Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 214

Half-Life, Thief: The Dark Project, Everquest Beta, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Baldur's Gate, The Best Games of 98, The Future of PC Gaming, Your Emails and more!

What would happen if the GWJ Conference Call was recorded in 1998? Let's find out!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Everquest Main Theme - Sony Online Entertainment - http://www.everquest.com/everquest.vm - 31:04
Fallout 2 Main Theme (Louis Armstrong - A kiss to Build a Dream on) - Interplay - http://www.interplay.com/ - 1:00:53

Comments

I was expecting to want to roll my eyes at forced predictions from the future, but I think you guys pulled off this episode in spectacular fashion. Great job.

I think it would be cool to do an episode like this on great occasion just to mix things up a bit. You've certainly proved you can pull it off, in my opinion.

Marzipan wrote:

- A few too many predictions about the future.

I think that would be my only real complaint. It wasn't even that there were too many of them, but all it takes is just one delivered with a bit too much of a wink at the camera to really break the illusion.

Other than that, it's just the fact that I wasn't nearly as into PC games back then as y'all were (I wasn't kidding in the other thread when I said that I was still rocking a Win 3.1 / DOS machine with a 486 proc and a 28.8 modem at the time) so a lot of the games you talked about went way over my head. That's a personal problem, though, not one with the podcast itself.

The question I have -- and it's one that I'm sure others will raise -- is why?

As an old school gaming enthusiast, I certainly don't mind "going back" to 1998...but I'm not sure that the exact reasoning for this trip through the wayback machine is ultimately clear. There's no round-numbered anniversary in play here, nor are there any new* games coming out this year that specifically call back to that year.

[size=8]* The obvious exception, of course, is Starcraft II...but there's been enough discussion on the merits of Starcraft II vs. Starcraft that I'm loathe to even hint at any further discourse on the matter outside of a cheeky little comment veiled in italics and really small text.[/size]

I had fun with the episode (as you can tell up-thread), but I admit that I had to consciously buy "back" into the concept at times throughout. Some listeners may not be up to making that investment, especially in the absence of an easily identifiable reason or context to justify it.

The question I have -- and it's one that I'm sure others will raise -- is why?

Because!

Seriously. We thought it would be fun, so we did it, and we were right.

Listened to all the podcasts to date including the pre-pod days of Sean and Russ, got to say I listened to about 15 minutes maybe. Kept skipping through and never got to where it really seemed any relevant besides self serving, imo. If I had a vote I would say this was the worst of the podcasts to date. Just my opinion though, but yes I am not a Kool-aid drinking lacky.

OzymandiasAV wrote:

The question I have -- and it's one that I'm sure others will raise -- is why?

What else were they going to talk about? Black Ops? There are a half dozen other podcasts treading that same ground this week. Personally, I appreciate hearing something a little different.

Slimrock wrote:

Listened to all the podcasts to date including the pre-pod days of Sean and Russ, got to say I listened to about 15 minutes maybe. Kept skipping through and never got to where it really seemed any relevant besides self serving, imo. If I had a vote I would say this was the worst of the podcasts to date. Just my opinion though, but yes I am not a Kool-aid drinking lacky.

No need to like everything that everyone else does. But there's also no need to insult people who happen to like something you don't. This community is supposed to be better than that, but maybe that's the Kool-aid talking.

I had an awesome time listening to this tonight. I missed out on a lot of the games you talked about, so the perspectives were all new to me, and made me want to try them.

Good job guys (and Lara, of course!)

Not a moderator. - Certis

There was definitely mileage in the nostalgia trip and tangentially identifying the paradigm breakers from 12 years ago. I just don't think there was enough meat on it to support 90 minutes and it ended up feeling really forced to me and slightly embarrassing to listen to.

But hey, that's why it's called "my opinion", right? You all obviously had fun with it and so did many listeners.

Maq wrote:

There was definitely mileage in the nostalgia trip and tangentially identifying the paradigm breakers from 12 years ago. I just don't think there was enough meat on it to support 90 minutes and it ended up feeling really forced to me and slightly embarrassing to listen to.

But hey, that's why it's called "my opinion", right? You all obviously had fun with it and so did many listeners.

