GFW Radio
Having done freelance work for Games for Windows, Robert Ashley began appearing as a guest on the magazine's podcast, GFW Radio -- aka 97.5 the Brodeo. Ashley eventually became a regular on the show along with Jeff Green, Shawn Elliot, Sean Molloy and Ryan Scott. Elliot assigned the nickname "Bobito" to Ashley during this time, and it has stayed with him since.
A Life Well Wasted
What started as an out-of-the-box episode of GFW Radio on June 26, 2008 later turned into A Life Well Wasted. The critically acclaimed podcast has often been described as "This American Life" for gamers, however Ashley has stated that "Radio Lab" was a bigger influence on the show's style. Each ALWW episode has a central theme with several stories about the subject. Artist Olly Moss creates an original work of art for each episode, which is then sold as posters and t-shirts.
| # | Episode Title | Date |
|---|
| 1 | The Death of EGM | January 23, 2009 | Robert Ashley talks to former Electronic Gaming Monthly writers and editors about their experiences at the long running magazine |
| 2 | Gotta Catch ‘em All | March 3, 2009 | Robert Ashley explores the world of collectors and archivists, visiting a massive underground collection of video games, a vintage pinball museum, and a program at Stanford University that hopes to save the history of online gaming. |
| 3 | Why Game? | April 29, 2009 | Robert Ashley wonders why he spends his free time playing videogames, asks random people on the street about it, talks to a researcher whose work attempts to harness the brain power wasted on gaming, gets to know an eccentric, forward-thinking game designer who lives sustainably with his family of four on $14,000 a year, and gets a first-hand account of what it’s like to work on terrible games (and what it’s like to get terrible reviews) from an anonymous game developer. |
| 4 | Artists, Fans & Engineers | August 21, 2009 | Robert Ashley visits a cosplay enthusiast, talks to the founder of an art show about videogames, discovers the strange world of fan fiction radio plays, and profiles a self-taught computer chip designer racecar driver/roller derby bruiser. |
| 5 | Help | November 25, 2009 | Robert Ashley helps people in videogames instead of helping people in real life, meets a comedy group who spend hundreds of hours every year playing the most boring videogame ever created, talks to a guy who quit playing games for a year, and profiles the best selling pinball designer of all time. |
| 6 | Big Ideas | June 23, 2010 | Robert Ashley edits listener-submitted game ideas into one big, crazy game, talks to the guy who owns the rights to Tetris about his plans to save the world, gets a lecture on the future of games from a New York University professor, and meets a struggling game blogger who happens to possess freakishly enormous genitalia. |
Sabbatical
After the sixth episode, Ashley announced that the podcast would be taking a break for an unspecified amount of time so that he may focus on other projects.
Out of the Game
Along side former GFW Radio co-stars Jeff Green and Shawn Elliot, Ashley joined N'Gai Croal and Luke Smith for the sporadically updated podcast.
I Come to Shanghai
Robert Ashley and Sam Frigard created the band I Come to Shanghai and released a self-titled debut album in July 2009, using a "Pay What You Want" pricing model. Their second and third albums, Eternal Life vol. 1 and Eternal Life vol. 2, were released in 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
Ashley voiced a character in the PC and iOS indie game, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.
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