Now that's more like it. Stupendous.

What's a "Comicon?"

I'm very happy to see Shoot Club return.

The only thing I've found on the net even remotely like Shoot Club is here:

http://www.deadalewives.com/sound/[The_Dead_Alewives]-[Dungeons_and_Dragons].mp3

What's a "Comicon?"

You serious? Just in case you are, it's a comic book convention.

Tom: "For Peter's sake."

Boo!!!

Welcome back, Trevor. A triumphant return! That was fucking hilarious. [I'm sorry, I meant to say "effing" hilarious.]

Amanpour

Gordeaux said:

"You serious? Just in case you are, it's a comic book convention."

Why wouldn't I be serious? Bub's the comic-book guy. Not me. Although I do know who Frank Miller is.

Also, while I don't know comic books, I definitely do know snack food, thanks to late lab hours and that stupid vending machine in the basement of Roger Adams Laboratory that's always broken. I believe the proper spelling is "Funyuns," not "Funions." As proof, I offer this URL, which you will note is the official Frito-Lay website.

http://www.fritolay.com/consumer/funfoods/products/funyuns.html

I think Bruce is right. I've purchased Funyons before. As further proof, here's a delicious snippet from The Onion:

"DALLAS--Funyuns, the world leader in artificial onion-ring-flavored and -shaped snack-food items, continues to enjoy an "overwhelming sales lead" over competing brand Responsibilityuns, the trade publication Impulse Purchase Quarterly reported Monday.

"Responsibilityuns, launched last May in a bold attempt to challenge Funyuns' dominance of the faux-onion-ring snack market, have done "little to no damage" to its rival's sales through the first quarter of 2000.

"I just don't understand what went wrong," said James Connell, CEO of Delayed Gratification Foods, the Dallas-based maker of the sober, salted snack. "Everybody knows that responsibility and self-reliance are virtues which, with patience and persistence, bring rewards far greater than the fleeting pleasure of instant gratification. And, frankly, that is all our competitor has to offer. We felt sure that customers would respond to our product's image of hard work and long-term stability."

http://www.theonion.com/onion3612/funyuns_outselling.html

Yes, it is Funyuns... though I could see Trevor spelling it Funions and saying that it was somehow more appropriate that way since they DO have onion flavor in them!

--Dave

That was a GOOD ONE!!!!

I especially liked the part where the boardgame geek asks the comic geeks what a comiccon is. Then the hardware geek made fun of everyone in his best techier-than-thou voice.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

Welcome back, Shoot Club. We've missed you.

Great, as always, Tom!!

Best Shoot Club EVER!
That was fuckin' hilarious Tom. Way to go.

Yeah, this one and the first Shoot Club are my favorites. It's nice to see a new one.

"Yeah, this one and the first Shoot Club are my favorites. It's nice to see a new one."

While it's hard for me to pick a favorite, I agree that it's great to see a new one. We all understand that Tom is busy and all, but it's good to know that he understands how much we love the column, and how badly it sucked to be left hanging!

This was definitely one of the best Shoot Club columns thu far, though. And, I love the 'Frag Finger' episode. But really, I love 'em all.

So maybe I'm just out of the loop, but is Shoot Club based on actual events? Makes we want to start having more regular LAN parties, since I get so many good stories out of them, for example when I sit down at a machine and my player is facing the ceiling the whole time because the previous user had mouse-invert turned off.

- Alan

Tom really does have a weekly LAN party. I wouldn't think Shoot Club is a blow-by-blow retelling, though.

LAN parties are becoming a more regular occurrence at my house, but I fear that they are nowhere near the caliber of Shoot Club for the sake of telling a story. We have a blast, but I don't think that anyone would read an article about them. Perhaps Trevor is the missing piece of the puzzle...

"Perhaps Trevor is the missing piece of the puzzle..."

Yeah, if he didn't have a Trevor, he'd have to make one up.

"Yeah, if he didn't have a Trevor, he'd have to make one up."

I don't know, Mark. Some of those antics just seem to crazy to be made up. Fact is often better than fiction, I think. Especially when it comes to Trevor. ;-)

Tom, I demand you put a warning on Shoot Club from now on.

