One of those days

One must love those days when one wakes up to wonderful information.

For the last few days, I have been trying to get back into a schedule of sorts. Going to bed at a reasonable time and getting up early, that sort of thing.

As part of this effort, I sketched out a written schedule that included keeping up with the so called "enthusiast gaming press" like I used to back in the day. This generally includes going to sites such as Destructoid, Kotaku, Evil Avatar, Joystiq etc. It was in perusing these sites that I came across the post that made me so verry happy today.

For you to somewhat understand my joy, perhaps a bit of background would be helpful. Back in the day, which for this instance would be about 4 years ago, I was really into podcasts. My first favorites were Scott Johnson's ELR and the Sceptics Guide to the Universe. But from those two I branched out mainly into the video game podcasts. One of these that, for whatever reason caught my eye, was Destructoid's original podcast "Podtoid".

I don't know whether it was the right time in my life for silly dick jokes, or my general cynical outlook on life, but podtoid filled an empty void in my week with dick jokes galore. I think the first episode that I listened to was around 45, but I continued to listen to them weekly up until early last year when they kinda just died.

Anthony Burch, the last host of the podcast was moving from Destructoid's editor in chief to go off to Gearbox Software, a dream job for him. Months before, Aaron Lindie had picked up a job at Microsoft Game Studios, and didn't have much time for the podcast either, and Brad Nicholson, the man who was to replace Anthony as host, left Destructoid to be the news guy on Giant Bomb.

So, me being the change hater that I was, I went into a bit of a slump and stopped reading about games or really the gaming industry at all. This lasted for the rest of the year. That is until a few days ago... that is, until today.

It turns out, Brad Nicholson IS hosting a podcast. A podcast that has many of the same people that Podtoid had. A podcast that could very well BE podtoid if they wanted to call it that. "The Electric Hydra". Brad Nicholson, Topher Cantler, Jim Sterling, and Aaron Lindie are on the main cast, as well as one or two others. Sometimes even Anthony Burch, and Samit "SPORTS" Sarkar stop in for a few episodes. The entire cast of the old podcast has at one time or another been on the The Electric Hydra.

I don't quite know how to describe it. It's like coming home from a long overseas trip to old friends. I have been listening to the old episodes of podtoid, stopping by the site every now and then to see if there was a new episode up, but forever being disappointed. All the while, they had started anew on a different site with a different name. Now I am kinda kicking myself for not at least keeping up with the industry enough to hear about The Electric Hydra when it first started.

Ah well, I have it now, and frankly I couldn't be happier.

Manly Names And Brad's Biceps

On my forays across the vast internets, I have ran across a lot of cool websites. One of my favorite types of geeky websites are "name generator" sites. Whether you need a quick fantasy villain name for table top games, or looking for reggae names for a friends new pet; there is always a website out there for you, waiting to generate random, and often funny names.

I was perusing the internet, as I am wont to do, and came across an article about WWI's infamous "Red Barron". The pilot's real name is Manfred von Richtofen, which may just be the most manly name in the world.

...Even though his hair kinda makes him look like a penis...

Wait. Does that make him more manly?

...That is untill I came across a "Max Fightmaster" in an article on manly names from Cracked.com. Max is, or at least was in 2003, in the armed forces. Infact he holds a rank of Staff Seargent. Thats right, his full title would be Staff Sgt. Max Fightmaster. Holy. Shit.

All these manly names reminded me of an old Podtoid(one of Destructoid.com's now defunct podcasts) joke about one Brad Nicholson.

This literal HULK of a nerd.

Basically, they decided that the name "Brad Nicholson" was not manly enough for Brad up there, so they came up with the nickname "Chet". They then joked about about other manly names: Frag Thickfeet, Snake Kickhead, Butch Rockfist, etc. Well, turns out there is a website that generates these names. Much laughs were had with the Manly Name Generator. I have a sneaking suspicion that Staff Sgt. Max Fightmaster's parents might just run the damn thing...

The Clothesless Connection

For a long time I have asked myself, why do I like games?

Is it graphics?

No, I still love to play old NES games more than many newer titles.

Is it gameplay?

No, there are incredibly simple games that have pretty much no gameplay to speak of that I like as well.

Is it story?

No again, many of my favorite games of the past have little to no story.

So what is it?

