So, I’ve been thinking a lot about the “Quest for Glory” series after responding to our “Top 5 Favorite Games” thread. The first game, “So Do You Want To Be A Hero,” inspired me. It made me think about games and want to see more. It made me an RPG lunatic and informed all my decisions from that point onward. It’s kind of wild, actually.

Anyway, I’m going to play through the first game over this weekend and I want to share my experience and stories with all of you on our message board. But, I’d also like to hear what you have to say about the it — especially if you’re unfamiliar with it.

Read more

This PSN news is bad. Right now, it’s possible that some dude has all the relevant info to do bad stuff in your name. Dude might also have your credit card number, which means he could, theoretically, go on a cruise with your money and not even invite you along.

That’s a big deal, but I also think we’re blowing the issue out of proportion. Nick made a great point this morning in our podcast: this hack gives us a license to pretend to a “big boy” or, in other words, a journalist. And as a result of the chest-puffing going on, readers are seeing a lot of scathing stuff, a lot of absurd questions being posed (“Is Sony Dying”), a lot of fear-laced speculation, and a lot of outside commenting that, frankly, isn’t needed.

End of the day: a bad dude hacked PSN and got your details, and Sony was clearly late in fessing up to it. That’s the story. It’s not, “Sony Ate Your Children,” or “Sony Cover Up,” or “Sony Hates You.” And soon, this story will include the re-launch of PSN and Sony’s observations on how to make a more secure network.

Read more

I work with a lot of talented dudes both on and off this loose network. Topher is one of those people.

On top of being a genuine dude with a heart made out of marshmallows laced with gold, Topher is an superb artist who pours every ounce of his being into his work. If you haven’t seen his latest creation, The Journalism Show, I implore you to check it out. TJS is a set of fantastic cartoons so full of life and quirk. They’re also pretty smart and packed full of Internet savvy and jokes that fans of Japanese culture and animation will love.

And now the first season has come to a close with a bang. Episode 6 is out and available for viewing now. To check it out, go to Topher’s Web site, Rockmelon Soda, and hit “play” on the video thing. Twelve minutes of quality Web cartoon work, man.

I’ve been wanting to throw a little update your way about the status of our donation drive because, as some of you have noticed, our donation button is now gone.

Here’s the deal: TEH raised enough money to fund this year’s hosting of the podcast and, more than likely, cover whatever else it’ll need to this year. If a dude’s microphone breaks, we got that covered; if we need to fund a new feature in any capacity, it’s probably covered; and if we need to get another bump in hosting, it’s covered.

From the bottom of our six-pumped heart, thank you. Thank you so much for caring and tossing in your support. I think I speak for all of us when I say we were overwhelmed by the stream of gratitude and kind wishes. We truly do have the best fans in the world and an audience who cares — a rare thing, especially.

Read more

Here’s the deal: Brad and I both really dig on George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire. He’s read the series thrice, and I’m currently re-reading it in anticipation of the fifth book in the series, A Dance with Dragons.

There is also, as I’m sure most of you have noticed, a brand new HBO series: Season 1 will chart the events of A Game of Thrones (the first book) in ten episodes. HBO also renewed the series for a second season, presumably plotting out the second book, A Clash of Kings.

I know that not all of our listeners dig on Ice and Fire, and it would be a shame to bore them each week on our main podcast. Instead, Brad and I have decided to corral our collective nerd-boners into one place: a bookclub + podcast + community hang-out.

Each Friday, Whenever we can, Brad and I will sit down and record a relatively short behemoth podcast, talking about that week’s episode of A Game of Thrones. Pretty straightforward, right?

The second bit is more complex: we want to do a community-wide readthrough of the series, culminating in A Dance With Dragons in July: You read a section, we read a section, you post in this thread, you send us questions, and we talk about books for a while each week.

So! This week your assignment, if you choose to take it, is to read the first 285 pages of A Game of Thrones. You can obviously read more than that, but we’ll be covering the events up through the fourth Tyrion chapter: it ends with the line “I never bet against my family.”

Read more