A Zen Master

On a go ai related note, a free program called Leela uses neural net tech also and is probably around 5-6dan. It is also great for game and positional analysis. You can put a position into it and ask it what it'd play. https://www.sjeng.org/leela.html

That's interesting, and maybe deserves its' own topic. It would depend on what people decide the next challenge is. Im not sure what comes after go. I would so love to play against alphago. To think that computer assisted go training will be a thing! I played against a guy online the other day and I think he was running a type of go bot because he made monte carlo type mistakes when he fell behind. (This was on OGS, where ranks get fuzzier around the dan level.)

If you enjoy go, it's mostly important to build up knowledge by playing and learning the really basic rules(like alphago) and then seek out a teacher when you have questions. It's such a fun game, alphago is really bringing a lot of people back to the game as well as new players. Ive been playing over 20 years and I still learn new things all the time. If KGS ever gets an html5 client out, we should start an idle go club. Since they released the source for KGS clients that should happen eventually.

I'm laughing way too much at this stuff, it's funny and lighthearted and that made me think of the potatoday duo (not nick) The other ones aren't all great, but those two I love.

I think they were just being funny. I don't have any illusions that I understand what goes on in a woman's brain though, especially not a 3 or 5 year old woman.

I got to the mail box and put on my idle vice shirt I had just found there. I ask my daughters (3 and 5) what they think. They take a good look and all they say for the next 2 minutes is "wow!" "Wow!" "wow!" "Wow!" over and over going from super excited to really nonchalant wowing. I think they like it?

His story time at pax prime is available via twitch archive: http://www.twitch.tv/pax/b/453826396 starts around 22 minutes? dont know if it's any good, we'll see.

Did I miss the pikmin 2 series link in this thread?

Great casts gentlemen, I wanted to say that I really like the twitch sessions you guys do, kind of lets you guys go really indepth to a single game without it taking over the show. If I'm interested in the game I can watch and if not I can not watch without missing my weekly cast. I think you should do something similar to that with dota, be it twitch or just an off-series podcast or something, because I think it'd be good to get all your ideas out instead of just saying "we're not going to talk about this now". Also if all those ideas are discussed and out there, they can stop being brought up every show. Right now it's an elephant in the room and everyone kind of seems to just wait uneasily until Sean brings it up then you spend 5 minutes talking about not talking about it. I also think you should do whatever you want and keep it fun. -zen

yep. checking the other team's inventories is such a good idea all the time. As support I can see if they've got wards and if they've placed wards and can start counterwarding. You'd be surprised how many bounty hunters/riki/shadowblade users just turn on invis as they're getting hit then just stick around thinking they are invulnerable. Also people that pick riki and say it's over because the other team is warding invisibility shouldn't be relied on.

Oh man I've been watching hard supports at the international and I'm really enjoying it. I have a hard time playing when we have no observer wards, when we have no courier and when we're up against some hero with invisibility and noone on my team gets wards so all I do all game is get wards tps and boots. It wins games like mad as in pub people go invisible and expect it to mean invulnerable. fun stuff

I have a suggestion for balancing wife (and children) with video games. I think it is all too easy to get home from work and slip into video games without thinking. Also it is easy that as soon as there is a lull in activity I just pick up a controller or my laptop and disappear for an hour. By more clearly delimiting between wife time and game time you enjoy both of those times more fully. I know that helped me a lot.

sounds fun man, had a game last night where they took out all our towers but the base towers, and we held off the base towers with 30% down, their Outworld Destroyer guy was killing us all instantly. Slowly we managed to catch up to level 25 and turn the tide, but it was tense! dota 2 sure makes for great comebacks and great game stories.

friend request sent then dota 2 incoming!

I would like some fruitcake, I can give dota 2 fruitcake in exchange or not in exchange (in the LOMA forum). -steam id azenmaster

I have a couple dota invites as I'm sure many have. don't be shys

I'll have to read this book finally, I never have (educated in french). I did read Alabama Song, by Gilles Leroy, which won the Goncourt prize for 2007, which is a fictional autobiography of Zelda Fitzgerald, though much of it is based on fact. I think that it is interesting how Fitzgerald's wife (Zelda) says that Fitzgerald stole ideas and writing from her diaries. She also paints a horrible picture of Ernest Hemingway and goes so far as to say that Hemingway and her husband were intimate. She did however spend a lot of time in mental institutions. Crazy couple!

I just want to say thanks this podcast came at a great time, I needed the fun listening to get through chores

sean's marriage made me laugh in real life. thanks Jake!

congrats guys! great work! good job on making a video game that makes you cry!

Can I use that snippet out of context in the future? love it. It is no wonder people troll on the internet with people's reactions to even offhand comments. The internet makes me lose all faith in humanity and also be so optimistic about humanity, on a daily basis. Also the reader mail that started with "Evening chaps" made me chuckle, because I thought he was going to ask a question about leggings. Disappointing... keep up the good work.

Haven't listened yet, but I just wanted to be grateful again that you're casting pods, and weekly no less. That's a lot of work and it is appreciated!

Liked the sports vs. esports discussion. I think it is interesting, but I'd say there are two main reasons to watch either. First and foremost is the fact that these people are so good at what they do, that it is just entertaining to see how far someone can take the game or the sport. Like how fast hockey players move the puck or watching a great back and forth in tennis compared to watching the amazing micro or macro in an e-sport. The second one is to learn how the best play the game. I think this is more important in e-sports, because since it is younger we have less of a history of how these sports are played (people that have been playing/watching these things for 60 years like a John Madden or whatever). I know I learned a lot more watching the international than say the NHL playoffs and I love ice hockey. But in ice hockey there is nearly never something that happens where my brain explodes and I didn't even consider such a play possible. In a The international dota 2 game, that happened more than once every game. There are no school dota 2 teams (yet) with coaches and such, so if you want to learn you go with what the best do.

What is game? that conversation hit so many dead ends so fast, I was laughing so hard. Still great, good job casting crew.

Okay I finally got a friend over and we managed to sit down and play this. We spent several hours laughing ridiculously. Several cool game scenarios about not knowing who your real opponent is. You basically have a screen full of characters, and one is you, most of the others are NPCs and another is your opponent (up to 4 players local coop). Some modes have a sniper team and a thief/assassin team, which was great. The best video game stories from this were in Assassin mode, where one team is assassins and one team is snipers. Snipers have 3 bullets, assassins kill as many targets as possible without getting caught. The sniper can only see who has been killed if he scopes over them, in a fog of war type effect, but gets a sound cue when someone has been assassinated. So my friend was doing great, but I had an idea who the target was, so I'm following the target with my eyes, but not my scope (he can see the scope). I hear a knife thrust and so I move my scope over to the primary suspect and he crumbles, dead on the ground. Now this blew my mind as I was sure he was my opponent, but as I looked around I notice the guy who I expected to be the victim slowly edging away... a quick snipe revealed him to be in fact the assassin. Lucky for me, not so much for him. Also since it's all on one screen, the first thing the assassin has to do is identify who he is without giving himself away, this leads to the most hilarious give-aways as one character on screen is walking straight into the wall, in a very nonchalant attempt to be subtle and not stand out.