Scalzi and the Hugo 2: Electric Boogaloo

Posted on By Wil

It’s not every day that I can say, "Hey, one of my friends is nominated for a Hugo."

It’s not every day that I can say, "Hey, one of my friends is nominated for a Hugo. Again."

It is, however, embarrassing to me that while I can now say, "Hey, one of my friends is nominated for a Hugo. Again," I never actually read the goddamn book that’s nominated, though I bought it on the day it was released, and consistently face it out when I see it in book stores.

So, yesterday, I set up a chair in the back yard, grabbed some iced tea, and started reading The Last Colony.

At 2 this morning, I finally forced myself to put the book down because I was too tired to comprehend it, and didn’t want to miss anything. I’m a little more than halfway through, I guess, and while I’ve wanted to do nothing more than blow off all my work for today and dive back into it, I’ve been responsible to the point of avoiding extended trips to the bathroom, whether I really have to go or not.

Oh, shut up. You’ve all done it, and if you haven’t done it, it’s because you don’t have kids who wouldn’t leave you alone to read unless you were making stinky with the door closed.

I don’t know what my endorsement is worth, but if you’ve read my blog long enough to have an idea of whether or not we like the same things, you should go get this book right away, though I’m guessing most of you already have, since I’m so late to the party on this one.

I loved all the books that John set in this universe: Old Man’s War, The Ghost Brigades, and The Sagan Diary. I love the characters, I love the setting, and I love how massively fun they all are to read. I love them so much, in fact, that I have the lettered versions from Subterranean Press. That’s a lot of love, my friends. The Last Colony had some very big shoes to fill, and it’s wearing them quite nicely. If you’re looking for an accessible, intelligent, well-paced series that won’t let you down in the flavor department, I urge you to check out these books. The cool thing? John wrote them so they all work together, but each one stands alone, like the farmer’s cheese, so you don’t have to commit yourself to them all to enjoy just one.

I would bet, however (if I were a betting man, which I sometimes kinda am) that after reading one of them, you will want to read them all, and you won’t be disappointed.

i made some funny

Posted on By Wil

My friends Greg and Kim are brilliant writers, and wonderfully creative
people. I met them at ACME, where I had the pleasure of performing
with them both, and writing with Kim.

Greg has a company called Mediocre Films ("They’re better than they sound") that has created some hilarious shorts, including Phone Call to God and Shoes. Kim is the executive producer on a web-based series called The Guild, which just won a YouTube award, (it will sit nicely on a shelf with the eleventy billion other awards they’ve won) and the two of them collaborate on the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show.

Greg and Kim have a friend named
Ponce, who has Down syndrome. Ponce is an actor and a comedian, and
they worked together to come up with a series of comedic shorts they
could release on YouTube. They call it Retarded Policeman, and it’s
really, really funny.

Greg and Kim are doing with video and
sketch comedy what I’m doing with publishing: refusing to take the
traditional route to reach an audience, and having a lot of fun while
we do it. Greg and I have been trying to find a way to do a Mediocre
Film together for a long
time, so when Greg offered me a chance to work on Retarded Policeman, I
grabbed it.

I’m sure this will offend some people, but I want to
make it clear that nobody is exploiting or making fun of Ponce, or anyone who has Down syndrome. If that was the case, none of us would have done it. If
anything, it’s making fun of how arbitrary and, well, retarded police
stops can be. This episode makes a reference to Episode 4, which was
really funny until it wasn’t.

If you liked this, you should totally watch Episode 6, which I think is absolutely hilarious and the funniest one yet.

rock band gets more awesome

Posted on By Wil

Last week, Harmonix sent out a pretty major software update for Rock Band. Most of the gaming blogs I’ve read have focused on how great the new
online music store is, but have glossed over or completely ignored what I think is the real news in this update: Harmonix has address and fixed two issues that almost broke the game for many players.

