James is sick.  Literally, not figuratively.  As a consequence, his usual level of inappropriateness gets dialed down.  A conservative writer thinks bronies are sick.  As a consequence, the bronies respond with what one could expect from fans a a show called, "Friendship is Magic," specifically, kindness and understanding.

Also making it debut this week, Loot the Room's first ever book club.  For our first subject, we dig into The Hunger Games.  What we liked, what we thought could be better, and whether or not it was Battle Royale with less awesome murders.  There's a lot to talk about in three books, and for purposes of this conversation, we're assuming you read the books, so there's very little recapping.  That said, there are spoilers, so be warned.  If you want to avoid them, you may want to stop listening after the conservatve nut vs. bronies smackdown.

This won't be the last time we talk about a book on the show, and we want to give people a chance to read what we're going to discuss before we get to it, so we'll try to post our next book about a month in advance to give everyone a heads up.  To that end, our next book will be A Dirty Job, by Christopher Moore.  Happy reading people.

Music:

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

A New Beginning by CarboHydroM

Lucca by Danimal Cannon

Some people still aren't satisfied with Mass Effect 3's ending.  James still hasn't experienced it to begin with.  But in updating the ending with DLC, is Bioware giving up any claim to the "games as art" argument?  

This past weekend was the 3rd Annual Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo (C2E2).  The boys discuss the adventures they had there, the panels they attended, the celebrities they saw, the Cosplay they oogled, and the things they missed.  Dave even convinced a few people he was a journalist and actually got some interviews!

Later, the guys discuss tabletop gaming.  And finally, get ready to experience the most epic, most amazing, most incredible Nerd Fight in the history of...  Oh, what's that?  No Nerd Fight?  Okay, Nerd Fight doesn't happen.  Enjoy! 

Music: 

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

WandererontheOffensive(LiveEdit) by B33J, Cerrax, Sixto Sounds, nonsensicalexis

The Accursed Seal by Sixto Sounds

JamesBrownInSpace by djpretzel

Strike of the Devil's Axes by CarboHydroM, LuIzA 

UPDATE: Sound quality issues on episode 12 have been fixed.  Sorry everyone.  My fault. -Dave

The new Hunger Games movie is out and the reviews are good, but Ben has a bone to pick with it.  Thankfully it doesn't belong to one of the dead children.  Also James has a close encounter with Felicia Day that doesn't result in a restraining order.  He also has a few thoughts on the new Silent Hill HD collection.

Speaking of things that are both old and new, another Batman has cropped up, this time in Maryland, Congressman Joe Baca's back with another dumb idea, and if you love Google Maps but think it should look more like Dragon Warrior, they're throwing out some 8-bit awesome in honor of April Fools Day.

And in Nerd Fight, it's a class struggle, RPG style.  Which is best?  The Warrior?  The Rogue?  The Mage?  It gets a lot more complicated when Ben brings in pencils and paper.  The conclusion?  James wants ice cream.

EDITOR'S NOTE: During our discussion of the Hunger Games and the art of violence, I mentioned a Japanese film whose name I couldn't recall.  That film was Harakiri (originally titled Seppuku), directed by Masaki Kobayashi.  If you're a fan of the samurai films of old, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.  Also I apologise as I think I mangled some of the finer plot points.  Sorry about that.  It's been a while.  That said, see this film. -Dave

Music:

Dokuta Wairi Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

A New Beginning by CarboHydroM

The Passing of the Blue Crown by Sixto Sounds, Steppo, and zircon

UPDATE: The sound quality issue has been fixed.  Apologies to everyone who sat through the first version.  My fault. -Dave

This week, we discuss Mass Effect 3.  That's about it.  A whole lot of Mass Effect 3.  James has a few words to say on Star Wars: The Old Republic, but other than that and a bit of news, it's ME3 all day.  We're avoided spoilers as best we can.  We do divulge which characters are back (all of them), although some have little more than a cameo appearance.  But for the most part, none of this discussion should ruin the thus-far excellent plot of Mass Effect 3 (read: none of us have beaten it yet).

The ending of ME3 has generated a lot of controversy, and we feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't address it, so in the future, we'll be releasing a bonus episode discussing the game's ending.  It will be loaded with both spoilers and warnings about said spoilers, so no need to worry that you might accidentally listen to it.  You'll know it when it's coming.

In news, your ISP may be spying on you, a robot gets elected to the DC school board, and Slovakia has it's very own Batman.  All that on this week's Loot the Room.

Music:

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

Take it Back by Miracle of Sound (on iTunes and Bandcamp)

Commander Shepard by Miracle of Sound (on iTunes and Bandcamp)

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  There are a lot of people watching you online.  Ad servers, spambots, hackers, trackers, and of course, the RIAA.  This week, Loot looks at a Firefox add-on called Collusion that shows you who's watching you and where they're coming from.  For reference, we've uploaded a screenshot of the Collusion graph for your reference.

But wait.  There's more!  We also have an update on Ohio's William Fourkiller and his idea to tax violent video games, who votes on the Oscars, and a discussion of video games we'd like to see remade.  Also, technical errors cause us to lose our entire discussion on the Mass Effect 3 demo, and all the inadvertant homoerotic innuendo stemming from Dave's ambiguous description of combat mechanics.  All that plus James says many more wholly inappropriate things this week on Loot the Room!

Music:

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

Limitless Skies by CarboHydroM

Pickin' Out the Fleas (Swanky's Swing) by Sixto Sounds

This week, Loot welcomes our first guest ever.  Michi Trota, brings the smart the way the rest of us usually bring the stupid.  A pannelist at this years C2E2, Michi sits down to talk about gender in geek culture and what it's like growing up as both a geek and a girl.

