Whole Story: Fire Hydrants
September 12th, 2011

Posted by Matt

Fire hydrants: Stoic, unflinching protectors of our livlihoods. Have you ever wanted to know more? Today, we give you the Whole Story.

This video marks the second appearance of Nigel Fitzgerald Brouwer, and marks the point at which “The whole Story” has officially become a series, rather than a single video. As such, Paul provided me a few words with regards to his inspiration.

The Whole Story series was inspired by, among other things, John Hodgman’s Areas of my Expertise and Lore Fitzgerald Sjöberg’s Alt Text videos for Wired. I love the idea of a historian not only being incorrect but actually flat out lying, but speaking with enough authority to seem semi plausible. As with the Spam episode, instead of just making everything up whole cloth, I found it was funnier to get the small details correct even if the larger parts of the story were completely silly. For instance, the modern fire hydrant was indeed invented by Birdsill Holly around the time mentioned in the video. Big thanks to Tensen for providing the great drawings of a dragon attacking a plasma tv and with its nose caught in the 6 pack ring (the most dangerous weapon mankind has ever developed). I was also quite happy with what I came up with for the diagram of the Fire Hyrda. It is the combination of 4 highly detailed engine cross sections and I feel it gets across the ridiculous complexity of the 23 foot long machine.

Checkpoint is available to view over at PATV. Today’s episode is titled: Project – Buy Our Shit

UPDATE: There it is! Unskippable is now online! Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers

Cheers!

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Posted in Checkpoint, LRR, Unskippable | 4 Comments »

More Sleep!
September 2nd, 2011

Posted by Matt

This post was originally intended as a video update post, as indicated by the banner above. However, it’s friday today, all our videos are up, and despite incessant badgering on my part, Paul still hasn’t sent me a write-up for this week’s LRR video. So, I’m going to make this a sappy post-PAX thank you thread instead!

But first off, here are this week’s videos, just to get them out of the way:

LRR: More Sleep
Unskippable: Fallout: New Vegas
Checkpoint: Nintendo 4DS
Feed Dump: The Prostitute Permit and Other Tales


(Thanks to UnknownGamer from our forums for posting this photo in the PAX Thread, which, I’ll admit, I shamelessly grabbed and reposted here.)

So, PAX is over, we’ve had a few days to recover, and there’s no apparent outbreak of the PAX-pox among the crew. We had an absolute blast meeting all of you, and on behalf of all of LoadingReadyRun I’d like to extend our thanks for all the handshakes, hugs, photographs, cookies, and goofy hats from those three days in Seattle. We hope you enjoyed our panels, screening block, and meetup as much as we did.

For those that didn’t make it to PAX this year, we look forward to meeting you (for the first time, or again) at one of the many conventions yet to come.

In summation, from all of us, thanks for being the greatest group of fans one internet sketch comedy group could ask for!

Cheers!

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Posted in Checkpoint, Community, LRR, Unskippable | 5 Comments »

All you ever wanted to know about PAX Prime 2011 (but were afraid to ask)
August 17th, 2011

Posted by Matt

Well kids, it’s that time of year again. PAX Prime is a mere nine days away. By now, hopefully, your plans are made, and your hotels are booked – all that’s left is to find your way to the Washington State Convention Center next Friday, and take in all the Convention has to offer. For those of you attending PAX for the very first time (and for those of you not attending for the very first time, actually), I strongly suggest you check out the official PAX Website. The convention schedule was posted at the beginning of the month, and if you’re not sure what’s in store for you, there are few better ways to find out. Are you interested in Panels? Screening blocks? Concerts? Wandering the show floor? Meeting with your favorite internet personalities? The schedule is the place to look to plan your weekend.

Additionally, no matter your preferred flavor of convention experience, LoadingReadyRun should have you covered on nearly every count. The whole of the crew will be in attendance at the con, (with the sole exception of Alex, who’s heading off to Ontario to attend Fan Expo to promote his new project ‘Shards’) so you’ll be sure to see us around. On top of that, we’ll also have a table in Bandland, where we’ll be selling merch and signing autographs (and yes, we do intend to have Season 5 and Crapshots DVDs with us, though that depends on whether or not we receive them on time from the printer). It’s also very likely that we’ll arrange a LRR fan meet-up at some point during the weekend, but as usual we have not planned a time and date in advance. You’ll want to follow the @LoadingReadyRun Twitter account, or check back here during the con for more information. Finally, we’ve also got panels and a screening block! The information for those can be found below:

The LoadingReadyRun Panel
Unicorn Theatre
Friday 9:30pm – 10:30pm
LoadingReadyRun, producers of Unskippable, CheckPoint, Feed Dump, ENN & Daily Drop, and organizers of the Desert Bus for Hope fundraiser, will delight and amaze you with new videos and answers to your questions! Come hang out!

LoadingReadyRun Movie Night!
Unicorn Theatre
Friday 10:30pm – 11:30pm
Join the whole LRR crew for some of our favourite vids and other fun stuff. We’ll all be there to hang out and answer your questions. If you missed talking to us during our panel, we’d love to see you here.

Escapist Movie Night
Unicorn Theatre
Saturday 10:30pm – 11:30pm
Meet the stars of The Escapist’s Loading Ready Run, Extra Credits, Unskippable and more at The Escapist’s Movie Night. You’ll see never-before-seen videos from The Escapist’s most popular web series, including Zero Punctuation and The Big Picture. Plus see favorite episodes from Extra Credits, Unskippable, Daily Drop, Feed Dump, Escape to the Movies, Miracle of Sound, Jimquisition, No Right Answer and more, hosted by Extra Credits’ James Portnow, Loading Ready Run and the staff of The Escapist.

