Alternate Reality Gaming

This week we’re very proud to welcome Michael Andersen, owner and senior editor at ARGnet: the internet’s premier news resource for Alternate Reality Games. For the uninitiated these can involve online or real life treasure hunts, often with a series of puzzles or a totally different way of telling a story using many different forms of media. They are frequently connected to advertising campaigns for movies like Cloverfield or games like Halo 2, but sometimes they are constructed by regular people with no more agenda than crafting a unique experience for us lucky folks in the tech-age.

Michael explains all about it so by the end of the show you’ll not only understand but may find yourself itching to try one out.

As for the cake in our artwork…

Listen in and all will be revealed.

Hope this puts a smile on your face.

This week defense minister for Britain Liam Fox called for a ban on the forthcoming Medal of Honour game because players get to play as the Taliban in the multiplayer mode.

This prompted quite a response.

This is the best moments from our second year of podcasting; episodes 52-104.

The first part was published in April 2008 and we recommend going back and listening to that one as well so you can track our progress. It was in this second year that we switched from movies and games to a much more serious, professional focused show exclusively about gaming.

This is mainly the funniest or most significant moments throughout 2008 and early 2009. A third installment covering the following year is in the works right now and should take less time to produce. If there are crucial or hilarious moments we missed in editing together these episodes, let us know and they may turn up in part 3.

There’s also great news of changes to our format and release schedule so this is essential listening.

Enjoy, and we’ll see you next week.

This is the best moments from episodes 1-51 of Digital Cowboys. The follow-up charting episodes 52 -104 is now close to completion and we want to ensure you guys have heard the whole shebang. This first installment is available on iTunes if you go all the way back to April 2008 or you can listen to it here.

It’s full of funny moments from our sloppy and daft beginnings. Lots of rants, gaming chat and movie reviews. Essential listening if you’re a fan of our former co-host Paul Shotton.  It’s also interesting to chart our abilities from total amateurs through to slightly-more professional amateurs.

Now we know from our download numbers that only a fraction of our current audience have actually heard this show so now is your chance to catch up with the history of Digital Cowboys.

Part 2 out Friday.

This week we are very proud to have on the show, Mike ‘Spiffworld’ Booth. Mike works in computer programming and in his spare time works Machima videos for Jonathan Coulton using the engine for World of Warcraft. He’s become very popular on YouTube to the point where searching for a JoCo track will most likely bring up Mike’s WOW vids first.

Here is a complete chronological list of Mike’s work, we thoroughly recommend you go to his YouTube home here http://www.youtube.com/user/spiffworld and watch his creative output grow over the course of the last four years. You should at least watch a couple of your favourites before listening to the interview so that you can get a visual match in your head for what we are discussing.

1. re: Your Brains (2006)
2. Just as Long as Me
3. Creepy Doll
4. Skullcrusher Mountain
5. CodeMonkey
6. First of May*
7. Podsafe Christmas Song
8. Speed Monkey
9. Betty and Me
10. I Feel Fantastic
11. The Future Soon
12. The Big Boom
13. Chiron Beta Prime
14. Fancy Pants
15. Flickr
16. Bacteria
17. Live (Paul & Storm)
18. The Captain’s Wife’s Lament (Paul & Storm)
19. Shop Vac
20. Tom Cruise Crazy
21. Cruel, Cruel Moon (Paul & Storm)
22. Dance Soterious Johnson, Dance
23. Blue Sunny Day
24. Still Alive (Both versions)

*Not available on YouTube – check out on Mike’s blog on http://www.machinima.com/film/view&id=22450

The music for the show is, obviously, from Jonathan Coulton and his main site can be found http://www.jonathancoulton.com/

Many, many thanks to Mike for a fantastic interview and we’re up for discussion of ideas in the future. Mike’s personal website can be found at http://www.spiffworld.com/

Tony and I were recently on James Batchelors podcast: GameBurst

We discussed JRPG’s vs Western RPG’s and as usual it entailed surprising results. It’s a cracking show and runs at a trim 35 minutes or thereabouts every episode.

Keep on listening as our appearance on their monthly quiz pitted your favourite lone rangers against the Big Red Potion. That show’s up soon.

Legends of Zelda

Voices from all over the DC community and many of our podcasting friends have submitted hours of monologues talking about their favourite game in the Zelda series.

Here now, is the edited colaboration spanning 24 years worth of this massively influential series. Which ones stand out? Which ones are criminally ignored? Which do some consider overrated and what direction would we like to see Nintendo take in the future? If you love Zelda… or even if you dispise it, take a listen.

One thing is almost certain; when you’re done, you will be on the Virtual Console, eBay or Amazon looking for a Zelda game. ]]> http://thedigitalcowboys.com/2010/07/digital-cowboys-episode-164/feed/ 1 http://thedigitalcowboys.com/2010/07/digital-cowboys-update-summer-2010/ http://thedigitalcowboys.com/2010/07/digital-cowboys-update-summer-2010/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:40:05 +0000 Alex Shaw http://thedigitalcowboys.com/?p=1187

Some vital information you need to know about Digital Cowboys and the changes that are coming.

This week I was on The Married Gamers “Testrocast”. Kelly Brown gathered four male podcasters together and grilled them on some thorny issues surrounding women in gaming.

I hope I did 51% of the population proud.

This is an interview I conducted at PAX nearly a year ago. The file was missing, presumed dead for the longest time but I have recovered it and can now bring you the twenty minutes I spent with Pete Hottelet; founder of Omni Consumer Products. OCP are a company that specialises in bringing fictional consumables into real life.

Go check out their website here.

Products include Brawndo; the energy drink from Idiocracy.

Sex-Panther the cologne from Anchorman.

And most recently Tru Blood, the substitute for the real stuff that the vampires drink in the HBO show.

It was truly a fascinating conversation. I voiced some of our communities suggestions to Pete and he actually genuinely inspired me.

Enjoy.

And you can buy Tru Blood within the UK at Play.com HERE.