VH Podcast
New! MMO related halfassery, in Audio form!
Another self-promotional podcast-type post, with another podcast link on it:
Van Hemlock (ep58): Cheapseats
With some news and a whole new feature to replace the Topic Bit!
Speaking for myself, I do worry that I've become a bit comfortable in my online gaming, with my three main choices (Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online) becoming very fixed things which I don't see myself getting bored with any time soon. Not that there is anything essentially wrong with being a loyal repeat customer of a service you like and enjoy - quite the reverse in fact! But it would be dishonest...
Some more excessive self-indulgence here:
Van Hemlock (Ep 57): A Tank, a Healer and a CC walk into a bar...
It's another What We're Playing One, which turns out to include:
Guild Wars
Lord of the Rings Online
City of Villains
Planetside
Runes of Magic
Beneath a Steel Sky
Infamous
Prototype
Red Faction: Guerrilla
EVE Online
A Tale In The Desert
Sam N Max...
Yikes! Two of these posts back-to-back. This is likely to be either the Editor's tardiness on the previous show or alacrity on this one, but either way, even more talking here!
Van Hemlock (ep56): Axe-Grinding as a Participation Sport!
A casually thrown out Twitter Question went supernova this week, and became the topic in itself; "This week saw us literally paralysed by LotRO's Dread System, which was quite irritating! What MMO mechanic annoys you the most?"
A massive list of gripes ensued, showing that pretty much all of us dream of a somewhat better game than we play at present. Pretty much the entire...
Here is us, doing some talking, about E3!
Van Hemlock (ep55): Eclectic, Effervescent, Egocentric!
Which to be fair, is mostly a show brought to you by Jon, with me heckling at regular intervals! Its a What Were Playing One, and the Twitter Question was: "Another E3 come and gone. See anything you liked? Didn't see something you hoped to? Let me know cos I missed the whole thing!"
E3 didn't really give me personally a lot to drool over, and seemed mostly to be about Console Stuffs this year, in particular, new and interesting ways to look a fool in the privacy of...
People seem to think that guests are a Sometimes Thing for the show, which we can respect, so its back to something a bit more normal this week:
Van Hemlock Podcast (Ep 54): When DRM ATTACKS!
Which mostly features yours truly getting quite stroppy about SecureROM issues while trying to play Supreme Commander. Grr! Overall, the fight against software piracy is a tricky issue that probably has no obvious solution, or at least not one that we could come up with in half an hour!
The Twitter Question wasn't a terribly original one this week; "What MMO are you looking forward to next?",...
Another week, another show:
Van Hemlock Podcast (Ep 53): Too Teppo To Handle!
Indeed, a guest on the show this week; Matt of Limited Edition fame who took some time out of a busy Saturday lunchtime to join us to natter a bit about MMOs and gaming in general. Always nice to not have to solely listen to the Cohost droning on for an hour and if anything Matt has played even more MMOs than I have, and several that I've never gotten round to look at, including Chronicles of Spellborn and Priates of the Burning Sea. Good to get a bit...
Here we are again with another show, and back to the usual format of us talking for far too long about games news and our own gaming.
Van Hemlock Podcast (Ep 52): Not Seeing The Fornost for the Trees
A bit of an overrun there, at 1h 30m, but we were enjoying ourselves which is the main thing!
Toward the end, talk inevitably turns to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, which by now has already happened. I found myself in the always awkward situation of having to explain what the entire spectacle was about to Americans last night, never an easy task,...
As The Producer rather snippily points out, being too busy is no excuse, or something, so here goes with a change to the format here, and an attempt to see if I can get away from the whole 'A Blog Post Is A Thing Of Great Craftsmanship' mindset I seem to have which dictates that I can't even think about a post unless I have three hours to do so. Speed blogging then: somewhere between the Tweets and the Dissertations, there must be a happy medium. Here goes then...
I'm still doing these, of course:
Van Hemlock Podcast (Ep 51): Live from...
More talking fun here! I couldn't think of a particular topic of my own this week, so instead thought it might be interesting to ramble a bit about things that we thought were interesting, out there in the Blag-U-Spore over the last week or two proving that not only am I self-centred enough to talk about myself for a whole hour most weeks, but that I can also turn what other people think about completely unrelated things, into talking about myself for an hour! Van Rantlock & Cpt Chinstroker (Ep38) In which there's News, most of...
Continuing on with Emo Week here at the Van Hemlock Blog, heres a show about The End of All Things, or some such!
VH's Eyliner Hour (Ep 36); In which a somewhat introspective host gets all melancholy about the nature of Permanence in Online Gaming. Plucky Cohost does his best with chirpy light-hearted News, but doesn't do a terribly good job at lifting the mood there, either...
