Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 115

A Little Persona 4, Rise of The Argonauts, Strong Bad's Season Finale, The WoW Contest Winner, LOTS of Your Emails and more!

This week we get caught up on a bunch of the emails we've been neglecting. We also announce the winner of the free year of WoW thanks to Devmani's generous donation! Some lovely new Christmas music, inappropriate singing from the hosts and Cory "Dingleberry" Banks joins us for a very special holiday Conference Call. Merry Christmas everyone.

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.

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Show credits

Music credits: 

"GWJCC Xmas" (Tom Quinn) - www.citadel-studios.com - INTRO

"A Kitschy Robot Christmas" (Benoit Casey) - http://www.cerebrimusic.com - 0:43:16
"Deck The Halls" - Seasonings - (John Morgan) - http://www.feelslikechristmas.com - 1:05:46
"GWJ Goodjer Fairytale" - (Duoae) - www.eggmen.co.uk - OUTRO

Comments

Merry Christmas to all!

Except Elysium.

Ah yes, holiday show. Cant wait!

I learned a lesson about discussing Fable 2 this week -- don't do it in public. My girlfriend and I were sitting down in a restaurant the other night, and I was telling her what I'd been up to in the game, and it was all going great until I came out with "so I had sex with two prostitutes". People on the table across from us had obviously been listening in, and the "my god, that poor woman!" look on the faces directed at my girlfriend were priceless, especially since she was laughing her ass off.

Oh, and a merry xmas to all!

pneuman wrote:

I learned a lesson about discussing Fable 2 this week -- don't do it in public. My girlfriend and I were sitting down in a restaurant the other night, and I was telling her what I'd been up to in the game, and it was all going great until I came out with "so I had sex with two prostitutes". People on the table across from us had obviously been listening in, and the "my god, that poor woman!" look on the faces directed at my girlfriend were priceless, especially since she was laughing her ass off.

I've learned that lesson about most games, especially when hacking someone's head off is involved.

I hope we are getting a Christmas song this year, you guys have set a dangerous precedent.

Spaz wrote:

Merry Christmas to all!

Except Elysium.

You're a monster, Mr. Sands
Your heart's an empty hole
Your brain is full of spiders
You have garlic in your soul, Mr. Saaaaaaaaaaaaaands!

I wouldn't touch you with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pooooooooooooooooole!

about having sex in Fable 2

you have to do what the lady likes, you ask her to follow you near a bed, then if she mentions sex you do a thumbs up and it will work

HOWEVER

you can find a book that gives you a "seduce" emote that will effectively make people ask you for sex. I have yet to find this.

and it's a very good game I believe

Merry Christmas everybody! I look forward to a good holiday episode.

interstate78 wrote:

about having sex in Fable 2

you have to do what the lady likes, you ask her to follow you near a bed, then if she mentions sex you do a thumbs up and it will work

HOWEVER

you can find a book that gives you a "seduce" emote that will effectively make people ask you for sex. I have yet to find this.

and it's a very good game I believe :)

Dude. Capital letters. Use them.

Can you give other players books when you interact with them online? I think it's important we all pitch in to help Cory get laid. Virtually.

Certis wrote:
interstate78 wrote:

about having sex in Fable 2

you have to do what the lady likes, you ask her to follow you near a bed, then if she mentions sex you do a thumbs up and it will work

HOWEVER

you can find a book that gives you a "seduce" emote that will effectively make people ask you for sex. I have yet to find this.

and it's a very good game I believe :)

Dude. Capital letters. Use them.

Oh crap, it's a grammar Nazi! Duck and cover!

The day Certis is the grammar hammer around here, we're in some serious trouble.

rabbit wrote:

The day Certis is the grammar hammer around here, we're in some serious trouble.

Dude, you need a squiggly thing after the word "hammer" and a couple of those round ... round things between "serious" and "trouble." You also forgot to capitalize "we're" in that sentence. God, it's like I'm the only one who knows how to right!

