We are in fact cleared to go to the Bay Area for the Game Developers Conference this week.

So the shows this coming week will break from the usual pattern, and we may even do some good old fashioned blogging... check back often - we're doing our best to cover the conference in a way that is unique to the site and its goals.

We answer your letters and discuss the issues you brought up this week with a high degree of intelligence and maturity.

Let's just say the letters this week were... intereting to say the least.

There was however, a good question about our Slamdance broadcast and how listeners can get invovled. More questions like those, please. Though the other ones... they make us giggle, too.

We also discuss the ongoing challenge. Remember, there's a free t-shirt at stake! We want to give away our first piece of swag! Help us do that!

Doug Lowenstein's ranks-breaking farewell address as head dude of the ESA and the call to arms for risk-taking and accountability - our thoughts on this Indie Wednesday. Also, Garrett checks in with the Gaming Market Watch, and Mike's 30 Seconds of Joy/Love for the just-announced XBLA Wing Commander.

We talk about Doug's indictment of those assembled for failing to be part of the Video Game Voters' Network. With everything that's been going on in the past few years regarding games and legislation, we also think this is huge. You should get involved if you care about such things. End of Sermon.

We're back on schedule! Just in time to be off it again. Hopefully we'll have an announcement (in the good news category) about our ability to cover GDC very soon.

We talk about timesink games, Jesse admits a shameful Grand Theft Auto habit, and Metal Mike the Intern joins us for FIVE THINGS we dig about social gaming. Or at least four things we like and one he likes. You'll just have to listen to find out.

It's kicking off a week of plain, simple fun here at DKL. The past two weeks have been kind of heavy, and we love a good time and a little levity as much as the next guy. So it's... mostly intelligent talk this Tuesday evening, but also just a smidgeon of dudes being dudes.

We're serious about wanting to hear from LARPers, by the way. Hit us up. We want you on the show. Click the cool new postage stamp in the upper right to shoot us an email.

5 Serious Games We'd Like to See Made (but don't necessarily feel brave enough to make ourselves)

If you're not familiar with the term "serious game" (a term Jesse actually thinks is just a terrible piece of common lexicon for what it is), reading this might help.

And as Mike states on the show, please try not to go ballistic when we discuss some of the truly raw parts of the human experience in terms of "games." It's not a game in the sense of "fun." Such things could not be further from our perception of the topic.

We belive in the power of our medium to present users with a unique experience, and it's one that's not limited to entertainment. With that in mind, we're talking about topics that could be explored to put things in persepctive, inspire (or re-inspire) outrage, and effect postive change on the world. That's definitely not a game.

But it's the term that's in use right now, and no one's come up with a better one. Maybe in the future we'll have a show called "5 Better Ways to Describe a Reality-Based or Otherwise Weighty Topic Explored in an Interactive Experience Than Calling it a "Serious Game".

If you're interested in this type of thing or maybe you just want to learn more, you should check out the Serious Games Summit. This is also going to be part of GDC this year. We've put in to attend the conference, so assuming GDC gives the go-ahead, we'll bring you more about this topic from there.

We bring you coverage from the Slamdance Guerilla Games Competition Post-mortem in the wake of the Super Columbine Massacre RPG! fiasco. It was a well-attended event with good discussion of some of the key issues raised as the result and we're pleased to bring you a large chunk of that talk.

Featured panelists:
Danny LeDonne (Super Columbine Massacre RPG), Sam Roberts (Slamdance Festival), Kellee Santiago and Jenova Chen (flOw, thatgamecompany), Tracy Fullerton (USC EA Game Innovation Lab), and Peter Brinson (Waco Resurrection).

Also heard on this track: Julian Bleecker, Peggy Weil, and someone you already know from DKL


We also regret that this is a little late this week - we wanted to make sure we had a sign-off from everyone you hear on the recording. The usual show and commentary will go up later today.

write to letters AT deekayel.com if you've got something to say about what you hear.

Today: thoughts on the Slamdance Guerilla Games Post-Mortem we aired yesterday.

We're on tape delay this week owing to being a little late getting the go-ahead to air the conversation we taped at the forum, so apologies for that. We'll be catching back up in no time at all!

In this episode, Jesse, Mike, Scott, and Matt all voice some of their thoughts and opinions on the issues discussed, including the responsibilities of game creators dealing with serious and possibly objectionable issues, and the responsibilities of festival runners when dealing with these things. Mike (who joins the host lineup) also briefly outlines his visit to DICE and a moment of atonement with Sid Meier.

We also throw out a quite serious invitation to Slamdance's Peter Baxter (who regretably could not attend the forum at the last minute) to come on the show. It's our opinion that the guest lineup that night could definitely have been firing squad for Peter, and we believe he ought to be able to have his say in a neutral forum. Peter, if you'd like to come on the show, we'd love to have you.

Meanwhile, check out what we have to say.

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See that right there? It's thirty-five minutes too late to still be called Monday's show, but we swear, it will go smoother from here.

We are LIVE! Champagne all around!

Sigh. If only anyone else was awake to toast with me...

Remember, you can also subscribe to this awesome podcast!

testing, baby, testing

The site is about to go live in a crippled broken format. Exciting things are sure to follow.

We answer letters, financial news, and the first CHALLENGE!

It's all there for you.

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letters AT deekayel.com
(we can spell it, we swear.)

Where to publish your indie game, Scott rages about WoW, free MMO Shadowbane, and all that DKL hilarity you've come to know and love... in that only other episode so far.

Trust us, it's going to be good.

It's the first edition of INDIE WEDNESDAY here at DKL. And every Wednesday from here until our little podcast-o-tron gives up the ghost, it's going to be awesome and useful talk about developing independent games, something we just so happen to have a little experience with...

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Thar she blows. But really, you ought to subscribe. So we know you're out there.

Also, letters AT deekayel.com. That's how you can send us love.