The GWJ Conference Call Episode Two!

Episode Two - August 16th, 2006

Dead Rising, Sourceforts, The Importance of Game Reviews, Gen Con, Eve Online CCG Interview, Forum Topic of the Week, A New Tune By Ian "Podunk" Dorsch and more!

Right Click Here and 'Save As' to Download!

It's time once again for the Gamers With Jobs Conference Call! We take you through what we've been playing, some discussions about the future of game reviews and a whole lot more. We're joined later in the show by Julian "Rabbit" Murdoch to talk about the Gen Con experience and lead us into an interview he conducted with a member of the Eve: The Second Genesis card game team. Today's show also features the unveiling of a new tune by our very own Ian "Podunk" Dorsch! I hope you guys love it as much as we do.

Read on for some links to what we're talking about and how to contact the show.

To contact us email ! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send 30 second audio questions or comments (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

The Games

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic
(Extra content link)
NCAA Football 07
Dead Rising
Half-Life 2 Mod Sourceforts (Wednesday Night Game!)

Metafuture Game Reviews Post

Thread of the Week

Music Credits:

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"One Big Holiday" My Morning Jacket The Wired CD
"Relaxation Spa Treatment" Dan The Automator The Wired CD
"Dc 3000" Thievery Corporation The Wired CD
"Under Major Influence" New Delhi FM Daylight Confusion

Pixel Pimp
Donator V2.0
polypusher's picture
Location: Boston-ish

I downloaded this and it was 12 minutes, cut off during talk about sourceforts. Whattup with dat? Just me?

Edit: Well it worked the 2nd try, ignore me

CEO
Pillow
Certis's picture

Rob decided it wasn't perfect so he re-uploaded with a fresh file. Sorry about that!

I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe

Consultant
Location: Ohio

I think it is worth noting in reference to the discussion about Duke Nukem Forever and John Romero:

John Romero started out at id where they, prior to Wolfenstein and DOOM, were building the series Commander Keen. Keen was published by Apogee, who started a new brand name in 1994 called 3D Realms. Even one of the original id team members, Tom Hall, went to work for 3D Realms and made the series Rise of the Triad. The id team members maintained a friendly relationship with 3D Realms when they split from the publisher, so Romero supporting DNF is even less surprising and less accreditable than before.

Pixel Pimp
Donator V2.0
polypusher's picture
Location: Boston-ish

I was fruitful and killed everyone's Marble Blast scores while listening

The beard shaving must come to pass.

The Red
Donator V8.0
Propagandalf's picture

Great show guys. You three work really well together. And as always Podunk's music is awesome. One song, with the long high-hat intro, gets faded out right when the cool guitar lick comes in, though. Maybe the high-hat part was too long.

I've had a few pissed off moments with Dead Rising's save game and I wonder how deep my Anger glass is, as well.

Here to save you all
Donator V8.0
TheGameguru's picture
Location: Pistolvania

You know the musical pauses and interludes are just paving the way for ads

Aint nothing new about the world order..it's been playing since the day they put George Washington on a quarter

85's face the truth you're too dumb.

Death Metal!
Donator V6.0
LupusUmbrus's picture
Location: On a wild sheep chase

Excellent show, guys.

"Screw the speed of light, fan-boy rage is my new gold standard for measuring velocity." - Dr. J
"Lupus with a crowbar is the meaning of life itself." - Certis

Khaaaaaaaan!
Donator V9.0
Gaald's picture
Location: Just this side of crazy

Quote:
One song, with the long high-hat intro, gets faded out right when the cool guitar lick comes in, though. Maybe the high-hat part was too long.

I probably should have mentioned this on the podcast but we are looking for music to use during the show, apart from our new intro and exit music I would like to be able to use different music for the rest of the show whenever I can. So if you are a musician and want to show off a little, and you have a piece with no lyrics that you think might fit the show send it on over. It would be strictly volunteer but a great opportunity to get your music heard by a lot of people. You can e-mail us at call@gamerswithjobs.com

Enjoy the show.

"Can I have a job? I donut have much experiences, butt I always use an spellchecker spellchecker on my articles." - Sway

Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria since 2005!

