Put the turkey down and put your design caps on!
We hope you’re not too full of turkey and shopping deals, because we have a full plate of Nerds Without Pants for you this week! It’s just Julian and Patrick this time, but that doesn’t stop us from delivering a delicious meal of podcasting goodness. So dig in!
Random and Yamika talk about the final days of Final Fantasy XI.
Hey, all. Julian here with a short special to tide you over until our next big show. I'm joined by my best friend Shanna (who you may have heard in the special episode Love and the MMORPG) to talk about the last days of the Final Fantasy XI console servers. I've already written a piece about it which you can find here, but I still wanted to do some sort of special recording about this very important topic of mine.
With the console servers shutting down, Julian says goodbye to his first MMORPG.
Now that we are firmly entrenched in the 8th console generation and PC gaming is back on the rise, you would be forgiven for not hearing about the server shut down of the final game from the 6th generation: Final Fantasy XI. Even though the PC version released first and remains active to this day, the game began as an ambitious project for the PlayStation 2, and finally closed its PS2 and Xbox 360 doors on March 31, 2016. While it wasn’t the first massively multiplayer online role playing game to make its way to consoles (Everquest Adventures on the PS2 has that distinction), it was the entry point for many gamers into the world of the MMORPG. I was there for the final days of Final Fantasy XI on the console (I had been playing it on the Xbox 360 in recent years), and it was a bittersweet farewell, indeed.
So much hype that only Astrotrain can contain it!
Welcome to the last Nerds Without Pants before E3 2015! Angelo and Julian get together to catch up on a bunch of Consumption Junction (and anime, apparently), as well as talk about their hopes and dreams for the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Enjoy!
Minutes to midnight.
Like the world of Final Fantasy XIII, the seventh console generation is approaching its end. One of the last big releases exclusive to PS3/Xbox 360, Lightning Returns sees its eponymous heroine back for one more adventure. A demo hit PSN and Xbox Live on Tuesday, and a few of PixlBit's Final Fantasy enthuiasts are here to share their impressions.
A memory of exotic lands in a world known as...Vana'Diel.
Welcome back to Digital Mystery Tour. With the recent release of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, it seemed like a perfect time to look back at some of my favorite songs from the previous online Fantasy: XI. I'm a little under the weather, so I let the music do the talking for me, and close things out with a couple tracks from A Realm Reborn. If you have fond memories of FF XI, you may want to check out the Nerds Without Special I did earlier in the year, which features a ton more of the game's soundtrack, as well as some fun and touching stories. Enjoy, and I realize the bagpipes in the San d'Oria theme can be a tad grating on the ears, but what can I say? It's home to me.
Yeah, Julian probably needs therapy...
Wow, Nerds Without Pants turns 30! Funny, the show doesn't seem a day over 22. Aging is the topic of the day this time around, as Julian wonders what changes are in store for the modern geek. Before that, it's Consumption Junction time once again.
I bet this discussion could actually go somewhere if we'd all just stop acting like children.
There's been a lot of controversy just about everywhere these days regarding how women are portrayed in video games. Frankly, I'm glad to see it. Controversy has a way of exposing us to new perspectives and fresh opinions in a way few other things can. It's given many women a platform to discuss how things like this make them feel sexualized, marginalized, and mistreated. It's also given others the chance to promote the radical idea that perhaps the size of a woman's bust shouldn't dictate how we perceive them; that big boobs don't necessarily mean a shallow character with a tiny brain. It's also indirectly fed Jenn Frank's idea (which has since garnered international attention) for a BoobJam: A call for the creative souls among us whose coding Kung Fu is strong, to create games about boobs, with the caveat that the content show breasts from a more practical or biological angle as opposed to the typical straight male gaze, or sexually gratifying perspective.
These tracks will punch you in the face with their sheer awesomeness!
It's week two of Battle Themes Month here on Digital Mystery Tour! JD opened things up with some great tracks from modern JRPGs. I decided to widen the range a bit, and have some excellent fight music that spans multiple generations and genres. Tune in next week to see what Angelo has come up with, and be sure to comment on my blog post to get some of your choices in the final week of Battle Themes!
First attack!
Welcome to Battle Theme month at Digital Mystery Tour! JD kicks things off with a selection of modern JRPG battle music that's sure to get your blood pumping. Be warned: this episode of DMT features so much butt rock. So very much butt rock. Fighting Vipers fans should be right at home.
