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Nerdist was started by Chris Hardwick and has grown to be a many headed beast.

8

The Indoor Kids: The Letters Episode (with guest Steve Agee)

The Indoor Kids say farewell to Ali Baker, who must move back to the East Coast to further her education, and welcome Emily V. Gordon as the new co-host. Steve Agee (Sarah Silverman Program, first guest on our podcast) returns to usher in a new beginning and read all the wonderful letters that our wonderful listeners have sent in. A bittersweet time is had by all.

**SPOILER ALERT** 18:45 – 19:20 The first Halo. (You really should know all this by now, people listening to a podcast about videogames)

Follow @thegynomite and @SteveAgee on Twitter!

 
34 comments read them below or add one

  5. wha…wha…what? :( no more Ali? Sad times, sad times. Gud luck there Ali and umm… too long and uncomfortable hug from a horrible stranger?

  6. It’s a bummer we won’t get to hear Ali anymore but it’s wonderful that she’s heading back to academia. Good luck Ali!

  7. I think it depends on the aspect that someone is taking a hate-dump on before I can decide whether or not to defend a game/show/movie/book/etc.. But mostly I won’t.

    “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” – Cage the Elephant

    I wish Ali the best at school, and I’ve enjoyed her presence on the cast thus far.
    And of course, I wish Emily luck as the new co-host and look forward to more episodes.

  8. Guys! We are taping a “gaming with parents” episode soon, where we will discuss playing video games with our parents when we were younger. But you can also talk about playing games with your kids etc. Comment here with your stories, or send us an email at [email protected] with your experiences, we would love to include them.

    Kumail

  10. Ali was good, but I like Kumail’s wife better. The podcast keeps getting better. You need harsh criticism to improve, because no one ever gets better when all they hear is that they are great. Looking forward to the parent/child edition.

    @Kumail
    Did you go to Grinnel college? One of the perks of living in a small town is you can play games a lot and not feel like you’re missing out because nothing is going on except people getting drunk and fighting.

    I don’t really have a parent/child story, but my mother used to say video games were my electronic mother that I spent more time with than her. It’s true because my parents worked a lot, so rarely did they have time for me to play a game, go for a walk or whatever. So, I just kept playing games. Once I hit high school, my parents had more time for me, but I was in sports and didn’t have time for them. So, maybe a moral of the story is, “Parents, spend time with your kids. If you let tv and video games raise them, it’s tough to come back to them later.”

  11. Hey guys,
    Thanks, Kumail, for reading part of my letter. Loved the Podcast. Its funny bcus now I’m playing Catherine, and I know what you mean about not being able to go to sleep until you beat something. Its a great game though. Thanks again. Keep up the good work.

  12. Playing games with your parents, crazy.

    Video games basically replaced my parents my childhood.

  13. Ali’s gone? But people were just starting to realize that she was hot!

    Still love the podcast, and will still keep commenting on them like always.

  14. Sad to see Ali go but glad to have Emily on as the new cohost. I really enjoyed the previous Indoor Kids she was on and I like her on Feedback.

    This was a fun episode and a nice way to look back and restart with Agee being a guest again.

  15. I would just like to recommend Steve Agee as a reoccurring, regular guest. If he shows up once every two months, or even less than that, his voice, positive attitude and brand of humor is more than welcome in my ears.

  16. Whoops! Point of clarification— I meant I’m cool with Steve showing up every two months or even LESS TIME BETWEEN APPEARANCES, not less appearances. More appearances!

  17. Really great news about Emily becoming the cohost. Ali was good but she wasn’t a comedian and it kind of showed. Emily on the other hand is really funny and is also knowledgeable and elevates the podcast to another level. Halfway thru and this has been the most enjoyable episode so far. It also helps with Steve Agee, he’s great.

  18. Hey guys! Love the podcast. I feel like gamers don’t really go by personal taste a lot of the time. It often seems like they just see that a game gets a high score or good reviews and think that if you don’t like it you’re a bad person.

    In regards to your parent episode, my remembrances:

    Growing up the youngest of three, I inherited a NES and a Genesis from my brother who was 9 at the time I was born. The NES only worked on one of our TVs and our Genesis required 3 cartridges wedged underneath the power cord in order to work. I remember that, while growing up, whether we were playing Sonic, Zelda or Mario (All star collection, I know) , whenever we got a to a part where we were stuck or kept dying, our Mother would come to our rescue and masterfully navigate whatever section we couldn’t bypass. Nowadays, I can only imagine my mother staying awake late nights and just running roughshod over our entire game collection.

