Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 196

Picross 3D, Pokemon SoulSilver, Starcraft 2, Puzzle Quest 2, Moonbase Alpha, Your Real Online Privacy, Your Emails and more!

This week Cory, Julian, Allen and Lara talk games, online privacy and more than I could possibly recount here. If you want to submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563.

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. You can also submit a question or comment call in to our voicemail line at (612) 284-4563!

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Good Old Games

Eagle Transporter - What rabbit freaked out about.

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Granular Extractor - Shatter the Official Video Game Soundtrack - http://sidhe.bandcamp.com/ - 0:35:29
Homelands (Credit Music) - Shatter the Official Video Game Soundtrack - http://sidhe.bandcamp.com/ - 0:56:14

Comments

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Amoebic didn't specifically say the harassment occurred outside of the game, so there's no assumption that she was "found". I'm guessing most of it happens inside the game. RealID would make outside ("real world") harassment much more common (and thus harder to stop).

Actually, I did, but deleted it (but not before the Great Leader saw it, and later redacted parts of his comment at my request) because it didn't really contribute anything to the conversation other than a big heaping dose of "lets make this about me." It just distracted from the point I was making. I'm boggled that you picked up on the remaining nuances of that un-conversation, my ninja-editing skills are clearly in rapid decline.

You're bang on, though. Most of it does happen in game, and it's a slippery slope for sure to assume that more real-life identifiers will aid in the crossover of this kind of treatment into real lives. But I don't think it's unwarranted.

Even though they've more or less retracted some of their ambitions about RealID, the seed has been sown. I was really looking forward to Cataclysm, but I wonder if I'm not the only one out there who may be passing it up and seeking other game fields to play in. If these are the kinds of ideas they thought were a good idea at some point, I'm not sure I want to put any faith or trust in them if they seem to have such poor judgment in regards to something I value so privately. I also wonder if we're just the vocal minority and the world at large couldn't give a rat's ass.

It's rather insidious (and possibly intentional?) to rear a generation of internet users to be comfortably free with giving out personal information as mentioned in the conference call. It gave me some hope to hear Alan's (I think it was Alan?)comment that there are still some young people out there who still have the good sense to have an alias and approach the vast and varied internets with a sense of reserved caution.

Hey guys. Seriously, great podcast. There were many topics that you guys touched on that I think could be discussed til everyone passes out.

Does anybody remember how big "Infomediaries" were supposed to be? Did the model of protecting and controlling your personal identity online (infomediary), get perverted into a model that's hell bent on revealing more your personal identity online (Facebook and other social networking)?

I just like having my two separate worlds: my gaming world and my RL world. Why do they have to mix? Not everyone wants their whole life in one continuous stream, so to speak.

You know what? I remember the Eagle Transporter. My half cousin had one.

carrotpanic wrote:

I think Lara has somewhat of a wrong impression of Picross 3D. All of the puzzles aren't 10x10x10, there are many different dimensions including some larger ones.

I do agree that its somehow it engages a different part of your mind (than Picross "2D") and some people might like it more or less because of that.

I didn't mean to give that impression. I meant to say that the puzzles go UP to that size, not that they're ALL that size.

I'm on Level 9 of Hard at this point (which I think is near the end of the available puzzle list?), and it's still not really that challenging for a veteran puzzle player like me. But I think a more casual player might still enjoy it, especially if they never really got into the original Picross.

I love the show. Absolutely love it. And the community sounds great. It is a group of people who are passionate about video games as much and in the same ways as myself. Yet, I have never tried to be part of the community on the forums. Well, hearing of the people who gifted games is the last straw. How could I not try to be part of such a kind and wonderful community. No, I'm not joining for the games, just for the family.

P.S. I'm picking up the free Alien Storm right now, just so I have something to play with you guys.

agentwred wrote:

I love the show. Absolutely love it. And the community sounds great. It is a group of people who are passionate about video games as much and in the same ways as myself. Yet, I have never tried to be part of the community on the forums. Well, hearing of the people who gifted games is the last straw. How could I not try to be part of such a kind and wonderful community. No, I'm not joining for the games, just for the family.

My cockles are warmed. Welcome to the fray : )

Dragon Age is made for the PC, and simply does not belong on consoles. The fact that they even tried to shoehorn that kind of game play into a console control scheme is just insulting, as well as blatantly crass. Mind you, I love Bioware, but good grief!

It works both ways though. I would not want to play Super Mario Bros. on my PC. The keyboard is just as effective as a gamepad for that type of game (at least not for me).

I think you guys should patent the Blizzard Groan. It is defined as the exasperated sigh a person makes when they hear the title of any Blizzard game, due to their titles being woefully overrated.

"You're the load." Ha!

The same battles in the grass over and over? Are you sure your son isn't playing Dragon Warrior?

Metro 2033 is indeed a great game. Moonbase Alpha might be fun for people who have never played a video game before? (Watch out for the Mooninites!)

"You made a choice to expose yourself." Ah yes, the Snicker Meter is active today. (Can I patent a Snicker Meter?)

I do sometimes wish we could pause MMOs.

I keep a collection of about 250 or so songs from OCR. But yeah, getting married to music from Final Fantasy, I'd say that makes Lara our Queen of the Nerds. All hail!

