Hot Shit of The Week - Unseasonably Hot October 2009 Edition

It's been a great month and the hot shit just keeps on coming. To start out this week's post I thought it might be good to explain the process used to determine what constitutes hot shit. There are three simple rules:

1. No hype. To be hot shit worthy, something has to be substantially available.
2. Cool, Useful, Hilarious, Cheap/Free, or Entertaining: pick two.
3. It's only geeky if you're ashamed of it. It's only a fad if you stop caring about it.

Now with that little bit of administrivia out of the way I'm very excited to get started with this week's Hot Shit.

First Up: Hey Ash Whacha Playin'?

Love'em or hate'em, Destructiod has some pretty good content. If it wasn't such a chaotic site, Destructiod might even be a good alternative to the game-site-I-hate-to-use-but-pretty-much-have-to, IGN. Excessive poop humor and findability aside, Hey Ash Whacha Playin'? is a great video series starring an oppositionally defiant female gamer and her brother. If I thought my parents would buy me something from online, this would definitely be on my Christmas list.

As with most web series the episodes are short and of variable length. Comedy is spotty, but they do a great job of building on the gags. Poop humor gradually becomes actually funny. There is an occasional dud, but my harshest criticism is over use of foul language which doesn't really do much to add to the comedic effect. Hey Ash is a charming and clearly an indie production unlike a number of other semi-/para-/quasi-professional web series out there.

The biggest challenge in being a fan of Hey Ash Whatcha Playin' is finding episodes and figuring out what order they are best watched in. Eighteen dollars seems highly reasonable for their DVD release, but not having purchased it yet I can't say that with any certainty.

Next Up: Fat Princess

While you might never see an Xbox exclusive game make it onto the Hot Shit list, that is not because there are no such titles that deserve it. It is because I don't own an Xbox, I'll never own one (unless someone is feeling generous), and I very rarely have the opportunity to play on someone else's. Techno-political issues and politically correct game concepts aside it is great to see developers that work really hard to provide a good online multi-player experience like the kids at Titan Studios.

Earlier this week details for the 1.03 patch were announced. This update comes almost three months after the US release and includes a number of attempts to fix social and technical issues with the online multi-player.  Designing games with online competitive ranking is hard. There are always going to be rude-ocd-wankers out there that will use every cheap-ass bug in the game and play the system to boost their score while sucking the fun out of it for the rest of us. It is the kind of thing that impossible to eliminate, but Titian is doing a really good job of addressing it and some of their solutions are down right creative.

To boot the official word is that the 1.03 update will include, for free, the New Pork map which has set the Fat Princess community a buzz. There is still no word on when for-pay content will be added to Fat Princess, but this is a case where free is infinitely more fun than paid.

Fat Princess is currently one of the more expensive PSN download only titles at $14.99 US. It is however worth it. The solo play is very fun and disappointingly short, but provided you have a good Internet connection the online play can make it well worth it.

Moving Along: Passive Aggressive Notes

First oppositional defiance and now passive aggressiveness? This week's hot shit sure is chocked full of social disorders. Passive Aggressive Notes is another in a long line of recommended blogs you'll see here in Hot Shit of The Week. Some of the material there is weak, but it is a lot harder to prove a fake passive aggressive note (PAN) than a photo shopped image. The humor also often requires some shared social experience.

Passive aggressive behavior is much more funny if it relates to something one has dealt with personally. Most of the notes follow common situations: retail stores, roommates, dating. The real gems are the ones that make you wonder just how pathological people can be before they are labeled insane.

And Before I Forget: Old School Shit - Timing

It is critical in comedy, in business, in life: It's Timing. Don't be too early or you're wasting time and likely resources, but don't be too late because that is just a missed opportunity. Timing is also about appropriateness. If you start a slow clap at the wrong time, you're going to look like an idiot. You can't bring back old fads too early either.

Here are some things everyone can brush up on to improve their timing skills:

The running head start - People that try to go from zero to sixty instantly often wind up flat on their face. If you want to look like a pro, practice. The clever thing to do is find ways to practice in a value added way, without looking like a fool.

Know your windows - With timing there is a window of opportunity. Sometimes it is like Rock Band: the closer to optimum the better. Other times it is like Blackjack and you either hedge our bets or play it safe with good enough. More often than not however it is just better to make it somewhere in the window while balancing other commitments. Avoid sweating the details whenever possible.

Under commit, over deliver  - It can be hard to sell a course of action that looks padded, but a good start is to hold your cards close. Don't give away all of the aces. Who ever it is you're trying to impress, they will be more pleased with a pleasant surprise than slipping deadlines. Without slack, there is no control over timing.

Finally: More Indies, Indies, Indies, Indies

There are commercial games, indies, and then Real Indies. Don't get me wrong. I am very exicted that full-scale indie-feeling games are being released commercially. It is like bread and butter: commercial games are the bread and indie games are the butter. When the two come together it is SOOOOO GOOD.

On the other hand, sometimes you just want butter. Free games are not indie games. Some of them are just commercial games that lacked that certain something or were made for the sole purpose of pushing paid advertising and drawing potential convertible customers. Real indies are a whole-nother innovative breed. Today I Die, and the other games at Daniel Benmergui's Ludomancy are a great example of really-really indie.

