Do a Pixar show. They deserve to be talked about because they are too significant in the real world, the world of animation, and the world of geekery to not be talked about
I'm with Kate on this one. Why is it a chore to do something as simple as watch enjoyable Pixar movies?
That wasn't my point. I know Rym and Scott. If you want them to try something you mention it once or twice and they will eventually get to it when it is mentioned by several sources and they have the time for it. They are my friends and that is how they are. It doesn't bother me at all. Why would it? I am not invested in their media consumption. It gets incredibly annoying when people push you to do anything too much (regardless of the value of the activity they are pushing you toward) because it is ham-fisted manipulation and coercion. Giving in encourages this behavior. If you want someone to do something, then ask them politely and be prepared for them to say no.
It gets incredibly annoying when people push you to do anything too much (regardless of the value of the activity they are pushing you toward) because it is ham-fisted manipulation and coercion. Giving in encourages this behavior. If you want someone to do something, then ask them politely and be prepared for them to say no.
I have realized this with my pushing of Scott Pilgrim. One of my friends will not read the series because I talk about it so much.
That wasn't my point. I know Rym and Scott. If you want them to try something you mention it once or twice and they will eventually get to it when it is mentioned by several sources and they have the time for it. They are my friends and that is how they are. It doesn't bother me at all. Why would it? I am not invested in their media consumption. It gets incredibly annoying when people push you to do anything too much (regardless of the value of the activity they are pushing you toward) because it is ham-fisted manipulation and coercion. Giving in encourages this behavior. If you want someone to do something, then ask them politely and be prepared for them to say no.
This is so very very very correct.
Do you have any idea how much entertainment media there is out there? We've said it a million times, but we'll say it again. When we were punk kids, we had more time than money. Now we have more money than time. The result is a mountain of unread, unwatched, and unplayed things. This was unthinkable when I was in college or younger. Now it is the norm. If you do not yet work 9-5, be prepared for the future. Right now you're probably wishing you had $100 to buy a handful of video games. Imagine having $1000, but no time to play more than a couple rounds of NS. This is the way of the world.
I heard a quote recently, but I stupidly didn't save it or a link to it. It basically went something like this. If you create, you will be known for your talents. e.g: Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft. If you consume, you will be known for your taste. e.g: Timmy likes Naruto.
My time is spent working (sadly a necessity in our society), sleeping, eating, taking care of responsibilities, and creating. After only all of those things are done does consumption of entertainment begin to enter the picture. And even then, I will favor things which I feel have something to teach me. If I haven't read, watched, or played whatever you are suggesting, it is not because I have a poor opinion of it. It's because I have a fucking life and a million other things to do besides sit and devote my full attention to the thousands upon thousands of great works of art that I will never be able to consume in my entire life.
So you'll just have to wait until I get to it. After I move, I may be able to consume a bit more with my decreased commute, but not by much. You're better off just waiting for me to retire.
Well, this is a thread about suggestions, so suggestions are encouraged. This isn't a demand thread. Also, there are lots of reviews out there for pixar films. They are widely consumed, well known pieces of art that may be too mainstream for a geek focused show. Rym and Scott are not the only game in town and they aren't the prophets of all popular culture, geekeries, or thought. They are just two neat guys with some initiative, some charisma and a reasonable knowledge pool.
Regardless, people shouldn't wait on Rym and Scott for anything. Make a suggestion - if they don't take it, look for it elsewhere or create it yourself.
Old school: Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2020, Trog, Shadowrun, GURPS, a bunch of older White Wolf crap (Vamp. Were. Changeling, Prometheus, etc), a bunch of new White Wolf crap (Exalted and 'the god one') The original Cthulhu V. the d20 take, d20 Modern, You guys could do an interview with a bunch of LARP'ers and explain why they suck at life!, BESEM (Get Uncle Yo for this), I would like to do a "How to design your own campaign setting with me, Pete, and Alex."
Shadowrun, GURPS, a bunch of older White Wolf crap (Vamp. Were. Changeling, Prometheus, etc), a bunch of new White Wolf crap (Exalted and 'the god one')
Mostly the same basic systems with different flavor and numbers. Nothing much to say: D&D; + a theme. BESM isn't any different either: it's either Tri-stat or d20.
The original Cthulhu V. the d20 take, d20 Modern
Fundamentally, there's little real difference.
We have some shows in the hopper about role-playing, but many of them are basically obsolete now that we've moved on to games like BW or Inspectres, which effectively solved many of the problems we would otherwise have discussed. We can do some more basic shows, like "How to be a good DM" and the like, and those are somewhere in the queue.
The analogy I would use is such: imagine that you were having problems using your horse cart to get around town. The horse required lots of food, you had to clean up after him, he needed water while he waited at your destination, etc... You could speak volumes on the management of these difficulties, techniques in horse-driving through a city, discussions of horse-rearing, debates about different horseshoes: there's a great deal of content there.
