Everybody's Talking At Once

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/etao-podcast-14-201408191.mp3

That, and why free-to-play is not, in and of itself, the devil.

Chess doesn’t have an author as such. Chess 2 does. Which raises all manner of odd questions about ownership, tradition, culture, subculture, and yes, sequels.

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• Here are the rules of Chess 2. You can download them for free, or kick in a $5 “tip” if you so choose—and as Zac says, you can try the game out with nothing more exotic than a regular old Chess set and some loose change.

• As Zac says, we recorded this interview on Independence Day. Yay America.

• For those interested in the Aereo case.

• WordPress was indeed hiding some of the older episodes from iTunes, Stitcher, Podbay, and so on. That should be fixed now, and you can always see our whole back catalog of podcasty delights right here on ye olde blog.

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“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

Both piano pieces were performed by Paul Pitman, and the recordings are available for free on Musopen.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

At first glance, A Wizard's Lizard doesn't seem like a roguelike-alike, but more specifically like a Binding of Isaac-alike, what with its distinctive combination of Zelda and Smash TV. But on closer inspection, A Wizard's Lizard is a fairly different beast, owing more to A Link to the Past than to the original Legend of Zelda, and not exactly riding Isacc's nightmarish coattails—more drawing from a common pool of Spelunky-afflicted design DNA.

Geoff Blair and Matt Hackett, the team behind A Wizard's Lizard and the Lostcast, stop by to discuss their creation, the lizardry (sorry) behind its systems, the cult of Spelunky, and all manner of things that the three of us all really roguelike. (I'm so, so sorry).

• Tiny Speck did indeed put all of Glitch's assets not just into Creative Commons, but into the public domain.

• That Clay Shirky quote is from Here Comes Everybody.

• Lars Doucet coined the term "Procedural Death Labyrinth."

• For more about how games teach through their level design, take a gander at Anna Anthropy's "Level Design Lesson" series, and also Extra Credits' new "Design Club" series.

• Great Caesar's ghost! There is a new Sequelitis about Zelda! (And it was in fact just two days old when we recorded this podcast).

• If you're keeping score, Egoraptor hates Skyward Sword considerably more than I do, but still probably less than Alx Preston does.

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"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/etao-podcast-13-20140715.mp3

Geoff Blair and Matt Hackett, the team behind A Wizard’s Lizard and the Lostcast, stop by to discuss their creation, the lizardry (sorry) behind its systems, the cult of Spelunky, and all manner of things that the three of us all really roguelike. (I’m so, so sorry).

• Tiny Speck did indeed put all of Glitch’s assets not just into Creative Commons, but into the public domain.

• That Clay Shirky quote is from Here Comes Everybody.

• Lars Doucet coined the term “Procedural Death Labyrinth.”

• For more about how games teach through their level design, take a gander at Anna Anthropy’s “Level Design Lesson” series, and also Extra Credits’ new “Design Club” series.

• Great Caesar’s ghost! There is a new Sequelitis about Zelda! (And it was in fact just two days old when we recorded this podcast).

• If you’re keeping score, Egoraptor hates Skyward Sword considerably more than I do, but still probably less than Alx Preston does.

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Self-described Actor/Writer/Comedian/Musician/Plant-Owner Lila Newman stops by to discuss her piece-in-progress about Ora B. Nichols—one of the most influential artists of early radio, and specifically of early radio sound effects.

You've heard Nichols' work if you've ever heard the the 1938 version of The War of the Worlds. You know, the one produced by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater on the Air. The one that may or may not have freaked people all the way out when it was first broadcast. That one.

But despite being involved in something so iconic, Nichols herself is largely unknown and borderline-ungoogleable. At least in part, that's because we don't talk nearly enough about the history of radio, or of sound in general—and that's because the aesthetics of radio have taught us all how to hear, to the point that we take those aesthetics for granted.

Lila Newman walks me through a bit of that history, and along the way we talk about her work on A Prairie Home Companion, the endless oddness of making art (for lack of a better term) for a living, why not all performance art consists of "crying and punching meat," and the importance of discussing women who did great work without essentializing or over-emphasizing their gender.

