Minecraft Beta is here, just in time for Christmas! We have much to be thankful for on this holly jolly episode!

Spencer Williams derails, I mean, joins us this week. We catch up on LOTS of email with a special extended "Excavation Station" segment. Hold on tight, this cart is going off the rails!

This week, we here on NoG talk about everything for which we are thankful. Well, everything we're thankful about in games. That's why there's a picture of a headcrab. Actually, I think headcrabs kind of look like turkeys. Turkeys are related to Thanksgiving, therefore this image is not completely and totally random.

Man, now I'm hungry. Roasted headcrab and bullsquid dressing, all drenched in gravy made from that stuff barnacles puke after you kill them. Ooh, and mashed potatoes. Yum.

We're soaring above the sky's limit this week, so bring your respirator. MinecraftChick joins us once again, and this time she's in the studio with us!

Introducing our very first guest, and it's a chick, a MinecraftChick!

There is more Minecraft machinima in the works, but this week you'll hear about Hardcore Mode, a Notch interview, gasses, classes and passes!

This week on Eat Smart For Life, Hunter and Brent talk about how to eat smart for Thanskgiving.  Listen in to hear how you can help your self eat smart for life and get fit in the process!

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That is a post Thanksgiving title.  Hope  you enjoyed it as much as the sounds Richard made.

Although it is one of our favorite game genres, rhythm games are in steady decline. Viacom's announcement they were divesting Harmonix has been the talk of the industry, and we're eager to delve into the subject of the future of the genre.

In fact, Wes seems very concerned that game sales numbers indicate the decline of all fun. But we're quick to point out the weakness of pretty much any opinion he expresses.

In the process, we'll debate where we think the industry is heading, and whether the growth of first-person shoots and sports games are a threat to the market.

Lest we forget... DUCKS!

I have many things to be thankful for.  2 incredible kids, an incredible wife.  Incredible friends, and an incredible community to belong to just to name a few.   Another thing I am thankful for is gaming.   And specifically, online games.

I love the fact that you can log in and enjoy the game you are playing with friends.  Not just talking about it, or playing the same version of the game, but actually playing the same game.  In the same world,   the same game space.   Anyways, that's not really what this post is about.

Simply put

• What in gaming are you thankful for?


• Also -- What are the biggest gaming Turkeys?

Every time i make one of these posts, I start by looking at the name of the episode.  I'm not sure why, because just seeing AM31 is just going to make me think of a radio station.   I decided to quit fighting the urge, and so here you go the new title.   I'm not so sure the explanation makes the posts or the titles any better, but I thought you should know.  I'm pretty sure Richard wanted to know but was scared if he asked that I might make some stupid post about our conversation, and I'm pretty sure he didn't want to have to deal with that.    Now that is utter speculation, but I'm pretty sure it's true.   Truth.  It's a funny thing.  Unless you're Matlock, then it's like your life and stuff, and sometimes it may be funny, but sometimes it would be sad too, I mean.. that's life right.  Yin and Yang... you have to have the bad times to make the good times more enjoyable.  Like that time i was a kid sitting on a roof of a house under construction and some neighborhood bully threw a rock at me and split open my chin.  It bled pretty bad, but i didn't want to get stitches so I avoided home.  I didn't die or get an infection, but I did end up with a scar on my chin.  Now that was a sucky day.   Not that bad of course, but now whenever I sit on buildings under construction, I can sit back and enjoy it knowing there won't be a bully throwing rocks at me.  But really that's just a theory.   I'm not so sure I believe in theories anymore.   Not after geometry with the teacher that made us sing some stupid song that went.. Water... Water... omg.  I to this day have no clue what that was about, but we did have a cool sub once who had a favorite dead kennedy's song.   Now that's a sub!  Of course, i think that's probably why he was a sub and not a full time teacher.  Again.. speculation.  Speaking of subs.. did you see glee last week?!  Gwyneth Paltrow was awesome on there.   now, I've got to say that she really didn't dance that well, but like who cares.   It wasn't dancing with the stars... stars.... night... day.  Today.  AM31.  Enjoy.

It's better than an ear full of dead chickens

30?   That's a monumental episode in the podcast biz.   And with the sound that filled my ear canals when I listened to what richard sent me, ASSURED me that he knew how important this episode was.   I can still feel it.  Sitting there.   Like a sound egg.  Waiting to hatch little sound birdies.  To bad I already hard boiled the eggs.   I bet they would have made sweet chicadees.   But then they'd start pooping a lot, and I'd then really wish I had hard boiled them.  So I did.  And now we are all happy.  Well, except for the people that read this whole message.   But hey.. Enjoy the Sound Egg anyways.  Forget about the dead baby birds in your ear canals.

The Shaftlands moves servers, a new world awaits! Follow the epic journey of a man searching for diamonds. It's an explosion of happiness!

Viacom's announcement that it will sell off Harmonix has put a lot of attention onto the apparent demise of rhythm games. Sales numbers for Rock Band 3 seem to confirm that dire prediction, coming in during release month ranked in the mid-teens or 20's depending on the source. And yet, of all the games I have managed to play over the past two years, Rock Band and its ilk have dominated all others in universal appeal. How is it that something with so prevalent an appeal can flounder while Black Ops, a game I have very little interest in, breaks sales records without batting an eye?

Now I'm not one to say that sales numbers are the sole arbiter of what gamers want from their market, but they are certainly a good prediction of what is going to be available in the future. The fact that one million Kinect units have been sold is a pretty clear indicator that we're going to see people attempting to tap that market. Toss into the mix that development costs for modern games are through the roof, and you'll see more dollars going towards established sellers.

