Geeknights 20100914 - PAX Prime 2010 & The Games of PAX

Expanded Show Notes - Show Run Time: 01:13:09

    Time | Notes
---------+----------------------------------------------------------
00:00:00 | Intro
00:00:26 | Opening Chit-Chat & News
	 | - Pax & post-Pax timeline
	 | - Scott plays grammatical semantics
	 | - Counter-Strike and new servers
	 | - On weird common settings for Counter-Strike Servers
	 | - On gaming backlog
	 | - How to handle multiplayer games where levels can be disparate
	 | - Equipment versus levels and abilities?
	 | - Scott posits that people who enjoy tech-tree games are psychologically fooling themselves
	 | - Argument on psychological rewards of leveling up
	 | - Scott doesn't agree with personal tastes being a factor in enjoyment of gaming
	 | - Meta on Con Recap shows
	 | - New format - show will recap the con as well as focus on the games played.
	 | - Games played at the con
	 | - Tangent on Scott's consistent memory failure
	 | - Freemarket!  Scott ran it for GM practice in addition to the demo
	 | - Meta-problem - how does a crappy GM get better?  Practice.  How can he practice if no one wants to play?
	 | - Bad GM + Inexperienced Players = bad experience for the players, they won't play again
	 | - Bad GM + Experienced Players = Experienced players will walk out
	 | - Freemarket is easy if you're able to come up with good flavor text on the fly
	 | - Scott on making flavor text not suck:  Pick at least three senses to describe what's going on
	 | - Discussion of Indie-RPG mechanics
	 | - Experienced GM can do Freemarket at a con in 4 hours
	 | - On applying rules in Freemarket versus D&D-like systems
	 | - Powerboats
	 | - - Racing game with good mechanics - even on the "easy mode" it was still very fun
	 | - - On new mechanics that could make Powerboats better
	 | - Modern Art
	 | - - Discussion of "bidding games"
	 | - On buying boardgames, reboxing, and print-and-play games
	 | - On the morality of making your own copy of a board game - is it piracy?
	 | - Push Fight
	 | - - Rym compares it to Nim
	 | - Bohnanza
	 | - - Game looks stupid but is fun
	 | - - Bidding on beans
	 | - - The Shtick is a lot of the fun of the game
	 | - - The Ultra-Rare Cocoa Bean!
	 | - - Bidding Games & Left/Right Mechanics
	 | - We Didn't Playtest This At All
	 | - - Similar to Flux but with almost no rules
	 | - - Rules change at random depending on what cards are played
	 | - - Potential WDPTAA tourney at Connecticon
	 | - Squarrels
	 | - - Squirrels fighting over nuts in sets of three
	 | - - Matching mechanics a la Rummy, with a bit of Slap-Jack and War
	 | - Dominion
	 | - - Lots of fun at the con
	 | - Roll Through The Ages
	 | - - Yahtzee meets Civilization
	 | - Jungle Speed
	 | - - Quick game
	 | - Catacombs
	 | - - Dexterity game where you flick things at targets meets Dungeon Crawler
	 | - - Conceptually good
	 | - - Small board, not very precise
	 | - - Rym suggests making the board shuffleboard sized and running it at a con
	 | - Poo-Flinging Game
	 | - - Play cards to fling poo at the other monkeys (players)
00:40:02 | Things of the Day
	 | - Scott on fools riding fixies with no helmets
	 | - Track Bicycle Racing
	 | - Track Bicycle Racing Tactics & Drafting
	 | - Japanese track racing
	 | Scott's Thing - Bicycle Slow Race
	 | - "Pig With the Face of a Boy" - musical comedy band in the UK
	 | - Tetris as a metaphor for the Soviet Union
	 | Rym's Thing - Complete History of the Soviet Union, Arranged to the Melody of Tetris
00:48:30 | Main Topic
	 | - More PAX Gaming Goodness
	 | - Expo Hall was off the hook
	 | - Huge booths full of spectacle
	 | - Games that stood out beyond the spectacle
	 | - Duke Nukem Forever
	 | - - Solid black booth, security guards outside, and a huge queue
	 | - - Portraits of Duke outside the booth
	 | - - Rym got to skip the line thanks to Jon St. John
	 | - - Game is an homage to the games of an earlier era - lots of sex and violence
	 | - PAX 10 games
	 | - Super Meat Boy
	 | - - Platform game, hard as balls, requires precision
	 | - Retro City Rampage
	 | - - Top-down 2D game like the original GTA games
	 | - - AI is very smart
	 | - - Wii-only
	 | - Monaco
	 | - - Top-down heist game
	 | - - Creator will be on future show
	 | - Spy Party
	 | - - Two-person game
	 | - - Sniper versus Spy
	 | - Jam City Rollergirls
	 | - - Roller Derby meets Mario-style sports
	 | - Name-dropping Luke Crane
	 | - Sidebar on Roller Derby
	 | - Lines in the Expo Hall were huge
	 | - Portal 2
	 | - Tangent on taking a day off to play a game on release day
	 | - Civ V
	 | - Tangent on laptops and gaming
	 | - Rage
	 | - Firefall - Tribes-like game from the creators of WoW and Tribes
	 | - Brink
	 | - Lego Universe MMO
	 | - - Scott on Why This Game Isn't Worth Your Time: The whole world isn't Lego
	 | - - Rym: The whole game should be nothing but Lego and you should be able to build anywhere
	 | - Massive amounts of gaming on Thursday in the Sheraton lobby
	 | - Planning a PAX Prime 2011 Pre-Party - sponsors wanted!
	 | - Upcoming show will be the actual review of PAX
	 | - Shout-outs
	 | - Zombie Dice
01:12:11 | Outro