And so we come to the beginning of the end. The All-Ireland themed Season 6 of My Favourite Game hits its last game with Neopets and kicks off a two-part finale that has roots tied back to the start of 2020.

As I said announcing the full guest lineup back in January, the initial inspiration about doing a season of the show based on the Irish games industry harkens back to Ambertail Games co-founder Jordan Bradley and an interview with her for a Press Play episode that year, recorded before the start of the pandemic at the pan-Irish games event Run for the Border.

“I know we have talks and networking, but what if we had mini game jams where North and South came together or workshops or even having this event more often?,” she said when I asked about potential collaborations between the games industries in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. “I know that’s a whole lot of work with organisation, but the reward is far greater, I find.

“There are many ways I can see it changing. Even just online – let’s make a Discord server where we all come together because there’s one for North, one for South. Why not have an [All-Ireland] one? That would be cool.”

Two years on from that interview in Co Dundalk that gave the idea of doing an All Ireland season of the show, Bradley wraps up Season 6 with an in-person episode in Belfast talking of Neopets as her favourite game.

In the first of a two-part finale, we talk of the duality of a person such as with Jordan and how Neopets shaped that for her, the community built up around it, how the end of service of Flash has cratered the game as it is and a lot, lot more.

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