GWJ Conference Call Episode 94

Too Human, Some E3 Thoughts, An Interview With Dr. Horrible's Felicia Day, Batman, Your Emails and more!

This week, we reminisce about the wonder that was Dr. Horrible with geek-heartthrob Felicia Day. She does a little dance with Rabbit about why humor is so freaking hard, and what she's really looking for in a ... game.

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.

Felicia Day Blog
The Guild
Aurora Feint
Dr.Horrible
Jeff Green's EA Live Blog

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks
"Los Pistoleros" Ian Dorsch - 0:20:22
"The Way Your Journey Ends" Tom Quinn - www.citadel-studios.com - 0:35:15
"Washaway" Ian Dorsch - 1:18:47

Also: Special thanks to Mutant Enemy Prod for the use of the "Dr. Horrible" Theme Song.
Special thanks to Felicia Day for the use of "The Guild" Theme song.

Comments

Alien Love Gardener wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Here's hoping she won't read the comments.

I'm pretty sure Julian made her sign the standard waiver of sanity before the interview.

I'm pretty sure a longtime internet denizen who names her characters "labia" and such can handle the juvenile bits of our comment threads.

Just because she (or Mystic, Katerin, or E Hunnie) can handle it does not absolve us of shame.

Mostly shame at bad grammar.

I find this lady attractive. What is this "Dr. Horrible" and where can I find it?

lunabean wrote:

I find this lady attractive. What is this "Dr. Horrible" and where can I find it?

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/3...

Oh, by the way Rob, still not long enough.

Go watch The Guild after you finish with Doc Horrible. It's hilarious, especially if you've played muhmorpguhs.

Great interview with Felicia Day. The freeze ray song has been stuck in my head too.

That Felicia is pretty and smart and funny. But the "high trill laugh" needs to come down an octave or two, sounds way too "LA".

High trill laugh or not, I'll buy anything she's selling! (and so on)

Seriously though, I think the GWJ podcast may be getting ideas above it's station.

hubbinsd wrote:

Has anyone checked out that indie game she mentioned? Dropping indie games casually like that...damn.

I've played it, it's pretty fun but I tried it a good 8 months ago and it was a little buggy. Her description of the factions made me want to check back in on it and see how it's progressed.

Here's a link
Depths of Peril

Quintin_Stone wrote:
lunabean wrote:

I find this lady attractive. What is this "Dr. Horrible" and where can I find it?

http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/3...

Or she could have just, er, checked the show notes?

Veloxi wrote:

I've not listened to this yet, but I was also fortunate enough to do an interview with Ms. Day recently. She's totally awesome in a lot of ways. :)

Gah! Do you have any idea how much random stalking I've done lately trying to find her, and all of you people are getting interviews! Clearly this whole journalism thing is a lot sexier than I realised. Damn you, Veloxi and Rabbit! How can a well-muscled six foot-tall naval officer and doctor with a giant hammer compete with your invincible writer-fu technique?

I think you guys were wrong about Penny not being a "Whedonesque, strong woman" character. Penny is the only true hero in the film. Captain Hammer is a bully, and while Doctor Horrible is very likable and sympathetic, his motives are twisted. Penny is an example of a real person doing real good, she is by no means a passive bystander.

She's certainly the most upright of the three, but I'm not sure that makes her a "hero" as such. She has heroic ambitions, but she ultimately accomplishes nothing of her own effort--the only reason the shelter went through was because of Hammer's pull with the mayor.

I was going to type a lot - then Wordsmythe beat me to it with much less text.

I'd agree though - right up the the end she is hoping for someone to save her.

FeddEx wrote:

I was going to type a lot - then Wordsmythe beat me to it with much less text. :)

Sorry, it's a habit of mine.

Coldstream wrote:

Gah! Do you have any idea how much random stalking I've done lately trying to find her, and all of you people are getting interviews! Clearly this whole journalism thing is a lot sexier than I realised. Damn you, Veloxi and Rabbit! How can a well-muscled six foot-tall naval officer and doctor with a giant hammer compete with your invincible writer-fu technique?

Answer: You can't.

Here's the interview if you happen to care.

I just wanted to mention how wrong I think rabbit is about the addition of uploading game videos to YouTube. While you may not, there are a lot of people who have many uses for this kind feature.

If we could upload videos of our league games for APFB 2K8, I'm sure many of us would take advantage of it. I'd really like to watch DSGamer and RuthlessMuffin's game that they are about to play. I'd watch the whole game if it was able to be uploaded. I'm sure many of use would at the very least throw up some highlights of our games. This would go for all kinds of sports games.

The other area this would be cool ins in walkthroughs. I may not want to watch someone play Halo 3, I might want to watch someone beat a level that i ma having trouble with. In that regard, many of use that would never upload videos of our own, would still benefit form others having the ability to do so.

It's not enough to claim that E3 was actually great, but I think moving ion the direction that lets us post game videos is a really cool development.

