/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends 15 July, 2026.
Games At Work dot Biz cover art

Games At Work dot Biz

Games At Work dot Biz

Written by: Michael Rowe Michael Martine Andy Piper
Listen for free

At the nexus of games, work, and techCopyright Games at Work dot Biz, 2012-2026 Politics & Government
Episodes
  • e557 – The British are Coming!

    e557 – The British are Coming!
    Jun 15 2026

    Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

    Published 15 Jun 2026

    It’s an all-Brits episode, as Andy welcomes Ian “epredator” Hughes back to the show as co-host, while both Michaels are away.

    We take a dive into some recent and current triple-A games as Ian talks through many hours of playtime in Crimson Desert, Forza Horizon 6, and 007 First Light. Although the new open-world Forza Horizon is set in Japan, Andy and Ian enjoy noting that these are games from UK-based studios or with British elements (like the legendary James Bond). Along the way, they talk about a WWDC video shared by Michael Rowe, which brings foveated streaming to the Vision Pro headset, although Ian notes that Varjo has been in this space for several years already.

    There’s a second round of gaming conversations that includes the latest XBox Games Showcase, featuring an older game (Sea of Thieves) from another British studio, and a yet-to-be-released game (Fable) with British voice talent and acting, that was also originally from the UK. There’s also a quick nod to an easter egg in the latest LEGO Batman game.

    The episode wraps up with a discussion of the recently fully-funded Kickstarter for the Virtual Worlds Museum, that we last talked about in episode 555. Ian mentions some of the recent video content that has been released by the project.

    Many thanks to Ian for joining the show this week, bringing a deep focus on games and virtual worlds!

    As usual, Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social with any comments or ideas!

    Selected Links
    • Crimson Desert
    • Forza Horizon 6
      • CarPlay brings Mario Kart to your car?
      • Foveated Streaming with visionOS
    • 007 First Light
    • XBox Games Showcase
    https://youtu.be/W83iAMvXBuM

    Here's an easter egg in the new Lego Batman that I think all of you will REALLY appreciate.

    It's so good, I had to make a video.

    [image or embed]

    — Cabel Sasser (@cabel.panic.com) June 7, 2026 at 9:06 PM

    • Wolfenstein 3D Atari demake
    • Videos from Virtual Worlds Museum via @teleportal_tv
    https://youtu.be/Y5uBQtL0lD0
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • e556— AI With Extra Guac

    e556— AI With Extra Guac
    Jun 8 2026
    Photo by Mikey Frost on Unsplash Published 8 June 2026 e556 with Michael, Andy and Michael – Michael R’s annual edu-cation, chatbot trickery, data center data visualization, LeRobot Humanoid open source robotics, LEGO and a whole lot more! Michael, Andy and Michael get things started with Michael R’s annual edu-cation, Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference. Then the team turns to a news story about tricking Meta’s support chatbot into granting access to Instagram accounts. This is not a new tactic – check out e429 for a link to try this out for yourself with lakera.ai‘s Gandalf game. Next up is a data visualization for data centers across the United States. And then, a solution for the energy needs of a data center: CrankGPT. And harkening back to the earlier chatbot trickery, there’s a GitHub repo to get Chipotle’s chatbot Pepper to write python code and more. Then, the team considers an article from The Atlantic that spells out a contrarian view that this is in fact the best time for a computer science degree. A new robotics story captured the team’s attention – the LeRobot Humanoid. Hugging Face developed this robotic set of legs as an accessible, low cost, open humanoid (well, humanoid legs) robot. Another intriguing maker project is a 3D book that has printed on it’s pages the machine code needed to fabricate itself. Wrapping up the episode, the team takes a look at some of the newest LEGO sets featuring Gaudi’s architecture and SmartPlay sets featuring Nintendo’s Pokemon. What would you like to have your LeRobot do? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know! These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Selected Links WWDC 2026 coming up! WWDC26 All systems glow. June 8-12, 2026 From Apple: "Join us on Tuesday, June 9, for a screening of The Mandalorian and Grogu at Steve Jobs Theater. Doors open at 7 p.m. A pre-show presentation about the role of Apple technologies in the movie’s production, featuring a special guest, begins at 8 p.m." #WWDC26 — Paul Hudson (@twostraws@mastodon.social)2026-06-01T19:14:54.728Z Random Thoughts blog post: Getting Ready for WWDC And Building my HomeLab AI NEW: Hackers were able to hijack several Instagram accounts by tricking Meta’s AI-powered support chatbot into resetting the victims’ passwords. It’s unclear how many Instagram users were hacked due to this flaw. A Meta spokesperson said the issue has now been fixed. https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/01/hackers-hijacked-instagram-accounts-by-tricking-meta-ai-support-chatbot-into-granting-access/ — Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (@lorenzofb@infosec.exchange)2026-06-01T18:37:54.986Z Games at Work e429: Promptly Engineering (for the discussion on the Gandalf AI prompt engineering game) Tracking American AI Data Center Buildout CrankGPT GitHub cyberpapiii/chipotlai-max The Atlantic article: There’s Never Been a Better Time to Study Computer Science Makers hackster.io article: Hugging Face Launches $2,500 DIY Humanoid Robot Design Boom post: this fully 3D-printed book turns its own G-code into raised lettering LEGO LEGO Sagrada Familia Architecture 21065 Nintendo Life article: LEGO’s Pokémon Smart Play Sets Have Finally Been Officially Revealed
    Show More Show Less
    37 mins
  • e555 — One Two, One Two

