Just as a reminder, BAC will be on tonight at 9 pm est.

We've come up with what we hope will be a decent idea for a show formula which we'll share tonight when we go live.

sounds cool. steve told me about the new format idea and i think it could be decent. i won't be able to make it out to the chat tonight as i have a work function. i'll have t listen to the downloadable version when it gets posted.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/shamoozal ... podcast-tv

We're going to be using the Shamoozal Ustream page going forward to broadcast the show.

got some music playing for your enjoyment, we'll be up soon

Great turnout guys, thanks for coming out!

I'm sorry I can never seem to make these on time guys, but I have these night classes on Tuesday that run from 7 - 9:50.

On a good night I'll get out by 8:30 though, so next tuesday I might just stay on campus with some headphones and listen in.

Also great work, the first one ruled and judging by the turnout I saw when I got in at the end tonight you guys are doing pretty good!

http://www.shamoozal.com/nerdlog/2009/0 ... casual-01/

Episode is up! Enjoy!

I'm listening to it right now, I really like your idea of asking each other a question that the other doesn't know about, I think it's a great idea and hopefully might even let us in the forums have a discussion about it.

I also like the recap portion at the beginning (not just because I was quoted in it... although my ego is about the size of the Soviet Union right now haha) but because it might convince new listeners to join the smorg just to be a part of it for the chance of being quoted and because it allows everyone to be a part of shaping Born Again Casual.

And I do really like how born again casual has a real commitment to the listener base as much as it does to videogames, really the whole casual part of your title even goes into how the atmosphere of the podcast is with it being like a really relaxed discussion among friends where the term 'friends' includes the smorg and Ustream listeners.

I might get into some more in-depth discussion on what you guys actually talked about during the podcast later when I'm done listening to it and digesting it all.

Hell I hope some of you guys actually end up beating me to the punch.

i think i disagree with phil's point of view on narrative and story lines in games. a solid story, told well, actually makes you care about a character and makes you want to see them make it through to the end. now, the biggest problem with stories in games is that most of them are pretty terrible and are told with clunky narrative. there are few companies that get it. valve does. they know how to tell a story and interweave into the gameplay which is why HL2 and portal are so well received.

good show guys.

Man, I thought my headphones was broke initially until I realized you guys made each of your mics come through different channels. My headphones does that randomly.

hahahaa, I blame Steve for my PS3. Maybe I should thank Steve.

you will someday, probably right after Flower takes hold of you and refuses to let go.

I just started listening and Benson is going nuts.

I definitely agree, I have always described videogames as being an interactive narrative where the player gets to take on the role of the main character, or at least gets to guide the main characters along their path through a story.

However, I think more of what Phil was trying to communicate was that in terms of your regular hack and slash run and gun FPS there isn't a need for story to be so deeply integrated, especially if your talent isn't storytelling to begin with but rather creating beautiful environments where football space marines can use chainsaws on assault rifles.

I think Phil was thinking more along the lines of that developers should really focus more on doing Unreal Tournament / Quake 3 type stuff where the story is a tiny brief segment in the opening cinematics of a game but that the game itself isn't in any way forcing you to give a shit about the storyline.

In which case I agree with both you Summers boys.

In essence to say videogames shouldn't worry about narrative is almost a shame because it has the potential of becoming the next great medium for narrative in pop-culture, with the aforementioned Half-Life series being a key member of this group. However, as you've both pointed out, if you can't make a good storyline then don't force your audience to sit through a bland one, for example one of my greatest complaints with Gears of War 2 is that you can not skip the cinematics that take place between levels, and to be quite honest I kind of find a lot of them appalling.

Also, later on I might write a blurb about the power of the trilogy in popular culture.

I don't have the Sixaxis so I guess I can't play Flower.

Sure you do, it comes with the PS3

Does the Dual Shock 3 also have Sixaxis abilities?

edit: Oh, I just checked Wikipedia, it does.

What resolution do you guys record at when you do the podcasts and born again casual?

640 x 480 or something there around?

I remember when games didn't have much of a story at all, and what they did give you for a story, looking back, usually wasn't very good. The story was put in to give players some sort of reason or motivation, for doing whatever they are doing in the game. The best example I can think of is Blaster Master. The story for this game is your frog runs away, you run after it, and while chasing the frog, you find a large vehicle, that has a suit, that you put on, then you get in the vehicle and drive away to fight a bunch of enemies. Thats it. In its defense, it is a localized version of Japanese game called Metafight, and had to change the story up, but Metafight doesn't have much of a story either. Even though there was no story, I still thought it was amazing and played the hell out of the first two levels (Its really hard), and I don't anybody who played it, that doesn't feel the same way.

Baltar Summary - Games sort of always had stories in them, even if they were very simplistic... a lot of this is probably due to technical limitations (esp. memory) at the time.

I agree a lot with Karakuchi, though I do think stories have always been something developers wanted to implement in games. I mean how many Nintendo Power magazines from the 80s and 90s went out of their way to expand on game universes so you knew what the hell was up.

I think in the case of a lot of early games you couldn't really put that much story into a game because of how much memory even text would take up in the game cartridge, however even with that there is a sense of stories in even early games though they are really basic.

Space Invaders - Save earth from being destroyed by hordes of aliens.

Mario - Save the princess which was abducted

40,000 other games - Save the princess which was abducted

They are your cliche game stories that are very easy to communicate without actually having to write in a story to it.

Besides even early games had manuals and boxes which had sections for explaining the story of a given game.

Just now getting caught up on these podcasts (is there a way to download them yet?).

I can't believe neither of you have played any of House of the Dead's. I mean I know the game isn't really your style, but it's been around forever in arcades and seen several incarnations in consoles. One of the best on-rails shooters I've played.

I've played HotD in the arcade and once on Dreamcast, so I've played it. I just never played through an entire one. I always intended to buy HotD 2 & 3 for Wii but just never got around to it. And I think the only way to download them for now is through iTunes, but we should be adding them along with SRP on the podcast page soon.