>>Trevor has -138 frags because the "l" key is a suicide respawn, not a teleport key.

The uncontrollable laughing caused by those lines could have gotten me fired.

Despite this horrendous tale of a lan party gone wrong (sorta), it really made me want to pack my computer up and attend another one. Sadism? Maybe. Perhaps that IS the point of a lan party.

Personally, I find it hard to believe that the Trevor that tried to explain Sacrifice to the Shoot Club group is the same Trevor who thought that "I" was the teleport key in a game about being in a SWAT team.

I'm very glad to see that Shoot Club is back.

Tom, when are you going to tell us about the time Trevor brought a date to Shoot Club?

Trevor had a date? I mean, Trevor brought a date to shoot club?

Hehe, glad the column is back. Riddle me this, though, threeknicks: Since Shoot Club is clearly one of our favorite things, and we bugged Tom endlessly to get it back, how is it that no one else wants to publish it? Jeff, if you're out there, is this not the type of thing that would fit in well at CGW?

Oh, and if you are listening, please never do another I! AM! HAPPY! column again (you know the one I mean). That thing hurt my eyes to look at. Other than that, I like your columns a lot.

Tom Chick's Shoot Club in CGW?? It just may happen. (Not that I'm hinting at anything. Tom's people are talking to my people...but you never know in this wacky business we like to call "computer gaming")

And yeah I know which column you're talking about. :) That was a love/hate one for sure. I had fun writing it but lots of people didn't have fun reading it.

Really? I find that surprising.
I thought that it was one your very best for sure Jeff.
er...

Really! I find that surprising!
I thought that it was one of your very best! For sure Jeff!

~Andrew!

I second Andrew's opinion on that. I thought it was one of the best.

I was also keen on the one where Jeff attacked the company that was pulling ads from CGW at the time. For the life of me I just couldn't figure out WHO he was talking about though....

;-)
~Andrew

It sure would be great to see Shoot Club move to CGW. I'd probably subscribe just for that.

NEWS FLASH

Sony Pictures has just secured the rights to SHOOT CLUB.

Filming is to start this summer. Rumor has it that Angelina Jolie will be starring as Tom Chick. We haven't been able to confirm it yet, but apparently Michael Richards has been approached about the role of Trevor.

And here I thought Brad Pitt and Edward Norton were locks...

I think of a young Nathan Lane as Trevor.

Michael Richards doesn't have the bravado required
to be Trevor, Angel of Death.
I'm thinking maybe Ted Raimi?

Trevor = Steve Buscemi (sp?)

A note about Fight Club...

I just got home from a pretty cool first date with this gal I met. She wanted to buy a DVD player and said if I shopped with her for one, we'd rent a movie and chill at her place after dinner. Fine with me. So, we get a player and decide to rent something for it. After looking around the video store for a good while, we settled on Fight Club because one or the other had seen everything else that looked interesting.

Well... for those who haven't seen it, I won't give away any plot... you just have to experience it with no knowledge of what it's about. I'm DAMN GLAD that I got to see it totally ignorant of the directions it would go in. However, for those who have seen it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Bub was on my case for a while about seeing this flick. He obeyed rule #1, so I had no idea. Holy shit, batman... I was expecting some seedy underground tough-man movie or something. It probably wasn't the best of "first date" movies, but it certainly led to ample conversation afterwards. I'm now a fan of David Fincher's visual style. Pretty disturbing, and a better "freak out" reality shot at the end than even 6th sense.

There's my .02

"There's my .02"

Don't tease us like that. Movie, schmovie. Did you get any action or what?

Yeah, I was surprised by the movie. The trailers they showed before it was out played it up as a tough-guy fight movie. I thought it was a suspense movie with Ed Norton getting drawn into something sinister that he later couldn't escape, which is true in a way. Great movie. Great column.

Ya, I loved Fight Club. Not a chick flick, though, I'll agree. I find myself torn between a) bumming that chicks don't want to see cool "guy" movies, and b) Thanking the heavens that chicks aren't violent enough to WANT to see most guy movies. Or something like that. (Looks around, dazed).