Moeez wrote:
Certis wrote:
interstate78 wrote:

about having sex in Fable 2

you have to do what the lady likes, you ask her to follow you near a bed, then if she mentions sex you do a thumbs up and it will work

HOWEVER

you can find a book that gives you a "seduce" emote that will effectively make people ask you for sex. I have yet to find this.

and it's a very good game I believe :)

Dude. Capital letters. Use them.

Oh crap, it's a grammar Nazi! Duck and cover!

You are in for a rude, rude awakening, my friend.

Certis wrote:

Can you give other players books when you interact with them online? I think it's important we all pitch in to help Cory get laid. Virtually.

I haven't played online but i can't imagine this is possible since Lionhead removed any way for the visiting player to meaningfully interact with the hosting player's world. As far as i understand it you play a pre-made character that fits the hosting player's level and thus wouldn't be able to bring your own stuff into the world with you...

BTW, even I got laid in Fable 2.... it was seriously easy. Don't worry, Cory, life doesn't always reflect the events of gaming... but mostly it does.

Great podcast btw guys - made me go and download the songs by John Morgan - they're pretty cool (and free!) - shame everyone was on an end-of-year downer except Rabbit who seems to have been beaten into submission by the naysayers and doomcriers

I haven't played online but i can't imagine this is possible since Lionhead removed any way for the visiting player to meaningfully interact with the hosting player's world.

Actually you should be able to. I remember when I was first playing I gifted Rabbit something. You both have to be online playing and near each other. At least I believe you have to be near each other.

Gaald wrote:
I haven't played online but i can't imagine this is possible since Lionhead removed any way for the visiting player to meaningfully interact with the hosting player's world.

Actually you should be able to. I remember when I was first playing I gifted Rabbit something. You both have to be online playing and near each other. At least I believe you have to be near each other.

Ah that's pretty cool - but not when you're playing together in the same game, only when you're around in the same space in your own games?

Duoae,

I can't tell you how awesome the final song is this week. It absolutely made my podcasting year -- not the least because the original is one of my top 10 songs of all time.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who got some enjoyment out of Rise of the Argonauts. It did have it's flaws, but overall I thought it was pretty good. I especially liked the system of gaining favor with gods by dedicating deeds and through your dialogue choices. I'd like to see something like that in another game sometime. Not much replay value, though I heard something about having more favor with different gods will change you dialogue options it was such a linear game I can't imagine that would affect anything meaningful.

Wish I'd rented it, rather than bought it.

With regard to using designers' names to advertise games, isn't that already done with the Civilization games? Aren't they all "Sid Meier's Civilization"? Couldn't games be sold as "Peter Molyneux's Fable" or "Jonathan Blow's Braid"?

rabbit wrote:

Duoae,

I can't tell you how awesome the final song is this week. It absolutely made my podcasting year -- not the least because the original is one of my top 10 songs of all time.

Thanks Rabbit - if you liked that one you would have liked the GWJ 'Portal' song i wrote for your 100th conference call but didn't record in time

[edit] Here's the lyrics so people can sing along:

Goodjer Fairytale:

It was Christmas eve babe, oh in the forums,
Wordsmythe said to me, you've spelt it wrong again
And then he danced a jig, and linked an article,
So i made my way back to the front page of you

Got on the podcast, they read my email
And in reply to me, they took the michael
So Happy Christmas, I love you Goodjers
I can see a better thread, when all our dreams come true.

They've got threads, pages long
They've got forums for games
But the thoughts go right through you
It's no place for your brains
When you first lured me in,
With that long reparteé
You promised me gaming was where i would be

You were young, You were fresh
Unique on the whole 'net
When the linking subsided
Some people were left
Oh, Certis was banning, all the pub tards were gamming
But we came through that mess
And then typed through the night

The boys of the finger-->butt parade where
Singing their refrain
But the mods were singing out, for Christmas day

I could have tagged someone
Well, so could anyone
You took my suggestions
And Rick-rolled me
I kept them with me babe
Archived them with my own
Can’t make it on my own
I’ve built my dreams around you

Can't we all just get along?!

Edit: I may just not get StarCraft 2 and just watch the game commentary. It'd probably be more interesting than me playing multiplayer.