Quite correct, perfectly valid and with merit. But that's because you didn't call anyone of a different opinion to yours a 'Kool-aid drinking lacky.'

*edit*

Oh, and I do think it could have been a bit shorter, but everyone seems like they were having a lot of fun. I'll leave them to it.

I don't think Slimrock was out of order. Remember you can't give offence, only take it

Maq wrote:

Remember you can't give offence, only take it ;)

Thanks, Grandma! :p

MrDeVil909 wrote:
Maq wrote:

Remember you can't give offence, only take it ;)

Thanks, Grandma! :p

*kaCLICK* now get off my lawn.

Maq wrote:

There was definitely mileage in the nostalgia trip and tangentially identifying the paradigm breakers from 12 years ago. I just don't think there was enough meat on it to support 90 minutes and it ended up feeling really forced to me and slightly embarrassing to listen to.

But hey, that's why it's called "my opinion", right? You all obviously had fun with it and so did many listeners.

Totally agreed. Definitely a great 20 minute gag/study, 90 mins was a bit much.

Yeah, I didn't get much out of it since I pretty much did no videogaming between my Commodore 64 and late in the PS2 cycle. But what saved the show for me was that you guys were obviously having a blast doing it and it felt like you were juggling together and seeing how long you could keep the balls in the air without screwing up.

That said, I'm about 2/3 of the way through and having a hard time getting myself to listen to the rest. Still, good for you guys for doing it. Why the hell not? It's a podcast.

This was just brilliant. I'd love to hear a best of 1999 next December.

Yo. Whassup? Hella good ep! Half Life sounds SO uber! Later dawgs.

Crawley wrote:

Yo. Whassup? Hella good ep! Half Life sounds SO uber! Later dawgs.

Where's the like button on this comment?

As far as length goes, as a general rule I'm in favor of you guys talking for as long as you like about whatever you like. I have a boring job that is made more bearable by the privilege of having headphones on, and as a result I work through a LOT of podcast / audio book material every week. If I'm not interested in what you're talking about, I can always skip ahead or set it to 1.5X speed until you get to something that relates to me, but I'd much rather have that option than run out of podcast and be stuck with (yuck!) the radio for the rest of the shift.

That it took the combined effort of all of your memories to recall TIM SCHAFER'S NAME really had me dying. Fantastic.

hbi2k wrote:

As far as length goes, as a general rule I'm in favor of you guys talking for as long as you like about whatever you like. I have a boring job that is made more bearable by the privilege of having headphones on, and as a result I work through a LOT of podcast / audio book material every week. If I'm not interested in what you're talking about, I can always skip ahead or set it to 1.5X speed until you get to something that relates to me, but I'd much rather have that option than run out of podcast and be stuck with (yuck!) the radio for the rest of the shift.

Ditto. I often wish the CCs were longer, but I'm in a similar situation with tons of time to listen while I work.

This one wouldn't have caught me off guard so much, but I just happened to build a new machine last weekend. I had just gotten the OS installed and most of the apps. Installed iTunes, re-subscribed to the podcasts I like and synced back up. When the GWJCC started, I was like, "WTF?!? What the hell did I do wrong? I must have gotten podcast number 1? I didn't even know they were podcasting that long ago." Then I checked the podcast number, and figured it out. Slowly ... I'll claim it was lack of sleep.

Excellent show.

The historical facts from 1998 brought back memories. The one that really made me go wow was Geocities. Everyone had their Geocities web site.

Fun.

Speedhuntr wrote:

That it took the combined effort of all of your memories to recall TIM SCHAFER'S NAME really had me dying. Fantastic.

Oh, that was a high point.

Awww man. What can I say. This is brilliant! This really takes me back to high school

I absolutely loved it. Very, very clever. If you guys weren't such a talented bunch of podcasters this could have been HIDEOUS.

Awesome show. First one in a while where I went back to give it a second listen. That was an hillarious accomplishment. You all continue to impress.

I just have to say this was fantastic everyone. I'm a new listener, grabbed podcast 213 on a recommendation and this weeks 'throwback' was very entertaining. You've got a new weekly listener for sure now

I just realized this podcast was here. The fake 1998 date kept my RSS reader from picking it up as a new episode.