DOWNLOAD/PLAY (NSFW NSFW NSFW)
Spouse Aggro for Memorial day, 2010!
We yap for an hour about the perception that being positive about gaming somehow makes you a liar. I tend to think that, for me, it is more real.
The music is by gooder people.
Beau and Leala
spouseaggro is our Twitter, spouseaggro dot com is our website. Read Beau’s articles over at Massively dot com and check out Leala at ravenwoodradio dot com.
Love you.
When Farmville first started selling their Hobby Farm ™ kits years ago, many people thought of them as nothing but toys. By the time the next summer rolled around, however, it was clear that the kits would provide many Americans the lifestyle they had always wanted, one of Earth and of grit. It would take hard work, and only those that saw past the novelty aspect of the farms would see any success.
I am one of these successes, but only through a more narrow definition of the word. For several seasons in a row I have cleared well over what I had ever dreamed of, and was able to afford a lifestyle that did not fit the normal cliche’ of the American Farmer.
A view of my 9-plot farm. Space is money, friend.
Thanks to my like-totally foreign friend, I got to check out some new Allods EU art. Ah, here it is now:
Yes, those are lesbian, or bi, or extremely drunk Elf girls beckoning to the youngin’s in the audience. They are saying: “Come, play with us. We are having the sexy butt. You can play with us, you know what we are meaning?” Or something similar.
Now, this is all fine and dandy and worse crimes against humanity have been committed. But let’s talk about why this is so bad. I’ll break it down, and hopefully my super wisdom will help steer developers and artists away from OK’ing this crap.
The title says it all. We look at the new Conservative Gamer Movement and it’s leader, Smichael FerDandergam. Recently, clashes in a downtown Gamestop brought the movement to the forefront.
ArrrroooOOOooOooooOooooOOO!
How would YOU be a British cowboy? What would YOU like to see us do or not see us not do? What advice do YOU have for potential bloggers? LET US KNOW OR WE WILL DIE.
Spouseaggro everywhere for contact, save for Massively.com or Ravenwoodradio dot com.
Email, yes please.
Air is the first and second song. Some flute guy is the next, and the last is this crazy German band that is like, I thought all noir but I think they are uhm..more like goth vamp people? Either way, nice stuff.
Beau and Leala
PS: Screw it, here’s that German band: Bohren & der Club of Gore – Prowler
Love you guys. Go log in and buy some cash shop items. There are no free games.
“This is a slippery slope, and will lead to no content being released...”
The scenario they see in their head: Smed walks in, giggling. He taps the lead designer on the shoulder and throws a wad of cash at him.
“What’s this?” says the lead designer.
“Your cut, man. Nice fucking work. I want you to get the entire art team on these “cash shop items.” They are a fuckin GOLD MINE. Forget the normal procedures of releasing a new expansion every year, on top of all the smaller patches like that Halas shit. Call it all back, we’re in the PONY BUSINESS!”
Let’s face it, I am 35 years old. I am not a kid anymore, but it can be argued that I essentially live like one (minus the whole taking care of a house and bills part.) I enjoy massive gaming because it allows me to meet new people and to enjoy art in an unique way, two very “adult” reasons.
So when I come across a game that makes me say to myself “You’re too old for this..” then I dump it. I might give it a few chances to show me something else, but usually it ends up dumped off the hard drive. A lot of the time it is the community that makes me feel silly for playing it, and ironically that community is not made up of children. Adults that take their gaming way too seriously make me feel the silliest. A child, when acting immature or childish, is acting as a child. When an adult does it, and especially within some make-believe fantasy realm, the embarrassment makes me leave the room.
In a strange turn of events I semi-shelved my Vanguard main, Rikoo Rakoo, in favor of exploring some of my other alts. Lealah, my goblin-turn-Monk has always been one of my favorites, despite the fact that I haven’t raised her above 15. She just felt tough, despite my dislike for “kung fu” style fighting in video games. Something about her rage as a goblin and the teachings of her class really gripped me.
I decided that she was very, very angry. Or, I should say, very prone to becoming angry. (And no, while my wife Leala has a temper that I find quite refreshing, hers never results in anyone getting punched.) So she meets up with some of these Monks and finds that it doesn’t really calm her down, but allows her to channel her anger into furious fighting techniques. It leads to some discomfort between her and her teachers, but the job gets done.
We talk about all sorts of stuff today, from having at least one FTP game to enjoy, Leala and her podcast reaching bold new heights in the pages of Beckett magazine, and a bit of everything else.
Leala picked out the music for the show, that’s why it’s a band made up of 2 cute boys called A Jar of Monkeys or some other kind of indie band name. OK actually they were called I was a boyscout or something that means a whole helluva lot more than “Jar of Monkeys.” See, indie bands must have names like “A jar of Monkeys” or they get their license to be indie taken away.
Same with metal bands and their fonts. Look it up.
Wanna’ contact us? We give out the info at the end of the show. Write us email. Love us.
beau and Leala
It’s very interesting to watch community members as the game they love is pronounced dead. Now, I don’t mean rumored to be dying, or thought to be dead by some people on the forums, but I mean dead as in the head developer announces that it will close.
