Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 39

Darkness, Overlord, Carcassonne, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, PS3 Price Drop, Xbox 360 Warranty, EA Family, Bourne Bastards, Artistic Masturbation, A Ton Of Your Emails, Thread of The Week and more!

The crew is back for a jam packed show! Games may be a bit slow this week but we make up the difference with some news, a great Thread of the Week and a metric ton of your emails. We also have a big E3 show going up on Friday, so look forward to that!

You have until Saturday, July 14th to enter the contest, so send your best idea for a show topic to [email protected]! Yes, we're that lazy. Read on for show notes.

To contact us, email [email protected]! 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 a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Sponsor
Liongames.com

The Links
Ninja Gaiden: Sigma
Carcassonne
Overlord
The Darkness

Threads of the Week:
1) Artistic Opulence Coming to Games Industry? - HeroLeander

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"Terra" - Chico Correa & Electronic Band - 0:25:55
"Los Pistoleros" Ian Dorsch - 0:55:55

Comments

Ugh! I live and breathe these podcasts!

It's too bad about the data loss.

Overlord: I disagree with the computer control scheme. I played the entire game through with keyboard and mouse and put almost 30 hours into it and I loved it. I didn't have any problem with the keyboard/mouse, thought it was great.

Isobelle: Finally got fame. (btw it's a he)

LotRO: For some reason, I feel that LotRO breeds a much more casual environment. After burning out on WoW and going to LotRO I'm finally able to casually go back to WoW. Now I'll be playing WoW on weekdays and LotRO on weekends.

I had more thoughts throughout the podcast but it was so freakin long I forgot them all. Going to have to start taking notes every podcast.

Or listen to it again =P

Isobelle: Finally got fame. (btw it's a he)

If you put "belle" in your online name, you're a she unless you've killed a mountain lion with your bare hands.

I think it was Limp Bizkit who stole the recordings of the guitarists they listen to while they were looking for a new one. AFAIK, it's only a rumour and I'm too lazy to check on that, but I think they had to sign a contract before the audition giving the rights to the band to anything they were gonna play during the audition. Wonder what happened if they played somebody else's work!

Certis wrote:
Isobelle: Finally got fame. (btw it's a he)

If you put "belle" in your online name, you're a she unless you've killed a mountain lion with your bare hands.

Thanks for making me spit soda.

Great Show!

on the Wii and AAA devs:
Could this be a sign of our industry's lack of talent in the gameplay/making it fun aspect of game design. The AAA developers working on games for consoles that have a higher graphics tech may be a sign of where the talent with those teams lies. That may be a bad thing for the future of the industry.

or...

I don't know for sure, but I assume that the Wii's consumer base may be spread out among more casual gamers (my boss's wife just bought one). And developers may see that as a reason NOT to put their AAA teams on it, since the AAA teams are generally developing for a more hardcore audience. Which may, in turn, be bad for the industry. Aaaaaand we are back to square one.

On lots of detail from Halo 3 and Assassins creed:
With the frequency that I play games, I want the most bang for my buck (the buck being my time). Knowing that Bungie is putting that much effort into the small things makes me know that they will have a polished game all around. It is pretty weak, but I only buy 2-3 games a year, and I want them to be full, polished experiences.

On GWJ history:
I have been meaning to ask this question, and I was hoping it would get answered. Who are the "gamers with jobs?" You, because this is your job and you are a gamer? Or is it me, I have a job, I have a need for mature, thought provoking content that sarcastic and cynical sites like joystiq and kotaku can't (or won't) offer me?

You are the gamers with jobs. The idea was that it would be an indication of the kind of audience we serve. We're not looking for the guy with no ambition on his couch talking about how high he is over Xbox Live. We're looking for an audience that can at least hold down a job.

Certis: Are you a fan of the Bourne Identity movies specifically, the books, or both?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Certis: Are you a fan of the Bourne Identity movies specifically, the books, or both?

The movies, the books were really quite poor in many ways.

This is me yelling at you Certis. YELLING!

I burnt out on E3 stuff today, so I'm only half done listening to the podcast. All I've got to say so far is that even if the 360 issues are annoying, the longer warranty doesn't so much earn them points as reclaim some of the ones they lost.

I too understand why the PS3 costs as much as it does. With this price drop, I sympathize with them. I want to want it now, there just still aren't any games. Give me a few more months of games.

Edit: Certis, that's a lot of hate about the Bourne game!

I think everyone can get behind "more Wiis in more people's hands," though.

Edit again: "Spiffin?" Are you sure the conference call isn't brillig? Chavs and frat boys are different, though, in ways that I won't stay late at work to explain. Maybe tomorrow!