Here are the October sales rankings for 2010.

1. NBA 2K11 (X360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC)


2. Fallout: New Vegas (X360, PS3, PC)


3. Medal of Honor (X360, PS3, PC)


4. Fable 3 (X360)


5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (X360, PS3, Wii, PC, NDS)


6. Halo: Reach (X360)


7. Just Dance 2 (Wii)


8. FIFA Soccer 11 (PS3, X360, Wii, PS2, PSP, NDS, PC)


9. Madden NFL 11 (X360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)


10. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 201 (PS3, X360, PS2, Wii, PSP)
    


Notice that when you look at it, the list is dominated by two genres: Sports and first person shooters. Rhythm has only Just Dance, racing, and RTS games are absent, roleplaying waffles in some categorical limbo, and franchise appears to be the dominant factor for presence on the charts. While the yearly numbers paint a slightly more egalitarian view of gaming genres, one can still ponder, "What does the future hold for gaming genres?

Other things to think about:




• Will we ever see another action space flight sim?


• What will it take to revitalize adventure games?


• As a member of the "target market", why am I only playing ONE GAME in this list and only interested in playing ONE OTHER?
  



Wes Wilson
Original Photograph by Mark J Sebastian

This week on Eat Smart For Life, Hunter and Brent talk about other diets like the Twinkie diet.  Listen in to hear how you can help your self eat smart for life and get fit in the process!

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You'll notice something a little different about this week's episode. Instead of rambling on and on, we're trying a more focused show. You won't hear about our weeks or what games we've played. Instead, we're jumping right to the topic. Hopefully it'll make a show a little leaner and meaner. We'd love to hear what you think; feel free to let us know what you think of the change. We're not sure it's permanent as of yet, and we'll continue to play with the format until it feels right.

This week we talk about cognitive dissonance, otherwise known as stuff just not making sense. Does the show make sense? I dunno, maybe there's some cognitive dissonance at play there. Who knows? I don't. Man, it's hard to write funny copy for the new show format.

Instead... MORE DUCKS!



That duck was short, sweet, and to the point. Kind of like this episode!

Is Minecraft really a sandbox game? Also, scuba gear, grappling hooks, LARPing, and tapestries!

There's lots going on this week. The Halloween update in depth, skeletons riding spiders, a birthday celebration, fire extinguishers, ambient occlusion, and a monkey! AWESOME!

This week on Eat Smart For Life, Hunter and Brent talk about support from your family, friends and co workers.  Listen in to hear how you can help your self eat smart for life and get fit in the process!

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Let's start with a common starting place: Han shot first. Stay with me here, I have a point.

In the original cut of Star Wars: A New Hope, Han Solo shot Greedo. It wasn't unprovoked. Greedo had a gun on Han and was threatening to turn him in to Jabba the Hutt, which was essentially a death sentence. It was understood that if Han tried to run, Greedo would shoot him. It was understandable that Han shot the bounty hunter before this could come to pass, and it help establish Han's character.

Until everything changed. In the 1997 re-release, Greedo squeezed off a terrible shot and Han was seen to shoot back in retaliation. It was a poorly judged move of George Lucas' part; he said that he did it to make Han appear more heroic, but it left a seriously bad taste in fandom's collective mouth.

The whole thing went over so poorly because of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when the mind tries to hold two conflicting ideas at the same time. Fans who had watched Star Wars for twenty years were suddenly forced to reevaluate a deeply cherished moment; first Han shot first, then he didn't. Virtually everyone reacted to the change with extreme dislike for the new cut. Of course, you know all that; but it does illustrate what cognitive dissonance is, and how it can really blow up in a creative team's face if not taken into account.

In gaming, however, different rules seem to apply. Gamers are frequently asked to hold conflicting ideas in our heads, and by and large we accept it as part of the hobby. The easiest example is seen in MMOs. Even though one player may kill a specific monster, that same monster will be killed thousands of times more by other gamers. Frequently a player will repeatedly slaughter the same individual over and over. "I just killed the Lich King, and I can't wait to do it again next week." The player must simultaneously keep two conflicting ideas in mind; the Lich King is dead, but he is still around to be killed again.

There are other examples; The FPS player who dies over and over in the course of a multiplayer match, or even two players of the latest Bioware RPG swapping stories. In the world of gaming, where infinite life and diverging narratives are the norm, gamers are frequently confronted with conflicting facts for a given a single situation.

We deal with it by abstracting the problem; by viewing the facts through the lens of game mechanics, the problem becomes easy to circumvent. The Lich King must continue to be around for other players to challenge. The FPS character must return to life for the game to continue. Still there are times when this coping method is insufficient. In Final Fantasy VII, why couldn't the player resurrect Aeris with a Phoenix Down? It worked up until that point and it worked for everyone else after, why was it not an option that one time?

Even when abstraction works in resolving cognitive dissonance, it is not without consequences. Soap MacTavish's amazing exploits in the Modern Warfare series are dulled somewhat by his disconcerting ability to shrug off any number of bullets so long as he is shot only once every ten seconds. We accept it because it is necessary for the form. The player must feel like the character is in danger, or else there is no sense of tension. But imagine accepting that in a movie, or book; a main character that is shot hundreds of times, but is completely unaffected until it is necessary for him to be wounded for dramatic reasons. We accept the dissonance because it's a game, but the story is less impactful for it.

So what do you think? Is there any particular moment of cognitive dissonance from your experience in gaming that you'd like to share? What can be done to minimize cognitive dissonance in future games?

Spencer Williams