[This episode has been re-uploaded due to technical issues]
This week’s is pretty short, featuring a Sonic the Hedgehog and Halo discussion before delving into what’s okay and what’s not okay with in-game advertisements. The Gaming Flashback for this episode is the tripping Journey.
The news includes:
Let us know what you think.
This weeks gaming podcast brings us some recent news articles while also focusing the history and flashbacks on play-by-mail games. We’re looking at Diplomacy and discussing this weeks comments. The week in news includes:
Don’s with us in studio this week and goes on a tear about iPhone Monopoly, requiring many censor beeps. We’re asking a new question of the week: ESRB – What is your ratio to TV/Movies for electronic entertainment?
Microsoft has come out and validated some earlier rumors about Xbox 360 Avatar’s and their 3D dashboard design. Apparently, this is to build more of a community and bring a bit of the Mii-like influence from the Nintendo Wii to the 360 hardware.
It seems Microsoft is taking some of the concepts from the Nintendo Wii which were poorly implemented due to the lack of any real network community and bring them to live with a more integrated useful system. This proves Nintendo was on the right track but shows off their lack of integration and fear of bringing people together.
“Create, share, and have fun with all of your friends… but avatars are just the beginning. The new Xbox is tailored for the living room. Here we are at the community channel — instead of a list of friends, you actually see them.” (joystiq)
Nintendo’s cute little idea of Mii’s and sharing them with friends was fantastic, a great bullet list feature, but rather useless. Typing in friends codes gets old way too fast and there really isn’t anyway to vocally chat with people on your friends list anyway, so who cares?
Microsoft has proven to know a bit about the community space, has parental controls and a fairly reliable LIVE system for making it all happen. Although Nintendo should look at this with a bit of pride, given duplication is the best form of flattery, they could learn a few things about how to work a community into your console too!
This week, we are running an outtakes episode, part of it long conversations that were cut from previous episodes, while others are just bloopers.
In fact, the first thirty-five minutes or so of the outtakes is Jonah and Jordan discussing news items waiting for Paul to login that didn’t make the cut for the podcast. Other interesting bits is Jonah and Paul talking about pen and paper RPGs and how badly the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons stinks, and Paul and Jordan berating stores that put up their Christmas decorations a few months early.
Next week, we’ll have a regular podcast, but this week, enjoy the outtakes.
