Julia Sherred's Geeky Pleasures

PAX East 2012 Footage, Including Jonathan Coulton and Paul and Storm Concert Footage

Jules — Tue, 15 May 2012 23:00:24 +0000

Were you one of the people who were unable to make the journey to Boston this year for PAX East 2012? Were you sad that you missed the concerts? So was I. Many of my friends went. Yet again, Tom Giarrosso (@BoffoYuxDudes) was nice enough to capture video of the concerts with Paul and Storm (@paulandstorm) and Jonathan Coulton (@jonathancoulton), and more.

Behold them embedded below as a handy dandy playlist!

Paul & Storm Playlist

Jonathan Coulton Playlist

Glen Raphael Playlist (Live songs in the hallway, raws, etc.)

Mike Falzone by everyone Tom could find at PAX East

Click here to view the embedded video.

Glen Raphael live singing ‘Gorilla My Dreams’ for the concert line

Click here to view the embedded video.

Two Tribes To Be On The Geeky Pleasures Radio Show, May 25, 2012

Jules — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:00:04 +0000

Next Tuesday (May 22, 2012), I will be sitting down with former featured independent band, Two Tribes (@TwoTribesMusic), to pre-record an interview for the Geeky Pleasures Radio Show. It will air on Friday, May 25, 2012, sometime after at 5 pm PT/ 8 pm ET/ 1 am (Saturday) UK time, but before 9 pm PT/ Midnight ET/ 5 am (Saturday) UK time at The Look 24/7 (@TheLook247). The reason I say “sometime after” is because I have no idea how long we will chat for, therefor I do not know at what time it will air so that my show doesn’t run over into the next time slot. I’m not sure if that made any sense, but there you have it. All I can tell you is to follow me on Twitter or circle me on Google+ so that you’ll see the announcement of what time it will air.

If you have any questions for Two Tribes, please email them to me at jules@thelook247.com, no later than Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 10 am PT/ 1 pm ET/ 6 pm UK time.

Two Tribes is an electro/synthpop duo that combines the innovative style of internationally acclaimed DJ/ producer Alex Nahai and the distinct smokey voice of Seattle singer/songwriter Courtney Fortune. The two met one night in a recording engineering class at the University of Southern California. Alex, who is an accomplished DJ from NY’s CBGB and Ministry Of Sound, was drawn to Courtney’s unique voice which has been recognized by Glamour Magazine, The John Lennon Foundation and MTV. Both share a deft sense for songwriting and joining elements of music, multi-media, fashion and art. Together they create an explosive sound in the realm of electronic pop performance.

Even as a new band, Two Tribes’ secretly released tracks have topped charts on the fan-driven site The Sixty One. Their single “Madly” will be featured as an exclusive game on Rock Band 3 for Microsoft XBox Live this year, as well as part of an upcoming Rock Band Relief campaign. They are currently at work on their debut studio album.

For fans of Oh Land, Daft Punk, Everything But The Girl, Robyn and The Knife.

Geeky Pleasures’ Top Fives Of April 2012

Jules — Thu, 10 May 2012 23:00:07 +0000

And the experiment continues. This experiment is letting Geeky Pleasures readers know what the top five downloads and pageviews were for the previous month. You can read about the top five for February here and the top five for March here.

Without further ado, here are Geeky Pleasures’ Top Five Of April 2012:

Top Five Pageviews:

Two of the top five pages were part of the top five for February 2012 and March 2012. These pages are: 1) Combat Arms Enhances Arsenal With Extensive Weapons Update–moving down to the second most pages viewed; and 2) SpinTunes 3 Round 2 Rankings And Reviews Are Done, Round 3 Challenge Revealed–moving down to the third most pages viewed. I suspect the reason why these pages continue to do well is for the same as last month. They are syndicated on other websites and image searches.

