This past weekend I sat down with the Gamers w/Jobs crew to talk Age of Conan, and that Grand Theft something-er-other game that seems to be very popular these days.

Age of Conan, Mario Kart, Grand Theft Auto IV, Rob Off The Rails, Your Emails and more! Michael Zenke joins us for our in-depth impressions of Grand Theft Auto IV. Does Sean still hate it? Will the vein on Rob’s forehead burst? Can Michael inject some sanity into the conversation?!

The answer? Probably not. But it was fun to try.

I had the inordinate pleasure of sitting in on Shut Up We’re Talking #25. Darren and newly-dubbed co-host Karen were incredibly kind to have me on again, despite the rude and disreputable way I acted on show #17. 

I got to talk about my deep non-homosexual manlove for Van Hemlock, because he was on the show with us! So close and yet so far. I had a great time and I really needed it; haven’t laughed that hard in a while.

Thanks again for having me, Darren and Karen. Hope you’ll give it a listen.

 

The folks at Gamers with Jobs were kind enough to invite me into their fourth chair, again, for the GWJ Conference Call podcast.

Dark Sector, Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, Mythos Revitalized, Rock Band Malfunctions, Michael Zenke From Massively.com, A Chance To Win A Limited Edition Risk: Black Ops, Your Glorious Emails and more! - We called and you answered! We got so many emails this week we’re dedicating the whole show to them. Not only do we have new GWJ contributer Michael Zenke joining us, he was kind enough to offer a limited edition of Risk: Black Ops (the upcoming Hasbro board game) for a glorious new contest! All you have to do is send in a funny picture that involves a board game of some kind to contest@gamerswithjobs.com! What could be easier!?

If you like board games you should totally enter. That version of Risk is pretty much kickass.

Another visit with those wacky cats from the GWJ site had me chatting with them from a friend’s spare room over my vacationing-time.

A deconstruction of the GDC experience, as well as other weighty elements, round out the ‘cast. My personal favorite off-the-cuff discussion is the briefest debate between the awesomeness of Shodan and GLaDOS - so hard to choose between those murderous yet hilarious AI women.

This week Michael Zenke fills us in on his GDC experience. We talk about all the latest from the convention and get the inside scoop on why MMO developers seem to be on the verge of an all out cage match. We also have an awesome audio email!

Rabbit also jaws about a return to EQ, well worth a read.

The last day of GDC saw me getting ambushed by a really nice microphone - I’m not really one to turn those kinds of things down. Gaming Steve is well known in some circles, and I had the chance to sit in on episode 71 of his show.

• Game Developers Conference Day 3 Recap
  • How on earth did one guy create an MMORPG with a player base of 1.8 million people?
  • The Chronicles of Spellborn is still alive and kicking.
  • What are Cryptic Studios and Jack Emmert up to?
  • What did game designers rant about this year?
  • Why do game developers dress so poorly?
  • What crazy game did Steve Meretzky design at this year’s Game Design Challenge?
  • WebWars: EVE sounds freaking awesome.
  • Why is Age of Conan – Hyborian Adventures going for an M-rating?
  • Why is GDC the place to be if you want to get into the game industry.
  • Finally, we get all goofy after three intense days.

I felt really bad running out on them, but I had to catch the BART before the Freemont line stopped running from downtown.

A gent I’m pleased to consider a friend has done a wonderful thing, and I want to make sure you know about it. Brent has released his hundredth episode of the VirginWorlds podcast, and it is a glorious thing.

Clocking in at just under 3 hours in length, show 100 has finally arrived.  There are probably 30+ familiar voices on this show and you’ll find plenty of raw commentary and information as well as more laughs than any other episode of the VirginWorlds Podcast. Special thanks to ALL of the contributors to this special 100th episode.  It has been a great run and there WILL be 100 more podcasts from VirginWorlds!

The beginning, at the least, is worth listening to. Jonathan (of various VW podcasts) has a great skit put together at the start of the show … and it’s darn funny. Like, LOL funny. Check it out for sure.

Congratulations, Brent. Here’s to 100 more.

I got to sit in on the first episode of a new VW show. That was kinda cool. Witty Ranter is going for a ‘Shut Up We’re Talking, with Swearing’ vibe. It was, as always, fun sitting with a bunch of fun guys and shooting the shit.

Here’s the description of the show:

In his inaugural debut to the VirginWorlds Collective, Adam gets Brenden from AnotherHere, Michael Edwards, a MMO game developer, Michael Zenke from Massively.com and Jonathan from The Online Gamer’s Anthology together for a discussion.  Topics include “Crafting in MMO’s:  It really need to die.  No, we mean it!”, and “Is there anything in 2008 for us to look forward to?”… Oh yeah, and true to form, we get a Zenke Rant…  Aww yeah.  This show does contain explicit language.  Viewer Discretion Advised. 

I gotta say, though, and I apologize to my fellow co-hosts for this: I’m not sure I really felt the topics this time around. While I personally don’t get into crafting, I don’t really understand the point of ‘it has to die’. What did crafting ever do to you? Then in the discussion of this year, there was a lot of cynical jadery flung around. I’m looking forward to WAR and Conan quite a bit - 2008 has a lot to offer.

I had a great time, and I don’t want to belittle the opinions of others at all. I just want to clarify: I’m not sure we said a whole lot in the hour we chatted. It’s still fun, just the same. Check it out. :)