Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 95

PixelJunk Eden, 1942: Joint Strike, Everquest 2 ... Wait, What?, The Rise of Cooperative Gaming, Your Emails and more!

This week Michael Zenke joins us as we bring cooperative gaming under the microscope. We mostly try and convince Sean to play with us ... and we'll probably end up winning that argument by default. Just give it a couple years.

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.

PixelJunk Eden
1942 Joint Strike
Everquest II
Wrath of The Lich King Music

  • Subscribe with iTunes
  • Subscribe with RSS
  • Subscribe with Yahoo!
Download the official apps
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android

Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks
"Small Comfort" - Apoplexia (Benoit Casey) - 0:16:20
"Fallen Idol" (Benoit Casey) - 0:37:48

Comments

on the other rpg front (traveller) - check out 2d6feet.com, something of an intellectual sister podcast. They cover a lot of RPG stuff with no particular fanboism.

Great Podcast all! The question of Multiplayer vs. Singleplayer has been running through my mind a bit lately, so this is timely!
Overall, I tend to agree with Mr. Sands on this one. I am a lone wolf, you know, the guy who spends most of his time on his own (not carrying a jar of hand-cream!) The quiet, geeky type usually a prime suspect when ever any horrific crime occurs in the fog shrouded area...

Clearly you young ones are changing the dynamics of things. (1980 - jeese! I had already passed a few years of drunken debauchery after High School when that evil year passed by...)
My wrinkled, panting, long-winded point is this: I am ready to try and put my toes into the pool of multi-player gaming. I respect your opinions.
My question: Where would you folks suggest I get a good first experience?

Let me give you some data to work with. I have been mainly an FPS player. I have played many types of games, but I do prefer the "First-Person" perspective.
Games I have enjoyed the most:
Half-Life
Stalker
Deus Ex
Thief
Mortyr (very off-the radar, but so pretty)

I love Bioshock, but cannot play it due to constant crashes...maybe I need to get a 360? (That is a whole other thread!!) But his leads to another important datum. My gaming gear is limited to a good PC, a PS2 and a Gamecube.

What do you think? Am I too equipment challenged? Am I too old to make the change at this point? (I'm 47)-but woefully immature, at least according to my wife!

I would really appreciate your comments. Thanks.

rabbit wrote:

on the other rpg front (traveller) - check out 2d6feet.com, something of an intellectual sister podcast. They cover a lot of RPG stuff with no particular fanboism.

Sweet! Thanks Rabbit.

I already listen to 'Have games will travel' and 'Sons of Kryos' on the rpg front they're also both quite good.

Too many damned good podcasts so little commute time

ReijMan wrote:

hhmz, cannt find that stunning WoW music which mr. Zenke referred to anyone drop me a link?
Thx

It burns! Ah!

I like co-op, though I think it has a different place than single-player gaming. Namely, I feel like co-op is more suited to less a more casual, social play session. I don't want to have to play co-op when I am trying to pay attention to the story. After If I've abandoned my attachment to close reading for a game, though, I'm happy to play co-op with a friend.

Gears was rough, because you had to move quickly enough to keep Dom from dying in a number of places ("Jookit all dat juice!"), whereas you could play at your own pace in co-op, and effectively communicate to coordinate your actions.

Loved the podcast guys, Mr Z was in rare form.

Regarding game pricing, we in SA are in a similar position to Europe and Australia. PC games are fairly cheap R350/$45. Consoles are quite another story though the games costing R750/$98 for AAA titles, smaller games like the Lego games and those with younger potential audiences R600/$79. Guitar Hero is R800/$105. Wii games are the same price as PS3 and 360 games. Where Wii pricing loses the plot is that it is R800/$105 more expensive than the 360 Pro and R1800/$236 more than the Arcade, nearly twice the price. Oh, and R700/$92 cheaper than the PS3.

The reasons for this? The Wii price actually gives a clue to this.

Pricing in non-core markets, for example; Europe, Australia, South Africa, is set by third party distributors. With the smaller markets not being of excess concern to the actual manufacturers they are not going to investigate whey their sales are lower than they should be. Plus lower sales do also 'justify' higher prices because it means that larger margins are needed to cover costs. Plus the lack of historical sales data prevents companies from forming a clear picture of sales and price trends. The PS2 was the first big console here, because it was so easy to get the machine chipped, the 360 was the second because it was so cheap at launch, coming at the same price the PS had launched at 6 years earlier.

The Wii is distributed in SA by the same company that distributes Apple products, so no strangers to gouging customers for the gadget du jour. The Wii is being marketed in SA through FHM, GQ and similar magazines as a fashion item rather than a game platform. Our local gaming magazine had their Wii test unit taken away because they didn't fit the demographics being targeted, one would assume the unit ended up in the FHM offices, or somewhere similar.

So to get to the point, distributors set the prices in the non-core markets. We are being gouged, simple as that.

I have listen to the show for awhile and enjoyed you guys. Always have linked back to you all and tell people about the show. Keep up the great work guys.

I'm glad EQ2 received some love for their Living Legacy promotion and all the improvements that were missed by those of us who jumped ship shortly after launch.