Because 2 of the 5 top pages are repeats, I’ll share with you the next top five most viewed pages:

Board Games Line-Up at GottaCon 2011–This is the result of a variety of this post being syndicated. Why someone would choose to syndicate something that is this outdated is a mystery to me. But there we have it.
Combat Arms Releases Content Update – Operation: Sector 25–This is the result of organic search results, both searches for the Combat Arms logo and searching “Combat Arms”.
Majesco Entertainment Announces Double Dragon: Neon Coming Soon to Xbla and PSN–I’m assuming this is the result of people being interested in this game, as the majority of the traffic came via social media.
Awesomely Geeky Rube Goldberg Machine–”Rube Goldberg” and “Rube Goldberg Machine” are search terms that drive a fair amount of traffic to my site, month after month.
Two Tribes–They were my featured independent musician for the month of April. Again, the majority of that traffic came from social media.

Top Five Interview/Podcast Downloads:

The top five interviews downloaded for April 2012 are:

And in the event that someone is once again curious about the following, the total page views for April 2012 broke just under 370,000, which is a very slight increase in page views. My unique visitors for April 2012 was roughly 19,200, which is a very slight decrease.

Thanks, again, for reading this little website of mine. And, once again, I ask you to tell a friend about Geeky Pleasures!

Enter The LEZ VAMPS Writing Contest

Jules — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:00:15 +0000

Former featured graphic artist, Mark Wheatley, is hosting a writing contest on his Facebook page. The contest is pretty wide open, allowing a lot of creative freedom. The details can be found below.

A CONTEST is WORTH (any number of) WORDS!

LEZ VAMPS by Mark Wheatley

This painting, called LEZ VAMPS, was created by Mark Wheatley for the wildly popular FLESH & BLOOD series of graphic novels by Robert Tinnell and Neil Vokes. But any number of stories could be written to explain this scene. With that in mind, we are having a contest. We want you to write something that will blow our minds. If your story is the winner – you will collaborate with Mark Wheatley on an illustrated eBook edition, much like his BRIDE OF THE FOREST story, available from his facebook FAN page.

WIDE OPEN CONTEST RULES

SUBMIT – Anyone who can write, can submit. You can submit stories, poems, songs, haiku, comics or even recipes – as long as you can relate it to Mark Wheatley’s painting. Let your imagination run wild. But please keep the stories in the English language.

JUDGING – Simply put – If we like it – it gets published. This is a very arbitrary selection process – just like the REAL PUBLISHING WORLD! Your work will be judged by a group of writers, editors and artists who all think they know more about writing than the average Joe. And we are still trying to talk Joe into being a judge!

REWARDS – Your most important, winning reward, if selected, is PUBLICATION as an illustrated eBook, designed and illustrated by Mark Wheatley. While the LEZ VAMPS painting will be used in this eBook, Mark will be adding additional art to the package. He might be inspired by your contribution! (But he doesn’t have to!)

Everyone who enters will get SOMETHING.

One GRAND PRIZE Winner (drawn at random from all the published submissions) WINS a SIGNED and REMARQUED giclée print of the contest painting.

THE FINE PRINT (as opposed to the ART print)

1) You must guarantee that the work is original and you are the author and you grant Mark Wheatley the right to publish it. The authors retain copyright on their work, but grant Mark Wheatley full permission to self-publish it and market it in eBook form on his websites and facebook page.
Mark Wheatley can only accept submissions by the authors themselves. By submitting you state that you are the author of the story and hold all the rights necessary for allowing Mark Wheatley to publish.

2) Understand that Mark Wheatley will be selling the eBook compilation on his facebook page and possibly through his websites for a reasonable price. But he won’t be sharing any money with the contributors. First, from past experience, there may not be much money involved. Second, the paperwork/headache just isn’t worth the effort, especially if there are many contributors.

3) If the work is picked up and published by a paying market, Mark Wheatley will split the money from that publishing use 50/50 on a prorated basis, where the art is 50% and all the written material is 50% and each contributing author’s portion of the work is figured by page count. With notice to Mark Wheatley (just so we know what is going on) authors can publish their contributions wherever they like, but if they wish to sell it to somewhere including Mark Wheatley’s illustrations, he has full approval and will recieve 50% of the sale.

4) We reserve the right to make minor edits on the story, such as spelling, grammar, etc.

5) All entries should be submitted, pasted into the body of an eMail – no attachments will be accepted.

6) eMail entries should be sent to insight@insightstudiosgroup.com with the subject heading WORTH 1000 WORDS – SUBMISSION.

7) Entries need to be in by June 1.

