Thursday Loading Time and Cursed Crusade
February 7th, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

It’s Thursday, and that means its time for a new Loading Time. This week, we look at how we created our Gatecrash spoiler video for Urban Evolution.

Since the video itself is pretty self explanatory, I’ll just get right to the trivia!

    • You can see LRR forum member and friend Lord Crusher at the beginning of the video.
    • I’m asleep on the couch with a bad headache. I’m a major headache wimp.
    • The Magic Judge’s shirt James is wearing comes from our friend Dale. He was a Magic: The Gathering Judge in the the 90s.
    • LRR always practices safe RAM touching practices. By always, I mean, sometimes. When we remember. Neil with it.

Today we also see a new chapter in the ongoing Cursed Crusade Saga. In episode 21, Graham, Paul and Brad try to save a princess! A real princess! It goes poorly. And by poorly we mean GIANT DEMON.

A Graham-less Feed Dump!
February 6th, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

Due to a scheduling issue, Graham couldn’t come in an do this week’s Feed Dump. I have discovered it is very, very hard to host Feed Dump. You need to be able to come up with those story summaries on the fly and I have discovered I talk too much.

Basically what I was doing the entire dang time.

 

A Q&A with the Boros Legion (aka: Mark Rosewater)
February 4th, 2013

Posted by Graham

Good day all! Our friends over at DailyMTG are having a whole week dedicated to one of the Ravnica guilds from the latest Magic expansion, Gatecrash. They asked us if—in observance of this week for all things Boros—we had any questions for the Wizards R&D team about everyone’s favourite Red/White guild.

Obviously, we had to put our own spin on it, and thankfully Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater was happy to respond on the Boros’ behalf.

 

• LoadingReadyRun: Good afternoon… Boros, is it? The Boros Legion? Well, I’ve got your resume here but I’m going to cut to the chase, what do you feel you bring to our company?

Boros: Permission to speak, sir? Thank you, sir. Here’s what the Boros brings to the table. We have the morality to know what needs to be done and the guts to do it. We find the cancer and we kick its ass. We don’t make problems. We solve them.

 

• LRR: Interesting. We’re looking for a self-starter, but it’s also important to work as part of a team. Do you work well in teams?

Boros: Sir, teamwork is our bread and butter. We live, breathe and eat teamwork. The Orzhov extort. The Simic evolve. The Gruul bloodrush. I don’t even understand what the Dimir do. We have a battalion. We hit fast, we hit hard, we hit as a team – preferably with three or more creatures – and we win before most of the other guilds have gotten out of bed. Having Boros on your side is the closest thing to having victory in your pocket.

 

• LRR: Hmm. But you can also function well individually?

Boros: Sir, we are trained, efficient veterans who aren’t afraid of getting our hands dirty. Even a single Boros can get the job done.

 

• LRR: I see. Shifting gears now, can you give me an example of how you’ve dealt with a workplace dispute?

Boros: Permission to speak freely, sir? Thank you. If someone else oversteps their authority, I put them back in their place. I prefer using my fists, but I’m more than happy to escalate to weapons. I remember an incident when Sergeant Vorjek questioned my squad’s combat performance. I granted him four days best rest to think about repeating such an action.

 

• LRR: All right. And, related to that, can you give me an example how you’ve handled a dispute with someone who isn’t a coworker? Say, a member of another guild.

Boros: Sir, let’s just say I am not as kind to members outside my guild. I am not allowed to give any more detail for concern of retribution.

 

• LRR: Now, I see on your resume your current employers is a Ms… Aurelia. But you used to work for an archangel named Razia? Would Razia be available for a reference call?

Boros: No, sir. Ms. Razia is no longer among us. I can say she was a fan of my work.

 

• LRR: I see. I’m sorry for your loss. Well, what is Aurelia like?

Boros: Sir, I can give nothing but the highest compliments for our leader. Literally, I am forbidden but giving anything but the highest compliments. Watching her work is like observing a piece of art. She is fury personified. I mean that in the best possible way. Make sure they know that.

 

• LRR: We try to be an inclusive workplace, but—let’s be honest—not everyone gets along. Is there any guild you see creating a hostile work environment for you? 

Boros: Sir, I believe every non-Boros individual waters down the glory that is the city of Ravnica. I grin and bear it but if I had my way, there would be nine less guilds in the city.

 

• LRR: I understand. Now, what would you say—and please try to be honest—is your worst quality? 

Boros: Sir, if I had to pick any flaw, I’d have to say I work too hard. I attack too often. I apply righteous fury a little too aggressively  and I probably kick a little too much ass.

 

• LRR: All right then! Lastly, is there anything else you’d like to tell us?

Boros: Sir, I want this job. I am the right choice for the job. If you hire anyone but me for it, you are making a grave mistake. Also I’m flexible on salary.

 

• LRR: Super, we’ll be in touch. On your way out could you send the Simic Combine in? We’ve got to get through all nine guilds today, and Simic’s frog-bird-crab-thing just peed on the lobby carpet. Thank you.

 

Kicking off February
February 4th, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

I’m going to cut straight to the chase here folks. Today’s LoadingReadyRun video is Wizard Chat.

Wizard Chat.

WIZARD CHAT

WIZARD CHAT!!

Paul was dubious at first about the wig, but it matched the fake beard just too well.

Anyhow, that amount of GIF-based high spirits behind us, we also put up two, less Wizard based videos this week. In Unskippable, Graham and Paul take on the PS2 classic Orphen. Have fun and play “count the frames of animation” — don’t worry, it’s an easy game. Suitable for children under eight.

Everything that was wrong with Japanese animation in the 1990s.

Finally, for this week’s CheckPoint, Graham breaks down what was going on with the gigantic Eve Online war from last week. It was the biggest conflict between Reddit and Something Awful you probably didn’t know even happened.

Oh yeah, we finally got Half-Life! Mac has arrived!

The Straight Dope on CMN
January 31st, 2013

Posted by Kathleen

Hey everyone it’s Thursday, and that means a new Loading Time. More new content!

This week’s video was CMN, a rather dirty sounding, but cleanly intended name for our take on the Home Shopping Channel. The Couch Mall Network is of course, it’s weirder, grosser, ethically questionable cousin. I’m in a wig, which is always annoying. If anyone has any like… good wigs and want to donate them to us, shoot me and email. Seriously. Our wigs always start out looking like a cross between a member of whitesnake and an angry chinchilla.

Anyhow, on to the good part of the Loading Time update — the trivia!

  1. The only credit I forgot to change was editing… It should say “Kathleen De Vere and Graham Stark”
  2. Why are Graham’s scrubs green in the loading time, but grey in the final product? Green screen filters.That sort of thing can be fixed with After Effects masks, but it’s an involved process that I don’t know how to do yet.
  3. The video was supposed to be called The Straight Dope, but I titled the Final Cut project CMN. For some reason the file was named “The Straight Dope” but when opened and played it was labeled as CMN. Stupid Final Cut.
  4. The Line Wrangler credit means “holding the teleprompter” — those lines were far too long and complex for even Graham to memorize.
  5. This was perhaps inspired by the whole Lance Armstrong “thing”, but mainly because Graham looked up just exactly what blood doping was and thought, even by itself, the process was so ludicrous it would make a good video.
  6. If you’re here from The Escapist, thanks for watching. We have a bunch of other neat content to check out in our Videos section.

P.S. — the latest episode of Graham, Brad and Paul try to slog through Cursed Crusade is online!