Gaming Asylum Podcast Michael Burdick

WARNING: This episode includes medium levels of cursing. Listener discretion is advised. What We've Been Playing Michael: - Resident Evil 5 Year Old - Street Fighter 4 - Masher vs. Capcom 3 - Working on games Jeff: - Culdcept Saga - The 'Villes - Some sculpting of where his RPG group wants to go - SECRETS?!? Mark: - Demon's Crest for the SNES is old school. Who would've guessed? Wins and Fails: Mark: + Infinite Tower...for whatever reason (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=136247839768493) + Mega Man Upon a Star (http://www.amazon.com/Megaman-Upon-Artist-Not-Provided/dp/B0006IIPGM) - The Nintento 3DS for resounding meh-nosity (also a FFXIII reference) - Mark's completely wonderful worthless notes Michael: + Youtube username: Behrudy, and Youtube username: levelupseries (Warning, the former is very obscene) Also, for those who don't get my joke, Justin Wong is in the top-3 Street Fighter players ever + The Darkness 2 (Info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Darkness_2; buy the first one at http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/the-darkness-used/65698) - Prey 2 (Info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prey_2, Buy first one at http://www.gamestop.com/xbox-360/games/prey/41812) - AP Epic Failure Jeff: + Evil Hat for the Dresden Files RPG + Conformism! (Also, the failure of free) - AT+T for a terrible router' - Full House Poker featuring Bob Saget - FEAR THE CON STORIES YAY

What Are We Playing?: Jeff is behind on the times, but finally finished Bioshock 1. Michael hates basic physics, but loves Dead Rising 2 wheelchairs and snow (this was recorded back in February) Mark knows some fancy Japanese games. Isn't he special? If you want the titles...good luck with that. One is called 3D World Runner in English Main Topic: Open World vs. Linear Michael gets some knowledge dropped on him on open world games If we have any disabled listeners, we apologize greatly STRENGTH OPEN WORLD: Immersion Cuttlefish WEAKNESS OPEN WORLD: So big, players are unaware of how things work STRENGTH OPEN WORLD: Creation of Player Plots STRENGTH LINEAR WORLD: Meaning Behind The Plot, and a lack of Jimmy McWaffleboys WEAKNESS USER-CREATED CONTENT (?): Cavaclade of Crap STRENGTH LINEAR WORLD: Much Stronger Story than a User-Made One Eternal Pac-Man? Pacternal Darkness? Wakka Wakka Wakka Insanity? STRENGTH LINEAR GAMES: Possible Sanity Questioning OPEN WORLD NECESSITY: Need for Universal Signals WEAKNESS OPEN WORLD: Lack of Urgency, and Vice Versa with Linear World Side Tangent on Being Timed STRENGTH OPEN WORLD: Openness in Choices (Durr) STRENGTH LINEAR GAMES: Importance of the Player's Actions Increases NECESSITY LINEAR GAMES: Character Sympathy STRENGTH ALL: Morality Replayability STRENGTH LINEAR GAMES: Dependency on the Narrative WEAKNESS LINEAR GAMES: Dependency Linearity in Role-Playing Games "In a Video Game, the game provides the go, the player provides the do. In an RPG, the player provides the go, and the GM provides the do." -Mark Snyder "The more the GM tightens his grip, the more players will slip through his fingers" -Jeff Bailey stealing from Star Wars: The New Hope Wins and Fails Mark: + Youtube dropping time limit - Having watched two and a half hours of Worms (Dude, seriously?) + Apology Win to Every RPG ever made - Him reading every RPG in a new light Michael: + Game Informer's Replay of Overblood + Ridiculous Texas Snow - Green Lanturn (2011) and Ryan Reynolds - WHO CARES ABOUT THE SUPER BOWL WOOOOOOOO Jeff: + Visceral Studios for throwing in Extraction with Dead Space 2 + Xynga for being like crack cocaine and SUCKING YOU BACK IN - Google Docs for censorshiposity - Indie RPG Movement for obliterating any ability for Jeff to keep track of news

Segment 1: Who the hell are *we*, anyway?: The Pedigrees Jeff Interviews Michael: 1) Name, Rank, Serial Number? Which means name, age, what city do you live in, what you do for a living, and what else you do for fun. 2) When did you first know you were a tabletop gamer? 3) When did you first know you were a video gamer? 4) If you were to pick the first work in tabletop RPGs that really influenced you, which would it be? 5) If you were to pick your favorite tabletop RPG, over all you've ever played, which would it be and why? 6) What tabletop RPG would you recommend to anyone to pick up right now? 7) What video game would you recommend to anyone to pick up right now? 8) What trend in tabletop RPGs most excites you? 9) What trend in tabletop RPGs is going the wrong way? 10) What trend in video games most excites you? 11) What trend in video games is going the wrong way? Michael Interviews Mark: Mark Interviews Jeff Same Deal. Segment 2: How are tabletop RPGs and video games meeting in the middle? Jeff, , Mark on second, Michael on third. Paper to video: Dungeons and Dragons (duh) - Gold Box Series - Baldur's Gate - Neverwinter Nights - Dungeons and Dragons MMO Call of Cthulhu - Prisoner of Ice (one of the last gasps of the adventure genre) - Dark Corners of the Earth (neat, WONDERFUL concept - but needed a better goal system - cf Dead Space) Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption (the horrible truth about user-created content) - Bloodlines OMG AWSUMMMM Shadowrun - Shadowrun WTF? How did this lose? Hunter: The Reckoning - Wayward - Redeemer Good idea - why is it not since 2003? GURPS - Um, FALLOUT? Remember, Fallout started as a joint work with SJG, and Fallout 1's SPECIAL system is a descendant of GURPS Video to Paper: **MUCH MORE RECENT TREND** 1994: Street Fighter 2002: Alpha Centauri 2002: Everquest 2005: City of Heroes (unfinished) 2005: WoW 2009: Dragon Age Why is this hard? - Why can't paper go to video? (Fanbase size, talk vs. action, length of campaigns) - Why can't video go to paper? (Action vs. talk, only recent move to co-op vs. clan-based FPS, limited setting in most games) Segment 3: Wins and Fails This segment, the two of us reflect on the past week (or the upcoming week) and relay two good things (Wins) and two bad things (Fails), It's a banter topic to help lighten the mood of the show. Nerdy or not, personal or commercial, doesn't matter Michael's Two Wins -Starcraft 2 -Fallout: New Vegas Michael's Two Fails -Trying to read Shadowrun 1E -The military banning Medal of Honor Mark's Two Wins - - Mark's Two Fails - - Jeff's Two Wins - Finally Starting Harry Dresden - Found My New Favorite FLGS: Fantasy Shop Jeff's Two Fails - Late Hit: Sega for apparently employing Obsidian to hate it - Fail by Krome for Game Room: Letting MS talk them into microtransactions Mark, Michael on second, Jeff on third. Conclusion - Conclusion Segment: Name a movie that's good for an RPGer to watch, with one sentence about it. -- Jeff: Prince of Darkness ("THIS is a great modern horror LARP on film.") -- Michael: Can I say Darkon (an actual LARP documentary)? If not, then probably Kick Ass. --Mark: As yet undecided - How to reach us - Teaser for topics on next show