8 ) Don’t forget to include your name, link and info in the eMail, so we can give you full credit for your story. If you have a facebook fan page or web site that you want to publicize, please include that info. If you have a brief bio that supports your work as a writer – please include that as well.

The Winners Of The ‘Blue Magic’ Giveaway are…

Jules — Tue, 08 May 2012 23:00:24 +0000

At 12 am this morning, the Blue Magic giveaway closed.

10 people told me about their favourite bird. Using a random number generator, I chose two numbers. The numbers were 2 and 7. That means Paul Weimer (@PrinceJvstin) and Chris Tallant (@tallant_chris) each will be receiving a copy of Blue Magic courtesy of TOR.

You can purchase Blue Magic on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indigo Books and Music, or where ever books are sold. Don’t forget to listen to my interview with Alyx Dellamonica and read her guest post.

Lesli Margherita, Lauren Bass and Tom Lenk Interview

Jules — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:00:27 +0000

On Friday, May 4, 2012, I sat down to have a conversation with actor Lesli Margherita (@QueenLesli), director Lauren Bass and actor Tom Lenk (@TomLenk) (Buffy, Cabin in the Woods) on the Geeky Pleasures Radio Show at The Look 24/7 (@TheLook247), to discuss all things Sparklepuff Lazerium (@SparkleHottie).

If you missed the interview, don’t worry. The interview is available below for your downloading and listening pleasure. But first, the show notes.

Things we discussed during the interview include: Tom’s recent work and upcoming things, such as Joss Whedon’s adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing; We discussed Lesli’s body of work; We discussed casting film, stage and television; We discussed all things Sparklepuff Lazerium; We geeked out about science fiction in general, Star Wars and Star Trek; We geeked out about musical theatre; We discussed the ins and outs of producing a webseries; We discussed the debate about mainstream media vs independent content creators; We geeked out in general and more.
There is some NSFW language.
At the beginning of the interview, you’ll hear the Geeky Pleasures Radio Show theme song by Chris Cogott (@chriscogott)
The length of the interview is 1 hours 28 minutes 51 seconds
The size is 81.3 MB
The format is mp3, 128 kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo
To download the interview, right click save as this link.

Alternatively, you can stream it below. If you are viewing this in an RSS reader, you may need to visit the site in order to stream it.

I hope you enjoy!

Geek Of The Week May 4, 2012

Jules — Fri, 04 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

As it is Star Wars day, you’d think this week’s Geek Of The Week would be Star Wars related. Nope. It is Star Trek: The Next Generation related.

Many of you may have already seen the following. If you haven’t seen this video, grab your tissue. Watching this caused me to sob. Thankfully, LeVar saved the day by causing me to laugh.

This video is from last weekend’s Calgary Expo, taken during the TNG Reunion panel. This September marks TNG’s 25th anniversary. Last weekend, the Calgary Expo was the first stop of six months worth of events to mark this anniversary.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Have a great weekend!

Geeky Pleasures Is Taking A Two Week Hiatus… Of Sorts

Jules — Fri, 04 May 2012 21:00:46 +0000

Just a little heads-up to Geeky Pleasures’ lovely readers and the awesometastic listeners of my radio shows on The Look 24/7. After two years without a day off, I will be taking a two-week staycation.

What does that mean? It means that I will not be doing anything work related and will be mostly unavailable from Monday, May 7, 2012 through Monday, May 21, 2012. If you send me any e-mails regarding things you think will be of interest for Geeky Pleasures, I will look at them and respond to them beginning Tuesday, May 22, 2012, unless you e-mail me before Monday. I will be resuming my radio shows on Friday, May 25, 2012, at 5 pm PT/ 8 pm ET, with my 2-hour Canadian Show, followed by the Geeky Pleasure Radio Show and my interview with Two Tribes.

In preparation for this staycation, I’ve written and scheduled a couple of handfuls of posts for Geeky Pleasures–which will include the winner of my Blue Magic giveaway that you still have time to enter–and a couple of posts for GeekMom–which will go up after GeekMom moves to Wired.com. I will be setting up Geeky Pleasures to auto-tweet posts as they go live during my hiatus, plus scheduling tweets for The Look 24/7. I will not be updating Geeky Pleasures’ Google Plus page nor The Look 24/7′s Google Plus page.

