Carlos and Ben discuss the Tupac hologram, the Avengers movie domination, tips and tricks for new game masters, and great anime suggestions.
Dice Tower Awards 2011
Honestly, I almost don’t want to mention this, given that we’re trying to add a board game section to our podcast, and Dice Tower is the king of board game podcasts, but here goes…
They have an awards event every year. It’s a bit under promoted for no apparent reason, so here’s a small attempt to correct that…
http://www.dicetowernews.com/dice-tower-awards-for-2011/
Check them out, listen to all 250+ episodes, then subscribe! Â Then come back here once we get our podcast rolling with board games…
Note that this list has completely become my “must buy” list. Some really good stuff on there.
The full list, if you’re lazy, is here
Speaking of isms in geekery…
Lots of things have come up this week.
- Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting – Author John Scalzi attempts to talk about privilege in a gamified way, because a lot of people get freaked out by the term.
- A Look at Sexism in Fantasy by Sarah Darkmagic. This is in reaction to the Sexism in Fantasy article at WotC that BJ and I briefly touched on at the end of the last podcast. (Also, the Prismatic Art Collection Kickstarter that she’s running will be over soon, so check it out.)
- (Trigger warning: sexual assault.) Finally, Kickstarter Cancels Tentacle Rape Card Game, from the Border House blog. Links to a lot of related discussion there. (I believe there will be additional commentary from Geek Girls Rule soon.) This one brings up lots of issues, so I’m really interested in what she’s going to say.
COTB 006 – Geek music and DnD 5th edition news
Carlos and BJ cover the world of geek music and then spend some time discussing the recent news and changes coming from Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.
COTB 005 – Guild Wars 2 and Tables Top Games
Carlos and BJ discuss the upcoming Guild Wars 2 massive multi-player online role playing game and the sea of table top games out there. Special thanks for Terrence Vitali for helping clean up the audio file (we’ll get Carlos’s mic fixed for the next episode).
COTB 004 – The All Avengers Special
Carlos and BJ cover the Avengers vs. X-Men comic event and then discuss the epic Avengers movie soon to be released in the States.
Sexism in Geek Culture, with a look at Comics
In the most recent Coming Out of the Basement Podcast, we discuss sexism in geek culture, with a bit of a closer look at comics (along with the Mass Effect 3 ending). For the first subject, I had enough sources and examples that I thought it made sense to do a post on the topic.
I meant to mention three areas:
- the portrayal of women in geek culture media (comics, games, RPGs, etc.)
- the treatment of women in geek culture in real life situations, and
- women in positions of authority in the industries (writers/artists/creators/editors/etc.).
Lots more below.
Continue reading
COTB 003 – On Sexism in Comics and Mass Effect 3 ending
Carlos and BJ discuss various forms of sexism in geek culture including comics, video games, and professional competitive gaming. Finally they discuss the ending of Mass Effect 3 and all the drama surrounding this fan reaction.
[Edit from CJ: And a friend mentioned we might want to mention a trigger warning, which is a good idea and I apologize for not doing so in the first place. We do talk about violence against women, including sexual violence.]
Odds and Ends
Like I mentioned in our just-released Episode 2, I’m not nearly as good as self-promotion or promotion as BJ is. :P A book I worked on actually came out the day we did our first podcast, but I felt a bit odd about bringing it up (so didn’t):
Open Design’s Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder, with lead developer Adam Daigle. Daigle is an awesome monster developer who worked on all of Paizo’s Bestiaries and a host of Open Design and other materials- and as of last month was officially hired by Paizo and relocated from Austin to Seattle. And although I am biased, I gotta say that the book is one darned cool monster book. I’d get it without my contributions. ^_^ (I did include the idea of kobolds riding giant sea turtles, though! :P As well as other stuff.)
On the Kickstarter front: A few hours for a Gaming Paper adventure (plus gaming paper, a nifty gaming resource), and a few days for this excellent looking Viking-theme video game, The Banner Saga. Both look super cool. And today was the launch of Open Design’s new Kickstarter-backed project, Midgard Tales, which is going to be awesome. The lead on this one is Christina Stiles, who is both a great designer and really nice. I’m definitely backing, and if I can make the time I’m definitely contributing.
COTB 002 – E-Books and DnD 5th edition
Carlos and BJ discuss different issues facing e-book distribution and some great books, then they delve into 5th edition speculation. Finally, they revisit the new 52 and many of the issues facing the new comic universe.