Valentine's Day is one of two things: a corporate-driven exercise in greed and materialism, or a shallow excuse for couples to exchange dishonest platitudes and have underwhelming sex in an effort to follow society's instructions as to what romance should be.
This week's Podtoid is the antidote to all that. We actually engage in a lot of legitimate debate (no, seriously -- we do) and, up until the end, completely ignore the cultural abortion that is Valentine's Day.
Head to the official Podtoid page and listen enraptured as Jim Sterling, Tiff Chow, Aaron Linde and myself discuss the following:
What's the deal with Boom Blox: a.k.a. "Action Jenga With Bombs." Jesus vs. Nintendo: There's no "sell your daughter into slavery" minigame in Super Mario Bros, nor is there a "publicly murder your wife for adultery" bonus round in Halo.
BioWare? More like Bio-Scared, am I right: Should game companies take responsibility for defending themselves? Does gaming need an anti-Jack Thompson?
And, of course, reader questions. This week, Lord_Satorious wins $25 bucks for asking -- well, not necessarily the best question, but one that certainly...well, you'll see. Just listen to the podcast. Satorious, post your email address in the comments after you've composed yourself.
[The intro/outro music is "Funkenflug" by Markus Schrodt; image is taken from "L'Amour" by Don Hertzfeldt.]
Also, thanks for mentioning the abomination that is V-Day. I’ll be putting up an anti-Valentine’s Day rant on my blog later on...
Your opinions better be valid, or you're all fat.
I LOVE you.
*golf claps*
*looks around at empty room full of crap*
*cries*
*Notices proper Lost Odyssey case without scratched disc*
*wanks and cries*
Also, I love letting my girlfriend play through games. It leaves me free to work and enjoy the game at the same time.
However, I would like to note I think Mr. Bruce Everiss did the bible word count as a parody of a lot of the "concerned parent groups" system for ranking for books and such.
My wife often goes to such sites (to have a good laugh. I, unfortunately, get really pissed at all the inaccuracies), and several of them have a review system where they would list the number of times such and such a word occurred and rank the book, movie or whatever, by that word list. And words such as "kill", "stupid", "dumb", "idiot", etc.. are on these lists.
It is so stupid. It reminds me of the infamous Albert Bandura study of 1963, where they showed children a film of someone punching an inflatable clown. Afterwards, when placed in a room with the same clown they saw in the film, the children would punch it. According to the study, this proves film, TV or whatever, can make kids have "heightened aggression". But let's all take a step back for a second...
THEY'RE PUNCHING A FREAKING INFLATABLE CLOWN!
P.S.- would it be a bad time to mention that if the speech were directed at Muslims, then there wouldn't be a retalliation of messages, but a realiation of RPGs and gunfire? seems like the bible has proven to teach patience and refrainment pretty fuckin well for being so "corrupt".