If you do not follow me on Twitter, I suggest to subscribe to Geeky Pleasures’ by RSS, if you have not already done so, so that you don’t miss anything while I’m away. Also, if you do the iTunes thing, subscribe to the Geeky Pleasures Radio Show on iTunes. If you don’t do the iTunes thing, no worries. You’ll still receive tonight’s interview via RSS on Monday.

I hope you all have a great couple of weeks!

Sanctum Partners with the Yogscast Crew for New Map as FREE DLC

Jules — Fri, 04 May 2012 19:00:44 +0000

Skövde, Sweden – May 4, 2012 – Coffee Stain Studios is once again teaming up with the masters of humor over at The Yogscast to bring a brand new map in the form of free DLC to its much talked about first-person shooter/tower defense hybrid, Sanctum, available now on Steam. (http://store.steampowered.com/app/91609).

The Yogscast crew has been fans and big supporters of Sanctum since its launch, and made multiple videos. Coffee Stain has included the cast in making their latest map, in which Simon and Lewis lend their voices. The map also contains a frightening new boss mob to take down, adding a whole new gameplay element! Appropriately titled “The Yogscave”, the DLC is available now at the Sanctum Steam page and costs absolutely nothing, so make sure to download it and catch some of the various eggs. Also, check out the awesome video of the Yogscast guys trying out the new map here:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Simon, Lewis and the rest of The Yogscast crew bring their signature ‘Joffo Cake’ fuelled humor to this Yogscave DLC map. As the ruling elite in Elysion One, the brightsiders live a life of decadence, but this luxury comes at a terrible cost to the less fortunate members of society, who toil in factories below the surface – securing minerals to craft weapons to defend against invaders. Simon and Lewis are two miners who have found themselves on the night-shift to end all night-shifts. After Simon’s “amazing” idea to increase Joffo Cake storage by 46% by diverting power from the core’s energy containment shielding, the night was off to a great start! Unfortunately this idea backfired as the reduced shielding attracted unwanted attention from some of the Yogscave’s more sinister denizens. The invaders are different this time, they appear to be organized by some far more nefarious mind…

Experienced at dealing with the odd Barret Bat and Blessed Boar here and there, Simon and Lewis are still unable stop these invaders and require your help! Can you save the world? And more importantly can you save the Joffo Cakes?!

Sanctum is a fresh take on the tower defense genre and places the player right into the frenetic fray with tight first-person shooter gameplay mechanics. Gamers take the role as Skye, an elite soldier sent out to protect her home town, Elysion One, from hordes of mysterious alien creatures. To successfully defend your land, you must construct and upgrade a labyrinth of defensive structures and towers. When the havoc starts and the wave of baddies is unleashed, you jump right into the action with your own fully-upgradeable weapons and play a key role in the defense. Sanctum has taken the best features from FPSs and tower defense games to create something totally unique.

For more information about Sanctum, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/91600/. For more information about Coffee Stain Studios, please visit www.coffeestainstudios.com.

About Coffee Stain Studios:

Coffee Stain Studios, winner of multiple honors in Epic Games’ $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, is the developer of the wildly successful PC title Sanctum. The company was formed in 2010 by a group of devoted and ambitious students from the University of Skövde in Sweden, and the goal was to form a company allowing the founders to work with what they love to create unique, awesome games. During the first months of the company’s existence, an iOS title called I Love Strawberries was developed and published by Atari, Inc. Since then, the focus has been put on Sanctum, which as of today has sold over 350,000 units on digital platforms.

Web: http://www.coffeestainstudios.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CoffeeStainStudios
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coffee_Stain

Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat Review

Jerry — Thu, 03 May 2012 23:00:17 +0000

Game: Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat
Developer: PipeWorks Software
Platform: Xbox 360
Achievements: 1/36

Puerile Moments in History

Upon headshotting Vlad the Impaler, Sun Tzu unceremoniously shouts, “Impale that, Vlad!!”

Upon the dismemberment of Hannibal’s left arm, Joan of Arc yells, “Where are your elephants now?”

Upon beheading Genghis Khan, Shaka Zulu screams, “”I guess you Khan-t do that!” and does a little dance.

Upon killing Hernan Cortes, Alexander the Great asks, “That’s gotta be better than death by syphilis, right?”