Don't worry though, it'll most likely be Mania Week next week on the Van Hemlock & Jon's Violent MoodswingsCast! Long Live PC Gaming, etc!
If you can't wait until then, there's also Ep 35,...
More shows here! It speaks volumes about my real life, or lack there of that we managed to keep on going, right through the festive season and out the other side. Heigh ho. The Sound of Van Hemlock (Ep33): In which we slack off and just play computer game music for two hours and pretend to be Real DJs! Also: Judge Jon's Legal Corner (Ep34): In which we return to the normal post-festive style of things; News Mockery, Rambling Gaming Anecdote, and a special vast section on the recent Worlds.com vs NCSoft patent thing,...
Yo ho ho, etcetera! All been a bit quiet here over the hols, with the usual excessive amount of time off work sending me nocturnal and feral. Still managed to cling on to some shreds of much needed routine however, and there was the Christmas Show, which is here: Van Hemlock (Ep 32): In which there's Not Especially Festive News, Festive What We're Playing, The Van Hemlock Podcast 'Best and Worst of 2008' section, and a Just For Fun Quiz! (We'll do the answers in the new year for that) One more to...
Since it seemed improper not to, this week we had a go at RMT Ruminations ourselves, and also jigger about with the running order a bit. News never sleeps, so we're basically shoving a ramble about the news stuffs on the front of our customary big rambles about the Big Topic each fortnight. Buy VanHemlockCoins Here! (Ep #31): In which news is mocked as usual, and then an somewhat in-depth look at the big current RMT outpourings is, er, looked at! Look out for the big Van Hemlock Podcast Winterweenvalmass Episode next week!
Some more talking and stuff here. I forgot to make mention of last week's too. I'd forget my own head if it wasn't Bind on Pickup. The Evil Machinations of Dr Von Haddock (Ep29): In which the dastardly Doktor and the vile Count, er... Jon, plot to take over the world, but to ensure they are on the right track, conduct an hour long discussion into the nature of Evil in MMO Gaming first! Muahaha! And if that's all a bit heavy going, here's a more usual kind of show: ...
Now I've had time to simmer a bit, I have somewhat mixed feelings about the big Tabula Rasa news. Kneejerk for me was a kind of cynical low-grade rage; I liked that game! How dare you! I'm not playing it at the moment, but that's not the point! On reflection, with a slightly cooler head, I begin to see that perhaps that is precisely the point; I'm not playing it at the moment, and neither are a large number of other ex-customers, for one reason or another. It doesn't help much though, and instead I find myself...
Thanks to a breakthrough in the Van Hemlock Acoustic Labs we've finally got with the program, and have managed to plug the right wires into the right sockets, and got a Guest on the show! This week, Voice of America, Michael Zenke joins us to have a good old natter about recently announced Bioware MMO; Star Wars: The Old Republic. Van Hemlock: Republic (Ep27); In which two ill-informed hacks are, er, informed! Join us for Sith, Stormtroopers, and Storytelling! Varied and Assorted ruminations about what a new Star Wars MMO might mean for us...
War never changes, and all that. Yes, this week MMO Gaming nearly ceased altogether as the pair of us became completely obsessed with Fallout 3. There's the basic obsession with what is a very fine game indeed, of course, but also the more brutal obsession of Who Is Best?, as judged by the Xbox 360 Live gamer tag thingey, which M'Cohost bullied me into signing up for. It's a bit of a one-sided fight frankly, as I have only one game that is supported by the scheme, and at last count, he's winning by 23,099 "G's" to my paltry...
As well as Jumpgate Evolution, there was a lot else to see and do at the Eurogamer Expo 2008, and while I was obsessing on one particular PC MMO in the far corner, m'Producer was wandering the floor with his Suspicious Looking Recording Device. High point of the day for me was a spectacularly poorly organised raid encounter on a not-that-near-at-all-actually pub, for lunch, and of course, the gratuitous 'Press' queue jumping! Van Hemlock & Jon's Big Day Out (Ep25): In which all manner of Gaming Luminaries shout at each other in firstly a noisy ex-brewery,...
More shows here! As Rick quite rightly pointed out, I was indeed slacking off last week, but in Belgium, rather than Egypt, but still managed to get back in time to do a show. Five hundred miles on English, French and Belgian Roads, interspersed with visits to far more war graves than I'll ever want to see again lent something of an introspective mood to the proceedings, and Burnout came to mind. What happens when we've had more than our fill? Can anything be done? Should anything be done? The Van Hemlock Podcast; Burnout (Ep 23):...
