Shane and I just finished recording the book club episode of FWR and REALLY appreciate all the comments and questions y’all posted here on the blog and over at the Facebook group.  We managed to specifically address just about everyone who submitted something.  Thanks so much.  We enjoyed the book club process and have already picked our next book.  Stay tuned for details.

Speaking of the blog, we recently moved to permanent hosting digs (and shortened the URL in doing so) over at http://firstwallrebate.com.  Please join us there when you get a chance and update any bookmarks you might have currently pointing to “firstwallrebate.wordpress.com”.  If you are subscribed to our RSS feed, you won’t need to do anything other than keep downloading and listening to the show per usual.

We’ll have at least two new episodes rolling out here in the next couple of weeks, and we look forward to hearing what you think. All you ever gotta do with us is click.

Cheers!

In Episode 005 we talk Grand Theft Auto IV in a noisy hallway, wandering through such topics as:

The narrative structure of the game and comparisons to Edgar Allan Poe’s vision of story crafting.

Graphical representations, the timelessness of game space, and fear of art overtaking reality.

Troubling characters based on stereotypes and Three’s Company.

More episodes are coming soon. Thanks for listening.

Shane and I will be recording the “book club” episode of FWR within the next week or so and would be delighted to have you participate.  If you’ve already picked up a copy of Corneliussen & Walker-Rettberg’s book Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft reader, please post your thoughts here on our blog or in our Facebook forum and we’ll incorporate them into the show. If you haven’t read the book but would still be willing to share your WoW thoughts/observances/experiences, we’d love to have you chime in as well.

More than anything, we are way more interested in facilitating a conversation about WoW and issues raised in the book than “reviewing” or critiquing.  If you are even passingly interested in World of Warcraft, we want to hear from you.

Cheers!

The dust has settled on the personal interferences, vacation plans, and marathon sessions of Grand Theft Auto and Metal Gear Solid that have blocked our podcast progress for the last few weeks. We invite you to explore FWR Episode 004, in which we:

Record in a tiny closet during the Writer’s Edge conference in Portland, Oregon, and forget to introduce ourselves.

Discuss the portrayals of war in games in reference to the Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid franchises.

Think about the labor issues involved with the recent controversy regarding voice actors in Grand Theft Auto IV.

Look for our GTA Blowout episode soon, and thanks for listening.

This week we get back on schedule with a bonus two-fer and very informal Episode 003. Shane gets way up on the mic and Trevor really hates it when E disses Powell’s. Some of the things we informalize on:

In-house podcasts from Microsoft, Bungie, Insomniac, and Capcom.

Easter eggs after credits (in Iron Man), ownership, individuality, Ronald Reagan, and labor unions.

Shock jocks, vinyl, enhanced podcasts, and fear of a fragmented reality.

Be sure to leave us a comment here at the blog, in our Facebook group, or at the Gmail address on the right. If you’re a reader as well as a gamer, you should probably get involved in the first FWR Book Club discussion that we will be fostering through the month of June, 2008. Thanks for listening.

In the first of two episodes this week we present an industrial-strength Epsiode 002 looking at gender issues and Objectivist philosophy in BioShock. Along the way we also discuss:

Netwurker Mez and Abby B.’s thought-provoking feedback, and the FWR Book Club.

Confusing stereotypes and relationships in Grand Theft Auto IV (see Daniel Floyd’s Video Games and Sex).

Another round of podcast reviews: Cheapy D complains on the CAGCast about their stagnant 11,000 member listenership and some interesting analysis of the new Indiana Jones flick by the 1up Yours crew.

As always, be sure to leave us feedback in the comments section of the blog, in the iTunes Music Store, and in the First Wall Rebate group on Facebook. We look forward to your input.

Episode 001 of FWR is now ready for your consumption. This week we discuss the thorny issues of intellectual property, copyright and ownership, and cast an eye towards the future of digital media distribution. Trevor manages to say “very” at least 30 times and Shane rescues the podcast from the Skype goblins.

But more specifically:

We discuss feedback on our Facebook forum by Netwurker Mez (read about the Versional) and Abby B. on last week’s show.

Join the FWR Book Club by checking out Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader, Edited by Hilde G. Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg.

Trevor’s podcasted Games and Lit class: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3

We welcome your comments, questions, and criticisms here at the blog, our Gmail address, and our Facebook group. Thanks for listening.

This is Episode 00 of the First Wall Rebate Podcast. Here are some of the things we talked about:

Sloppy energy drink analysis on Giant Bombcast.

Brilliance of the Game Theory podcast.

McKenzie Wark’s A Hacker Manifesto and Gamer Theory.

Heather Chaplin’s excellent article on Grand Theft Auto IV at NPR.

Our theme song, the title of which Shane horribly mispronounces, is Sitges Savepoint by Random. The music used to transition toward the end of the show: Ballistic Panic by Nullsleep. Both are available via the Creative Commons directory at 8bitpeoples.com.