After a lot of flexing of nerd muscle, discussing favorite Doctors, Buffy episodes, and bacon (because it's AWESOME that's why), we get down to the business of addressing women's place in geek culture both past and present.  What's the difference between something that's sexy and something that's sexist?  How can we recognize it?  How should we confront it?  How does one's gender change the way one views the images of women put forward by geek-directed media?

That sounds heavy, but really, we all had a great time.  This episode was hell to cut and not only because it was so long. The conversation was great, and I was loathe to dump any of it.  But that would have made the episode three hours long and there is such a thing as too much.  Don't believe me?  Try eating one of those giant chocolate Easter bunnies in one sitting.  Worst. New Year's.  Ever.  Wait...what was I saying?

So join us for a very important, but more importantly entertaining conversation on gender and gaming with our first ever guest.

Music:

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

Psychotic Censors by Mazedude

The Sound of the Galaxy by Mattias Häggström Gerdt

"Every now and then you run up on one of those days when everythings in vain . . . a stone bummer from start to finish; if you know what’s good for you, on days like these you sortof hunker down in a safe corner and watch. Maybe think a bit."

When Hunter S. Thompson wrote those words, we're fairly sure he was not thinking of this episode of the podcast, and not just because it didn't exist before his death.  We don't like to rule out possible holes in space-time and other annomolous temporal events.  The universe is a strange place.  Nonetheless, he could have been and you would never know the difference.

Dave tries to read the news only to be stymied by various factors, from inconvenient quadripeds to a combination of gravity, inertia, and Brownian motion.  James reflects on how it felt to be a Jedi, and Ben finds a scientific study on game addiction he doesn't hate.  But it's like they say.  The best laid plans of mice...men?  What have men got to do with it?

Mmmmmmm...taste the random.

NOTE: The Extra Credits episode referenced on "Game Addiction" is a two parter, available on PaxTV. (Part 1) (Part 2) 

Music, as always, from Overclocked Remix:

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Ligtht by Sixto Sounds

James Brown in Space by djpretzel

Limitless Skies by CarboHydroM

EDIT: Hey gang.  Sorry about all the sound cues being off by about 30 seconds in the latter half of the show.  Should be fixed now.  Still not sure how that happened.  Probably my fault. -Dave

Only through daunting stupidity and total incomprehension on the part of Congress, was SOPA forged.  And only through massive public discontent and outcry was it shelved.  SOPA is dead, but in the way Jason Voorhees is dead.  It'll return just as soon as someone thinks it's safe to go back to the creepy summer camp.  It is with an aim of driving as many stakes into it's vile shrivvled heart as possible that the boys offer their take on SOPA, prompting them to give out the first ever LTR Awards.

Also, this week's listener suggested Nerd Fight centers on boss battles.  Who will be victorious?  Who will rhetorically dominate those lesser nerds that tremble in their wake?  Who will forget to do their homework?  Actually that last one will probably be James.  Stay tuned for partial excitement!

BONUS: For a far more intelligent take on SOPA check out the latest Extra Credits over on PAXTV.

DOUBLE BONUS: With the exception of the show's intro and outro, all the music from this week's LTR is from a single game franchise.  Can you guess which one?  There are no prizes, so no point in cheating.  Links below.

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

Red Cyclone by Shael Riley and The Grammar Club

Combat and Service by Big Giant Circles and Justin R. Coleman

Clamato Fever by A Rival and Prozax

Spittin' Narcissism by Jose the Bronx Rican

THE FOLLOWING IS NOT A PAID ADVERTISEMENT.  IT IS A DECLARATION OF LOVE.

NOW AVAILABLE:

Level 1: the 2011 Collection from Miracle of Sound.  33 tracks for only $9.99
Check it out on iTunes and Band Camp.

This is not my find, it was posted on a forum that I can't seem to find anymore in my history, but for anyone who is on PC and has suffered through the Markarth glitch here's the fix.

1. Travel to Markarth
2. Walk up to a city guard and begin the "You've committed crimes..." dialog
3. Do not select any dialog options
4. Hit the tilde key ( `/~ key above the tab key) to bring up the console
5. Using either the game pad or the mouse position the cursor right in the middle of the guard's head and click on his head. You should now see a hex code in the console. It is important that it is the guard's head - not his body.
6. Type paycrimegold into the console and hit enter

You'll hear the gold "cha ching" sound and the game will teleport you somewhere random in Markarth. Hit tilde again to exit the console and the glitch will now be fixed. You can interact with Markarth as per normal. This is not cheating as the bounty on your head cannot be cleared by normal means and the bounty should have been lifted at the end of the quest so you aren't breaking the game.

Keep calm and Game ON people!

Dave finally has Skyrim and its effect on his life has been just as anyone could have predicted.  Ben and Dave explode with delight as they run down their favorite Skyrim mods covering crafting, graphics, and overall performance.

A quick recap of the holidays leads to Ben and James to resolve that they'll get fit in the New Year, and what a new year it is already shaping up to be.  The Dragonborn is come, the X-Men are in federal court, and Ben causes Dave to witness something he can't unsee, no matter how hard he tries.

Plus, nerd fight returns for a second bout.  This week it's useless video game support characters.  Will there be a winner this week?  Or will it be like last week, where everyone loses, especially you, dear listener.  Find out this week on Loot the Room!

Music:

Dokuta Wairi, Rival to the Light by Sixto Sounds

Grim Reaper by Memblers

Monstrous Turtles by zircon

Sovengarde Song by Miracle of Sound (available on iTunes and Band Camp)

NOW AVAILABLE:

Level 1: the 2011 Collection from Miracle of Sound.  33 tracks for only $9.99
Check it out on iTunes and Band Camp.