It's all gone a bit Tale In The Desert at the Van Hemlock Podcast, but as ever, being the pretentious wannabe MMO Intelligentsia that we are, it all spilled out into more general purpose ruminations on the genre as a whole. Spoilers are an all-pervading fact of online gaming life; wikis, databases, guides and walkthroughs can be found all over the place for almost all of our MMOs. Are they helpful? Are they harmful? Does it even matter? Van Hemlock: Spoilers (Ep21): A lengthy and rambling discussion about The Appropriate Use of Short Cuts. Not Entirely...
Another week, and some more Talking and Stuff. Yet To Think Of a Snappy Name (Ep20): In which various Mountains of News are eroded by the Wind and Rain of Bemusement, to become the Pebbles of Whatever The Hell It Is We Actually Do! Also, first impression garblings on Warhammer Online, and A Tale In The Desert! On a somewhat related note, preparations seem to be underway for another of our Clueless Outdoor Broadcast shows, this time, in association with the Limited Edition Podcast. The plan so far seems to...
I suspect most of my online gaming life has been a turbulent journey in which I continually attempt to find the right kind of PvP to suit my temperament. My very first ever online game was a series of endlessly repeating Tie Fight deathmatches, in X-Wing Vs Tie-Fighter, and within a month or so of starting on my first ever MMO, I'd moved to a free-for-all PvP server. Despite that, I'd probably call myself a carebear, if asked today. It's generally a bit more complicated than that though, as we attempt to illustrate in our latest hour-long Topic In...
Yet more ramblings here! I sometimes worry about podfade, that one week we'll sit down in the illustrious Van Hemlock Podcast Studios, look at each other and shrug in silence. I'm not even sure how many shows we'd thought we'd do. Still, the MMOosphere keeps on providing, and here's show 18: The Jon Show (Ep18): In which all manner of games we have No Business Talking About, get talked about, including <google>Warhammer Online!</google>, Vanguard, Runescape, <google>World of Warcraft</google> and sundry others! There's also the What Were Playing Bit, which features no games worth doing the <google>...
It's all in the eye of the beholder, as they say, and 'Subjective' is fast becoming one of my favouritest words. Much of last fortnight was occupied with a spectacular U-turn and really quite feeble caving in, where I ended up impulse buying Bioshock from a supermarket one lunchtime. See, well, everywhere else about five months ago for a proper review of that, but I found it to be one of those rare but truly awe-inspiring moments that don't come up nearly as often as they should, in my gaming life.
It also somewhat polarised me in a long running...
Something of a different show this time. We've had a number of excellent suggestions for show topics over the past few months, most of which we've simply not had time to fit in, what with the self-impose one hour show, and us rambling on far too long about news and games and such. This time we get very Radio 4, launching into an epic one-topic ramble. Van Hemlock: Guilds (Ep15): In which we look at the ins and outs of that age-old staple of the MMO, the Guild. Featuring in-depth interviews with the leaders of Guild...
After the heady joys of the British Summer, its back to a more normal kind of show, with the usual sniping, barracking and ill-informed opinion, and general rambling about, like, games and stuff. Its all a bit strange really, but what with Real Life, Work and Actually Playing some of these games, I'm increasingly finding that it has become easier to bang out a podcast, than write a blog post lately. The podcast stuff all takes place at weekends, for a start, whereas the blogging is generally a get-in-from-work-exhausted activity. I also end up doing all the 'Hey!...
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...
Well, the attempt to go weekly almost made it! Its a surprisingly tricky business, actually. Not the rambling, of course, and regular listeners will have come to understand exactly how much preparation goes into one of our regular "efforts", which when all is said and done, is basically the pair of us sitting in a pub, nattering about online gaming, only without the pub. Its the technical side of it all that seems to throw up the most monkey wrenches, and it has taken a number of weeks for my Cohost and Producer to put together the necessaries...
Better late than never, as they say, and after a curious and frankly improbable turn of events during which not just one, but two Macs met an untimely and explosive end, (taking one attempt at show 11 with them), alternative arrangements were finally arrived at! The Van Hemlock Light Programme for the Colonies and the Home Counties!: Ep11, in which The Making Fun of the News Bit and the What We're Playing Bit cavort on the vanquished corpse of the Topics Bit, which should return soon enough. Exhibitions, Conspiracies, Inadequacies, Killer Magnet-Eating Mould on the Rampage,...
Is it really ten episodes? Frankly, I'd have expected us to podfade and burn out months ago. I must admit, being a fortnightly thing does help a lot; lots can happen in fourteen days, and some of it is bound to be interesting! No signs of burnout just yet anyway, and here some more rambling: An Afternoon With Van Hemlock And Co; Ep 10: In which the What We're Playing Bit gets out of hand, Yet Again, but the Being Snarky About The News Section struggles to make a valiant comeback, and even a Feature gets...
