I'd always shied away from the whole Meeting Online Friends in Real Life thing in the past, being that sort of person that revels in the cosy bubble that online anonymity provides. You hear stories about that kind of thing, often of The Crying Game Variety, but all sorts of other Urban Legend grade mishap too. Still, the ongoing Poddessy I seem to have embarked on is doing a lot of positive things to my long-withered and gnarled psyche, so the idea of meeting Internet Folks at a highly specialised horticultural gathering in the south of England wasn't quite as terrifying as I thought it would be.
Armed only with a Studio-In-A-Pocket recording device, and a low tolerance for chili, M'Producer and I headed out for a very surreal yet thoroughly enjoyable day out, much of which the Producer surreptitiously recorded, and cobbled together in a somewhat more elemental episode than usual, in many senses of the word.
The Van Hemlock Summer Roadshow (ep 13): In which six gaming nerds brave the themepark of the tastebuds that is the West Dean Chili Festival, in a Typical British Summer's Day. Burnination! Sombreros! Ninja-Kiwi-Assault! No small amount of MMO Discussion! And Samba!
It was very odd actually. One's friends are often the product of circumstance; people you get on with at school, college, university or work. They become good friends of course, but the common ground initially, is often nothing more than a quirk of geography. For common interests there are clubs, societies, evening classes and such, but for me, it was always The Internet, a place where I could easily get in contact with folks that like what I like, but whom I'd never actually meet.
Little wonder then that we spent something like seven hours nattering about gaming, a mini festival of obsession within a larger festival of obsession. You just can't talk about this stuff around The Normals...one of the main reasons I blog and podcast at all.
Anyway, a fine day out, despite the weather, and chili poisoning, in fine company:
Of Ice And Fire
Killed In A Smiling Accident
And here's that Cave Story thing Changeling Bob was on about:
Aeon Genesis: Cave Story (English)
Back to a more normal kind of show next week, but definitely going to have to start paying more attention to the UK Gaming Calendar, I think!