Upcoming Episode #130 - I'm Finished

Hey everybody, I hope you all like the slightly-modified look of the website.  You might notice there's that little whatchamacallit front-and-center there.  Thanks to a few random chances and a lot of trial and error, we're now hosting our own videos.  So whenever you want to see what's going on inside Studio Five, all you need to do is check it out right here.

Anyhoo, onto the topic at hand - Episode #130.  We'll be talking about what happens after we finish our games, which will lead into two other topics both slated for upcoming episodes: Your Gaming Collections and the Used Game Market.  Take a minute to answer these fine questions regarding your gaming habits to help us prep for #130.

All of the questions assume we're not talking about any game you've owned for less than about three months.  Newish games don't really apply.

1. Last episode we found out people average about one game purchase every month or two.  We even found out that some of our listeners have upwards of 200+ games on their shelves.  Our question is, out of all the games you own (digital or physical), how many have you actually played to completion?

2. That leaves the rest of your collection as games you haven't finished.  Of these, pick a few and tell us how far you played each one and what stopped you from playing them.

3. Do you still own games that you played less than half-way through?  How about less than 25% completion?  What percentage of your collection would these games make up, and why do you still have them?

4. When you're done with a game, regardless if you "finished" it or not, are you inclined to sell it or trade it in to a used game store like GameStop, or would you rather keep it on your shelf?  Why?

5. When you've played a game to completion, and you make a conscious decision to keep it around, what's your reason for doing so as opposed to selling it?  Do you plan on playing the game again because you really enjoyed it, and if so, how often do you actually go back and play one?
Read More

Rainy Day Wallpaper


So it's not really rainy, I'd say it's definitely snowy, but it feels like one of those days. Slow at work, not much going on. A friend of mine at the office sent me a link to some fantastic artistic desktop wallpaper recreations of memorable gaming moments.

Here's a link to download the rest of them. There's eleven all together, from several different franchises. I'm totally going with Samus, no doubt.

-Phil
Read More

Too much?

First off I just noticed that we are over 100 posts. Woo... I guess that is exciting.

I realized this past weekend between trips to the restroom, which might have been funny had I tried to be on the show this time, that I may have too many options. It is a weird conundrum to be sure. I am thrilled to have my consoles, but find difficulty in determining what to play. Instead of getting in some game time between trips to the Porcelain Gods I found myself more prone to just watching TV. I wanted to play. I had choices. In the end though I couldn't decide. Do I play Fable II? Or do I dive further into Fallout 3? Do I continue my jaunt through FFX or do I move on to FFXII? Do I need more roman numerals or should we just move on to good old normal numbers? It's kind of weird, but I just find myself not playing out of too much choice as opposed to when I had less to choose from.

So on a news front:

New lawsuit accusing Nintendo of contributing to obesity
- So if this one goes class action I'm COMPLETELY in on it.

Activision-Blizzard in, Blizzard Out? - This one makes no sense. Are you one company or not? Bi-polar much?

In honor of Valentine's Day, my Anniversary, and Drew's wifes B-Day
- #1 says it all. Although I'm pretty sure Fil didn't understand until WAY past puberty.

Gotta get in a cheap shot every now and then. Especially when I miss a show. =o)

-J
Read More

It's Coming

So I thought I had a copy of Episode #128 Part Two on a USB drive, but apparently I was mistaken. I do have the show, at home, on a Time Machine backup of my former MacBook. My new lappy is supposed to get here tomorrow, and when it does, one of the first things I'll be doing after restoring from said backup is to upload the podcast, I promise.

Just a quick thank-you to all of you who have emailed or commented your responses for our upcoming show, Digital Media vs. Physical Media. If you haven't, please take a minute to answer the questions on the post just prior to this one.

Speaking of posts, this is the 100th post on this ITC blog. Way to go us!

-Phil
Read More

99 Bottles The Mole on the Wall

You've probably all read the Murphy post below, so this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, but the second half of our current show, #128, will be just a little late. Hopefully it'll be up Monday night, but you never do know what's going to happen around here.

I finally beat Metroid Fusion over the weekend, and man, what an awesome game. Yes John, even on my itty-bitty screen, GBA games can still be awesome, and this one definitely is. Beating this game got me thinking though. I believe on IMDb, you can keep a running list of movies that you've seen. Does anybody know if there is a similar website for games that you've beaten? I've always wanted to go back and see a list of all those old SNES and N64 games that I've actually finished, y'know? If anybody knows of anything like this, leave us a shout in the comments, I'd love to know about it.

Now, for next week's Episode #129, we're going to be talking about physical media vs. digital media. In today's world, it's becoming more and more commonplace to be able to download games directly from the 'net instead of buying a disc at a store. Certainly this has advantages; less environmental impact, less junk around the house, the ability to patch games, the list goes on and on. But should physical media disappear completely? What are the advantages of still providing a physical game disc and a physical box?

Here's some specific questions for you to ponder on. Shout out in the comments.

1. How often do you buy a new game?
2. Looking at your current gaming collection, what percentage is physical media and what percentage is digital media?
3. If given the choice, is there one option you'd choose over the other 100% of the time? If so, why this decision?
4. What are your favorite and least-favorite things about physical media?
5. What are your favorite and least-favorite things about digital media?

And finally, 729445729794065.

-Phil
Read More