Ashley
Austin, TX
Joined Oct 2004
Member #24,363
Posts
Book Club: The Lies of Locke Lamora
This week on Club Club we're reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch! It's a fun heisty fantasy book with a strong cast of likeable characters, shenanigans, and unexpected developments.
What do you think of the book!? Leave your thoughts on a particular moment or element of the book you particularly appreciated in the comments, or tweet us using #ClubClub.
Want us to address a specific theme, event, or story element? Suggest those too!
NEXT
Tabletop Club - Mansions of Madness
Game Club - Little Nightmares
Movie Club - Spirited Away
Movie Club: Stardust
This week on Club Club we're watching Stardust! It's a 2007 movie based on the book by Neil Gaiman and we can't wait to talk about it. If you want to watch before this weekend, it's currently streaming on Netflix (in the US, at least... not sure about other regions. Sorry!), but it's also available to rent on YouTube/Google Play, Amazon, and iTunes.
We want to include your thoughts in the show!
You can suggest a "Movie Club" style question about the themes of the movie we should discuss.
You can also leave us a comment about something in the movie that surprised you, a moment you particularly enjoyed, etc. and we'll shout out some of your thoughts in the episode. OR you can tweet us your thoughts using the hashtag #ClubClub.
I CAN'T WAIT TO DISCUSS THIS MOVIE WITH EVERYONE!
NEXT
Book Club - The Lies of Locke Lamora
Tabletop Club - Mansions of Madness
Game Club - Little Nightmares
Game Club: Doki Doki Literature Club
It's finally time! We're getting ready to sit down and record our first episode of Club Club! We're starting off with Game Club (BACK FROM THE DEAD!) and we're playing Doki Doki Literature Club. We've scarred ourselves plenty with our playthroughs, but we also want to know how it scarred you. Let us know a favorite moment or element from the game and we'll shout them out as part of the episode!
Alternately, you can tweet with the hashtag #ClubClub and we'll be highlighting your tweets about the game as well.
And don't forget our other upcoming Clubs!
Movie Club: Stardust
Book Club: The Lies of Locke Lamora
Tabletop Club: Mansions of Madness
BONUS POINTS IF YOU WRITE AS A POEM
obviously
Look for the episode to go up on the site exclusively for FIRST members this weekend! Once we get the whole show settled and going along smoothly, we'd also like to add a streaming component, but I'm still learning the whole live/to-tape production pipeline so trying not to bite off more than I can handle.
Let's do E3 2018!
After months of planning I honestly can't believe it, but E3 starts THIS WEEKEND!
Like the last few years, we'll be on the ground broadcasting live during the press conferences and straight from the Los Angeles Convention Center once the show floor opens on Tuesday, as YouTube's official show floor coverage.
We've done this for a few years now, and it never ceases to impress me just how lucky we are to have this opportunity, and I hope we create a great show for you!
In total we will stream more than 30 hours across 6 days, featuring more than 40 games during our show floor coverage. You want to know about a game? Chances are pretty good we'll have it on. We'll be able to share more guests in a few days once they've announced their games, and we'll be one of the first to talk to the developers following the reveals! I can't wait.
I hope you'll join us!
HOW TO WATCH:
Since this is a production we do in partnership with YouTube, you can catch catch us live exclusively here:
If you're not able to watch every second of the live show (We get it! That's a lot of live show to watch!) The Know will post the individual demos, interviews, and publisher presentations daily here on roosterteeth.com so you can browse it all at your leisure.
For now, take a look at our schedule and a few of the highlights you can expect to see!
Celebrate International Women's Day with Us!
International Women's Day is coming up this Thursday, March 8! And that's a great excuse for the ladies of Rooster Teeth to get together, share some beverages and celebrate some mammaries.. err, memories. And we want you to join us!
We're throwing a livestream party to highlight a bunch of the awesome women in the company and hear how everyone got started (in case you're looking for a little inspiration of your own), and answering your burning questions. Plus, we'll show off video games featuring leading ladies because they deserve love too.
We're also partnering with YouTube to support a good cause while we celebrate! We're using YouTube's SuperChat for Good feature to raise donations for Girls Who Code, a non-profit organization that aims to inspire, educate, and equip young women to enter the tech industry.
100% of SuperChat revenue will go directly to the foundation for the entire stream, and I really hope everyone submits $80.08 because... boob. WHAT IF WE RAISE $80,081.35? That would be amazing. Very specific and unlikely, but it would be a beautiful thing.
Here are the stream details!
When: Thursday, March 8 4PM - 7PM CST/10PM - 1AM GMT
Where: YouTube and RoosterTeeth.com
And here's more information about Girls Who Code!
Girls Who Code was founded five years ago with the belief that computing skills are a critical path to security and prosperity in today’s job market. From Clubs in rural Oklahoma, to homeless shelters in Massachusetts, to the country’s most prestigious private schools—girls everywhere are united by their passion to use technology to solve problems in their day-to-day lives and make a positive impact on the world.
A Wrinkle in Time
I need to re-read this book before the movie comes out because the only bit I remember concretely is the creepy kids in the cul-de-sac. Who else wants to read along and we can do a little live chat or something talking about it after?