Some react with shock, some with anger and many never notice (they are in the game playing.)
But it does beg the question: how long do games last?
I mean, at some point we all know that a game will go away. Or, at the least, will be morphed into a “part 2″ or into a movie, or a series of books. But that original vision, idea or mechanic will cease to exist. All those wonderful little bits of information that we had stored in our virtual houses will no longer be stored anywhere. They will be erased, thrown away or pulled out of a machine and stuck in a box somewhere. They will only exist in our memories.
This isn’t going to be some long, drawn out discourse over who said what or when and how they said it. This isn’t about a mistake someone made and who gets blamed for it.
This is about the silly high school scene that any scene can often become, and I mean this scene. I love the fact that half of the bloggers and podcasters I know would probably treat the man much, much nicer than they would ever admit if they were to score an “exclusive” with him for their 322 listener podcast. I also know lot’s of people that go to conventions, stand around outside after having a dinner with other scenesters, only to slowly lower their voices to gossip about what developer said what.
It reminds me of high school, pure and simple. But instead of a bunch of girls standing around making fun of other girls outfits, it’s chubby boys talking about how so-and-so’s game was not immersive enough and not a real game, or about how the latest expansion got delayed because such-and-such happened.
Let’s be honest here, folks, this whole thing with Derek Smart and the mistake that was made by some stupid PR person was not news. It was gossip, pure and simple.
I have begun to check off things on my MMO checklist, slowly. I actually really enjoy doing it this way and have crafted a list of games that allows me to go at it at my own pace. I take baby-steps, something that might normally drive other players crazy. Here’s a partial list of the goals and achievements I am getting to:
1) Pirates of the Burning Sea: I am learning trade, and getting better at being a pirate. Essentially I want to sneak around and trade from area to area, but also want to be able to take a ship by force when I want. Missions are a good time to do this, since the ships inside should be around the same level. Pirates is a beautiful game and actually has a lot of depth. I hated it when I first tried it, but I am starting to get the hang of it. My goal? To get better at selling/shipping goods.
I have a list of staple MMORPGs that I always go back to, just like anyone else. Then I have a list of MMORPGs that I rarely go back to, but will about twice a year. Then I have a list of MMORPGs that, once tried, I will never go back to. Ever.
My staple list keeps growing, but very slowly. The games on that list must meet certain requirements. There is a little give and take, but mostly they need to adhere to these rules.
It’s always important for me to have a job when I am in game, and I don’t mean “roll.” When people yell at me in a group: “Learn your roll!!” then I always respond with “But I am a sailor!”
I don’t care too much about being high DPS or even marginal healing. I do care about having some reason to exist in the world that I am visiting, something ordinary that my character has to do. Me and Leala have talked about it on the show before, but I always cringe when a sitcom or other TV show has their characters living in an amazing space, all while completely avoiding work.
Sure, they work, but we never see them struggle through the ordinary stuff. It’s an easy route…just give your character an inheritance or a very easy going boss. That normal life stuff is boring, I suppose, instead of what makes up our very existence. Our lives are built of the ordinary stuff, and I love finding ways to have fun or to be relaxed while doing the ordinary. My characters need to work to make a living because adventuring is a little too dangerous sometimes.
You’ve seen the pictures.
You’ve visited the farms.
So have I.
Yet, we do nothing as helpless Farmville animals are stacked, propped up, milked dry and poked all in the name of profit. The evidence is overwhelming, and yet the government has done nothing. Hopefully, Prop B will crush the mouse finger of the next Farm owner when he or she wants to mindlessly stack cows next to elephants, ducks next to horses. I hate to do this, but I wanted to show you a picture from a recent undercover visit to a local farm:
Hardly any food that isn’t black with rot, not a drop of fresh water, and this man claims to be one of the richer Farmville Farm owners. How much longer will he profit from the slow deaths of these innocent animals? Look at how they all face those barren crop lands, hoping for the day when food might arise from the ground. Prop B will force farm owners like this to provide adequate room for roaming, fresh food and water, and access to yearly vaccinations.
This is what a proper Farm should look like:
Next time you go to pull out a few weeds from your friends Farm, take a look around at his animals. Are they mindlessly dumped into a corner while he sits within a mansion made of gold?
Let’s do something about this. Let’s vote YES on Prop B.
Remember, it’s Farmville, not ProfitAtTheExpenseOfInnocentAnimalsVille.
We read an email from Sarc over at lagwar.com, and it makes us so fuwious that we tear the iPhone Home Based Recording Studio up and eat it, then we reassemble it a week later using large amounts of duct tape, only to get fuwious again. So we talk about “old school” mentality, and what it means. Thanks Sarc, you do rule. If I spelled your name wrong, sorry…I didn’t feel like opening a new tab since we are arch enemies and stuff now.
Beau and Leala
The music on the show is from that guy that was from the Shins and the non-singing guy from that stupid band that sang “Crazy.” No, not the good Crazy, that dumb one that had the DJ in a stormtrooper suit. By “band” I mean a sample board and a guy.
twitter: spouseaggro
email: spouseaggro at yahoo dot com
web: spouseaggro dot com
read Beau on massively dot com
listen to Leala on ravenwoodradio dot com
Love.
