Episode 66: "Why Do You Love Video Games?"

Here it is, now live for ALL AUDIENCES at ScrewAttack. For a quick refresher, here is the FilmCritHulk article from BAD which the main premise of his episode is affectionately ripped-off from...



So, about this episode...

I really like this one, and believe it or not it came together all at once: I've been pretty sick the last few weeks, and as such a significantly more elaborate episode (in terms of central topic and bookends) that was originally planned to be #66 fell a bit behind in production. I didn't want to make everyone wait any longer than they'd waited already, and it occured to me that A.) nobody had done a "gamer" version of the Hulk-spawned "Why You Love" meme and B.) it would be an easier to script to read/edit with my in-and-out vocal chords since it'd lack run-on paragraphs. Also, I got the sense it could really be something special, but naturally that's up to you to judge.

So I did it up, spent a day compiling the 200+ images (a new record!) and put together some short "filler" bookends that don't necessarily "advance" the narrative but at least they 're-up' everyone on NecroThinker and the Video-Zombies; along with giving me an excuse to 'borrow' that wicked-cool ending animation from "Golden Axe."

Is This, At Last, The Bottom?

If I was asked to sum-up the thing MOST wrong with "geek culture" in general and gamer culture specifically, it would be three simple words: BETA-MALE MISOGYNY - the general sense of angst-driven entitlement among a sizable chunk of geekdom's dominant white/hetero/male demographic that it's somehow "justified" for them to engage in the casual hatred/debasement of women (and minorities and gays while we're at it) because they were (or at least percieve themselves to have been) slighted by women in the past/present.


You see this manifest everywhere, from the absolutely brutal woman-hatred that afflicts shut-in havens like Reddit or Tumblr, to say nothing of the toxic environment fostered in online gaming communities... and, of course, the wailing about criticism of such spaces in the form of "Aw, c'mon! This is the ONLY place left where it's okay for guys to talk like that!" - as though the fact that there shouldn't be a place where that's "okay" has NEVER occured to them - and now you can see it in Kotaku's most-recent brain fart: Giving over article space to a "comedic" memoir by a self-professed "ladies' man" detailing his Tucker Max-esque 'challenge' of getting women to have sex in his Sonic The Hedgehog themed bed.

Okay, so... pretty vile. Congratulations on the traffic Kotaku, you've more than earned it - but can I ask if this can please be the BOTTOM now? Seriously - Gamer Culture? Can we let this be "it," the last worst thing "we" do to make ourselves look like the degenerate lumps everyone assumes we are to begin with? Or do we have further yet left to sink...

Gallery 1988 - "Is This Thing On? 2: The Weird Year"

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UPDATE 2/28/13

Well, after a year of being homeless, my artwork has finally made it's way into the hands of this handsome beast (that would be the guy on the left...)

photo courtesy of Team Coco

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This is going to be awesome!

I love stand-up comedy. My parents had a great vinyl record collection, so as a kid I got to listen to some great comedy records. One in particular I remember pretty vividly was Steve Martin's "A Wild and Crazy Guy" which featured Steve Martin in a white suite with bunny ears on the cover. To me, there is no better comedy film than "The Jerk". I don't remember when I first saw the movie, but I was pretty young, and it was pivotal in shaping my sense of humor.

I've been a night person for a long time. When I was 13, I remember turning on the TV to watch a new show with a tall red-headed guy. I loved "The Simpsons" and I knew he used to be a writer for the show, but aside from that... I knew nothing about Conan O'Brien. His sense of humor was like nothing like Leno or Letterman, I was instantly a fan.

When thinking of what to do for "Is This Thing On? 2" I immediately thought of Conan O'Brien. I grew up watching Conan all through high-school, college, and then long nights of working in the video-game industry.

I always loved the characters that would appear on Late Night so I decided I had to narrow down to a manageable list. Sorry fans of Shoeverine or The Gaseous Wiener.

"Conan and The Conandos"

I had a really fun time putting this one together. I tried to fit in my favorites, Pimpbot 5000 will always hold a special place in my heart.

Here's a look at the "Tracklist":

If you get the Puppies in Melons reference, you're officially awesome!

For the gallery I've created a framed album available exclusively at Gallery 1988:

A detailed look at the record label:

As if it needed to be said, NBC really did a huge disservice to comedy with what they did to Conan. In the end though, he still has a great TV show over on TBS, and for that, the world is a much better place with Conan O'Brien.

I'll be selling a limited number of signed prints as well as the framed album. They're only available through Gallery 1988 so get to it!

To purchase a print, click here!
To purchase the framed album, click here!

Oh. P.S. This guy is going to be hosting the gallery opening:

That's right. The Man. The Myth. The LEGENDARY... Weird Al Yankovic. My first album I ever owned was a Weird Al album. My first concert? Yep... Weird Al. To say that I worshipped this guy growing up would be an understatement. I was obsessed with everything Yankovic, My parents took me, my brother, and sister to see UHF on opening night. We were the only ones in the theater and my family loved every second of it. Weird Al Yankovic is a living legend and it's going to be a dream come true to meet him. If you want to meet him too check out the details below.

"Is This Thing On? 2: The Weird Years" at Gallery 1988 on Melrose
Friday, March 9th 2012
7020 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
http://www.gallery1988.com 

Head on down to Hollywood, pack yourself a twinkie-weiner sandwich, and come see some excellent artwork from some amazingly talented artists.

