We’re not alone here… we’re not alone!
Lazy Show notes.
Oh yeah, there’s a new host. Sweet.
Hidden Node
Justin’s Writing site
Theme song is Outerspace, by Ronald Jenkees, featured on the Disorganized Fun album. His music can be found at www.ronaldjenkees.com. You should buy it because his music is awesome.
Trans-Dimensional Cafe – Episode 006
Unwrapping the gum, you find yourself drawn towards the strange symbols written on the foil. As your first bubble pops, you suddenly find yourself transported into the Trans-Dimensional Café.
Busy to the third power.
[03:15] Come on Andrew, you get to do creative works as a job. That’s awesome.
Justin fails at writing in April and May
Did we forget to edit out a break?
Andrew has been podcasting for 40 years… 5 years… what?
4th Edition D&D game might happen. Maybe.
Talking about email RPG sessions.
It’s a short show.
Hidden Node
Justin’s Writing site
Theme song is Outerspace, by Ronald Jenkees, featured on the Disorganized Fun album. His music can be found at www.ronaldjenkees.com. You should buy it because his music is awesome.
Trans-Dimensional Cafe – Episode 005
You blow out the dust and plug in the cartridge. The screens flashes between blue and yellow, before flashing white, and there, amidst the pixels, the Trans-Dimensional Café’s door welcomes you in.
Busy to the second power.
It’s a vice, but only occasionally a sexy one.
Borderlands is awesome. (Intro)
Justin is a very random player at times.
We talk a bit about going virtual.
Droid love.
Content of CD’s, Books, and files.
Alex Mauer’s Site. Awesome music. There’s a bunch of free music, and a great album that’s really cheap (plus free shipping).
We step into the joy of the Art Vs Gaming discussion.
Also, the articles Andrew mentions: One | Two | Three
Get the background on Mr. Ebert’s opinion. Some decent discussion in the comments too, and let us know what you think about the topic.
Think this topic is going to show up again.
Hidden Node
Justin’s Writing site
Theme song is Outerspace, by Ronald Jenkees, featured on the Disorganized Fun album. His music can be found at www.ronaldjenkees.com. You should buy it because his music is awesome.
Special Ending Music for this episode is Polcephaly, by Alex Mauer, featured on the 9999 album. His music can be found at www.headlessbarbie.com. You should buy it because the nostalgia is just pouring from your ear buds.
Trans-Dimensional Cafe – Episode 004
You’re walking through a shadowy forest. There’s fog, it’s spooky, you really could use something warm to drink. In a flash, it’s there waiting for you, The Trans-dimensional Cafe.
Episode 2 was delayed. Also, we’re time travellers.
I say fair enough a lot.
We saw Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theft and chat about it for a minute.
[4:05] No, Andrew, you can’t.
Andrew still playing Champions. Rumormill starts up.
We name drop a bunch of MMO’s (pay us).
The script writing competition Andrew entered.
[16:30] Justin, you’re so elequent…
[16:45] Not really…
Dragon*Con talk, and where we stand with plans.
Andrew name drops a bunch of convention (pay him, or just give him a free ticket).
Eighteen minutes left and we’re tapped out… What?
Oh wait, Justin’s bitching about something.
Droids really do rock, but Justin’s had some rough luck with his.
Andrew is putting up ads for his last mage work.
Project Wonderful.
So much for being tapped out.
Theme song is Outerspace, by Ronald Jenkees, featured on his Disorganized Fun album. His music can be found at www.ronaldjenkees.com. You should buy it because his music is awesome.
Trans-Dimensional Cafe – Episode 003
Join Justin and Andrew for a quick drink — we offer smoothies now. Tonight we talk about writing, the nature of geekdom and videogames. Don’t forget to stick around for the bloopers.
Escape Artist Contest Rules – Podcastle this month. Justin already submitted his story.
Champions Online Expansion: Revelation – Andrew’s still playing. Are you?
Bill Nye – Things don’t dumb us down – Article Andrew was talking about. Pretty cool.
Trans-Dimensional Cafe – Episode 002
Trans-Dimensional Cafe — Episode 001
Welcome to the first episode of Trans-Dimensional Cafe, home of tea, coffee, and good discussion. Join Andrew and Justin today as they talk about:
Justin
www.hiddennode.com
www.jsamueldiehl.com
Andrew
www.imagechaos.com
www.andreweckhart.com
Dear People of Earth:
I have never been this excited about the prospects of the next two years of mmo gaming. This is not just because of the games that will be arriving shortly, but also because of the games that are already out and finally have the opportunity to grow into their own. I share with you my predictions for 2010 and early 2011.
It’s the Story, Stupid
The past few years the word immersion seemed to take a backseat to the word gameplay. That is to say that studios focused on how they could entertain a player with technical achievements or hook a person with grinding gameplay – Yes, I’m looking at you, Aion. Currently, I’m seeing a shift toward a focus on the story.