    e555 — One Two, One Two
    May 25 2026
    Photo by Michael Martine: The Bean in Millennium Park, Chicago, IL, June 2019 Published 25 May 2026 e555 with Andy, Michael and Michael – Ploopy’s The Bean and Lenovo’s TrackPoint, The Guild, The Movie, AI in commencement speeches, AI in podcasts, Virtual Worlds and Virtual OS museums and a whole lot more! Andy, Michael and Michael get things started with an appreciation of Andy’s work to migrate the Games at Work hosting site to a new service in uninterrupted fashion for our listeners. Next, a new piece of open source hardware that Andy’s purchased, the Ploopy The Bean. After the cohosts wax poetic on the awesome sauce that is the TrackPoint, they turn their attention to The Guild. Felicia Day and the team from The Guild are planning to launch a movie. Andy, Michael and Michael are very excited about this! Switching to AI, and all of the recent stories about how university commencement audiences have been booing speakers extolling the virtues of AI, the team considers Woz’s take on AI being “Actual Intelligence”. This reference is cheered and not booed. Continuing on the theme, the cohosts discuss a recent play by Spotify of providing an authentication for podcasts recorded by actual humans (with actual intelligence). This spurs a lively conversation on what that validation might entail, and what it means, especially given the prevalence of AI generated audio content. The team wraps up the show with a couple of virtual museums – one shared by friend of the show Ian Hughes – the Virtual Worlds Museum. The cohosts all agree that Ian would make a fantastic spokesperson for this museum. The other is a virtual OS museum. Finally, Andy shares a tremendous social networking graph that traces letters sent between 285 cities during the years from 1363 to 1412, Check it out, and give a listen to the song from Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 for how the Russians would write letters in the links below. What would be a good name for AI generated podcast content? Podslop? Have your bots 🤖 drop our bots 🤖 a line at @gamesatwork_biz@mastodon.social (our home for now) and let us know! These show notes were lovingly hand crafted by a real human, and not by a bot. All rights reserved. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it. Selected Links Shiny new things Updated GamesAtWork.biz courtesy of Andy – you rock, Andy! Ploopy, The Bean Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II The Guild The Guild: The Movie Photo of Felicia Day by Michael Rowe, June 2011 Games at Work e415: Pushing our Buttons (for The Guild) Games at Work e96: The Professional Line Sitter (for the Guild’s Zaboo’s seat saving network idea) AI Fast Company article: This sentence about AI got Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak applause—not boos—for his commencement speech Variety article: Spotify Officially Bans AI-Generated Podcasts That Impersonate Someone Else, Adds Verification Badges for Podcasts Playlist Push blog post: How Spotify’s New Verification System Works for Artists TechCrunch article: Google goes for the glitter with disco-ball icons: ‘Are y’all sure you still want this?’ Variety article: Spotify Says Disco-Ball Icon, Which Prompted Massive User Backlash, Will Go Away Next Week as Planned The Verge article: Amazon Alexa Plus can now create AI-generated podcasts Google’s NotebookLM TechDirt article: Amazon Gets Into The AI Podcast Slop Business Sixcolors post: New Apple accessibility updates focus on Apple Intelligence The Atlantic article: Everything You Do Is Being Recorded Virtual Worlds Kickstarter project: Virtual Worlds Museum™ The Virtual OS Museum Real World Datini Letters Geospatial Explorer
    Show More Show Less
    36 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet