Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 343

Star Command, Eclipse, FarCry 3: Blood Dragon, Mars Spider Logs: Water Wars(sp?), Neverwinter Online, Prime World: Defenders, Thomas Was Alone, MMORPGs: What They Do, What We Want, Your Emails and More!

This week Julian, Elysium, Allen and Justin McElroy talk about what they see in the MMO genre and what they're looking for.

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.

Chairman_Mao's Timestamps
00.01.47 Mars War logs
00.07.54 Star Command
00.10.52 Eclipse
00.14.22 Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
00.20.30 Prime World: Defenders
00.22.57 Neverwinter Online
00.28.32 Thomas was Alone
00.31.57 This week's topic: MMORPGs: What They Do, What We Want!
00.52.02 Your emails!

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Backup - Workbench Music - http://workbench-music.com/ - 31:28

De la terre a la cime - Workbench Music - http://workbench-music.com/ - 51:35

Comments

Farcry and Eclipse and Neverwinter... oh my!

Did the Rabbit/Ken Levine Bioshock Infinite interview happen already, or is that still waiting for a Podcast To Be Named Later?

Tanglebones wrote:

Did the Rabbit/Ken Levine Bioshock Infinite interview happen already, or is that still waiting for a Podcast To Be Named Later?

Alas, technical failure. We're going to have him on live shortly.

Tangle, we announced recently that there were audio problems with the interview and we won't be able to run it. We'll look to bring Ken back on soon.

Elysium wrote:

Tangle, we announced recently that there were audio problems with the interview and we won't be able to run it. We'll look to bring Ken back on soon.

Ah, thanks. I was avoiding the Bioshock stuff until recently, and just caught the earlier spoiler section that referenced the upcoming interview.

Justin McElroy's "Super BookTendo" comment just made me crack up like a crazy person on the DC city bus. So much so, the actual crazy person next to me gave me a huge toothless grin and shouted "RIGHT ON, MY BROTHA!"

Elysium wrote:

Tangle, we announced recently that there were audio problems with the interview and we won't be able to run it. We'll look to bring Ken back on soon.

That's disappointing, but a show with Ken as a guest sounds like a great replacement.

Looking forward to hearing the panels thoughts about Star Command and Prime World: Defenders.

EDIT: Not surprised Justin is liking Mars: War Logs after the whole "Shiny and broken" discussion at the PAX East panel.

Rabbit, I loved hearing about your "oral history lesson" and passing knowledge down to your son as he's playing OoT on the 3DS.

I had the same moments with my wife, who had never played OoT until she picked it up last year, and she hit the same roadblock in the Deku tree.

Based on Sean's experience with Prime World: Defenders, I'm really surprised Nival isn't making that for tablets concurrently with the PC version. The drip-feed of progress seems like something you find more frequently on mobile/tablet platforms than PC. Hopefully Nival will address that during the remainder of the beta or post-release?

Can the 2013 fundraiser have stretch goals that increase the Justin McElroy appearances on the conference call?

To Josh who is planning the wedding, don't forget there are some outstanding games that are neither Ameritrash, smelly hippy games, nor German-style games. Specifically, you should consider games like Quarto, a 10-minute strategy game that can be taught in 2-3 minutes and which is tough to master and very satisfying. I've taught it to many nongamers who seemed to love it, and bonus: it's not expensive.

- - - - - - - -

Irony: you guys had a segment last week about Lets Play videos, and a good discussion this week about Eclipse New Dawn... so what do I try to do? Sadly a googling of videos for it results only in reviews and trailers. Must look harder. (My purpose will be to decide whether to buy now or wait for a price drop, and yes I know it will go up first. I have patience.)

edit: I have no patience. I'm installing now. The universal calls of "best complex-game UI" etc. pushed me over quickly.

S0LIDARITY wrote:

Can the 2013 fundraiser have stretch goals that increase the Justin McElroy appearances on the conference call?

I'd pitch in extra for that.

MeatMan wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

Can the 2013 fundraiser have stretch goals that increase the Justin McElroy appearances on the conference call?

I'd pitch in extra for that.

Is this goal higher or lower than the "More Graham Rowat" goal?

I don't think the OP has a link to Candy Box! -

http://candies.aniwey.net/index.php

shoptroll wrote:
MeatMan wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

Can the 2013 fundraiser have stretch goals that increase the Justin McElroy appearances on the conference call?

I'd pitch in extra for that.

Is this goal higher or lower than the "More Graham Rowat" goal?

Neither are as high as 'Rabbit sees Justin's nipples again.'

They're also missing a link to Prime World: Defenders

http://playdefenders.com/

S0LIDARITY wrote:

'Rabbit sees Justin's nipples again.'

That should be the title of next year's PAX East panel

shoptroll wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

'Rabbit sees Justin's nipples again.'

That should be the title of next year's PAX East panel

Gamers With Jobs—Rabbit Sees Justin's Nipples Again
Arachnid Theatre | Sunday 3/23 12:30PM - 1:30PM

Julian Murdoch sits beside a shirtless Justin McElroy (Polygon, My Brother My Brother & Me) for one hour, trying not to look. No discussion, no question-and-answer.

Panelists:
Julian Murdoch [Podcaster, Gamers With Jobs], Justin McElroy [Managing Editor, Polygon]

In case anyone thinks I was kidding - Justin really did whip his shirt off right as i said "welcome." Just to throw me. Jerk.

Then he wore his shirt as a ninja mask. Nope, we weren't making that up.

Keithustus wrote:

Irony: you guys had a segment last week about Lets Play videos, and a good discussion this week about Eclipse New Dawn... so what do I try to do? Sadly a googling of videos for it results only in reviews and trailers. Must look harder. (My purpose will be to decide whether to buy now or wait for a price drop, and yes I know it will go up first. I have patience.)

edit: I have no patience. I'm installing now. The universal calls of "best complex-game UI" etc. pushed me over quickly.

Oh jeeze, you're right - all that's out there are hour long reviews from the likes of Undead Viking and Tom Vassel.

Here's the best that I could find. He starts the overview of components at 2:00, and the first turn ends around the 16:00 mark. Then jump to 26:30, and he goes through an overview of the first combat.

And this one is a playthrough of the iOS version:

Elysium wrote:

Then he wore his shirt as a ninja mask. Nope, we weren't making that up.

I'd blocked that out.

rabbit wrote:

In case anyone thinks I was kidding - Justin really did whip his shirt off right as i said "welcome." Just to throw me. Jerk.

Is that why you called it a "podcast" and not a conference call?

I am always happy to hear of others who enjoyed Star Wars: Rebellion. I looove that game, warts and all (and OMG does it have a lot of warts).

shoptroll wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

'Rabbit sees Justin's nipples again.'

That should be the title of next year's PAX East panel

"There go my nipples again."

shoptroll wrote:
MeatMan wrote:
S0LIDARITY wrote:

Can the 2013 fundraiser have stretch goals that increase the Justin McElroy appearances on the conference call?

I'd pitch in extra for that.

Is this goal higher or lower than the "More Graham Rowat" goal?

While it would be great to have more Justin McElroy and more Graham Rowat, the stretch goal I'd like to see is... a greater female presence. Aside from guest Susan Arendt a few weeks back, it seems like it's been months and months since there was a woman on the podcast. No idea why this occurs to me now, of course, and I'm aware there's probably a whole bunch of logistics behind it, but was just a thought.

Anyhow, loved the podcast. Was great to hear you guys talking about Thomas Was Alone some more. I really enjoyed that game, it's just so charming, and a solid puzzle platformer. I definitely recommend it, I completely fell in love with it.

Also enjoyed the talk about MMOs. When it comes to MMOs, my needs are rather simple: no monthly subscription! I don't want to be feel forced to play your game! Take that, add a gorgeous setting, beautiful music, cooperation made easy, a massive amount of content and you get my current addiction (with no end in sight for this honeymoon), Guild Wars 2. It's also worth mentioning that once I jumped in, I found the GWJ community, full of wonderful, helpful and incredibly patient (and you'd have to be, to play with bumbling me) people.

And yes, Eufloria is also on Steam: I also liked it, it felt like an RTS in its simplest form. In the end, a lot of it was "hurry up and wait" (build up a huge army, swarm next base, wait, rinse, repeat), but enjoyable nevertheless (and honestly, extremely simple, so it required very little "teaching").

A great request. Anyone in particular you think we should hunt down? Who knows who says yes, but we can always ask.

I wish I had a ready answer for you, but in the end, you are the ones who know your podcast best, and the people you work with. Guest stars are easy, but I imagine regulars are harder. It might be possible to have a a regular, veteran member of the forum graduate to conference caller, but again, you guys are the ones who know your people and their chemistry best. I'm also painfully aware that it's super easy to sit behind a keyboard, type stuff out, go back and edit, tweak, etc. Not so when it comes to speaking into a microphone.
Anyhow, was just a thought, not a critique per se.

[size=8]How Jennifer Hepler as a guest star? A girl can dream... :D[/size]

One female I enjoy listening to is Laura Massey, who is a cohost of Major Nelson's XBox podcast. It would be interesting to see if she would give another podcast a shot.

*cough* It's Lara

I'd love to hear Leigh Alexander or Mattie Brice or Patricia Hernandez, or any number of other female games journalists. I do also appreciate that when Susan Arendt was brought on, it wasn't for a special pink-colored edition of the podcast.