Then, you buy a car. Suddenly, nearly all of your previous problems are entirely moot. You have a smaller set of entirely new problems, and any discussion of your travels is now wholly in another realm. You've, in one swoop, solved the majority of your previous problems, and any discussion of them would lead to the obvious conclusion of "buy a car." While there are still universal discussions, like where you are actually taking your horse/car, the fundamentals have changed entirely. You're more free to focus on what matters - getting there - instead of all these extra concerns between you and your destination which exist only due to the means you've chosen.
It's the same way with role playing games. We scrapped our horses, and we all have cars now. Whenever we debate the merits of one car over another, there's no comparison to be made to a horse except to laugh sadly and remember how problematic it was.
There was a mention on the show, long time ago about you getting some indie games, but there has been nothing about them after that. So if you have played indie games other than BW or Mouse Guard, I'm interested hearing your experiences.
And if you don't want to do a "review" type of show about some particular game, maybe something general about your experiences with indie games. Do you ever play a short one-shot rpg instead of board-game? If you don't why not and have you ever thought about it? It's clear that you like Burning Wheel that is kinda crunchy, but how you like more mechanics light games? What kind of campaigns you play, have played? Short/long, epic/ground level?
Some thoughts for possible topics about rpgs. You run a rpg panel at cons, but because I have no chance of seeing that I would like to hear some more of your thoughts about rpgs in the podcast.
You run a rpg panel at cons, but because I have no chance of seeing that I would like to hear some more of your thoughts about rpgs in the podcast.
That's another problem. Our live content is very different from GeekNights. It's polished, researched, and rehearsed. It's really the best we have to offer. And, as we're focusing many of our energies on gaming, most of this great new content is all in our live shows. Since they keep evolving and getting better, we tend to avoid crystalizing them into an episode, since they'll themselves be obsolete within a year.
We're working on rectifying this. Just hold your horses: all will be made clear in the State of the Podcast on Halloween. ^_^
As another note, I'm ending my shit-talking and putting together an InSpectres game for the Beacon FRC in the next few weeks. You can expect some content to come out of that.
You run a rpg panel at cons, but because I have no chance of seeing that I would like to hear some more of your thoughts about rpgs in the podcast.
That's another problem. Our live content is very different from GeekNights. It's polished, researched, and rehearsed. It's really the best we have to offer. And, as we're focusing many of our energies on gaming, most of this great new content is all in our live shows. Since they keep evolving and getting better, we tend to avoid crystalizing them into an episode, since they'll themselves be obsolete within a year.
Yea. I know. I'm just a little bitter that I really have no way of seeing live show from you guys any time soon. Thus I feel like I'm missing something great (as I am). Maybe a Thursday show about how hard it is to please international audience.
My time is spent working (sadly a necessity in our society), sleeping, eating, taking care of responsibilities, and creating.
I want to see the stuff you create, because you keep talking about it. (Other than the website and the podcast, of course.) You always say you are going to go do something in your room, but I never see what you are doing. When I go home to draw, if I can show you the drawing or the shot that I worked on, and I want to know what these mysterious projects are.
I want to see the stuff you create, because you keep talking about it. (Other than the website and the podcast, of course.) You always say you are going to go do something in your room, but I never see what you are doing. When I go home to draw, if I can show you the drawing or the shot that I worked on, and I want to know what these mysterious projects are.
The problem with software is that there isn't always instant gratification. It's actually kind of rough. The best kind of programming is where you write some code, then see some immediate results. Then you go back and change the code, and see different results.
A good example of this is the first programming language I ever learned, LOGO. You write some code, the turtle moves immediately. You change the code, the turtle moves differently. You have these instant results and instant feedback that make programming fun, and also you have something to show for your work even if you just started.
Building more complicated applications doesn't necessarily have this. You write lots of code, you build database tables, you do all sorts of things that don't actually produce any tangible results until you actually get to the HTML and CSS part of the game. It actually makes it very difficult, psychologically speaking, to work on things like that. You're putting hours into something, and still no feedback whatsoever.
I've more recently realized that the solution to this problem is to just put out crap. Instead of agonizing over whether the text field should be 50 or 75 characters long, just pick something. If it doesn't work, fix it later. Just put something out there, even if it's crappy. Just do the bare minimum to make something show up, and go for it. Then you can get into the more psychologically rewarding cycle of changing code and getting instant gratification.
Another problem is that I was doing a lot of coding on the train. This had two major problems. One was that without an Internet connection, it was sometimes hard to get documentation. If I needed to look something up on Google, I basically had to stop coding. I had a lot of documentation downloaded, but it was always insufficient. The other problem is that when you are coding a web site, sometimes you just need to have Internet. For example, I was trying to make the frontrowcrew.com site automatically post to Twitter when there is a new episode. There's no way to test that without a reliable Internet connection.
