The Professional Gamer - November 9, 2015

This has been an especially fun week for me, with two activities really dominating my geeky life this week.  For that reason, I'm going to change up my usual article format in order to focus more on those two activities. 

Mad Max: Fury Road: This movie came out earlier this year, and continuing in my long absence from the cinema (the only movies I've seen at a theater have been The Hobbit series).  This has to mark one occasion in which I am thoroughly ambivalent about missing a film in theater.  On one hand, the movie was a spectacle that could certainly be improved by a theater screen and sound system.  On the other hand, the whole thing could have become rather overwhelming very quickly.  Regardless, the movie was really great, with interesting character development among the protagonists.  I enjoy how, although they certainly share a common enemy, are not immediately ready to cooperate.  Also, the fact that there is a diverse cast really adds to the storytelling.  I especially loved the Vuvalini who make an appearance later in the movie.  The action is well paced, with periods of calm and narrative interspersed throughout.  If, like me, you haven't taken time for this movie yet, I recommend that you get to it soon.

Welcome to Night Vale Live: I also went to see a live version of Welcome to Night Vale.  The live performance included musical guest Eliza Rickman, who performed several songs prior to the main event, as well as performing as "The Weather".  Per request by the performers, I'm not going to reveal much about the plot of the episode.  I will only say that it involves murder most foul.  Keep an eye out to see if the WTNV crew is headed to your town, and pick up some tickets.  There was some great audience participation, and a whole lot of fun along the way.

The Welcome to Night Vale cast and musical guest Eliza Rickman.

That's all that I have for this week.  Have a great week and game on!

The Professional Gamer - November 2, 2015

I can't believe that we are already in November.  Thanksgiving will be here before we know it.  But lets not look too far ahead.  What have I been doing this week?  More of the usual, I have to say.

Watching:  I may have mentioned this earlier, but America's Test Kitchen is one of my favorite PBS programs.  I recently found out that last year's season of ATK is available on Netflix, and have been watching through that.  Netflix recommendations being what they are, I also discovered The Poisoner's Handbook, which is a wonderful documentary about the birth of forensic science.  I love seeing the evolution of science, especially in it practical application.  In this case, we get to see the development of methods used to detect poisons (or the metabolites of poisons) in the human body.  They also discuss the presentation of scientific evidence in court, and the challenge of convincing judges and juries about the degree of certainty in the evidence.

Playing: This week has again been a very limited gaming.  Just a small amount of Guild Wars again.

Reading: I haven't ended up with much time for reading this week, and have opted to read news and opinion articles, rather than fiction.  If you're interested in looking through my reading list, go ahead and follow me on Twitter or Tumblr.

That's all for this week.

The Professional Gamer - October 26, 2015

Hi everyone! I hope you all have had a great week and enjoyed your weekend. We're getting close to Halloween, which of course leads to this:

This week has been a lot of fun, watching some fun TV series and reading some great comics.  

Playing: In terms of gaming this week, all that I've done is playing a few hours of Guild Wars 2.

Watching: This week I spent time watching through the Green Lantern: The Animated Series that was produced recently.  It's very much a kid series, but is still a lot of fun.  As hinted above, I also re-watched the entirety of Over the Garden Wall this last week, and it is still an amazing series.

Reading: This week, I read the first volume of Mystery Babylon, which I purchased at Denver Comic Con due to a strong resemblance to The Slayers.  The series so far is a lot of fun, but I feel like I need to read some more to develop a more informed opinion of it.  I've also started reading The Thrilling Adventure of Lovelave and Babbage, a mostly factual comic of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, the world's first computer scientists.  This book is dense, with lots of historical references and footnotes.  I've not even made it through one chapter yet, because I've had to spend so much time reading through all the notes.  But, I'm loving every minute of it.

The Gameslave Podcast - Episode 217

We've posted our interview with Lisa Ortiz.  Go ahead and have a listen.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Last night millions of geeks watched 1/2 a football game in order to see the new Star Wars trailer. And seconds afterward it was on hundreds of site, now including this one!