When I wrote my Rock Band review for the Geek in Review last year, I said:

To unlock new venues, your band must amass a certain number of fans.
The number of fans you gain each gig is determined by the difficulty
level of each member of your band, so you reach “fan caps” where the
game comes to a halt until you can successfully play at a higher
difficulty level. For some players, this isn’t bad at all, and is a
good motivator to try harder levels. For casual players, though, it
totally sucks. I know plenty of people who love to play on Hard, but
have no interest in playing on Expert. The way I understand this,
unless Harmonix removes the fan cap (which I think they’ll have to do,
eventually) some people won’t ever be able to experience the entire
game. That’s just fucking retarded. Not everyone wants to play the game
on Hard or Expert settings, and preventing those people from enjoying
the game the same way Hard and Expert players do is stupid and wrong.

There is an even bigger problem, though, that almost breaks the game
for me: it’s infuriatingly repetitive in multiplayer career mode,
especially at the beginning. As you advance through different cities
and unlock new gigs, you’ll be faced with challenges, where the
audience randomly picks songs for you to play. The RNG that decides the
songs is thoroughly fucked, and frequently results in forcing you to
play the same song three times in 30 minutes. If it’s a song you love,
not such a big deal; but if it’s a song you hate – like Wanted, Dead or
Alive, for instance – you’re screwed. If you’re trying to introduce new players to the game who are used to
Guitar Hero’s “one and done” approach to playing songs, it can be a
massive turn off.

The new online store is great and all, but I don’t know why more gaming blogs and media haven’t made this front-page news: Harmonix has fixed the stupid fan cap, and they’ve made the game much less repetitive in World Tour mode.

Check it out:

Revised Fan Caps: To allow Easy, Medium, and Hard players to progress further in the Band World Tour, we’ve increased the number of fans that you can earn before hitting the cap. Easy players can now travel across the Atlantic, Medium players have a wider range of venues they can play at, and Hard players on the Xbox 360 are now able to unlock the “One Million Fans” achievement.

More diverse songs in Band World Tour: If you’ve ever cursed about having to play “Say it Ain’t So” or a Metallica track multiple times in the same hour, then you’ll be glad to know that we’ve tracked down and fixed the issues that triggered these very repetitive moments in Band World Tour.

Awesome and awesome. Thank you, Harmonix! I think my bands, Zombitis and Mr Snüggles, are about to hit the road again.

got hope?

Posted on By Wil

Barack Obama Campaign Poster Illustration

I met Daniel M. Davis, owner of Steam Crow Press, when I was at the Phoenix Comicon. He’s an intensely creative guy, and as it turns out, a Barack Obama supporter, just like me. Daniel and I are working on something wonderful together, and during our conversation this morning, I asked him if I could share this poster he made with WWdN readers. We did the secret Obamamaniac handshake, and he said it would be cool.

You can click the image to go to the Steam Crow website, where there’s an embiggened version of the poster, as well as a ton of awesome illustrations, including some weird and wonderful monsters and other creatures who will follow you home.

in which i indirectly traumatize my friend’s son

Posted on By Wil

My friend Otis, who I worked with at the 2006 WSOP in Vegas for the PokerStars blog, wrote an awesome story about how I indirectly traumatized his son, with my recommendation of the Color Coded Criminals shirt from Threadless:

Wil Wheaton (a guy who will occasionally refer to himself as West Coast Otis), tipped me off to the shirt a few days ago.  He and I occasionally get into the same things.  This shirt was one of them.

“Is Mr. Orange a baby?” my son asked. 

My wife sensed that I was struggling to accomodate my son’s curiosity without telling the whole story.

“He’s crying like a baby,” my wife said. I half expected her to say,
“Hey, just cancel that shit right now! You’re hurt. You’re hurt really
fucking bad, but you ain’t dying. Say the goddamn words! You’re gonna
be okayyyyyy!”

You’ve got to read the entire thing, because while what I’ve quoted is funny, it’s really just set up for the fantastic payoff. While you’re there, read some more of Otis’ blog, and you may understand why I can never tell where West Coast Otis ends and East Coast Wil begins.