Secret World has created its entire community around the concept of just that, a secret world existing right alongside our own. If the pre-alpha community and developer involvement is any indication of what they are actually working on, I fully expect a vibrant, cohesive story that is central to the game. The trailer for the game is stunning but, unfortunately, a trailer isn’t a solid indication of a game’s play-worthiness.
Then, there’s the phenom that is Bioware’s Star Wars mmo. I certainly recognize that Star Wars is a massive franchise with broad appeal, but what appeals most to me is the fact that Bioware is really going hard and investing a great deal of time and resources to providing a strong, immersive story. Every press release, every article seems to reaffirm this: It’s about the story.
2010, the year of the story
I Want Purple Spiked Hair…and a Tail
Customization. I want to choose my character’s face, body type, proportions of hands to shoulders and from feet to neck, stance, mood, eyes and length of hair and if he suffers from arthritis in his right knee. If you put me into a game with millions of assets and spectacular animation, I want to be able to control the look and feel of the character that represents my interests in that world. To this end, it is my fondest wish that all upcoming games embrace the “Cryptic” model of character…modeling.
Champions Online and Star Trek Online
Champions Online isn’t going anywhere in 2010 or 2011. The major draw will be to the customization of nearly every aspect of the character. We’ll see more content added as Cryptic gains resources from STO and micro-transactions and the game’s population will grow. In a year’s time CO will become the game that it should have been at launch and, possibly, surpass all expectations for awesome. All I ask for is the superpower to make enemies fall asleep. I mean get on the floor, take out a pillow and go to town. Alas…
Star Trek Online is going to explode. People’s heads will explode. People who watched a couple of episodes and said “Hmm, that’s interesting” will feel a gravitational pull to their local gaming store and their Credit Card will enter itself into a subscription cycle. The media will lament that all the ’smart people’ have gone hermit and secluded themselves from all social activity. Society will crumble as all eyes, keyboards, mice (and stupid trackballs) and fingers are on STO.
I’ve been in closed beta and now open beta and I can confidently say that this is a strong offering from Cryptic. Everything that I wanted to do in a dream game of Star Trek is here (Well… except for endless holodeck simulations with scantilly clad…anyway). You can customize your starship, your character, your bridge officers, your uniform for crying out loud. The graphics are current-gen, the animations are smooth and the gameplay is spot-on.
2010, the year of customization
Wow, What Ever Happened to WoW?
… WoW dies.
2010, the year WoW died
I’ve shared with you my thoughts and expectations for the next year in online gaming. Go forth and prepare thy-selves for a year of Awesome. Get sun while you can and stock up on non-perishables. Put up a picture of what the outdoors looks like because you won’t be seeing it much this year.
Yours, Most Sincerely,
The Master of Space and Time
Andrew
So I was meandering my way through Newgrounds early yesterday morning, and found an animation that was uploaded that I remember laughing at due to one very, very horrible pun.
It was upon watching said video again, for the first time this year that I noticed an update. Another trailer-esque animation by the same person.
Now, being the gullible sucker I am, I went and watched it.
Oh. My. God.
As some of you will know approximately three words from now, I love VLC. It’s a versatile player that I have yet to find some form of media player based file that it can’t open. Then again I also don’t look for them.
So, this video. It’s about VLC, and it’s rise to the top of the…err…. Playa’ world? Thug life? Real talk? Andrew, what’s the term I’m looking for here?
Currently playing in the TDC arcade is Captain Forever, a dangerously addicting arcade shooter. The game looks like Asteroid mixed with the heavy glow many indie games with geometric graphics have these days. You pilot the Nemesis craft, a pod of amazing power that can’t really ever be destroyed. In order to help defend yourself, the pieces of enemy crafts around the sector can be grafted right onto your pod, over time making you even more deadly and dangerous against the hordes of space pirates.
The game even lets you export your best ship so others can try the game experiencing your success. Keep in mind if you start the game with another ship, though, you can’t save your best design.
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^ ^
Pilot this vessel
The above is one I made today just from a few minutes of playing.
Feel free to reply with your own ships. I’d like to see what else people have come up with.
Links:
Alright I’ve just gone through and cleaned the site up a bit from the cluster of nonsense it was. You’ll now notice three new pages at the top, with each of our (the podcast host’s) names.
Hovering your mouse over it you will get a drop down menu with options taking you to our own personal websites, or to view posts here by that individual alone.
Simply clicking on the name (parent page) will take you to that person’s about page, where you can learn a bit about them.
Once we…put something there to learn that is.
More updates to come in the next days, and we’re recording Episode One Tomorrow. Woot!
=Dakota-
Edit: Per Justin’s non-direct request, but more to make him be quiet, I’ve shifted the function of the menu bar a bit. Now you can either click on the name to take you to the individual’s about page, or click “About ___” in the drop-down menu.