Also, we talk about Imposer Syndrome, which is quickly becoming a theme around here. (Ahem, and also-ahem).

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• As I mention in the intro, arts.uchicago.edu made this interview possible. You can read my piece on Lila's work and the Edes Prize over there, and the edited, narrative version of the interview is on SoundCloud.

• I mispronounce Descartes as "Dis cart" and Edes as "Eddie's. And I say "Nakobov." Ah well.

• Here again—hard to post it too often, really—is a link to the live Radiolab about The War of the Worlds.

• If you're so inclined, you can go and listen to the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, as well as some of The Mercury Theater on the Air's other productions.

• And here's that perform-your-own-4'33" app.

• On the topic of trading in unhealthy compulsions for health(ier) compulsions, see also: Thomas Lennon talking about video game addiction/compulsion with The Indoor Kids.

• The interview mentions that Lila's dad is a sound effects man, but neglects to mention that he is the rather great Fred Newman.

• Binaural recording is interesting stuff, and more people than you might think are giving it a whirl.

• Seriously, get out a pair of headphones to listen to Lila's binaural recordings.

———

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/03-track-03.m4a

You’ve heard Nichols’ work if you’ve ever heard the the 1938 version of The War of the Worlds. You know, the one produced by Orson Welles and The Mercury Theater on the Air. The one that may or may not have freaked people all the way out when it was first broadcast. That one.

But despite being involved in something so iconic, Nichols herself is largely unknown and borderline-ungoogleable. At least in part, that’s because we don’t talk nearly enough about the history of radio, or of sound in general—and that’s because the aesthetics of radio have taught us all how to hear, to the point that we take those aesthetics for granted.

Also, we talk about Imposer Syndrome, which is quickly becoming a theme around here. (Ahem, and also-ahem).

———

• As I mention in the intro, arts.uchicago.edu made this interview possible. You can read my piece on Lila’s work and the Edes Prize over there, and the edited, narrative version of the interview is on SoundCloud.

• I mispronounce Descartes as “Dis cart” and Edes as “Eddie’s. And I say “Nakobov.” Ah well.

• Here again—hard to post it too often, really—is a link to the live Radiolab about The War of the Worlds.

• If you’re so inclined, you can go and listen to the 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast, as well as some of The Mercury Theater on the Air’s other productions.

• And here’s that perform-your-own-4’33” app.

• On the topic of trading in unhealthy compulsions for health(ier) compulsions, see also: Thomas Lennon talking about video game addiction/compulsion with The Indoor Kids.

• The interview mentions that Lila’s dad is a sound effects man, but neglects to mention that he is the rather great Fred Newman.

• Binaural recording is interesting stuff, and more people than you might think are giving it a whirl.

• Seriously, get out a pair of headphones to listen to Lila’s binaural recordings.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/03-track-03.m4a

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/03-track-03.m4a

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Transistor is Supergiant Games' follow-up to Bastion—not a sequel, and definitely not a rehash, but just as definitely an iteration, a more refined approach to the same set of themes and gameplay ideas.

This time, the the skill system is a dizzyingly intricate mutation of Materia, rather than a more standard weapon combination system. This time, the beautiful ruined environment is a cohesive cyberpunk maybe-machine world, rather than a catch-all ersatz frontier setting. This time, Logan Cunningham is talking to —well, spoilers follow.

• Lucio refers several times to me interviewing Alx Preston of Heart Machine, and also to my conversation with Richard Terrell of Critical Gaming.

• I refer several times to Experience Points' excellent Transistor debrief.

• For more on Apple-as-the-death-of-technoegalitarianism, look into the ignominious death of HyperCard.

• I didn't know a damn thing about HyperCard until I read Anna Anthropy's superb book on ZZT and the half-forgotten history of homemade videogames.

———

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/etao-podcast-11-20140627.mp3

This time, the the skill system is a dizzyingly intricate mutation of Materia, rather than a more standard weapon combination system. This time, the beautiful ruined environment is a cohesive cyberpunk maybe-machine world, rather than a catch-all ersatz frontier setting. This time, Logan Cunningham is talking to you not as a semi-disembodied narrator, but as—well, spoilers follow.