In my head, Sun Tzu is a total badass that can kill with a single shot from his repeating crossbow and, while he has ammo, sounds a lot like Samuel L. Jackson (Can we just agree that Mr. Jackson is someone who just embodies badassery?). When Sun Tzu’s out of ammo, he runs around the arena and sounds a lot like the knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (“Run away! Run away!”). Thanks to Deadliest Warrior: Legends, I can live out this fantasy in all of its nerdy, embarrassing glory.

Deadliest Warrior: The Game and Deadliest Warrior: Legends are fighting games that pit historical warriors against each other and were released as Xbox Live Arcade titles in 2010 and 2011, respectively. They have now been repackaged into a retail disc titled, Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat. Included with the two games are six episodes on which the game is based – Deadliest Warrior. The show examines warriors throughout all of history and then tries to figure out the deep questions that all kids want to know – “Who would win in a fight of Ninja vs. Pirate?”

Deadliest Warrior: The Game takes generic fighters, whose names are said with special emphasis in my head – Apache!, Centurion!, Knight!, Ninja!, Pirate!, Rajput!, Samurai!, Shaolin Monk!, Spartan!, Viking!, Zande! and places them in 3D arena combat. The fighting system itself is, in my opinion, nice and simplistic. I am not a fighting game enthusiast and my style of play can be best described as “button mashing” and I found a lot to enjoy in this game. Each character can switch between a long, medium, or short range weapon with corresponding high, mid, and low attack options. Bouts can be ended with a single headshot, regardless of the status of your health bar. Customization of your warrior’s weapons and armor adds some more depth to the gameplay. As you play through the Arcade mode you can unlock new weapons and new armor that have different stats in terms of speed and reach.

This is not Street Fighter folks, though you would be forgiven if you are reminded a little of Mortal Kombat. All of the fights are accompanied by an overabundance of spewing blood, falling limbs, and beheadings. You can chop of your opponent’s arms and legs and watch as they hobble about painting the floor and walls with their blood. Hopefully, they’ll also be yelling, “I’m not dead yet!” at the top of their lungs. If you’re good, or lucky in my case, you can behead them and see their body crumple over. It’s all so over the top that it’s hilarious.

I had fun with Deadliest Warrior: The Game, but I was drawn a lot more to Deadliest Warrior: Legends. Most of the fighting engine has been carried over, but instead of no name peons for combatants, you get famous historical figures – Alexander the Great!, Attila the Hun!, Genghis Khan!, Hannibal!, Hernan Cortes!, Joan of Arc!, Shaka Zulu!, Sun Tzu!, Vlad the Impaler!, William Wallace! There is a key difference though and I think this difference is what made me want to keep playing.

[Show as slideshow]

There was a game released for the original PlayStation called Bushido Blade. I loved that game. It was a 3D fighting game that had no health bars and in which you could maim your opponents or kill them outright with one strike. There were no flashy superpowers and no kung fu movie aerial combat. It was just you, your sword, and a small supply of stamina that determined how long you could run around screaming, “Run away! Run away!”

Deadliest Warrior:Legends improves on its predecessor by removing the health bar. That’s right, the only indication of your overall health is the amount of blood you are spewing, the number of intact limbs you have, and whether or not you’re twitching on the ground. It’s odd, because in many ways the fighting engine is the same, and yet, with the removal of information, I liked the game more. It brought to the fore how similar the mechanics of the game are to Bushido Blade and with that, the nostalgia kicked into high gear. Plus, the impact of actual historical people cannot be dismissed. The ludicrousness of these battles gets highlighted even more when you have names. For example, just imagine as Joan of Arc steps up in her full plate armor to take on Vlad the Impaler (DRACULA!) as he licks his sword. Seriously. I’m still giggling.

When I got a chance to fight, I laughed. I would often laugh so hard that my sides hurt. Sadly, getting to an actual fight was frustrating. The load times for this game are unacceptable. When you’re just itching to see William Wallace in his kilt chopping down , sitting and waiting at the interstitial screen is a total mood killer. Installing the game to the hard drive didn’t make a noticeable dent in the wait times. I’m going to chalk this up as part of the conversion from being a downloadable XBLA to a disc based game, but it’s still frustrating.

