What makes a game replayable or a movie rewatchable? In this episode, Holly and I meander through what gives — or doesn’t give — something replay value and talk about some of our most played, read and watched bits of entertainment. The highlights:

• “Epic Mickey” and its use of thinner and paint
• The more recent “Fallout” games and “Knights of the Old Republic” and their use of karma
• Holly’s and my default alignment of basically good
• All the various possible endings in “Fallout 3″ and “Fallout: New Vegas” (older “Fallout” games also had multiple possible ending cinematics but it wasn’t as overwhelming to me for some reason)
• “Might and Magic: VII” and its good path vs. evil path
• “Medal of Honor: Airborne” and its choice of starting point
• “Kingdom Hearts” and “Kingdom Hearts 2″ and their “Nightmare Before Christmas” universe
• The way “Skyrim,” “Star Wars: The Old Republic” and “Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword” currently vie for my attention (unlike when we recorded, as I type this, SWTOR is winning)
• My abandoned attempt to do all of “Bioshock 2” without using the vita-chambers
• Game expense and is influence on replay value
• “Scrabble” and its great replay value(although totally different from what we’re really talking about)
• “Braid” and its unlockable speed run
• Predictability as a counterintuitive influence on replay value, as told through the addictiveness of pop music
• Some movies I’ve watched over and over and over because they comfort me somehow: “Arranged,” “Whale Rider” and “The Way“
• Some things Holly watches so much she won’t let people borrow them: “Star Wars” and “Home Movies“
• My many many many times seeing all the “Lord of the Rings” in the theater, and watching them with RiffTrax
• Our friend Lili who watched “Star Wars” every day the summer it came out
• Disney  movies, especially “Snow White” are on Holly’s replay list
• TV shows I’ve rewatched a lot because of their complexity: “Arrested Development,” “Twin Peaks” and the first season of “Veronica Mars“
• For Holly: All the Tim Burton movies, including “Sweeny Todd” and “Sleepy Hollow”
• For me: All of Jane Austen’s novels and their film and audiobook versions, “Anne of Green Gables,” “Little Women” and “Jane Eyre”
• Straw embroidery
• “Marie Antoinette“
• “Amelie” and “Ratatouille“
• “Wristcutters: A Love Story“
• “Futurama,” “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Spirited Away” and all the other Miyazaki movies
• My ongoing quest to get my hands on the anime “Anne of Green Gables”
• “Disneyland Adventures”
• “Peggle,” “Plants vs. Zombies,” and my unlove of “Angry Birds,” and “Cut the Rope”
• My replay from the days before there were quite so many game: “Baldur’s Gate” and the first two “Fallout” games
• “World of Warcraft“
• “Kingdom of Loathing“
• “Star Wars Battlefront“
• “Words with Friends“
• Random last-minute additions: “Mary Poppins,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the Hitchhiker’s Guide books, “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “Neuromancer,” “Dune” (which I am still. rereading.), “Eight Cousins” and “The Hobbit”
• “How to Budget for your Video Game Habit“
• Lister mail! This is from Ian, on our episode “Why do we watch what’s hard to watch?“

Holly’s research:

• The Addictiveness of Pop Music

My research:

• The Myth of Replay Value

Episode link: Play it again, Sam