Spoiler Fanatic!

PSI Level Ω
Donator V4.0
Vrikk's picture
Location: Onett, Eagleland

Hey, one of my threads was picked. Thanks!

Steam | XBL | Backloggery | PSN: VrikkGWJ

CEO
Pillow
Certis's picture

TheGameguru wrote:
You know the musical pauses and interludes are just paving the way for ads

Currently, no one has offered us sacks of money to run ads in a podcast.

I heard that they were keeping Elysium in the ICU not because he needed intensive care, but because they needed to be careful of his intensity. - Wordsmythe

Khaaaaaaaan!
Donator V9.0
Gaald's picture
Location: Just this side of crazy

Quote:
Currently, no one has offered us sacks of money to run ads in a podcast.

<--------- Says you! Church!

"Can I have a job? I donut have much experiences, butt I always use an spellchecker spellchecker on my articles." - Sway

Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria since 2005!

Spoiler Fanatic!

Death Metal!
Donator V6.0
LupusUmbrus's picture
Location: On a wild sheep chase

Pimp those wiener bombers, brother!

"Screw the speed of light, fan-boy rage is my new gold standard for measuring velocity." - Dr. J
"Lupus with a crowbar is the meaning of life itself." - Certis

Goin' Commando
Donator V8.0
Edwin's picture
Location: Miami, FL Seattle, WA

What kind of compression are you guys doing on the .mp3 files? I see that this show takes up almost double the amount of memory than a similarly long episode of the escapist.

Khaaaaaaaan!
Donator V9.0
Gaald's picture
Location: Just this side of crazy

Here is the thing I am really picky when it comes to sound quality, and ITUNES sucks! Here is the situation as it stands now; Itunes has a problem with mp3 files encoded using LAME VBR compression (Variable Bit Rate), and as far as I know it is the best way to encode an mp3 to get the best quality to file size ratio. The problem occurs if you fast forward or rewind while listening, Itunes screws up and stops before the end of the file and the longer the podcast or song the more it cuts off. Apparently this problem is due to the fact that Itunes uses an outdated piece of code that everyone else has stopped using. NO other file player out there has this problem only Itunes.

So to make sure everyone can play the file properly I have been using Windows MP3 encoding which is also LAME but, and here is the big difference, CBR compression (Constant Bit Rate). This constant bit rate is part of the reason the file gets so big, the other part is that the LAME VBR compression is a newer and better encoder. I can actually compress a file using VBR and limit the bit rate so that it stays constant and still get a smaller file than CBR.

I hope the larger file size isn't a problem for folks it isn't that much larger and I am always looking to squeeze the file size as much as I can but I want to try and retain the good sound quality. If anyone has any suggestions that doesn't cost a fortune to use please let me know at call@gamerswithjobs.com and I will give it a shot. Or if you know the Itunes code monkeys kick them in the ass for me till they fix their bloody player! I do have an idea that I will try for the next show but I doubt it will help.

"Can I have a job? I donut have much experiences, butt I always use an spellchecker spellchecker on my articles." - Sway

Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria since 2005!

Spoiler Fanatic!

Goin' Commando
Donator V8.0
Edwin's picture
Location: Miami, FL Seattle, WA

If I understand correctly, then the show should be CBR versus VBR right? iTunes shows it as VBR to me. I re-encoded it so the show can fit in my mp3 player as it was way too big for the amount of space left.

edit: I use foobar2000 for my music listening pleasure.

Khaaaaaaaan!
Donator V9.0
Gaald's picture
Location: Just this side of crazy

The first episode was VBR and the file worked after using a program that is supposed to fix the problem with some files, unfortuntely episode 2 wasn't fixable and therefore had to be encoded using CBR, episode 3 is encoded the same way. I tried compressing the file at 80 kbps and couldn't stand the distortion that resulted from it, it was very obvious.

"Can I have a job? I donut have much experiences, butt I always use an spellchecker spellchecker on my articles." - Sway

Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria since 2005!

Spoiler Fanatic!

Goin' Commando
Donator V8.0
Edwin's picture
Location: Miami, FL Seattle, WA

I'll just manually re-encode it for my taste and use.