EDIT: Just saw it's on Audible too! So if you'd rather audio book it you can use our code for a free trial (disclosure! they're a sponsor on Glitch Please this week which is what made me think to look for it). Code to get a free audio book is http://www.audible.com/glitch
The Grind is Real
It's been years since I played Final Fantasy X. I bought the HD Remaster when it hit PC but decided to save it for another day and never got around to it. But I recently got a Vita to binge Persona 4 Golden and picked up FFX/FFX-2 while I was doing a pre-flight shopping binge wherein I buy several books and games to stave off the utter terror that I MIGHT. GET.BORED.
So I started playing again. And I decided, since I played the shit out of it before PSN Trophies were around to give me the credit I so richly deserve, that I would platinum it. I promised myself.
I hate myself, and I hate my promises.
I thought I knew what FFX completion looked like. In my PS2-era mind it was getting all the celestial weapons and beating the Omega dungeon. Then I see these fuckers on the trophy list.
I didn't even realize what that meant. Surely it couldn't mean activating every node on the entire sphere grid (the game's leveling/skill tree system), could it? That's like a human rights violation. For reference, this is the sphere grid.
In the normal course of the game, each of the 7 playable characters starts at a different point on this grid and follows a track. When you fight monsters you earn points (AP) that let you advance around the grid and you spend different types of spheres to activate nodes that raise your HP, MP, Strength, etc. or unlock abilities like Heal or Fire or Quick Hit.
Mostly, the tracks and some special abilities are locked off from each other, unless you get special spheres to unlock them, but theoretically this means you can teach your tanks to heal and get your mages some defense.
Pretty cool, right?
In the FUCKING SADISTIC version of the game, just taking ALL 7 characters around the ENTIRE GRID isn't even enough. You have to consign yourself to spending hours hitting special monsters in a monster arena to collect special spheres to turn empty nodes into attribute nodes, then activating them so there are no empty nodes left.
You need to earn a LOT of AP to be able to move around to activate everything. There's one particular trick that's supposed to make this easier. You customize some weapons to add certain abilities, then repeatedly fight a specific monster to get a TON of AP.
But before that you have to, (SURPRISE!) beat up other monsters for hours on end, torturing them into dropping items you need so you can customize OTHER weapons and sell them to make money so you can bribe totally different monsters for the materials you actually need to make the weapons to hit the AP guy so you can move around the sphere grid.
I hate everything about it, but I'm still putting myself through it.
Yesterday I got my first character through this gauntlet (bless you, Wakka). He had the hard work of forging the path through, transforming every empty node. Now all the other characters follow behind. Hopefully that means only a few hours to go? Hopefully?
I checked my play time pre-grind and where I'm at now. 80 hours. 80. HOURS. That's half my total play time. As much time as I've spent playing the game, getting all the celestial weapons, and beating the secret dungeon that I would have defined as "complete" before.
Almost done, though! Right? I hope? Then I can move on to getting the Platinum for Final Fantasy X-2 because I NEED the perfect ending.
What am I doing with my life?
Welcome to the Holiday Gift Guide
Eric Vespe recently joined us to be our resident movie nerd, but he has many skills. Every year, he publishes one of the most comprehensive holiday gift guides on the internet, and this year he's doing it with us! Whether you're looking for movies or collectibles or games or housewares or art or... well, pretty much anything, if it's geeky and awesome he's probably found it and listed it in this guide.
We'll be putting up additional sections of the gift guide over the next several days, but we're starting off with two of his favorites: blu-rays/dvds/4k video and art.
Check it out, let us know if you get anything for someone you love (or, let's be honest, yourself), and if you've got additional gift ideas throw them at us!
NOTE: there are some links in this guide that include affiliate links for sites like Amazon. What this means is that if you click the link and find something you like and buy it, Amazon pays us a small referral fee. We're hoping to use this to fund cool new stuff for The Know, but it's not a consideration for what goes in the guide itself, and we include a ton of stuff from all across the internet simply because it's super cool. We just want to be totally transparent about the process so you know what's going on when you click those links.
We Want Your Feedback
Hello, Know Buddies!
We're doing a survey to learn more about the people who watch our content, specifically, so we can improve and develop in a direction that means more content you enjoy.
If you have a few minutes, please take the survey and tell us more about who you are, what you enjoy, why you enjoy it, what you'd like to see more of, and any extra feedback you want us to have.
Welcome Eric Vespe to The Know
Since launching The Know I've had the privilege of working with a number of talented writing voices. Coming in to the office every day to digest and debate through the events of the video game world is like coming home.
Today, I'm lucky enough to be able to add another name to that list (and one I've had my eye on for a long time): Eric Vespe, known to many in the entertainment world as Quint. Eric, formerly of Ain't It Cool? News, has been one of the foremost writers in the entertainment space for 20 years, and has agreed to join on with The Know to lead the charge deeper into movie and entertainment coverage for us.
This is really huge for us and we're lucky to have him. I like movies. Most of us do, really. But when I see how passionate Eric is for the medium, and just how much he knows about every element of every genre, I realize just how much I have to learn. His enthusiasm is infectious and makes learning more about movies FUN, which is exactly what we need.
Over the next few weeks you'll start to see Eric's work appear on the website and in videos. We're also going to be working together to develop new content that takes advantage of Eric's unique strengths, and I can't wait for you all to see it.
Until then, please welcome Eric to the family!