Deadliest Warrior:Legends also adds a Risk-lite turn based strategy game called Generals. In this game, you strategically place battalions across different tile types and try to spread your fame, glory, and probably disease across the entire game map. It’s a refreshing change of pace that could easily be fleshed out and sold as its own title. I’m not sure how much crossover there is between the fighting game crowd and the turn based strategy crowd, but if you exist in that part of the Venn diagram, Deadliest Warrior:Legends was tailor made for you.

Recommending people play Deadliest Warrior:Legends is easy. It’s fast, fun, and comes with a neat strategy game. Recommending people buy Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat is a trickier proposition. On one hand, it comes with both games, 6 episodes of the show, all of the DLC, and a new arena to fight in. On the other hand, the load times are dreadful and do a lot to hamper the flow and fun of the game.

In the end though, if you like to laugh and are hankering to see Sun Tzu put a crossbow bolt through Attila the Hun’s face, this is probably the only way to see it happen without breaking the laws of physics.

Note on Achievements: I will readily admit that I am not the most skilled at fighting games. Sadly, as try as I might, I couldn’t get many of the Achievements in either game. They’re shockingly difficult and specific and should you get them all, you should feel quite proud of yourself! One example – As the primary player, kill an opponent while at critical health, with your leg and arm injured.

FPS/Tower Defense Hit Sanctum Free to Play on Steam this Weekend!

Jules — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:00:49 +0000

The Sanctum Collection Participates in Steam’s Free Weekend AND Gets a New Low Price!

Sanctum Will Be Free-to-Play from May 3rd through May 7th, 75% Off to Unlock

Skövde, Sweden – May 3, 2012 – Coffee Stain Studios announces that the Sanctum Collection, which includes the game and all DLC, has a new price of $19.99 across digital platforms. That’s hardly the best part, though. From now until May 7th, the first-person shooter/tower defense mashup that has received tons of attention will be free-to-play under Steam’s Free Weekend. During that weekend, players who accept this amazing tower defense game’s brilliance can purchase the full version of Sanctum at 75% off for only $2.49 and the DLC-packed Collection for only $4.99!

Sanctum is also getting some fine tuning in a quick update that includes:

Brand New Medal System
Improved Balancing
Graphic Details Settings
Under the Hood Tweaks

Sanctum is a fresh take on the tower defense genre and places the player right into the frenetic fray with tight first-person shooter gameplay mechanics. Gamers take the role as Skye, an elite soldier sent out to protect her home town, Elysion One, from hordes of mysterious alien creatures. To successfully defend your land, you must construct and upgrade a labyrinth of defensive structures and towers. When the havoc starts and the wave of baddies is unleashed, you jump right into the action with your own fully-upgradeable weapons and play a key role in the defense. Sanctum has taken the best features from FPSs and tower defense games to create something totally unique.

For more information about Sanctum, please visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/91600/. For more information about Coffee Stain Studios, please visit www.coffeestainstudios.com.

About Coffee Stain Studios:
Coffee Stain Studios, winner of multiple honors in Epic Games’ $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, is the developer of the wildly successful PC title Sanctum. The company was formed in 2010 by a group of devoted and ambitious students from the University of Skövde in Sweden, and the goal was to form a company allowing the founders to work with what they love to create unique, awesome games. During the first months of the company’s existence, an iOS title called I Love Strawberries was developed and published by Atari, Inc. Since then, the focus has been put on Sanctum, which as of today has sold over 350,000 units on digital platforms.

Web: http://www.coffeestainstudios.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CoffeeStainStudios
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coffee_Stain

200,000 Illuminati, Dragon And Templar Initiates Now Fighting The Secret War

Jules — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:00:48 +0000

– Over 50 MILLION agents deployed in ‘The Secret War’, a unique social experience that gives a glimpse of the conflict in ‘The Secret World’ MMO launching June 19 –

Durham, USA – May 3^rd, 2012 – Funcom is excited to share that 200,000 participants are now engaged in battle through ‘The Secret War’, a unique browser-based social experience that draws upon the conflict between the three secret societies in Funcom’s upcoming massively multiplayer online game‘The Secret World’. Launching on June 19^th, 2012, ‘The Secret World’ MMO pitches players against each other as they fight for the power to control the world for their secret society, and through ‘The Secret War’ social experience, participants can get a taste of the epic conflict that hits on June 19^th.

