Wool
Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we review (spoilers) Hugh Howey's Wool. It was a solid book (or set of five short books, which are really just two short books and one longer book). Mixes of Paranoia (the RPG), Logan's Run, Fallout, and other similar stories, it had a lot more nuance than we expected. Definitely worth reading.
Why No One Will Game With You
Tonight on GeekNights, we consider why no one will game with you. Why is it so hard to form gaming groups? Why won't anyone play Air Hockey with me? Isn't this the panel Rym and Scott are presenting at PAX East? In the news, there's some old Game Boy Megaman coming to the 3DS virtual console (along with GBA Advance Wars on the Wii-U), and they're even having a completely meaningless vote on nothing! Also, our good friend Conrad Kreyling is making waves in the dating game scene. (He's been on GeekNights before).
Yamishibai
Tonight on GeekNights, we review the short horror anime Yamishibai. It's definitely worth watching, and is genuinely good horror storytelling. In the news, we're back from Anime Boston 2014, though we skipped most of Friday and all of Sunday at the con due to the ridiculous security theater. We discuss the good and bad of Anime Boston 2014!
When Internet Services Die
Tonight on GeekNights, we consider what happens when Internet services die (like we assume Flickr and Google Voice will). In the news, there are rumors that Twitter will drop @user and #hashtag characters, e-cigarettes are as terrible for you as one should assume, and people are poisoning themselves with e-cigarette liquids in unsurprising numbers. Also, if you have Verizon FIOS, you have to buy your own damn battery. If you didn't notice it beeping for the last several months, you should get your ears checked out.
We'll be at Zenkaikon and PAX East! The GeekNights Book Club book is Wool!
Live at PAX East 2014!
GeekNights will be presenting their 25th PAX lecture at PAX East 2014!
Why No One Will Game with You
Friday 1:00pm
Badger Theatre
In gaming forums around the world, variations of the same thread forever grace the front page: “Looking for a Gaming Group.” Games are ubiquitous, barriers to entry are ever-lower, and the Internet (never mind conventions like PAX) provide what should be a sea of gamers ready and willing to play games with us. So why all the trouble? Why, in 2013, is it still so hard to form a gaming group? Why won’t anyone play Air Hockey with me?
In exploring the “LFG” space, there are a myriad of issues which come to light. Skill gaps leave players stranded. Matchmaking systems hurt as much as they help. The longer tail of games available spreads niche audiences further into increasingly specific sub-sub-sub-genres. Play styles differ. (Indeed, in some groups it is impolite to spend more than ten seconds on one’s turn, while in others spending less than ten MINUTES is the height of rudeness)!
Let’s explore why it’s so hard (or why it SEEMS to hard) to find people to play games!
GeekNights Presents: Utena
Episode 10
In this episode of Shoujo Kakumei Utena, we learn about the awful things Nanami has done in the past to preserve in her heart the love and sole attention of her brother Touga. What was Nanami fighting for truly? She certainly wasn't apologizing to Touga for trying to murder Utena after losing her duel.
We learn in this episode mostly of Touga's true intentions. He's been playing everyone all along, and his plan has finally come together. This was the last step before his expected duel with Utena. But, why are both Anthy and End of the World helping him?
Book Club - Wool
Wool is described as on Amazon as such:
In a ruined and toxic landscape, a community exists in a giant silo underground, hundreds of stories deep. There, men and women live in a society full of regulations they believe are meant to protect them. Sheriff Holston, who has unwaveringly upheld the silo’s rules for years, unexpectedly breaks the greatest taboo of all: He asks to go outside.
His fateful decision unleashes a drastic series of events. An unlikely candidate is appointed to replace him: Juliette, a mechanic with no training in law, whose special knack is fixing machines. Now Juliette is about to be entrusted with fixing her silo, and she will soon learn just how badly her world is broken. The silo is about to confront what its history has only hinted about and its inhabitants have never dared to whisper. Uprising.
More importantly, it was recommended to us by several listeners, and we have received no fewer than three free copies from various sources, one of which appears to be signed by the author. The book has enough buzz to be worth a look.
