<p>Josh couldn’t make it this week. My USB headset broke and my backup evidently has a white noise generator built into it. I did the editing. We forgot to do the mailbag segment. So basically, this episode features the usual level of polish and professionalism you’ve come to expect from us. Enjoy!</p>
<p>Also! We we be doing a hangout on Thursday, April 25 at 7pm Eastern Time. (Which works out to midnight on Friday morning, GMT.) I’ll post links and give a heads-up when the show is ready to go live.</p>
<p>Show notes:</p>
<p><span id="more-19506"></span><strong>00:30</strong> <em>What’s Everyone Playing?</em></p>
<p>Shamus is playing Thief 2 and Thief 3.</p>
<p>Chris is playing <a href="http://jayisgames.com/games/surgeon-simulator-2013/">Surgeon Simulator 2013</a>. Which he says is <a href="http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html">QWOP</a> meets <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauma_Center_(series)">Trauma Center</a>. Also he’s playing <a href="http://www.starseedpilgrim.com/">Starseed Pilgrim</a>.</p>
<p>Rutskarn has played <a href="http://blendogames.com/thirtyflightsofloving/">30 Flights of Loving</a></p>
<p>And then we spend several minutes talking about Minecraft mods because I wasn’t sure if people wanted to talk about Minecraft mods.</p>
<p><strong>23:00</strong> <em>It’s the triumphant return of “Bad SimCity News of the week”!</em> You can get <a href="http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/simcity-as-advertising-platform-how-ea-rewards-you-for-buying-real-world-pr">free SimCity DLC</a> by buying specially-marked boxes of toothpaste or whatever. At least it’s not <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjXSI6O9lUo">Doritos and Mountain Dew</a> this time.</p>
<p><strong>33:20</strong> <a href="http://www.warcry.com/news/view/123260-Salem-Dev-Says-MMOs-Without-Permanent-Death-Arent-Games">The developer of the MMO Salem creates a definition of the word “game”</a>. Shocking turn: He crafts a definition specifically to favor things he likes and exclude things he doesn’t.</p>
<p>During the discussion, I brought up <a href="http://www.realmofthemadgod.com/">Realm of the Mad God</a>, which was the basis for the recent Spoiler Warning joke title <a href="http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=19479">Realm of the Bad Dog</a>, which nobody noticed. Alas. Also we discussed (and made fun of) Peter Molyneux’s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_%E2%80%93_What's_Inside_the_Cube%3F">Curiosity – What’s Inside the Cube?</a></p>
<p><strong>45:30</strong> <a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123266-Crytek-Boss-Says-Visuals-Are-60-of-the-Game#uT20aeqS8lrc1Dwf.99">Cevat Yerli, the CEO of Crytek, says that graphics are “60% of the game”.</a></p>