Another fortnight, another two hours of formless rambling into microphones. For reasons which will become increasingly apparent as you listen, I've become somewhat slack on the actual blogging of late, and do apologise. Hopefully, Drastic Action over the next week or so will mean service resumed as usual. Either that, or I'll just go mad; whichever! Van Hemlock Overdrive!; Ep 9; In which various forms of Excess are poked with the pointy stick of Amateur Psychiatry, an Epic What We are Playing section utterly crushes any kind of News Section, Excessive Download Gluttony is threatened with...
Somewhat later this week, mostly my fault. Somewhat ambitious ideas for The Twiddely Bits (Technical podcast terminology) that go between the Bits Where We're Saying Stuff, got rather out of hand and ended up giving us an entirely additional Co-host, and presenting a rather stiff technical challenge for my Producer/Original Co-host. He's still grumpy for lack of sleep, but I'm pleased with the results, which can be found here: Van Hemlock's 'Not An Eve Podcast!'; Episode 8; In which our two plucky internet spaceship pilots prepare for the Empyrean Age, but also find time to Scoff...
Somewhat redundant information by now I suppose, but yes, we have indeed joined the Varied Integrated Resource Gathering Intelligence Network ("V.I.R.G.I.N.") Worlds Collective podcast network thingie, making it even more difficult for me to do my customary trick of getting so far into a project or idea, and then panicking and vanishing! With all that fuss, it would be rude not to do another show, so here it is! Hemlock, Van...Hemlock; Episode 007: In which Various News is mocked as is Customary, future MMO Gaming on the Console is considered in all it's various Promise...
Here we go again, and despite the unseasonal UK variable and fortnight-long sudden summer, and and complete lack of air-conditioning, we managed yet another podcast thingie. We'd forgot about Summer when we started in on this, but hopefully the heat-delirium isn't too apparent. Stick with us for another three shows and you will likely get to hear us expire...on air!
Van Hemlock & The Vandellas; Ep 6: In which more news is treated in an Extremely Irreverent Manner, a blogger demonstrates an enormous amount of Hypocrisy concerning Planetside, and because playing music is Much Easier than thinking up Interesting Things...
Busy Saturday this weekend, with not one, but two podcasts being recorded, making it about the most stuff I've ever got done on a weekend day, ever. There's our own humble offering here: Van Hemlock & Van Hemlockability; Part the Fifth: In which a somewhat Pragmatic View is taken on Open Beta Tests, and a distinctly more Enthusiastic Outlook is shown for Fishing! Also, some news is treated in a Jolly Flippant Manner Indeed, and a break is taken for Ice Cream! Useful Links: Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog: AoC = Another Raiding Treadmill......
Yet again, I managed to get up before sunset, one Saturday in two, and make it to the luxurious state-of-the-art recording studios of my Cohost and Producer. This is no mean feat, what with me being more or less nocturnal now and my body-clock has drifted, after much abuse, to a time-zone shared mostly with the citizens of Rio De Janeiro. I think there was once a time when I did things on a Saturday; productive things. They may have even involved Being Outdoors - I forget. However, in lieu of anything productive, er, produced, this weekend, we made...
Quite getting into the stride of it now, or at the least, am now not quite so weird-ed out by the sound of my own voice anymore, which is an important part of the whole exercise. Similarly my Cohost/Producer seems to be doing a lot less confused head-scratching and is not having to fight so much with the software he's using to produce the whole thing. He's opted for something called Garage Band, on a Mac, and it's all quite baffling to me. I just let him get on with it all and concentrate on remembering to actually face...
Another one here, because apparently, a single episode does not a podcast make, or so iTunes says. Speaking as someone who has never owned an Apple product, I don't see what the fuss is, to be honest; manual Direct Downloads of MP3 were good enough in my day! But many of you hip kids have iBoxes or i360's or whatever, so there ought to be an iTunes thingie on the sidebar any day now. The Van Hemlock Podcast; Ep2: In which the Small Green Wriggly Thing of News is Poked with the Sharp Pointy Stick of Uninformed Opinion...again;...
What ho! So much for the whole extended sabbatical idea then. I did start out okay - being just a Normal Gamer, or a close approximation thereof, for at least a fortnight! But the little essays and diatribes and pontifications started growing once more, along with a need to tell someone about it all, whose eyes don't glaze over at the mention of orcs and internet spaceships. So after just over a month away, its back to it. Aren't you lucky? I'm sure I've remarked before that one of the reasons I do this stuff is that if I don't...