The Elf and Dwarf

That’s right to mesh with our Halloween theme, the Elf and Dwarf talk about the classic RPG Vampire the Masquerade.  First comes some news (well a LOT of news) from the fantasy/ sci fi worlds including info on Pushing Daisies, the JLA movie, WoW news, and oh yeah, Dumbledore is gay.  Then usual quick email segment (the Dragonlance Trailer is out there!) and then Ady does a book review!

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So where do you start when you make a character?  This episode is one part article review (thanks to the folks at WoW Insider) and one part RP advice column.  In addition to our Topic of the Week, we talk about news, goings on, and Adeldia uses her own Bully Pulpit to talk about the challenges facing those that help adopt animals.  Oh and there’s a new contest/ poll for the show!

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So here’s the official entry:  Cast your vote for the official name that Rorlins and Adeldia will use to tell his parents, the last people who insist on being surprised, what they’ve picked for a girls name.  Your choices, in no particular order are:

a)  Miranda

b) Serenity

c) Elizabeth

d) Kaylee

The winning name will be announced next week and will be the “official” name used to keep Rorlin’s parents in the dark about the nature of the Gnome.  Of course if the gnome does turn out to be a girl gnome and not the boy we expect, we reserve the right to name her whatever we please.

No Kidding you have Optimus Prime himself call you or your friend on the phone to warn them about the Decepticons moving in on earth!

 http://optimus.transformersmovie.com/

This has to be the COOLest marketing ploy.  Ever.

And now we’re into part 2.  We talk about some of the more interesting time travel movies, TV shows and books we’ve encountered.  In this episode we touch on Voyagers, Back to the Future, an obscure Ray Bradbury story, The Butterfly Effect and even Bill and Ted.  Oh and after the music, we have spoilers for the upcoming Golden Compass movie (though they’re not spoilers to those that have read the books).

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This is part 1 of a 2 parter this week.  In part one we cover the news from sci fi and fantasy (at least the news we’re interested in) and talk some more about the success and failure of movies from books, and video games.  There are also some tidbits about City of Heroes and some friend’s new blog articles.

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No, Ady did not go into labor.  But she did spend all day at her mother-in-laws for a baby shower, one at which the Gnome got a TON of new (and needed) stuff.  So we’re hoping to get Episode 32 recorded and in the can Tuesday night after Bones (though I think Ady forget she wants to watch Reaper that night too).

Okay so that’s not all we have this week.  First the Hunter Pair go through the news wire and gab about some of the more interesting stories to come down the pipeline.  Kodath reports in on the new voice chat for WoW that’s finally implemented.  Back to gaming talk we go over how MMO’s and Table Top gaming seem to be converging again, but with MMO’s seeming to be winning in the conversion.  Some email reactions round out the show.

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http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/10/04/is-blizzard-exploiting-wow-players/

 The case is made in a new paper that MMO’s exploit their players by failing to provide real entertainment but instead by stringing them along with very carefully planned rewards, often not relevant to what the player wants but what the player percieves they need.  For example you “grind” through 10 levels from 30 to 40 in WoW, not because you are actually enjoying playing those levels but becuase there is a planned prize (Mount for example) waiting for you at the end of the grind.

 And you PAY for the priveledge of this grind.  The case made in the original article (go back a few links through WoW Insider) is that this is not only exploitive but borderline unethical.  The initial author makes the case that a game should be fun at all turns and that the carefully planned rewards should be part of that fun.  Instead MMO makers learn the thresholds people have for monotony and tedium and provide just enough incentive to start the next “grind”.

With all the talk about changing XP for the 0-60 game in WoW or the talk in other MMO’s about “grind levels” I’m forced to wonder if perhaps there might be something to this.

 What do you think?

The new season of TV is on us!  Touching base on all the new TV in the Sci Fi and Fantasy genres that we plan to watch we make some predictions on what to expect this season, at least from our point of view.  We also defended our “bashing” of Eragon, and took a new look at laws about violent video games thanks to some listener emails.  Kodath makes his return to the show with a new regular news segment about goings on in WoW

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