Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 53

Halo 3, Tabula Rasa, Pirates Of The Burning Sea, Jericho, Special Guest Michael Zenke from Games.Slashdot, The State of MMORPGs, Your Emails and more!

This week special guest Michael "Zonk" Zenke from Slashdot Games joins the regular crew to talk about all the latest in gaming. Long show this week, can you tell it's Fall?

Want to support the show? Hit the Digg link just above (it's fast and easy to register) or review us on iTunes! 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

Thread of The Week

(1) How do you deal with your gaming elitism in public? - kuddles

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"Luna Machine" (Benoit Casey) - 0:44:47
"George" (Benoit Casey) - 1:29:30

Comments

Oh my... 2 hours... This is the longest you've ever done, isn't it?
That's a big show, baby.

Rob got pretty badly burned this week.

The Ken Levine show was about the same length, although this show did beat it by a few minutes. There was just so much to talk about.

Thirteenth wrote:

Rob got pretty badly burned this week. :(

Not sure what you are talking about, but it wouldn't surprise me.

It's nothing serious. It was just somewhat painful to hear you recommend a few games in the "games you're playing now" section and get shot down by the other guys.

I wanted to say thanks for answering my email. I was happy to hear your opinions, and for the record it's she not he. Thanks again and great show!

Thirteenth wrote:

It's nothing serious. It was just somewhat painful to hear you recommend a few games in the "games you're playing now" section and get shot down by the other guys.

Ummmmm I don't remember recommending Loony Tunes AA, in fact the last thing I believe I said was it wasn't really worth playing. At least from the demo there didn't look to be anything special about the game. Just another 3d platformer, except this one was set in the Loony Tunes universe. If you're into that than you may want to give it a try I guess but I had, had enough after the demo was finished. I did enjoy some of the humor they placed in the world like some of the signs, but that's about it.

Thanks for your concern though.

I hope you enjoy(ed) the rest of the show.

Hey, where's the link to the gametrailers.com video showing the difference between American and Japanese games?

Oh, and great podcast! Though I was a little bit shocked listening to you talk about MMO after MMO and their smaller audiences and the chat went on and on with nobody mentioning LOTRO! Eventually you came around to it, but it got me wondering. Where does LOTRO fall in terms of audience and/or success in the galaxy of other MMOs you were talking about, like Everquest 2 and Galaxies?

Just to clear out the price confusion for PS3 in the BBC article - the British 40GB PS3 is indeed 300, but pounds, not euro. Which basically means that the British got screwed again, because 300 GBP is roughly 430 euro or more than 600 USD (and they already got the highest price for the launch PS3).

On the topic of if you reveal yourself as a gamer to others, my answer is simple. If the topic comes up then I will speak my mind on the direction of the conversation. I do not care if people see I am reading reviews on games online. I carry a PC-Gamer mag with me on occasion to locations when I have to wait. And lastly I have a T-Shirt that I wear on occasion that specifically shows the world that "I am a gamer!"

T-Shirt Picture Here
"Not Now I'm Busy"

There are times that you don't talk about gaming because it's not appropriate but I'm not going to hide it because I don't have to. I'm in the IT Industry also but since I work for a University it's a pretty liberal atmosphere.

Edit add: BTW where is that link to the article talking about the differences between Japan and US gaming and thoughts between them? It was mentioned in the email call section of the podcast.

BadKen wrote:

Hey, where's the link to the gametrailers.com video showing the difference between American and Japanese games?

Oh, and great podcast! Though I was a little bit shocked listening to you talk about MMO after MMO and their smaller audiences and the chat went on and on with nobody mentioning LOTRO! Eventually you came around to it, but it got me wondering. Where does LOTRO fall in terms of audience and/or success in the galaxy of other MMOs you were talking about, like Everquest 2 and Galaxies?

I knew we were forgetting a link, but I couldn't remember what it was.

GAMETRAILERS LINK TO JAPAN, CULTURALLY BIASED?

Like the MMO talk. I have an unusual high anticipation for AoC, and i was also one of the ones that went back into SWG to save my houses.

I came in here thinking I was almost done listening and ready to post comments.

Oops, there's another hour.

So far:
- If we can call Tabula Rasa "TR," why can't we call Pirates of the Burning Sea "Pot BS?"
- Rabbit: "Yeah, sure, definitely." I realized that people say this kind of thing a lot. It's all affirmative answers, but of very different degrees. It's silly.
- Most WoW servers have people: That's a pretty loose definition of people you have there.
- "Kill the Wabbit" custom Halo 3 game idea: Sweet!
- I pick the Locust with the glasses (/goggles), because even ugly, alien nerds need love.

