Comments on: Episode 60: Playable Character by Eric J. Juneau

By: Josh R.

Josh R. — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:14:54 +0000

I never really liked Trade Wars, but I enjoyed Galactic Empire and… Crossroads? Was that the one where each direction took you toward a different element? And South was Earth?

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:43:07 +0000

I loved playing Trade Wars 2002 on local BBS’ when I was a lad.
Got good enough to build my own planet, and someone with a lot more firepower blew it up…

Then I played Lands of Devastation which was almost a Fallout precursor, except with text and ASCII graphics. I put a couple hundred credits into the bank, forgot to check it for a few months, and came back to a few million credits. Bought the final bosses weapon from him, then killed him with it. Gotta love 10% interest compounded daily…

This episode brings back fun memories.

By: Josh R.

Josh R. — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:02:43 +0000

I remember Tank Girl. I freaking LOVED that movie… and during Hurricane Floyd, I had to do multi-station legal IDs at the radio stations I was working at, and I used some of the music as a bed for the :10 legals before the news coverage. I just… ahem… HAPPENED… to have that CD in my car…

I was really concerned that I would hate this story — a playable character with a mind of his own? Who doesn’t like his player? Who wants to rebel? AGAIN? But then, as we learned, the story was really about real problems in MMORPGs and how a grassroots effort can succeed where going to the authorities cannot — and then the authorities take note and WHAM, there goes the Blood Samurai or whatever those things were. I also liked how the entire thing took place in the game, and Bedevere getting disconnected was great (although it would’ve been awesome if it had just been a lag issue). Peachbutt sounds familiar to me as a character name…

The production values were good, and I enjoyed the character voices — especially Bedevere; Rish seemed to have a lot of fun with that one. The game judge voice really did sound like a bored 19-year-old talking through a voice modulator, which I guess was the intent, but it was a little annoying.

The fear thing was fun to listen to.

By: Kevin Anderson

Kevin Anderson — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 01:26:40 +0000

Really enjoyed this one. Almost made me want to play a video game.

Almost.

By: Gerard

Gerard — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:17:27 +0000

this story was very original and refreshing;

i used to play american mcgee’s alice, and i tried to avoid killing alice by skipping fights where possible and keeping health and strength of will maximized as much as possible; i preferred to enjoy the imaginative scenery and move though the game, fighting only where necessary;

i don’t like the massive online multiplayer stuff because i usually get to the game late, and the game is essentially shut off to newbies;

the first story i remember about characters inside a computer was harlan ellison’s “i have no mouth, and i must scream”, which was very dark and terrible; i prefer eric juneau’s “playable character” because it is positive and hopeful;

why create an imaginary world that is terrible and hopeless, when we already have a real world that is terrible and hopeless?

By: Big Anklevich

Big Anklevich — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:43:31 +0000

Cccann’t type, over…overwhelmed with convulsive shudder.

By: Cambodia Carl

Cambodia Carl — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:44:49 +0000

But how do they taste, cdugger?

By: cdugger

cdugger — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:56:42 +0000

I really enjoyed this story. While my geek factor is quite low, I do remember the days!

And, here in Texas, we have 3 inch long flying roaches.

By: Bob Weber

Bob Weber — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:52:20 +0000

Great story and great production.

Big, I’m pretty sure the fear of being trapped in a car that runs off the road and sinks to the bottom of the ocean is NOT irrational. I think that’s a perfectly rational fear.

By: Abbie

Abbie — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:16:49 +0000

Apropos of nothing (this is why you need a forum, guys – I can’t make a proper thread for this), I present Jay Lake’s “The larval stages of the common American speculative fiction writer” http://jaylake.livejournal.com/2033417.html

This will make some of you giggle.