Grats to the winner of the contest; I'll see you in 2010.

And I'm glad that someone on the podcast was willing to not like Fable 2. I'm still not comfortable with some of the reasoning used to explain how "it's good" and "not bad".

Oh, and you said you were wiping the e-mail slate because the queue was backed up... is it wiped as of now or will it be wiped after New Years? (It'd be nice to know so I don't send you something twice

Wow, at the first half-hour it sounded like you guys hated games overall (Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, Fable 2, Dead Space), and just only liked Lego of all games to pick. How someone not likes Dead Space will take forever for me to figure out. And it's worse that none of you guys gave any reasons, other than "for the masses" LOL

But later on, the podcast got interesting instead of everyone being cynical, grumpy dudes talking about games.

Wow, at the first half-hour it sounded like you guys hated games overall

Oh, I love games, but all four of those games you mentioned are about as inspirational to me as a late night infomercial. Maybe it's just not my year.

Elysium wrote:
Wow, at the first half-hour it sounded like you guys hated games overall

Oh, I love games, but all four of those games you mentioned are about as inspirational to me as a late night infomercial. Maybe it's just not my year.

Do you need inspirational games? Go watch a movie.

Great show items are ready to get shipped out!

I think Gaald is a pretty cool guy. eh fights zombies and doesn't afraid of anything.

Moeez wrote:
Elysium wrote:
Wow, at the first half-hour it sounded like you guys hated games overall

Oh, I love games, but all four of those games you mentioned are about as inspirational to me as a late night infomercial. Maybe it's just not my year.

Do you need inspirational games? Go watch a movie.

It's always cool to have new grinders come in, but just because you don't need or desire "inspirational" games does not mean that others wouldn't mind.

So "taking to the next level" was talked about twice in this episode. For shame.

As for why this year is so forgettable, I think that this year companies played it safe. Most of the games didn't do anything new. The few that did things new seemed to be shunned or just missed the mark. Last year seemed to be all about shifting the paradigm (yes I said it), this year seemed to be about trying to mimic the success of last year by copying everything that was done last year and failing to recapture the magic.

PS: Four hour shows please. Or just put out 2-3 episodes a week.

PSS: Here's the Jake Gyllenhaal picture.

Moeez wrote:
Elysium wrote:
Wow, at the first half-hour it sounded like you guys hated games overall

Oh, I love games, but all four of those games you mentioned are about as inspirational to me as a late night infomercial. Maybe it's just not my year.

Do you need inspirational games? Go watch a movie.

Thank you for your contribution to the discourse.

Mordiceius wrote:

PS: Four hour shows please. Or just put out 2-3 episodes a week.

Or a video podcast, you guys would totally kick Yahtzee's ass.

Mordiceius wrote:

PSS: Here's the Jake Gyllenhaal picture.

Yeah, it's understandable why Corey came over all gay.

cartoonin99 wrote:
Moeez wrote:
Elysium wrote:
Wow, at the first half-hour it sounded like you guys hated games overall

Oh, I love games, but all four of those games you mentioned are about as inspirational to me as a late night infomercial. Maybe it's just not my year.

Do you need inspirational games? Go watch a movie.

It's always cool to have new grinders come in, but just because you don't need or desire "inspirational" games does not mean that others wouldn't mind.

Well, if I said Braid, Mirror's Edge, Professor Layton, Left 4 Dead, or other unique games, then there'd be haters too. It's fine if games can be "inspirational", whatever that means, but there'll always be haters.

Prince of Persia's ending was pretty "inspirational", showed that you can have a playable ending without just leaving you with a cutscene.

I'll keep on listening to the podcast, but whenever you guys need to dislike a game or like a game, at least back it up instead of other rubbish podcasts like Joystiq. Justify every statement you make, like 1UP Yours.

Certis wrote:

Dude. Capital letters. Use them.

Alright, I can make that effort for you.

Please notice though the homogenic lack of any capitals in my post, except for "I". I don't think I had any spelling or grammar errors so I think still think you over-reacted.

I sometimes do that, no caps. I think it's easy on the eyes