CLICK HERE TO PLAY ‘THE SECRET WAR’

In this unique social experience participants recruit their friends to join the battle and use them as agents on a world map to spread influence for one of the three secret societies: the Illuminati, the Dragon or the Templar. While doing so they unlock items that can be used in ‘The Secret World’ MMO at launch, items such as clothing, weapons, elixirs and even in-game titles. Through this social experience, participants get to engage themselves deeper in the conflict that they will get to play in ‘The Secret World’ MMO. They can also win a trip to the Funcom studio and even the chance to have their name in the game world.

‘The Secret War’ has now been raging for two weeks. Here are some interesting stats so far:

Over 200,000 gamers have registered and become participants in the war
The experience has had over 1.2 million visits in total
Each participant spends 20 minutes on average playing at each visit
Over 50 million agents have been deployed by the 200,000 participants

Since launch on April 18^th additional strategic layers have been added to the experience and participants must now work together toward a common goal every week. The secret society that performs best by the end of each week will see all their members be rewarded with unique items that can be used in‘The Secret World’ MMO. This week the factions battle for the Heart of Africa health-boosting talisman.

“The success of ‘The Secret War’ shows that the conflict between the world’s secret societies has universal appeal,” says Funcom SVP of Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen. “This conflict has always been a key driver for activity in our own community, and we are excited to see that more and more people are coming in to join the conflict from outside the community as well. The conflict between the three secret societies adds a whole new dimension to MMO gameplay and we are excited to be able to have gamers take part in that conflict even before the launch of ‘The Secret World’.”

‘The Secret World’ is consistently mentioned as one of the most anticipated online games in development, and Funcom reported in February that over 750,000 gamers had registered for the ongoing beta testing by then. ‘The Secret World’ breaks new grounds and genre conventions by introducing a modern-day setting, a story-focused MMO experience, and a freeform progression system using no classes and no levels.

‘The Secret World’ is developed by Funcom and co-published by EA Partners, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA). For more information about ‘The Secret World’ or how to register for the beta, please visit www.thesecretworld.com.

ABOUT FUNCOM - Funcom is an independent developer and publisher of online games for PC and consoles. Funcom has provided outstanding entertainment since 1993 and continues to expand its track-record of more than twenty released games. Recent titles include ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’, ‘The Longest Journey’, ‘Anarchy Online’ and ‘Dreamfall: The Longest Journey’. For corporate information please visit www.funcom.com. For information about Funcom games visit www.anarchy-online.com, www.dreamfall.com, www.thesecretworld.com or www.ageofconan.com. Funcom is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker FUNCOM.

GeekMom Is Moving To Wired.com Next Week!

Jules — Wed, 02 May 2012 23:00:22 +0000

I’ve been sitting on this news for about a month now, and it has been difficult to do so. This news is so very exciting! You may be aware that I’m a core contributor at GeekMom.com. It is Wired’s GeekDad‘s companion site. Over at GeekMom today, the announcement that GeekMom will become apart of Wired.com was finally made! The move is expected to happen next Wednesday, May 9, 2012.

For more information, click the clip below and join us as we collectively squee.

Clipped from: www.geekmom.com (share this clip)

JAM Live Music Arcade Launching May 16 on XBLA and PSN

Jules — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:00:53 +0000

Get Ready to Rock as JAM Live Music Arcade is Coming to PlayStation® Network and Xbox LIVE® Arcade May 16

Zivix and Reverb Publishing are bringing the definitive live music event to console gamers’ homes everywhere in just a few weeks

Minneapolis, Minnesota – May 2, 2012 – The kickoff date for your own music tour has just been announced! Zivix LLC, a developer leveraging innovative technology through peripherals, real musical instruments and entertainment software, and in association with Reverb Publishing, announced today that its upcoming music creation sandbox game, JAM Live Music Arcade, is set to launch on both Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation® Network the week of May 16th.

