I followed their podcast from the beginning, but have dropped it a few weeks ago because it just started to be irritating to me. The conversations, especially from Austin, seemed to be always trying to find a forced "meaning" or social implication of games, rather than enjoying the games themselves. I think the last episode I listened was when Austin admitted that he rarely enjoyed games and was more interested in their social impact, which is a voice and point-of-view I really do not identify with (I am paraphrasing of course).
I think social implications are fine, if the game clearly attempts them, but I play games for the enjoyment they bring and the entertainment they bring - and I don't think they are any lesser if they are just meant to be "fun".
Edit: Just to not sound so destructive, I just found that the point of view they want to bring into gaming started to sound like something I don't identify with. I think it's very good that there are different points of view in the industry and different interests, and I'm glad there is a platform for everyone. I was just telling the story of why i dropped out of the podcast - a totally personal opinion.
My thing with this is kind of twofold really. I appreciate what you quoted of Austin, and feel that i experience games in the same way. The fun i get out of them these days has much less to do with the game itself and much more about its "higher level" things, like themes and stuff, and with what they show of their developer's desires and opinions and stuff. Like, that's what i really want. Maybe i'm just getting old and i'm starting to see everything in how it relates to humans (cue "i'm lonely" joke that's actually about how i have a hard time relating to people face to face and feel that relating to them over what they create is both easier and hopefully close enough to actual real life closeness with other people, the answer to which i already know but cannot face).
But what i love about Austin is that he isn't apologetic about it. Like, it's incredibly refreshing to listen to that kind of stuff without it being apologetically framed as "pretentious" (this is something Heather Alexandra has made in her last two Kotaku videos and it breaks my heart to hear it), or in some way so dislocated from where discourse about videogames happens that it might as well be a second class conversation that is destined to remain off to the very corner of the room, that is, it's a lonely place out there and those discussions feel lonely as well.
That might not be the impression people in general have about those discussions because, well, it's not a place they're interested in. But i can safely say that to me this is what's the best about Waypoint, its determination and confidence. I understand that people that don't care about this kind of stuff may feel that this podcast and website lulls them into these weird conversations that don't speak to their interests without being preemptively obvious about it, but to me? This website is like, it feels like home where others have always reinforced this sensation of being an outsider, a nerd within nerdom, like a nerd squared or like nerd to the power of nerd.
By the way i know i've written Austin a bunch of times but my appreciation goes to all members of the team, the whole group. It's a family effort and it would be wrong of me not to point that out.