I've basically got three or four half-finished projects just sitting there. I can't work on them right now, even though I really want to right now, because I'm spending my time moving. After I'm settled, and I have Internets in my new place, I should have two hours a day or so to work on this kind of thing. The first thing I'll do is upgrade frontrowcrew.com with the new features I've added already. My original plan was to hold back until I finished every feature on the list, but for the reasons posted above I now think that's the wrong way to go.
With drawing you get results immediately. As soon as the pencil touches the paper, you can see some results. Imagine if you sat there drawing for hours, but at the end the paper was still blank. Only after a few more hours suddenly a picture appears, and only then do you realize that some mistake you made way at the beginning ruined the whole thing and you have to spend a whole bunch more hours fixing it, and starting over from scratch becomes a serious consideration.
That's why even though I'm working on stuff, there isn't always something to show for it.
With drawing you get results immediately. As soon as the pencil touches the paper, you can see some results. Imagine if you sat there drawing for hours, but at the end the paper was still blank. Only after a few more hours suddenly a picture appears, and only then do you realize that some mistake you made way at the beginning ruined the whole thing and you have to spend a whole bunch more hours fixing it, and starting over from scratch becomes a serious consideration.
Actually, animation is a little like this. It's hard to show others what you are going for until you have drawn about 100 drawings, and you don't get a good sense of the movement until I have at least 10-20 frames in there.
Zombies Part III. I'm with Sonic on this issue, there is no reason not to do it and I vaguely remember you saying that you are running out of ideas, why not do this one and not hold it up any longer. Rym said he could do this at any moment, well why not just do it to placate the fans as well as educate us when the The Great War happens or the 28 Days Later Virus is spread out (or both).
I'd go further. Once you get into video, you can talk about different compression types. You could also interview my dad about digital cameras and imagining technology. Image formats.
I'd go further. Once you get into video, you can talk about different compression types. You could also interview my dad about digital cameras and imagining technology. Image formats.
Didn't they already do most of that show?
I'd like to hear (especially now that I have Netflix) more final-thoughts episodes on anime movies in the format of the Book Club. You know, mention the show in advance and then record it under the assumption that the listeners have actually seen the movie.
Monkey Island. Or perhaps point-and-click adventures in general, though I never heard Rym or Scott mentioning any experience with that sort of game before, to the point of them almost forgetting to mention MI in their episode about piracy in video games.
This particular experiment as well as other such exercises/experiments in school settings deserve a show. I remember on the April Truth Day broadcast, Rym expressed a lot of interest in such a topic after I suggested it, and I think you guys could pull off a damn good show on it.
As a side note I wanna say that the person who held the linked experiment is one of those people I have nothing but the utmost respect for because of the impact that person made.
Comments
It gets incredibly annoying when people push you to do anything too much (regardless of the value of the activity they are pushing you toward) because it is ham-fisted manipulation and coercion. Giving in encourages this behavior. If you want someone to do something, then ask them politely and be prepared for them to say no.
Do you have any idea how much entertainment media there is out there? We've said it a million times, but we'll say it again. When we were punk kids, we had more time than money. Now we have more money than time. The result is a mountain of unread, unwatched, and unplayed things. This was unthinkable when I was in college or younger. Now it is the norm. If you do not yet work 9-5, be prepared for the future. Right now you're probably wishing you had $100 to buy a handful of video games. Imagine having $1000, but no time to play more than a couple rounds of NS. This is the way of the world.
I heard a quote recently, but I stupidly didn't save it or a link to it. It basically went something like this. If you create, you will be known for your talents. e.g: Bill Gates is the founder of Microsoft. If you consume, you will be known for your taste. e.g: Timmy likes Naruto.
My time is spent working (sadly a necessity in our society), sleeping, eating, taking care of responsibilities, and creating. After only all of those things are done does consumption of entertainment begin to enter the picture. And even then, I will favor things which I feel have something to teach me. If I haven't read, watched, or played whatever you are suggesting, it is not because I have a poor opinion of it. It's because I have a fucking life and a million other things to do besides sit and devote my full attention to the thousands upon thousands of great works of art that I will never be able to consume in my entire life.
So you'll just have to wait until I get to it. After I move, I may be able to consume a bit more with my decreased commute, but not by much. You're better off just waiting for me to retire.
Also, there are lots of reviews out there for pixar films. They are widely consumed, well known pieces of art that may be too mainstream for a geek focused show. Rym and Scott are not the only game in town and they aren't the prophets of all popular culture, geekeries, or thought. They are just two neat guys with some initiative, some charisma and a reasonable knowledge pool.
Regardless, people shouldn't wait on Rym and Scott for anything. Make a suggestion - if they don't take it, look for it elsewhere or create it yourself.