    Another story, at the expense of my brother, happened on our one vacation to Florida. While we were at Epcot, my brother and I spent sometime in the World of Tomorrow (I think) and my brother (A weirdly huge NASCAR fan) got onto one of the Daytona racing simulator games. The rules were: You win, you stay on. After five or six wins, my brother was one win from getting the chance to come back later and actually race the other winners for money or prizes or “special alone time with Goofey,” I forget, I was 5 at the time. My father walks up to us and tells my brother that it was time to go and to get off. My brother launches into the whole spiel but my father is adamant. When my brother continues to refuse, my dad seemingly relents and climbs into one of the other systems. Things are all going aces for my brother going into the last lap, when my father, running in second, suddenly whips his car into my brother’s and wrecks them both, causing him to lose. My brother still brings it up as a point of contention to this day.

  20. @rhzunam
    Let’s keep in mind that Ali never claimed to be a comedian. She is an avid gamer and an upbeat/positive person who brought her own thing to the podcast. I’ll miss her presence, but will welcome Emily. My only fear is that I will get a third-wheel vibe where it’s me sitting here listening to a couple tell stories about eachother.

  21. In response to the “Beating Games” discussion: I think growing up on NES groomed me to be accepting of not beating games. Those who also began their video game journey on that counsel I think would agree. Two of my favorite games of all time – Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads – were borderline impossible. I never beat either, and trust me it was not for lack of effort. Perhaps the time in which new ‘blockbuster’ games were released back in the day compelled NES to create their games to be played for mega long periods of time by means of difficulty. That is my conspiracy theory……or just my way of rationalizing that I just sucked at the games.

    The Podcast kicks arse! Keep up the amazing work!

  22. The Nerdiest exchange I’ve ever heard happens at about 30:40 in:

    Steve – “…my eyes would burn from not blinking.”
    Kumail – “Oh, that happens to me when my contacts get dry.”

    The way Nunjani says it and it semi-ends the conversation made me laugh out loud.

  23. Thanks so much for listening guys. Yes, Steve Agee is awesome, and, yes, we will have him back often.

    Ryan Y, that’s a really interesting point. I actually never had an NES (I know! Huge gaming hole), but I would do the thing of playing it at my friends’ houses. I started on the Genesis, when games were slightly more beatable. Maybe you’re right. People who started on the NES don’t feel the need to beat games because those games were almost impossible to beat. More research is needed…

    And I definitely think games were harder then because they could not fit as much on a cartridge, so they made them really difficult to beat. Most NES/Genesis games would only take about 2 hours of continuous playing to beat from beginning to end, whereas these days a 10 hour game is considered short.

    Thanks again guys!

    Kumail

  24. Great podcast as always. As a PC gamer, it would be nice to have a guest with PC cred once in a while. I dropped out of consoles after Genesis.

    Also, it would be nice if you guys could explain why Golden Eye is so great. I was flying around in a jetpack with 64 other people playing Duke Nuke’em 3D when Golden Eye came out. Watching 4 people huddle around a TV looked kinda pathetic. Not trolling here, I’ve just always wondered.

    1 last thing. Ars Technica has a crazy in depth article about Star Craft league competition. Plenty of podcast fodder over here.
    http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/for-the-swarm-inside-the-world-of-professional-starcraft-players.ars

  26. Yay! Hopefully this means no more internet memes shouted out in a desperate attempt to be funny. Like a boss!

  27. Leda and the swan is based on Greek Mythology where Zeus came down as a swan and impregnated Leda with Helen of Troy and Pollux. Zeus also impregnated Europa in the form of a bull (with Minos) and Danae in the form of a shower of gold (with Perseus).

  29. Speaking of games difficult to beat, I have NEVER met anyone who has been able to beat the expert mode of Super Monkey Ball on GCN.

    Has anyone here played From Dust? It’s on the Xbox Arcade and Steam for only $15 and it’s a great puzzle game to play for a couple hours or 15min at a time.

    Great podcast as always guys, can’t wait for the next one.

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