I wasn't suggesting it was some kind of blight on the industry - I just find it personally way way down on the list of things I care about with a game. Given a choice between a game shipping with, say, an extra level, an extra class, an extra weapon, or simply fewer bugs, or having some kind of community video thing? I'd put the video underneath each one of them.

I wouldn't care much for the thing either, because I would want to edit the videos before hand in some external editor. Which I already do anyway if you were to search for t0w gfg on youtube.

t0W wrote:

I wouldn't care much for the thing either, because I would want to edit the videos before hand in some external editor. Which I already do anyway if you were to search for t0w gfg on youtube.

2K actually ships a pretty cool editor creating highlight reels. But I agree, exporting it into iMovie or another editor would be cool.

I feel pathetic that I only recognize her from her Cheetos commercial.

GioClark wrote:

I feel pathetic that I only recognize her from her Cheetos commercial.

She had a Cheetos commercial?

Rat Boy wrote:
GioClark wrote:

I feel pathetic that I only recognize her from her Cheetos commercial.

She had a Cheetos commercial?

Link

rabbit wrote:

Given a choice between a game shipping with, say, an extra level, an extra class, an extra weapon, or simply fewer bugs, or having some kind of community video thing? I'd put the video underneath each one of them.

I sort of have the same feeling about mulitplayer in general. And people look at me funny.

GioClark wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
GioClark wrote:

I feel pathetic that I only recognize her from her Cheetos commercial.

She had a Cheetos commercial?

Link

Girl's got a thing for laundromats.

GioClark wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:
GioClark wrote:

I feel pathetic that I only recognize her from her Cheetos commercial.

She had a Cheetos commercial?

Link

Is it just me, or does Chester Cheetah sound like Ian McKellen?

wordsmythe wrote:

She's certainly the most upright of the three, but I'm not sure that makes her a "hero" as such. She has heroic ambitions, but she ultimately accomplishes nothing of her own effort--the only reason the shelter went through was because of Hammer's pull with the mayor.

(Ok, super spoiler alert!)

She needs help to get her project done, but it is still her project. Captain Hammer wouldn't have helped if it weren't for her because he's not a true hero. Penny is an example of how to be a real-life hero. You can't always protect yourself from shrapnel, and you can't create a homeless shelter all by yourself in real life, but you can be the person to organize and ask the right people for help. The only good thing that happens in the world of Dr Horrible is the creation of the shelter, which is her project. She's not a superhero, just a hero.

The first conversation between Billy and Penny shows that both of them are struggling for social change. Penny is working within the system and is struggling. Billy is struggling to pull off one grandiose gesture that will fix everything - there is a similar theme with Jonathon in BtVS. Penny will have a hard time accomplishing her goals, but Billy's means will never work out the way he wants.

I don't want to go so far as to say I know what the point of the show was, but here's my impression.
Penny is a force for positive change. She is not an unrealistic super-hero, she needs to work within the system. It's hard, and she might not succeed, but she's trying.

Captain Hammer is not a force for positive change. He's a bully. He represents the idealistic "solve your problems with righteous violence" idea that permeates super hero stories. We see he's more interested in beating up an evildoer than actually preventing evil, or doing good on his own. He lets the van go uncontrolled to prevent theft, putting people in danger. He cares more about getting a hot girl than actually preventing the theft of wonderflonium, and it turns out he's mostly after Penny because it will hurt Dr. Horrible.

Doctor Horrible wants positive social change, but he's so angry at the world that is idea for what that would be is twisted. He's an "ends justifies the means" guy. He's an aspiring terrorist, really. Real terrorists think they are fighting for positive social change as well.

Each of these people is trying to do good. Penny's way of doing things could be amenable to all of them. They could have worked with her to make the world better. Doctor Horrible and Captain Hammer's way of solving things both involve using force, and they see each other as enemies, so you get escalating violence. When they both get to the point where they are willing to kill each other, the one real force for positive change is taken from them both. The hero dies, but she's not even a martyr. It's a very operatic ending

So I think the point of the morality play is: Cowboy diplomacy seems more heroic, but in the end everyone ends up losing.

What is BtVS again?

buzzvang wrote:

What is BtVS again?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Scarybug wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

She's certainly the most upright of the three, but I'm not sure that makes her a "hero" as such. She has heroic ambitions, but she ultimately accomplishes nothing of her own effort--the only reason the shelter went through was because of Hammer's pull with the mayor.

(Ok, super spoiler alert!)
When they both get to the point where they are willing to kill each other, the one real force for positive change is taken from them both. The hero dies, but she's not even a martyr. It's a very operatic ending

So I think the point of the morality play is: Cowboy diplomacy seems more heroic, but in the end everyone ends up losing.

At best, that makes her a tragic hero--an aspirational hero. Sure, she makes a small improvement to the state of the world while the self-centered machos are distracting the press, but serving one meal does not a homeless shelter make. I do, however, agree with you as to the "cowboy diplomacy" lesson. Heck, I could apply it directly to modern international politics, but I think even then it would reinforce the notion of Penny as the person we all wish was more powerful and important than she really is.