SQL
MIDI
Electric-Free Technology
Tuesday:
Tetris
AVGN
Nintendo Power
Wednesday:
Otakukin
Cosplay
Thursday:
The Best of Cheap Eats
Ender's Game
A Wrinkle in Time
Edgar Allen Poe
Forgetting Prizes for GeekNights Contest Winners xD
We have some shows in the hopper about role-playing, but many of them are basically obsolete now that we've moved on to games like BW or Inspectres, which effectively solved many of the problems we would otherwise have discussed. We can do some more basic shows, like "How to be a good DM" and the like, and those are somewhere in the queue.
The analogy I would use is such: imagine that you were having problems using your horse cart to get around town. The horse required lots of food, you had to clean up after him, he needed water while he waited at your destination, etc... You could speak volumes on the management of these difficulties, techniques in horse-driving through a city, discussions of horse-rearing, debates about different horseshoes: there's a great deal of content there.
Then, you buy a car. Suddenly, nearly all of your previous problems are entirely moot. You have a smaller set of entirely new problems, and any discussion of your travels is now wholly in another realm. You've, in one swoop, solved the majority of your previous problems, and any discussion of them would lead to the obvious conclusion of "buy a car." While there are still universal discussions, like where you are actually taking your horse/car, the fundamentals have changed entirely. You're more free to focus on what matters - getting there - instead of all these extra concerns between you and your destination which exist only due to the means you've chosen.
It's the same way with role playing games. We scrapped our horses, and we all have cars now. Whenever we debate the merits of one car over another, there's no comparison to be made to a horse except to laugh sadly and remember how problematic it was.
And if you don't want to do a "review" type of show about some particular game, maybe something general about your experiences with indie games. Do you ever play a short one-shot rpg instead of board-game? If you don't why not and have you ever thought about it?
It's clear that you like Burning Wheel that is kinda crunchy, but how you like more mechanics light games?
What kind of campaigns you play, have played? Short/long, epic/ground level?
Some thoughts for possible topics about rpgs. You run a rpg panel at cons, but because I have no chance of seeing that I would like to hear some more of your thoughts about rpgs in the podcast.
We're working on rectifying this. Just hold your horses: all will be made clear in the State of the Podcast on Halloween. ^_^
Maybe a Thursday show about how hard it is to please international audience.
Why does a +1 sword hardly make a difference to my fighter, but my Sweet Axe make my PC godlike?
A good example of this is the first programming language I ever learned, LOGO. You write some code, the turtle moves immediately. You change the code, the turtle moves differently. You have these instant results and instant feedback that make programming fun, and also you have something to show for your work even if you just started.
Building more complicated applications doesn't necessarily have this. You write lots of code, you build database tables, you do all sorts of things that don't actually produce any tangible results until you actually get to the HTML and CSS part of the game. It actually makes it very difficult, psychologically speaking, to work on things like that. You're putting hours into something, and still no feedback whatsoever.
I've more recently realized that the solution to this problem is to just put out crap. Instead of agonizing over whether the text field should be 50 or 75 characters long, just pick something. If it doesn't work, fix it later. Just put something out there, even if it's crappy. Just do the bare minimum to make something show up, and go for it. Then you can get into the more psychologically rewarding cycle of changing code and getting instant gratification.
Another problem is that I was doing a lot of coding on the train. This had two major problems. One was that without an Internet connection, it was sometimes hard to get documentation. If I needed to look something up on Google, I basically had to stop coding. I had a lot of documentation downloaded, but it was always insufficient. The other problem is that when you are coding a web site, sometimes you just need to have Internet. For example, I was trying to make the frontrowcrew.com site automatically post to Twitter when there is a new episode. There's no way to test that without a reliable Internet connection.
I've basically got three or four half-finished projects just sitting there. I can't work on them right now, even though I really want to right now, because I'm spending my time moving. After I'm settled, and I have Internets in my new place, I should have two hours a day or so to work on this kind of thing. The first thing I'll do is upgrade frontrowcrew.com with the new features I've added already. My original plan was to hold back until I finished every feature on the list, but for the reasons posted above I now think that's the wrong way to go.
With drawing you get results immediately. As soon as the pencil touches the paper, you can see some results. Imagine if you sat there drawing for hours, but at the end the paper was still blank. Only after a few more hours suddenly a picture appears, and only then do you realize that some mistake you made way at the beginning ruined the whole thing and you have to spend a whole bunch more hours fixing it, and starting over from scratch becomes a serious consideration.
That's why even though I'm working on stuff, there isn't always something to show for it.
I'd like to hear (especially now that I have Netflix) more final-thoughts episodes on anime movies in the format of the Book Club. You know, mention the show in advance and then record it under the assumption that the listeners have actually seen the movie.
As a side note I wanna say that the person who held the linked experiment is one of those people I have nothing but the utmost respect for because of the impact that person made.