Photo by Thirdman from Pexels

Michael and Michael get together to record the three hundredth episode of Games At Work, starting off the show with an article focusing on Arthur, a new VR app for the socially distant to connect in a 3D space, which uses sunglasses and virtual limbs on the avatars.  These features remind the co-hosts of Men In Black, the typing animation in Second Life and Phantom Limb from the Venture Bros.

Combining the virtual with the physical, Quell has designed a gauntlet to provide a boxing/martial arts experience that looks to have some very interesting applications beyond the gaming applications.  Moving to the world of physics, the co-hosts take a look at a wearable means to harvest energy to power other wearables from breathing and human motion.  Speaking of wearables, Michael and Michael take another look at the Amazon Halo band and consider the Washington Post’s article saying that it is the most invasive tech ever.  Staying on the privacy theme for another article, they then discuss Apple’s strategy for “nutrition labels” to make plain what is being done with the data created, stored and used in an app.  

3D printing homes and the physics of sandcastles bring back memories of the drip method of sandcastle construction.  Each of these construction examples are innovative in their own right.

Unsurprisingly, Rick Astley continues to capture the attention of many, and on Reddit, he has the #1 post of the year, and he has also taken his rickrolling message on to TikTok, starting up what the singer has dubbed “RickTok”.  Here is one musician who is never going to give up.  Michael and Michael can appreciate that sentiment given that between Games At Work and DogearNation, they’ve now combined for 500 podcast episodes.

Closing out this week’s episode, the co-hosts touch on the SpaceX Starship test, Numbskull’s Quarter Arcade cabinets and get ready for Ernest Cline’s Ready Player Two virtual event.

Share what you are never going to give up with the Games At Work team by dropping them a line on Twitter to @gamesatwork_biz.

Selected Links

Wired article: VR Meetings Are Weird, but They Beat Our Current Reality — https://www.wired.com/story/arthur-vr-virtual-reality-meetings/ 

Arthur — https://arthur.digital 

Phantom Limb from The Venture Bros — https://venturebrothers.fandom.com/wiki/Phantom_Limb 

Arthur from The Tick — https://the-tick-animated.fandom.com/wiki/Arthur 

TechCrunch article: Quell raises $3M to turn home fitness into a game — https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/07/quell-raises-3m-to-turn-home-fitness-into-a-game/

Quell — https://quell.tech 

Punch Out!! — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch-Out!! 

Gauntlet — https://en.wikipedia.