So what can we tell from this? One, Luke may or may not be the bad guy. There is a lot of speculation around this, but I am going to vote that he is not a villain. Two we will see the Millennium Falcon again (although we already knew this). And that it looks cool. Here is hoping that this movie returns the Star Wars cinema to the greatness we think it deserves.

The Professional Gamer - October 19, 2015

Hello readers! I've had a fun and challenging week.  The boss was away this week, leaving me in charge of the design group.  And, things went pretty well.  I've got another week of responsibility, then I go back to my normal position.  But, it has been fun to be in charge, if only for a little bit.  Anyways, what have I been doing this week?  I'm glad you asked!

Playing: Opening session of my revived tabletop RPG (formerly D&D 4.0, now Pathfinder), went quite well.  My players all seem to be fairly excited about the story that I've teased out for them.  And, the rules are familiar enough to me that the adjustment in running the game was not hard at all.  Crystal and I are planning to trade weeks of running games, so look for more updates in two weeks time.

Reading: My attempt to read through Pretty Guardian: Sailor Moon has failed.  Well, its delayed at least.  I'm two chapters from the end, and Sailor Moon is about to face off against Sailor Galaxia.  Alas, the books were due back to the library and I had no more renewals left.  I will get the last volume back as soon as possible.  In the meantime, I read two short graphic novels: The Ring of Saturn and Casting Bones.  In both cases, I'm still collecting my thoughts, but will have full reviews for both in the next few weeks.

Watching: I feel like most of the serials that I've been regularly watching are leaving me in an awkward position this week.  I have one episode left to watch of My Love Story, but it hasn't posted to Hulu yet.  And Steven Universe is now on hiatus (reportedly until 2016).  I did catch Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor's (brief) appearence on The Late Show this week (the Welcome to Night Vale creators come in at the last 5 minutes).  It's cool to see some guys who are making something that is, at least to my mind, incredibly geeky, get some mainstream press for it.

That's all I've got for this week.  I'm off to put together some plans for D&D next week.  Have a great week, and game on!

The Gameslave Podcast - Episode 216

Our interview with Taliesin Jaffe is posted in the podcast feed.  We talk about Hellsing, roleplaying, and the future of anime.  You should give it a listen.

The Professional Gamer - October 12, 2015

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Professional Gamer.  This week I've been on the giving and the receiving end of media sharing.  But have also found myself a bit preoccupied during most of the evenings.  I managed to find some time to enjoy myself, so read on to find out what I did.

Watching: This week I only was home for one evening where I could watch some television.  And that time was spent sharing Steven Universe with some friends.  I have to say, I miss getting to watch something new to me at times, but I also really love the feeling of sharing something new with a friend.  

Playing: This was another week where almost all of my video gaming time was spent on Guild Wars 2.  However, I am now also working to get a tabletop RPG ready for my friends.  I ran a long term game using the D&D 4th Edition rules.  My group (and me) got a little tired of how long combat tended to take in that system, and have opted to try continuing the story using the Pathfinder rules.  But, I haven't run a game in that system yet, so I'll be learning the rules a bit as we go along.

Reading: I spent my reading time this week with Volume 11 of Pretty Guardian: Sailor Moon, and have now started into the "Stars" arc.  After the fun and uplifting story of the "Dark Moon" arc, this one has been rather tough.  Warning: spoilers on a 10 year old series ahead.  Momoro's death in the first chapter is really rough.  Especially the way that Usagi blocks it out.  If she had confronted this event dead on, I feel like things would seem less tragic.  But, now it just feels like a scab that can't be left alone.  I've got to hurry my way through the rest of the story though.  All of the library books are due back next week and I have run out of renewals!

That's all I've got for this week.  I'm very close to releasing some new podcast episodes featuring our interviews from Nan Desu Kan 2015.  Look for those to start appearing this week.  Have a great week and game on!

The Gameslave Podcast - Episode 215

Just posted our interview with Alisa Freedman.  Check it out!