• Lucio refers several times to me interviewing Alx Preston of Heart Machine, and also to my conversation with Richard Terrell of Critical Gaming.

• I refer several times to Experience Points’ excellent Transistor debrief.

• For more on Apple-as-the-death-of-technoegalitarianism, look into the ignominious death of HyperCard.

• I didn’t know a damn thing about HyperCard until I read Anna Anthropy’s superb book on ZZT and the half-forgotten history of homemade videogames.

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Phil Tibitoski stops by to talk about Octodad: Dadliest Catch, the upcoming update and PS4 release thereof, and what's next for the Young Horses team.

We also discuss the dissonance and melancholy of review scores, the perils of balancing games without letting outsiders play them, and Twitch Plays Pok?mon (which may serve as the inspiration for Young Horses' next project, though not in a Twitch Plays Octotdad kind of way; that would be sheer unbridled chaos, and probably not the right kind of sheer unbridled chaos).

• Other classics of the unwieldy-controls-as-comedy genre include QWOP, its sorta-sequel CLOP, Surgeon Simulator 2013, and Probably Archery.

• Receiver takes the same basic idea and plays if for intensity rather than yuks.

• If you haven't seen All of Me, consider doing so. It's really good.

• Here's Polygon talking about impostor syndromes in Octodad.

• And here's Kill Screen pretending that they're using reviews scores again for some purpose other than getting more clicks (which miffs me mainly because they've been so thoughtful and transparent about the topic in the past, and also because review scores really are kind of fucked up and broken).

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"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/etao-podcast-10-201403113.mp3

We also discuss the dissonance and melancholy of review scores, the perils of balancing games without letting outsiders play them, and Twitch Plays Pokémon (which may serve as the inspiration for Young Horses’ next project, though not in a Twitch Plays Octotdad kind of way; that would be sheer unbridled chaos, and probably not the right kind of sheer unbridled chaos).

• Other classics of the unwieldy-controls-as-comedy genre include QWOP, its sorta-sequel CLOP, Surgeon Simulator 2013, and Probably Archery.

• Receiver takes the same basic idea and plays if for intensity rather than yuks.

• If you haven’t seen All of Me, consider doing so. It’s really good.

• Here’s Polygon talking about impostor syndromes in Octodad.

• And here’s Kill Screen pretending that they’re using reviews scores again for some purpose other than getting more clicks (which miffs me mainly because they’ve been so thoughtful and transparent about the topic in the past, and also because review scores really are kind of fucked up and broken).

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Unproductively hating Macklemore: It's not just for Kendrick Lamar fans anymore! Last week, we talked about the backlash against Macklemore in the hip-hop community—which meant we also talked about cultural appropriation, race, and the surprisingly slippery issue of who's more mainstream than whom.

This week, we talk about the backlash against Macklemore in the queer community (and why we consider the topic such shaky ground for two marriedstraightcisfellows such as ourselves).

Is "Same Love" a well-meaning misfire at best, and a cynical fame-grab at worst?

Is it unseemly for a straight white cisgender man to be the public face of marriage equality in hip-hop when there are queer rappers doing amazing work outside of the Top 40 limelight?

And speaking of queer rappers, did Macklemore and/or Ryan Lewis brazenly steal a beat from a (really damn good) artist by the name of Le1f (pictured above in the midst of being really damn good)?

(The answers are, respectively: no, yes-but-that's-not-really-Macklemore's-fault, and pretty definitely not).

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• There's the L again, and other assorted room noise. Double-d'oh.

• The Ugandan anti-gay bill did pass, but without the death penalty provision. The penalty is now life in prison instead.

• For those who'd like an update on the sorry state of gay rights around the world.

• For those who've been lucky enough to have never encountered the vicious lunacy that is the "gay recruitment" myth.

• For those who doubt that an apparently functional adult human could possibly believe in (and act on) the "gay recruitment" myth.

• For those who aren't familiar with "The Black Page".

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"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.