What Women Really Want
Kraken Theatre
Sunday 11:30am – 12:30pm
Join Trina Schwimmer, founder of GamingAngels.com; Kathleen de Vere, star of LoadingReadyRun; AJ Glasser of Inside Social Games; and Tracey John, regular contributor to The Daily, as they discuss what they embrace in female fictional characters and why these attributes are important. They will identify their favorite characters and how they would like more heroines with similar attributes integrated into Geek culture. This fresh, positive approach to female characters shouldn’t be missed. Moderated by Susan Arendt, Senior Editor of The Escapist.
Panelists include: Susan Arendt [Senior Editor, The Escapist], Christa Carter, Brittany Aubert, Kathleen De Vere [Actor, LoadingReadyRun], AJ Glasser [Journalist, Inside Social Games], Brittany Aubert [Associate Producer, 5th Cell]

Gaming as a Lifestyle
Serpent Theatre
Sunday 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Flying in the face of criticism against video games and their ruination of lives, this panel will address the topic of living a life made richer by playing games. From how to keep your job while supporting a game-playing habit, to making your game-playing habit your job. Graham Stark, Jeff Green, Ian Dorsch and James Portnow will share secrets and personal stories, deflate hype and participate in a detailed Q&A. Moderated by Russ Pitts, Editor-in-Chief of The Escapist.
Panelists include: Russ Pitts [Editor-in-Chief, The Escapist], James Portnow [CEO/Developer, Rainmaker Games], Ian Dorsch [Musician – Zero Punctuation, The Escapist], Jeff Green [Journalist/PR, PopCap], Graham Stark [Writer/Actor, LoadingReadyRun]

We’re really looking forward to the con and to seeing you all there. PAX is always a blast, and we have no doubt that this year will continue that trend. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot a message to our twitter account or to post it in the comments below. Internet access is always a little spotty while we’re in the states, but we’ll try to keep you all as up to date as possible about our various goings on throughout the weekend.

See you soon!

Update: I’ve just been informed that there will be a Magic: The Gathering party hosted by Wizards of the Coast on the evening of Saturday, August 27. It’s a safe bet that most, if not all, of us will be in attendance.

Ascend into Darkness – The Magic Innistrad Party

Seriously, you definitely want to be at this party on the evening of Saturday, August 27. You’ll be able to earn an invitation by participating in PAX Prime. Stop by the Wizards of the Coast booth for details!

 

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Posted in Community, LRR, Merchandise, News | 5 Comments »

The Amendment
August 15th, 2011

Posted by Matt

Friends, countrymen… lend me your clicks. I have come to you today to alert you to a pressing issue facing or nation: This week’s video!

Our video this week features our good friend Brad, who happened to have returned briefly from overseas. I believe he has once again returned to the Old World, but while he was here he did grace us with his appearance (and what a fine appearance it is!)

Since Graham is off gallivanting in England at the moment, I turned to Paul this week for a few words on the writing of this episode. Here’s what he had to say:

While not as splashy as the 1st Amendment or as controversial as the 2nd Amendment, you have to admit that a bunch of soldiers sleeping in your house, emptying your fridge, and having loud parties late into the night, would really suck. Graham initially wrote about half this script, but was having trouble figuring out where to go with it, so he brought it in to the office to show it to me. We liked the idea of Brad being confused about the meaning of “quartering” because it has the great wtf moment of the reporters all realizing how far over his head this politician is. Like any good politician, Brad does not waver, though, and quickly doubles down in an effort to dig up. I feel like if politicians are going to be corrupt and incompetent, the least they can do is be entertaining as well.

Unskippable this week features Dead Space 2. You can find that here.

Also, CheckPoint is up over at PATV. While you’re there, check out penny-Arcade’s sleek new site layout. It’s purdy.

Cheers!

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Posted in LRR, Unskippable | 4 Comments »

Imagine If You Will
July 25th, 2011

Posted by Matt

Imagine, if you will… that our new video is up. Now stop imagining, because it actually is. Here.

So where did this video come from? Well, Graham explains:

I wanted to write a video about what “the next big thing” will be once vampires aren’t cool anymore, but the tricky part was finding something ridiculous enough. I really wanted Davis (my unnamed character) to get super annoyed, so it had to to be really silly. As a result, Cthulhu!

We went to the “elder god well” once already this season with Discount Deities, but I felt this was different enough that both videos could exist so close by in our chronology. Don’t expect another any time soon though!

When I was writing, I was originally going to have Gills (Paul’s character) pitch the Siren seriously as a suggestion, and then a third silly suggestion (comedy comes in threes, you see). But, as I was writing I thought it’d be much better for Gills to be really trying to make this Cthulhu thing stick, hence him using the Siren to “make Cthulhu look good”.

Once I was done the draft, Kathleen came in to add, what I felt was, some much-needed punch here and there.

Addendum:
In videos we co-write, people often throw out the phrase, “That was totally a Kathleen line!” when it wasn’t. It was just a really silly, often awful, line that sounds like something she would write. For reference, the pedophilia line? Mine. The guy-sexing-a-pie line? Kathleen’s. The “no it was just a guy sexing a pie”? Me again.
That, my friends, is teamwork.

Unskippable’s game of choice this week was an unspeakable horror… You can find it here.

Also Checkpoint is up over at PATV. Please watch in order to help to save 3DS. Or something.

Additionally, please note the announcemnt post for the PSN Featured Game. We’ll be playing the PS3 version of Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 on Saturday from 4-6 (Pacific), and we’d love for you all to join us!

Finally, there are but a few days left in the pre-order period for the Lasers of Understanding tee-shirts! We’ve not quite met our minimum quota for the production of a run of these shirts yet, but we’d really like to see them happen, and we’re nearly there. If you’re waiting on buying one of these, don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

This meeting is over.

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Posted in Community, LRR, Merchandise, Unskippable | 3 Comments »

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