PAX West 2023

Tonight on GeekNights, we review and discuss PAX West 2023. The new venue is fantastic and it felt a lot like PAXes from the golden age of PAX. In the news, Scott suffered Airport Adventures yet made it to Chicaco, Steam (and our Steam accounts) are 20 years old, and the Unity game engine destroys itself with an actively hostile monetization model that is somehow worse than we expected from their 2022 merger with evil.
Blocking

Tonight on GeekNights, in light of Twitter's dying husk removing the ability to block people, we consider the concept of "blocking" in social platforms. The root problem is, as always, the twin evils of advertising and capitalism. In the news, the inability to warn the residents of Maui to the rapidly escalating wildfires requires significant government technology investment, and Dolby Atmos FlexConnect might prove interesting for home theatre setups.
Quake 2 Remastered

Tonight on GeekNights, having somehow never talked about Quake (except for Quake Live in 2009, we discuss Quake 2 and the Quake 2 Remaster. In the news, the Atari 7800 is back legit, Charles Martinet is moving on, and Marvel Snap is paying people to watch Twitch streams with .pngs in their app.
Halls of Fame

Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the concept of Halls of Fame. In the news, the ravages of climate change have caused an ongoing crisis in Hawaii, and the fascists lost an election in Ohio,
PitchCar (1995)

Tonight on GeekNights, we review PitchCar (1995). It's a flicking game. It's a sport. It's pretty fun. In the news, a livestreamer guy caused a riot in New York for which he is facing charges, Gen Con continues to live up to its reputation with a disaster over unmanaged Lorcana lines (remember Lorcana is the subject of a lawsuit from Upper Deck) and some extremely identifiable nerds who stole $300k worth of collectible cards from the floor.
GeekNights Book Club: This Is How You Lose the Time War

Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we discuss This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. It's short and worth a read, but it's not going to blow your mind like some people on the Internet are saying (unless you haven't read much science fiction). A little Singularity, a little Instrumentality, and a story told partially as an epistolary.
Upgrading Your Tech

Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss when, how, and if you should upgrade your technology. From phones to cameras to TVs to skis, it comes mostly down to what problem you're trying to solve. In the news, Web Environment Integrity is a potentially worrying but not yet apocalyptic threat to the World Wide Web, the BBC has launched its own journalism Mastodon, and the US has a new nuclear reactor.
