Winter is Over
It's been awhile since the last newsletter. We weren't doing GeekNights regularly due to PAX East and other things. Now we have temporarily returned to our regular schedule, and the sun has come out. That heralds the return of biking and also convention season. The schedule is Anime Boston, Connecticon, PAX AUS, possibly PAX Dev, and then PAX Prime. Cherish this last month of the status quo full of regular episodes of our podcast.
Grand Prix Continues
If you haven't been paying attention, we have been running an all around gaming tournament within our community. It's in beta, and the rules are changing up a bit. I have learned a lot about administering tournaments, so I'm sure the next time we do this, if we do it again, it will be amazing. In the meantime, the current round is backgammon, and it's almost over. The next round is going to be pretty good. Whether you participate or not, it should be fun to pay attention to as we discover the best gamer amongst us.
Ask Rym & Scott
Here is a question from our listener RENE.
I have a question! Or is it *the* question...
Do you ever foresee the end of Geeknights? Short of Death or Ghost in the Shell Shenanigans, what would it take?
An irreconcilable argument? Sickness? One of you starting a family?
Or do you think we will all be sitting around the retirement shelter unit, nearing the turn of the century, listening to the latest mind-cast about that old Nantende company that used to make the best games, or was it Nintendo, I forget, my memory chip fails me, need... new... memory chip....
I'm not sure what it would take for GeekNights to actually end. At this point, podcasting is nearly automatic. People keep listening to it, and keeping the show alive is very rewarding, even if not financially so. That being said, the podcast is not our highest priority. We will easily skip a recording session for just about anything. You may notice many Thursday episodes are missing due to conflicts with a mentoring program I signed up for. Any major life event can easily put the show on a hiatus.
It's also entirely possible for GeekNights to not end, but to change. It has already changed quite a bit throughout its history. The schedule and format have changed pretty drastically. I know for sure that it will be impossible to continue forever without any sort of evolution. I just can't foresee when or what kind of change there will be.
That being said, let me answer the original question. What would it take for the show to truly end forever? It would probably have to be something really big. One obvious possibility we hope to avoid is some major life event like serious illness, injury, imprisonment, or death. If for some reason one of us moves far away it could possibly end the show, but I don't see either of us leaving NYC any time in the near future. People stop listening to the show altogether. We certainly aren't going to keep podcasting if there are only a small handful of listeners. Other than that, GeekNights will probably only end if one or both of us decides for whatever reason to not continue. I guess an easier way to say it is that whatever kind of thing could bring about the end of Penny Arcade is pretty similar to what it would take to end GeekNights.
Anyway, thanks for the question RENE. If anyone else has a question for the newsletter, I am running very low. Please email your questions to
geeknights@frontrowcrew.com.
Book Club - The Player of Games
The next book club selection is
The Player of Games by Ian M. Banks. Read this book. It is the most GeekNights book that ever booked. If you are reading this newsletter, this book is for you. Seriously. Expect the episode in May.
New Podcasts
We did quite a few episodes recently that people are pretty excited about. Actually looking back, these were some really good episodes in the past week or two. We also got a really great response to them. I'm going to stop writing descriptions of them in the newsletter from now on because of laziness.
The only new video we've really uploaded recently is one of our lectures from PAX East 2013.
Practical Game Theory.
Forum Weather Report
Bright and sunny days in the forum. Nice discussions. No trolls. No flamewars. Everything is pretty chill. Might I interest you in a thread for those of us following the PA Megacorp reality show
Strip Search?
Thing of the Newsletter
Special Bonus Round
As a reward for subscribing to and reading the newsletter to the very end, here is a Steam key for Monaco. The first person to use it, gets it.
P3XYG-8RDP9-RCWNB