I thought about it for a while and came to the conclusion that the best way to find out is to list my top 3 favorite games, and see what they all had in common.

1. World of Warcraft
2. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
3.The Sims 3

Then it came to me. In all three games, you can take your clothes off and run around naked.

In oblivion and the Sims, you can even take other people's clothes off (granted, you have to be looting their corpse in oblivion, so it's not as fun.). Some might say that this is rather contemptible, but hey, I'm a rather contemptible guy. There is something liberating about not wearing clothes that you can feel even when in a video game.

Now lets take a closer look at what makes each of these games a gem when it comes to clotheslessness.

1. World of Warcraft.

While you are still wearing underwear when you have all your armor removed (unless you have the nudity mod installed, you dirty, dirty boy) it is still fun to gauge the people around you's reaction. Especially if you try to have a meaningful conversation with them. Also fun, is to start stripping while having said conversations. This also serves as a great way to troll people in instances. Usually one of two things will happen. Everyone will either bitch at you about not having any armor or stat buffs, or for some inexplicable reason, everyone else will take off their armor too. The latter makes me believe that there are a lot of closet nudists out there in WoW, just waiting for a friend that understands their needs.

2. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Now beyond a few quests and some interesting glitches that I have seen, the majority of the people in Oblivion wear clothes. This always changes once I kill them. Now you may be thinking that there is something horribly wrong with me (and you are probably right) but hear me out. Blacksmithing. That's right. In oblivion you benefit from stripping all the clothes off of your victims bodies and repairing them for them. And believe me, to fully level blacksmithing, you will have to strip A LOT of people.

3. The Sims

Or as I like to call it, the multi-party sex simulator. Okay, so out of the other games, this may just be the most family friendly, and to fully get the most out of it, you have to do some rather extensive modding and searching on some rather... questionable corners of the web. But trust me. Its worth it. I have seen more deprived acts preformed by my Sims than I have ever seen in all of the porn I have ever watched. Fellatio chairs, sex showers, censor removers, the orgy bed. The list just goes on and on. But I think the best thing is that, now, whenever I see the EA/Maxis logo, I get a hard-on.

Oh yea, that's the stuff.

Now, there are other reasons that I like those games. The leveling, the customization, the open world feel, the modding communities, etc. But first thing that came to my mind, was the quasi nudity they all share.

So my conclusion is:

I like games because they give me a boner.

-EQ out-

CONGRATS REBECCA AND SID!!!!

Those of you who keep up on The Amazing Meeting (TAM) have probably already heard the news that Rebecca Watson (from The Skeptics Guide To The Universe) and Sid Rodriguez (from London Sceptics In The Park) were married on stage in front of the SGU panel audience. The rings were presented by Adam Savage (of MythBusters fame) and George Hrab (from the Geologic podcast) was on guitar for the music. The serimony was preformed by Julia A Kovacs, who had just recently (for this event do doubt) obtained her licence to preform marrages. Below is the video. I teared up a bit, I'll admit.



CONGRADULATIONS YOU TWO!!!

Angry Video Game Nerd

This is the first of the humor parts of my blog. "The Angry Video Game Nerd", perviously known as "The Angry Nintendo Nerd" is a character portrayed by James Rolfe. He has a very, well, vehement commentary on old games that were sub-par or just plain bad. His most recent video tackles the famous (or infamous) Metal Gear games for the Nintendo.

One word of advice, if you are offended by strong language, this video is not for you. I find it to be part of his charm.

YouTube

I am really starting to consider becoming a video blogger on YouTube. The problem is, I need a few things. A mic, camera, and video editing software. Looks like I will have to shell out some cash.

The title of the blog was going to be "Life in Utah" A play off of one of my all time favorite blogs "Life in Tokyo". But it turns out it is already taken, albeit with no actual video, and crappy sound. I still think that the subject matter of my blog will be the funky life in Utah, but it looks like I will have to find a new name. Suggestions?

New subject matter

Man, I haven't posted here in a while. If you look down the list of my past blogs, this becomes a recurring theme. But now... now I have a small app on my iGoogle home page that will always remind me to update, even if I do not have many (if any) readers.

Mainly where I am now looking to go with this page is a daily posting of funny things I find, with the "Ravings of a Madman" interspersed without. This, I think will give me a good place to share my findings with my friends, and still let me rant.