Jeffool.com

Don’t suppose Will Wright, Tim Schafer, Warren Spector, Reggie Fils-Aime, or Gabe & Tycho read this blog? I’ve made the promise to get these people and more for interviews on Evil Avatar Radio. And for bonus points, I’m going to get Tim Schafer and Reggie Fils-Aime at the same time, so we can coerce them to get a Tim Schafer game on the Wii. I have no doubt his wonderful characters, worlds, and overall design would make for an excellent coupling with the Wii’s “interesting” tech.

Ah well. I guess I’m off to email them all. I wonder if one mass emailing is overly unprofessional? And if that fails, I could always stand outside of their houses holding a 80s style boombox over my head, a la Lloyd Dobler. After all, to know Jeffool is to love him, right?

Note to self: This is the perfect chance to snag Brett Douville a Wii devkit! Anyone else want one?

So a week ago a link was passed around about how virtually all informative video game related internet shows (video and audio) suck. (Here.) I can totally understand his opinion. I only listen to one podcast really; well, aside from the Lost podcast, but that’s mandatory. I listen to one video game podcast, and it’s the one I host (host meaning provide webspace for, not perform emcee duties during,) Evil Avatar Radio.

If you stay up to date on all the video game goings on then it won’t provide you with information, just maybe a few laughs. If you’re not into that, you probably shouldn’t bother. But the reason I feel that it works and provides those laughs is because it’s approached more like a bastardized local talk show than an authoritative podcast. As it’s an offshoot from the gaming news-link-site EvilAvatar.com. Our sense of community has really carried over well to the show and as a reader of the site, I feel like a part of the show even when I’m not on it because I know those talking (and being talked about,) relatively well. (Hell, you can even listen live and call in from 10pm-1am Eastern Friday nights.) Also, I would think that a cast of people who work well together would help non-EvAvers get into the feel of things, I would think. After all, a well functioning community is always appealing.

Now, the idea of ‘community podcasting’ is obviously not new. Many TV shows, websites, and other hobbies have their own podcasts. And it’s not just podcasts for communities. Some communities have sprung up around initial podcasts (TWiT, etc.) This lead me to thinking about community gaming. Not just a community about gaming, or even gaming with your community, but rather gaming about your community. If one were to look at gaming as a reflection of the partaking community then it’s easy to see why FPS players are the jocks of the gaming world. FPS’ are all competition, there’s smacktalk, rivalries, and their stars even get endorsement deals. Hardcore MMORPGers are the Amish, who have moved away from our civilization, preferring their own world. And of course who could forget the starving artists of Interactive Fiction?

So, I thought, what if someone were to invert even that? Let’s take a community, and build a game around it. Hell, you could even shove those people into an existing game. Remember how much fun it was to type your friends names into Oregon Trail and see if they’ll make it? Imagine starting up a popular single player game and playing in a world where the cast is a community you’ve known for years. It sounded fun, so, I think I’ll do it.

Oh, and that radio show? Because I’m an attention whore you can hear me in the latest episode, F-Bomb. (Actually, it was after we finished the show when we realized that by recording this on the internet instead of the radio, we could have cussed constantly if we wanted. And we wanted. We just didn’t know Nat hadn’t stopped recording.)

Hi. If you just got eleven posts from me, sorry about that, but thanks for subscribing to the correct (feedburner) feed. I’ve finally moved into blog.jeffool.com, as I actually bought this webspace a while back and never really got around to using it so I started giving that away. (More on that later.) The point is, I’m using it now. Allow me to share a little about myself, again. Let me be honest. I want to change the world. Yeah, I have a bit of an ego but I think I’m generally an affable guy. Like many I aspire to be in game development, but I’m not sure how that’s going to work out. I program, but right now I’m really just a gamer with a blog so if you’re against reading such, here’s your point of exit.

Also, I mentioned I gave away lots of my webspace, so I just thought I’d mention some of the worthwhile causes I wanted to give space to and I hope you’ll check them out. First off, there’s Evil Avatar Radio, which is a podcast offshoot of the popular linksite Evil Avatar. They’re mostly good peoples, even if the main guy ‘Evil Avatar’ himself is batshit insane and doesn’t dig the idea of the Revolution too much. :D Of course I’m partial to the show because I often appear on it.

Also, there’s DJ Z-Trip, whose turntablism I really dig. I hope you’ll give him a shot. Any artist that releases tons of free stuff is good by me. I recommend at least the Future Primitive Soundsession Vol 2, if not the Anti-War mix as well.

Also, as you may have noticed on the bottom right over there, I’ve discovered Pandora.com If you haven’t, you really should. I often have a hard time finding new music as I don’t listen to the radio or watch MTV, so this has actually helped me some. Feel free to peak into my brain and listen to music I like. (If it has a thumbs up, I’ve already voted it as “Good Stuff.”)

I hope not to screw with the feed any more, so if I do end up resending ten posts, I’m really sorry about that. Dunno how much time I’ll have as I’ve started an little Oblivion mod, but hey, at least I’ll be posting! (Some of you need to post more… Hint hint.)