Got Castlevania Portrait of Ruin recently

Here is an update on games I have.  I recently got the game, Castlevania Portrait of Ruin.  The game is a prequel/sequel to Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow and in the main game, you play as Jonathan Morris and/or Charlotte Orlean as they battle through Dracula's Castle in their quest to stop the evil Brauner and ultimately the vile Count Dracula.  The game also has several other modes where you can play as Richter Belmont (from the Dracula X and Symphony of the Night), as well as the sisters Stella and Loretta.  I don't have a whole lot of information about this game yet, but it is pretty good so far, much like Dawn of Sorrow in the way (by the way, many of the monsters from Dawn of Sorrow are present in Portrait of Ruin as well, including Lillith, the treasure mimic monster, zephyr and others). 

By the way, here is a trailer for the game from youtube:


Have any of you played Portrait of Ruin before?  What do you think about this game?

EPISODE 66 ANNOUNCEMENT!

Head's up! Episode 66: "Why Do You Love Video Games?" - inspired by this article from friend-of-the-show-FilmCritHULK - will debut wide on ScrewAttack on Tuesday 2/28. ScrewAttack advantage members (remember: Advantage gets you an ad-free site and directly supports the shows of your choice) can get an early look NOW at this link.

BIG UPDATE TIME!

Okay, so...

Things went a little dark-ish here, for a bit. Short version: Got a nasty sick-bug of some sort that played hell on my vocal chords and knocked-out one of my ears for awhile, so my productivity went to shit. Things are picking back up, so time for some updates:

Firstly, two more episodes have "aged into" YouTube-readiness: Episode 61: "Bells & Whistles" and Episode 62: "Seeing Red."

Second: A new episode HAS been completed, though I don't know when (presumably in the near future) it will air at this time. I will post it as soon as I know more.

Third: I recently learned that, unfortunately, the proposed TGO panel was not picked up to be part of PAXEast this year. Dissapointing, but these things happen. I'm in the process of contacting folks who had offered to participate; and I will still be appearing on/at (at least) two other events at the show.

Beat Mass Effect 2 today as a renegade character

Hey guys, I've been playing through Mass Effect 2 lately (especially in the light of the forthcoming of Mass Effect 3 this year) and just beat the game as a renegade.  Here were my stats:

- no deaths of my squad members (on my first playthrough as a paragon character, only Jack died since she was not loyal on the mission)
- gave cerberus the collector base
- Tali is officially my guy's girlfriend (on my first playthrough I ended up with Miranda)
- All of my crew survived
- My guy was a level 30 engineer

I will try to post a picture of my character later. 

How to make Skyward Sword 10 times less annoying

I've just recently stumbled onto a hack that removes the most hated and annoying aspect of Skyward Sword.

Remove Fi+Clothes Modifier [Anarion]
285FC88A 00000200
00955D4D 0000000F
CC000000 00000000
00955D5D 000000FF
E0000000 80008000

Press 2 to switch on & off.
If skyloft clothes is used, you will not have Fi, which means you can complete temples without ever being annoyed by her if you activate code before you enter the temple. If used on Skyloft, Skyloft current day will be set to the day of the Goddess Ceremony, which means you can do the sky race again. Switch to Knight Tunic by turning code off, enter a house to have Skyloft reset to its current day.

Does... does this mean what I think it means? Fi was the worst thing Nintendo has ever done to a Zelda game. SS's main problem wasn't that it held your hand too much, it's that it guided the player in the most BORING and TEDIOUS way possible. Every time you reached a new plot point, or you had a new destination to go to, Fi would come out, basically interrupting all gameplay, and explain to you in detail exactly what is going on. This would be fine if it were optional, but most of the time it feels like you are forced to read part of a walkthrough before continuing on with the game.

Good game design follows the mantra of "show, don't tell". It should let the player feel like they are figuring stuff out on their own, and provide clues in the form of optional character interactions. There's no reason a less experienced player couldn't just be like:

"Hmm I just found a suspicious item, I wonder if Fi has something important to say about this."

Instead the game assumes that is always the case and forces Fi's instructions onto you. There are many other ways of guiding the player besides just flat-out telling them what to do every step of the way.

With this code it seems you can actually play through the game with the majority of Fi's interruptions removed! I'd imagine she would still show up in all the cutscenes, and maybe certain story events won't trigger until you disable the cheat and let her come out and talk... Still, this code sounds like a godsend. I have yet to test this. I haven't played through Hero Mode yet, so I'll definitely use this code the next time I play.

Skyward Sword is a great game but this one flaw just really stands out... Fi didn't spoil any of the puzzles or mazes, so you still had to figure out a lot of stuff on your own, but it was mostly the obvious and not-so-obvious story objectives where the game relied too much on Fi to instruct the player. When I play through Hero Mode I'll see how much better the game is without Fi's instructions.

For those who don't know how to use cheats with Wii games:
- you need to softmod your Wii and install the Homebrew channel
The Homebrew Channel
- then put the Gecko app onto an SD card or USB, load the cheat onto it, and use it to launch the game
Wii Hack - How to Add Cheat Codes to Gecko OS - YouTube