JAM Live Music Arcade was recently featured at SXSW in Austin and fresh from the PAX East show in Boston, where would-be Jam Masters from around the world got to remix some of their favorite hits on-the-fly. Be sure to check out the launch trailer here: http://youtu.be/jeqldm7rTJs

JAM Live Music Arcade is a completely new approach to the music genre with a real-time live music sandbox “JAM Mode” that allows the player to immediately build and customize their very own tunes, as well as a bonus “Arcade Challenge Mode” that plays similar to traditional music games. Starting with any one of the 30+ licensed songs featured in the game (including hits from Modest Mouse, Fallout Boy, Fatboy Slim, Owl City, Rise Against, Atmosphere and more), players jam with and remix all aspects of the song – guitar, bass, drums, synth and vocals – to experiment with the song and re-create it to their own personality. All of this is done with any one of the numerous compatible guitar gaming peripherals – the entire band is in your hands! Accessible and easy to get started, yet deep and almost endless to master, everyone can touch real music across a broad range of sonic tastes. JAM Live Music Arcade offers an immersive level of musical interaction that’s inspiring, powerful and contagious.

JAM Live Music Arcade joins Reverb Publishing’s growing roster of titles, which includes the massively successful Dungeon Defenders, as well as the upcoming Sanctum 2, Primal Carnage, Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad, Black Knight Sword and much more. For more information about the game, please visit www.jamlivemusicarcade.com. Also, be sure to visit https://www.facebook.com/JamLiveMusicArcade and ‘Like’ the page for a chance to win lots of great prizes. For more information about Zivix LLC, please visit www.zivix.net. For more information about Reverb Publishing and its initiatives, please visit www.reverbpublishing.com.

About Zivix:
Zivix, LLC combines innovation, technology and entertainment through gaming software and music peripherals. Based in Minneapolis, MN Zivix is an entertainment software developer and publisher that has also created a patented finger-sensing technology that enables a new generation of digital guitars. Our core mission is to combine the experience of playing an instrument and real musical interaction through accessible, fun and rewarding products for everyone.

About Reverb Publishing:
Founded in 2010, Reverb Publishing offers digital publishing to independent game developers on PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE Arcade, Wiiware, PC, iOS and Droid, by combining production and business development support paired with the proven public relations and marketing agency expertise from its parent company, Reverb Communications. Reverb Publishing’s unique business model is form fitted for studios, ensuring that they receive the majority of the game’s revenue and maintain ownership of their titles while Reverb handles all the non-developmental tasks including production support, navigating QA, and preparing for product submission.

The PR veterans at Reverb Communications have worked on recognizable brands like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, The Beatles: Rock Band, Dance Central, Star Trek Online, as well as stellar digital titles like Battle Slots, Army of Darkness, BloodRayne: Betrayal, Kung Fu LIVE and the critically-acclaimed Dungeon Defenders.

For more information about Reverb Publishing, please visit www.reverbpublishing.com.

Debs And Errol

Jules — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:00:20 +0000

I am really excited about this month’s featured independent band. I’ve been waiting for MONTHS for the completion of their first album so that I could feature them.

They are geeky. They are Canadian! HUZZAH!–as Errol would say. They have a webcomic, one that I’ve been mentioned in and subsequently became Geek of the Week. They are Debs and Errol.

A couple weeks ago, they FINALLY–I say finally because I really have been waiting for this album for at least eight months now–released their album Songs In The Key Of Geek. The album is rather splendid and caused me to laugh, a lot. It even caused me to become all schmoopy and d’awh, thanks to their song My Pachebel Song.

Below, you will find their bio, five of their songs–I told Errol to pick four or five. He picked four. I decided to add My Pachebel Song because I adore it so–and you’ll find links to their online places, plus purchasing information for their first album.

If you are viewing this in your RSS reader, you’ll need to visit this post in order to listen to the music.

I hope you enjoy!

Debs and Errol are a Toronto-based music duo focusing on all things geeky. After meeting through the local chapter of National Novel Writing Month in 2007, they began to sing duets and write songs together and have performed at a smattering of gatherings. Both are highly active in the February Album Writing Month community, an online songwriting challenge where participants aim to write 14 songs in 28 days. When not together, Debs focuses on writing serious things and Errol works on becoming tactful in public. (Actually, Errol’s not working on that at all)

If you want to read the crazy long 3 page bio, that’s on their page:
http://debsanderrol.com/about-page/

Geek Love Song