The second of a five-part video series. This time I abuse the hospitality of Gregg B of Tap-Repeatedly!

Contains swearing, violence… actually there’s barely any swearing. Although there is a suggestion of cross-dressing. What you will discover in the video:

I’m grateful to Gregg and Hailey for putting me up and putting up with me for two whole nights.

Relevant Links

Previous Episodes

The third episode was posted on 12 June.

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16 thoughts on “Cat’s Away Chronicles II

  1. That was brilliant!

    I’m even willing to overlook the fact that Gregg wants to steal my concubines. It was a leading question. Entrapment. He’d never think about doing such a thing if Harbour Master hadn’t slyly encouraged him.

  2. @Steerpike: HM promised to give me an Easter egg if I said I’d steal all your concubines. And for the record, the Easter egg was the best I’ve ever had. That was some seriously good chocolate HM, thank you!

    The quick fire questions were surprisingly tricky, mainly because me and ‘quick’ don’t mix. So a few of those answers, namely ‘my Cannon Fodder article’ and ‘Frozen Synapse’ seem a bit off the mark, but to be honest I’d be hard pushed to come up with answers even now that would be much better!

    Anyway, great stuff HM. Thanks for visiting our humble abode, it was a pleasure and you’re welcome back any time. I promise to take you to Stephenson’s Place before it closes next time. 😉

  3. Thanks all. I think these videos are turning out to be pretty nice – if unavoidably long – but I don’t think I have any more jokes at Steerpike’s expense for the remainder of the series.

    Gregg, I guess I’d better head back up to Chesterfield so I can make a new video where the Catering credit is actually Stephenson’s this time.

  4. I’ve only just emerged from a workhole and am beginning to catch up on ED posts… so I was pleased to discover I had another Cat’s Away Chronicle to watch.

    Gregg, those quickfire questions really are tricky aren’t they? What you need is an invisible friend to help you out when you can’t think of anything clever/funny.

    I missed your Cannon Fodder article at the time and just went and read it – very enjoyable to read a nostalgic piece that celebrates more than just fond memories of playing a game.

    HM: how come we didn’t get to play any games? If you’d said I’d have brought my PSP.

  5. Well Shaun, I think it was Gregg’s idea to play games plus I stayed over for two nights giving us plenty of time to game (which we promptly squandered… more or less, there’s another article-worth of stuff we did that has been held back for later.)

    For the record, I didn’t play games with the other Cat’s Away subjects. More or less.

  6. @ShaunCG: Thanks for the kinds words.

    I found that HM is actually better at talking than playing games, that’s probably why he didn’t suggest it to you (he was clearly playing to his strengths). When he came up to Chesterfield he was like “blah blah blah” all day, for two days. It was like listening to the R&D egghead from Revenge of the Titans.

    (We were both as bad as each other really.)

  7. When Gregg says “he was like “blah blah blah” all day, for two days” that bit is probably true.

  8. My first thought upon seeing your hats was LAURA MICHET even though I’ve seen many non-hat pictures of her at this point. You know what to do if you somehow have a spare weekend in California.

    Your bit about Shoot First* made me think of DoomRL, which (I think) sadly lacks multiplayer. Perhaps taking turns on it is in the cards with somebody sometime.

    Damn you for getting me to read the SCP Wiki’s entry on the staircase late at night, especially when my girlfriend’s not around and the cat keeps looking at everything. DAMN YOU.

    Hailey’s little laugh during 20 questions was super-cute. She and Gregg should definitely not travel to the house of the Drill Killer, which I will play soon.

    *I originally typed Shoot Fist, which should be a game.

  9. Props for noticing Hailey’s laugh, I only just made it out!

    Shoot First was good fun and if you’ve got a co-op buddy I’d highly recommend it, especially if you’re into directional shooters. I had a real soft spot for the low-fi aesthetics and one particular piece of music secretly lodged itself in my head and materialised nearly a week later! I couldn’t stop humming it for most of that day.

    And screw reading the wiki entry on SCP-087, play it! Or not. That would be fine too. It’s horrible. Horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible.

  10. Don’t tell Hailey, Gregg, but that was actually the reason I wanted to her to hold the camera. I liked the idea of having a “studio audience”. And the reference to camera that you can’t share the egg with anyone: my smile to camera is directed at Hailey. Shhhh, don’t say a word. Shh. SHH.

    However looking back on these videos (I am working on #4 at the moment) I think I wouldn’t run the 20Q segment if I had my time again. I don’t know if they are really as interesting to an audience as the main discussion. I cut interesting stuff out of these videos to get the 20Q and keep us under 20 minutes. (Cats #2 has had less than half of the views of Cats #1, so I’m assuming people are voting with their clicky buttons that the overall format isn’t fab.)

    The hats thing is actually an in-joke which goes back awhile. There’s an echo of this in the Eurogamer Expo video – you can hear Gregg ask me moments before the hug, “Shall I get my hat?”

    Everything is connected.

  11. 20 Questions is pretty damn funny, if nothing else. It’s the closest to being put under pressure I’ll see Gregg, at least until I have to torture the locations of his stolen concubines out of him.

  12. Stolen?

    I rather like the 20Q segments. They do a good job of entertaining, and it would seem, condensing. That said, it could probably be a little more ‘staged’ so that it lines up with the otherwise glossed-over areas, or put up as a stand-alone video. A ’20 questions with industry [title], [person]’ is something I see getting a few thousand views.

  13. Thanks for your kind words BeamSplashX & mwm. I originally did 20Q in case the freeform conversation just didn’t turn out to be that interesting, but ended up feeling more of a burden.

    Cats #3 next week is with an indie developer which will be more popular just because it’s not about some obscure bloggers trying to steal concubines.

    @mwm, not sure I get your meaning. Can you be more explicit about “lining up with otherwise glossed-over areas”?

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