As I understand it, frat boys are drunken chauvanistic student types, yes? Chavs by the British definition are a very different beast. Chavs generally have the following characteristics:

(a) Lower class
(b) Materialistic about accoutrements, particularly ostentatious jewelry and mobile phones
(c) White. I'm not sure about this, but Black or Asian people who otherwise have all the traits of chavs are called something else I think.
(d) They are strongly associated with burberry baseball caps, but this might be a cliche now so only chavs who are somehow being ironic might wear them now

I've just checked Wikipedia to see what it said, and it has a pretty exhaustive page on them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

And the word is "Spiffing", which has no scatalogical or reproductive connotations that I'm aware of. It means "very good". Synonyms could be "fantastic" or "great". I associate it with the kind of British relic that might go tiger hunting in Inja wearing a pith helmet.

Loved the show, by the way.

Two countries separated by a common language.

Spiffy!

Yeah, the chav phenomenon seems to be more aimed at looking like a rap star than frat boys. Frat boys (as a stereotype, there are certainly brothers in fraternaties that do not fit this characterization) tend to be smarmier and live off of wealthy parents.

Keepin' on:
XBL Challenge: There were actually two steps to signing up, if you recall. I somehow racked up some 600 points or more between the two parts to signing up. So... I sort of gave up after that. I was thinking that beer companies should get in on it, but i'm sure that's an area MS is less likely to get into.

5,000 members, eh? Obviously this site is too mainstream and bloated for me. Also, if you don't like "dickheadedness," perhaps I shouldn't have been here anyway?

Nutting the Hell up... has 1Dgaf expressed his discontent on that use of "nut" as a verb yet?

How much more innovative are RTS games than Madden? Different visuals and locations and different characters doing basically the same thing in each iteration, as far as I'm concerned. But I suppose I could say that about games I actually like, as well.

Who am I kidding? I'll buy Madden anyway, I bet.

Double-plus goodjer love, but I hope you realize that if I send in an email (audio or otherwise) it's going to be full of hate and battery acid.

Wii: The games I've wanted to play are coming. I'll have to go find one in the next few months.

And I won't be sending in any suggestions. My stack is so ridiculously tall that I probably wouldn't give the prize the appreciation it deserves.

Sorry, the parents still say "Go play your nintendo" even when refering to PC games.

Our parents do (speaking as a 34 year-old) but younger generations say "go play your playstation"

Elysium wrote:

Our parents do (speaking as a 34 year-old) but younger generations say "go play your playstation"

True fact.

Just wanted to say you guys are doing an amazing job of producing this show.

Hey guys..just joined and wanted to thank Certis and the gang for reading my email. Hope I'm not the only one with the thoughts that GWJ's has a Grif sound alike on the team! Oh and thanks Elysium for pronouncing my name right
Great site guys.

I enjoyed your brief rant against QTE button presses, Certis.

magnus wrote:

Just wanted to say you guys are doing an amazing job of producing this show.

Yep, you guys put a lot of time into these podcasts so it's to bad you lost most of it the first time through, That would piss me off really bad after all that work.
Do you guys retell the same jokes and fake laugh at each other? Or just try to come at the topics with a different point of view then the first time around?

The Fly wrote:

I enjoyed your brief rant against QTE button presses, Certis.

I did too. I'm beyond sick of QTE's in games. I really hope they're at a minimum in the Bourne game.

Do you guys retell the same jokes and fake laugh at each other? Or just try to come at the topics with a different point of view then the first time around?

Kind of a mix of both. You really can't re-tell jokes or whatever, since that stuff is off the cuff anyways. A fair number of points are repeated, but they tend to be more concise the second time around.

Certis wrote:
Do you guys retell the same jokes and fake laugh at each other? Or just try to come at the topics with a different point of view then the first time around?

Kind of a mix of both. You really can't re-tell jokes or whatever, since that stuff is off the cuff anyways. A fair number of points are repeated, but they tend to be more concise the second time around. ;)

And I bet your comebacks are super witty.

Sometimes I feel like I'm Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. I mean, I like the show and all, but I'm not always up for the butt patting.

Maybe I need more coffee.

wordsmythe wrote:

Sometimes I feel like I'm Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street. I mean, I like the show and all, but I'm not always up for the butt patting.

Maybe I need more coffee.

You would have liked the old Gamers with Jobs Radio, and coincidentally, the short-lived Escapist Radio. Fletcher and Elysium hardly did any butt-patting. Heck, most the time they just yelled at each other until one of them hung up their phone in tears.

I like the butt slapping. It's similar in tone to my office. We all take the piss and give some back too. It's a fun way to work.

wordsmythe wrote:

Nutting the Hell up... has 1Dgaf expressed his discontent on that use of "nut" as a verb yet?

Maybe my English is a little off.. but you can certainly "nut" someone.

To nut:
The process of giving a Glaswegian kiss outside of Glasgow.

Fletcher and Elysium hardly did any butt-patting. Heck, most the time they just yelled at each other until one of them hung up their phone in tears.

You must have loved the show, getting 50% of the cast wrong in all

You can't blame him. I'm such an Everyman.

Bah! Sorry. Every Sean(Shawn) is the same to me.