Counterstrike: Global Offensive

If you are a GeekNights listener, you know that Counterstrike is the only true staple of gaming. We've been playing it on and off since the year 2000 in all of its forms. It is also by far the most popular game on Steam, if you add all three versions together. You can now pre-order the new version on Steam. If you do so, you will get immediate access to the beta. We are into this game big time. We plan to play it almost every day for serious. We are also going to get a private server soon. We want you to game with us. Start playing now, and pay attention to our information streams. Also, joining the official GeekNights Steam Group is not a bad idea.

Ask Rym and/or Scott

Listener Alain-Christian asks:

In a recent episode the one with the ponytail was talking about a chiptune party he attended in a basement somewhere. I may have gone to it. But I go to a lot of parties so it's hard to narrow those things down. What exactly was the name of the party and where was it held?

According to Rym, this is the chiptune show that he attended.

http://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/6554/nyc-413-chillbrave-danimal-cannon-knife-city-bit-shifter/

In other chiptune news, I have recently discovered Omodaka. Here is a video of Omodaka at the Blip Festival Tokyo 2011. I like it so much I bought the album Sanosa on Amazon MP3 with real dollars. The Dig Dug intro is very much appreciated.

Conventions as Always

According to my calendar there will only be one more of these newsletters before PAX Dev 2012 and PAX Prime 2012. Then you can breath a sigh of relief as it will be four or five months before we talk about PAX East 2013. Of course in the meantime we will be all about MAGFest 11! Anyway, we do have one more event we have added to our PAX Prime schedule. The GeekNights Boardgame Workshop! It will take place Saturday at 8pm in room 302. I believe it is a small room, so there may be sign-ups in Tabletop HQ. We will be teaching everyone who shows up how to play and win Agricola and Carcassonne. If you are a board game newb, or are just new to these games, you won't be sorry you showed up.

Book Club

The next book club selection is still The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton. Rym has finished reading it already. I have not, due to reading comic books. I promise I will read it soon. We will probably do the episode after we return from our PAX break. That should give you plenty of time to actually read this, and not just listen to an audio book. Also, this thing is in the public domain, so you can get it from projeject Guttenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1695

New Videos

We have uploaded a lot of videos since the last newsletter. I will let the titles and YouTube descriptions speak for themselves.

New Podcasts

Paying For Stuff

This is actually a Monday/Technology episode all about the technological issues when it comes to financial transactions and payment processing. Also we spend a lot of time complaining about how restaurants can't just take our money in a convenient and modern way.

Tickets

When you want to go to an event that has a limited capacity, ticketing always comes into play. Buying, selling, forging, waiting, and verifying tickets is something that affects pretty much anyone who isn't a hermit. Hopefully that includes you, so you probably want to listen to this episode.

Forum Weather Report

There are calm seas in the forum lately. Most comments are appearing in the perennial threads. Even the pony storm is less than a drizzle. Don't rest easy, though. The forecast shows a category P pony storm passing through at the start of season 3.

Oppa Gangnam Style

If you remember last newsletter we danced Gangnam Style. Well, it exploded all over the whole Internet. This thread is dedicated to collecting all things PSY Gangnam Style.

Random Questions

This neverending thread is true to its name. A place for random questions to collect without all spawning new threads of their own. This thread is short on answers, but big on entertainment. Don't pass it over.

Thing of the Newsletter

Tech support help desks have always been a great source of hilarity. Check out this ingenious method of hanging up on unwanted calls.

helpdesk w XXI wieku

Fan Art

Yep

Closing

This newsletter actually seems to be successful and worthwhile. Even though there aren't that many subscribers, the number is growing steadily. There have also been no unsubscribes! I'm shocked that people actually like this thing, but I guess we'll keep doing it. Nowhere to go but up.