ETA:
- UO: I can't begin to remember my login info. TBH, I feel like loading up my old character would be a good way to experience what Alzheimers is like.
- SWG ghost towns: Does that make it more realistic?
- "Once the nostalgia wears off, there's not much going there": Well, I guess I still don't see why WoW is so much different. I'm crotchety that way, though.
- "Plebian": It's Latin, and as such pronunciations are not absolutley certain, but most folks use the long "e" suggested in the 'cast.
- Add me to the "RMTs are dumb" list.

More:

- A "game equivalent of MySpace" is enough to make me think it's just a raunchier, buggier version of Second Life -- probably with animated gifs and obnoxious embeds. "Playing with each other in social spaces" is just the cherry on the sundae.
- I have used the XBLA versions to introduce friends at parties to both Catan and Carc. I've in fact had groups go through the Catan tutorial as I set out the hexes to play the game.

- I'm always the locust in the dress. The problem arises when a Torque arrow gets stuck to the clothing fluttering behind me.

- I have no problem telling others what my hobby is. It's especially difficult for me to have a discussion about gaming because I'm a woman. It is not expected of me to play any games at all or I should only play specific games "for girls" like the Sims. I can't afford to hold back when I talk about my hobbies and if someone develops issues with me because of it then that's their problem.

When females talk to me about their gaming hobbies, my mind usually jumps right to the aesthetic qualities of their vaginas.

Sniper Locust and Vanilla Ice (Baird) COG for me. Anything that confuses opponents at a distance is good. Anything that confuses teammates at close range gets an, "Easy chief. Same team." Hopefully they don't have their shotgun out.

I wear the GWJ and PA t-shirts all the time. That's my nod to gaming eliteness. Other than that, I don't wear the faux-vintage NES controller t-shirts. "It's not my fault you suck." seems to work out well.

wordsmythe wrote:

- SWG ghost towns: Does that make it more realistic?

I don't recall a scene in Episode IV where Luke, Obi-wan, and the droids kept running into empty buildings when they were driving to Mos Eisley.

Rat Boy wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

- SWG ghost towns: Does that make it more realistic?

I don't recall a scene in Episode IV where Luke, Obi-wan, and the droids kept running into empty buildings when they were driving to Mos Eisley.

Perhaps they need to be spread out more. That, or maybe they just skipped that scene. Luke demonstrates in Ep IV that folks are perfectly willing to abandon entire plantations full of perfectly good infrastucture.

wordsmythe wrote:

"Yeah, sure, definitely." I realized that people say this kind of thing a lot. It's all affirmative answers, but of very different degrees. It's silly.

Alert the thought police!

My written words, those you can give me crap about construction, idiom and usage. But after two hours trying not to make too much noise while sipping a martini after writing for 14 hours straight? You're lucky I'm lucid.

rabbit wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

"Yeah, sure, definitely." I realized that people say this kind of thing a lot. It's all affirmative answers, but of very different degrees. It's silly.

Alert the thought police!

My written words, those you can give me crap about construction, idiom and usage. But after two hours trying not to make too much noise while sipping a martini after writing for 14 hours straight? You're lucky I'm lucid.

Oh, you were perfectly fluid! I just noticed that it's a rather common thing for people to string together words like that. It made me think. You... inspired me.

You bring feeling to my life.

This has been, by far, the deepest look into the deep dark cerebral depths of gaming I've yet heard. As a person that prides himself on his "gamer identity" being seperate from his real identity I can understand the fear you have with identifying yourself with games.

I go to work each day wanting to reach out to gaming companies, small dev studios, big publishing houses, and finding that none of them want my help. All of them know better, none want my expertise or exposure to smarter people than I that crave to help them. Gaming is such an insular industry, they themselves on the inside don't want to foster relationships how can their social endeavors hope to flourish? It all seems doomed to brain drain as burned out individuals flee.

TheWanderer wrote:

This has been, by far, the deepest look into the deep dark cerebral depths of gaming I've yet heard. As a person that prides himself on his "gamer identity" being seperate from his real identity I can understand the fear you have with identifying yourself with games.

I go to work each day wanting to reach out to gaming companies, small dev studios, big publishing houses, and finding that none of them want my help. All of them know better, none want mysuch an insular industry, they themselves on the inside don't want to foster relationships how can their social endeavors hope to flourish? It all seems doomed to brain drain as burned out individuals flee. expertise or exposure to smarter people than I that crave to help them. Gaming is such an insular industry, they themselves on the inside don't want to foster relationships how can their social endeavors hope to flourish? It all seems doomed to brain drain as burned out individuals flee.

And then folks wonder why we have so many brain-dead rehashes and rip-offs.

GTA got into trouble because the sexual content shipped on the disk. The mod unlocked it. From a PR standpoint, that's a lot different from user-created content introducing sexual content from scratch.