To add to this, it really feels like we are on the creative cusp where more people will be empowered to go from entertainment consumers to entertainment producers. It is a really exciting place to be.

Hot Shit Of The Week - Kicking Off October 2009 Edition

Each week, Stuff White Mages Like endeavors to link you the hottest things you may not know about, but probably should. These discoveries run the gamut of geekdom: games, trends, merchants, and intertainment (internet/entertainment). We tend to focus on things that are free or significantly under hyped. If you find something that is Hot Shit, we'd like to hear about it.

First Up: Downloadpedia

Need to find a particular piece of FREE software, but don't want to stare at a billion ads for sponsored commercial software you definitely DO NOT WANT? Downloadpedia is one such source. They have a large repository of links to genuinely free software and include good commercial software, but don't push it.

As with any *pedia you have to consider the legitimacy of any community submitted information, and as with any software downloading anti-virus is a must. For those that want a quick searching experience, there is always Google. For everyone else wanting a little more certainty and third party opinion in their initial result set, there is Downloadpedia.

Next Up: Cloud

No, we are not talking about cloud computing. This is the spiritual predecessor to the PS3 hit Flower, developed by the same core team prior to their contract with Sony. Cloud is a free windows game download that takes you on a short adventure up into the sky. It is pretty easy to see where Flower got a lot of its style and ambient feel from. The cut-scene visuals and music are highly reminiscent (or technically preminiscent) of the more well known title.

Cloud does have its quirks, namely the mechanics and control scheme are not as smooth as Flower. It is also quite short with only four story mode levels. The games mechanics are more involved than Flower, but not completely explained to sufficient clarity within the game. There is a lot of potential in the mechanics, but they are not as rich as one might expect from a commercial game and not a simple as in Flower. It does have an edit mode, and the level data saves to a reasonably clear XML file format, so there is definitely cult community potential (though admittedly low due to the aforementioned shallowness of mechanics).

Moving Along: Ubuntu

So, I do apologize to the multitudes of people out there that know of or use Linux. This isn't exactly news to many of you. Sadly there are too many people out there who have only vaguely heard of this "Ubuntu" thing, so please allow me to enlighten. Ubuntu is a free operating system that includes a wide variety of free software packages to do all the things many people just assume you have to pay for. It is not the only free solution, it is quite simply the solution that I have found to most consistently work for me out of the box or with the least troubleshooting. Out of all of the flavors of Linux, Ubuntu has caused me the least frustration.

That having been said, free is not for everyone. I also have a (1) Windows computer because there are just some things a guy needs Windows for these days, unfortunately, such as gaming. Sure, I could fight endlessly with emulation to play games made for Windows on Linux, but that is a level of obsession I'm just not at. I also have an (1) Intel Mac because I have yet to find that single piece of software that can do what Omnigraffle does as well for Linux. Rest assured, the day will come when those computers too will be formatted to install Linux, hardware life-span permitting. The real strength of Linux is it gives new life to old hardware. If you bought a computer for Windows XP and you're frustrated because it runs Windows 7 ridiculously slow, you might want to consider: a new computer for Windows 7, installing Ubuntu on the old computer, or both. The computer will likely feel faster on Ubuntu than it ever did with any Windows product.

There is a new version of Ubuntu coming out this month. I would personally recommend not downloading it the first day, or week, or even month later. Get the current (9.04) version if this is your first Linux experience. For many of the things most people want to do, Ubuntu has very easy GUI interfaces: Installing additional free and community supported software, system configuration, and security updates to name a few. Ubuntu can dual-boot, but there is always the risk that it will hose an existing boot configuration or will be hosed by something Windows or Mac OS does.

Linux has long been lumped in with DOS and Unix as a technical person's operating system. To a waning degree, it still is. Modern Linux is highly graphical in nature and it is increasingly becoming user friendly. I know people that have run screaming from Linux back into the folds of commercial software, but I've heard many more success stories than failures. It is mostly about finding the arrangement that is right for you. Likely, quitting commercial software cold-turkey isn't a reasonable expectation for most.

And Before I Forget: Old School Hot Shit - Plays Well With Others


One of the things that gets deemphasized a little too much these days is Multi-player. This is true in video games, but I'm also speaking metaphorically. Now it is also the case that relying on multi-player too much is equally lame. MMOs where you can't solo are a prime example. There is something to be said for self-sufficiency.


It is important not to lose touch with multi-player in everyday life. There are some really bad technologies and social constructs out there that try to force people into solo play. Don't let it happen, LFG (look for a group). When people are not cooperating, someone is going to have to take the initiative to start a group effort. Game Theory shows that these acts of leadership, which can be costly to the individual, are essential to improving long term success.


Finally: Face Your Manga

This one certainly isn't new, but I have yet to find a better source for an online face-proxy avatar. Sometimes you just don't want to use your real face. You could 'fair-use' someone's copyrighted image. If you're talented enough you could even come up with your image. For everyone else, there is Face Your Manga. This quick and easy Flash application will produce an anime looking face for you in no time, and send it to you in e-mail. I'd certainly recommend having it sent to an e-mule account since there is no telling what they do with the e-mail addresses people give them.


Face Your Manga is built on real proven technology. People respond better to cartoon images than most semi-realistic 3D renderings of the human face *cough second losers*. If you want to avoid that uncomfortable uncanny valley, a cartoon image is what you want.