Lara could send out anonymous emails by spelling her name "Laura." No one would know!

burntham77 wrote:

Lara could send out anonymous emails by spelling her name "Laura." No one would know!

I would know. And I'd die a little on the inside every time.

Amoebic wrote:

My cockles are warmed. Welcome to the fray : )

Keep your cockles covered man. There are children present!

rabbit wrote:
Shack70 wrote:

I had Eagle Transporter from Space 1999 when I was a kid too! It was a very cool ship that many of my Star Wars figures used at the time. One thing that made it so cool was that the front pod and the jets from the back came off to form a smaller ship.

Yes yes yes!!!

Shack70 wrote:

I went back recently to watch the old Space 1999 shows and now realize that they were very bad!

No no no!!! They were brilliant! Sure the pacing was slow, but they were basing the pace of 2001! It was the bomb. I will not tolerate dissent!

I also had an Eagle. I recall that it was a model. I believe that I blew it apart with fire crackers or a bb gun. At least that was the usual fate of most of my toys.

rabbit wrote:
Amoebic wrote:

My cockles are warmed. Welcome to the fray : )

Keep your cockles covered man. There are children present!

*daintily covers ventricles, mollusks, ankles and other such unmentionables*

Children? In here?

I may need to go have a talk with our bouncer, again.

KaterinLHC wrote:
carrotpanic wrote:

I think Lara has somewhat of a wrong impression of Picross 3D. All of the puzzles aren't 10x10x10, there are many different dimensions including some larger ones.

I do agree that its somehow it engages a different part of your mind (than Picross "2D") and some people might like it more or less because of that.

I didn't mean to give that impression. I meant to say that the puzzles go UP to that size, not that they're ALL that size.

I'm on Level 9 of Hard at this point (which I think is near the end of the available puzzle list?), and it's still not really that challenging for a veteran puzzle player like me. But I think a more casual player might still enjoy it, especially if they never really got into the original Picross.

Hear hear!

I liked the original too, but you have to admit that spinning the 3d puzzle around as you solve it massages your grey matter.

Late to the party to say that I played a whole lot of Moonbase Commander in college, and he's right, you should buy it.

A long one but a good one! Welcome to the community, Ghostship

Hi everyone.

I know we're not supposed to do intro threads, topics or replies, but I have to say, I'm new here to explain a couple of things: 1-why I'm so late to the party replying to episode 196, and 2-to explain that I'm not allowed to post images (I think) so, I'm putting a link in here which relates to the MAME cabinet topic.

I'm so late to the party because I'm a grown up gamer with a wife, kids, lawn, and recently my own business. I work in my basement and have the freedom now, to listen to gaming podcasts without being ashamed. There's Q&A by one host in either this podcast or in #204 (sorry, listened to both in a row and can't recall which it was) where the question was, "are you proud to be a gamer?". I guess I'm in that camp that doesn't see that it benefits me socially, so I mostly keep it to myself. As I work in my basement alone, I miss the social aspect of the office and podcasts seem to fill the gap. I'll leave it up to my psychiatrist to tell me whether or not that's a healthy practice. I digress. Over the past few months I've burned through the entire back list of at least three other podcasts and came to Gamers With Jobs from a reference in one of those where a host was asked which podcasts HE listened to. So, here I am in my basement starting as far back on the GWJ podcasts as iTunes allowed. Episode 196.

I have to say that I'm delighted after months of searching to find a demographic in the gaming community that seems so close to mine, and to have that backed up by the views, opinions, and topics presented in the podcasts and forums. I'm similarly delighted to find an internet forum that presents itself mostly in prose. Again I digress.

In response specifically to one of the podcaster's requests in this episode, I would like to share my experience with my MAME cabinet build. I think that the best way to start that off would be linking you to my BYOAC build thread. BYOAC is Build Your Own Arcade Controls. And for our Podcasting MAME builder, I have to recommend getting in on the one of the custom token orders. The order I participated in were nickel tokens minted by a company that mints american currency, to nearly the same level of detail and quality.

If anyone here is interested in the read, here is the link to my very old build thread at BYOAC:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/inde...
Please excuse the fact, that at the time my images were stored on a yahoo account, which has since been deleted. If you go to the last page, some of the nearly finished images are still available.

As I posted in that thread, I'm happy to make the CAD files available to anyone who is familiar with AutoCAD; and I am happy to share advice and comments on my design. Small things that you may need to know, like with a heavy monitor, it's center of mass is high. Not enough to be unstable, unless you open the door and sit inside it during the build process, it may tip a bit. This was a one time occurrence in a very specific situation with a perfect storm of conditions, and no disaster came of it. It's been very stable and safe through several family occasions, poker games, and barbecues with friends.

I did bump over and check out the GameSpy articles. I have to say, you broke one of the cardinal rules. Never Add Up the Receipts!

I look forward to becoming a member of the community. Please feel free to PM me if you have any MAME cabinet questions; And remember, "An Arcade" is a place which houses "Arcade Cabinets".

Oh, and thanks for the tip on the light gun solution. A couple of years ago, I either don't recall finding any solution elegant enough to include in my build, or I wasn't interested enough in shooters. I'll check out that hardware; I nearly started a Fallout 3 themed rebuild on the cabinet yesterday.