I think the problem I had with that one column Jeff wrote was the focus. It seemed like it was aimed at the people advertising in the magazine, not the (consumers) people reading the magazine. That kind of turned me off, combined with the exclamation points everywhere. Just me, I suppose.

Hey, is there any truth to the rumor CGW published that "Chainsaw" Ken was on the way out at Sierra? If so, I might be able to lift my long-standing (and probably futile) boycott of their products! Woo!

kazz, I'm curious, why are you boycotting Sierra?

"Trevor = Steve Buscemi (sp?)"

Yeah, I could see that. I think Buschemi could play Trevor admirably...

You know who else seems like a Trevor to me? Matthew Perry. Too bad he's in rehab -- I doubt he'll be making any movie too soon.

"kazz, I'm curious, why are you boycotting Sierra?"

Because in 1998 they became kings of sleaze. They released Football Pro (I believe) in a totally unplayable state, then offered buyers a discount on the re-release, which was to fix the bugs. Then they realized how bad the game was, and decided not to re-release it.

They dismantled a number of their studios, firing most of the employees there. Okay, that's business. But then they forced the ones they wanted to keep to move from all over the country to their headquarters. A few months later, they fired most of THOSE people. How crappy can you get?

Then there was a long list of nasty things they did, and useless games they were putting out, sort of culminating with the bull riding game. The company has behaved in a deplorable fashion, in my eyes, and I'll not support them. At least, not while the guy calling the shots at that time (Ken) remains at the helm.

Sorry, but you asked.

Someone to play Trevor in a movie? Uh, the guy with the Swingline stapler in "Office Space" comes to mind...nah. Too passive. Not pompous enough. Trevor is sort of like a cross between Cliff Claven and McGuyver so far as I can tell (He thinks he can do it all, but only blows up himself).
Hey, Tom, what would your idea be? You are the one who really knows trevor, and have more insight into the celluloid world than the rest of us.

I really appreciate reading you guys' feedback on Shoot Club. I'm glad there are folks who can identify with it, because it's meant to be more about gamers than games themselves.

As for Trevor, he is, of course, largely fictional. Following the Fight Club metaphor, Amanpour once asked if he was kind of like my Tyler Durden. But it's the other way around; I'm Trevor's Tyler Durden. The best way I know how to explain Trevor is a worst case scenario for how I could have turned out. Or maybe did turn out. Or will turn out. Or already am. Who knows.

He's any one of us at our most oblivious, a gamer largely out of touch with the world and other people. But he's still someone for whom I have a lot of affection, since I can completely identify with him and understand why he's the way he is.

There. That's all the analysis I can really offer. It's probably far too much. But thanks for indulging me and thanks for reading the columns. There are plenty more half-written or half-conceived, but nonetheless on the way.

-Tom

So, did you go to the Sundance Film Festival alone, or did someone go with who then became transformed into Trevor?

"As for Trevor, he is, of course, largely fictional. Following the Fight Club metaphor,
Amanpour once asked if he was kind of like my Tyler Durden. But it's the other way
around; I'm Trevor's Tyler Durden. The best way I know how to explain Trevor is a
worst case scenario for how I could have turned out. Or maybe did turn out. Or will
turn out. Or already am. Who knows."

To me, Tom is computer gaming's Ring Lardner. Trevor is his Jack, and he's Trevor's Al. And I hope Shoot Club goes on forever.

Hats off to Tom for making Trevor so real. I never took the time to question whether of not Trevor was a "real person," because he was so well-rounded as a character. I really didn't care. But he was very believable, in that "so crazy that he couldn't be real" sense.

I think the thing that got me was that I've "met" Trevor. I'm a tecchie by heart, surrounded on all sides by well-meaning yet misunderstanding (and misunterstood) geeks. Nothing Trevor has been attributed to doing seems that far off base for some of these guys and gals.

The original question remains, though. Who'd be a good fictional avatar for your largely fictional friend? We know how WE see Trevor. We just don't know how YOU see Trevor.

"Nothing Trevor has been attributed to doing
seems that far off base for some of these guys and gals."

Yeah, I've got a friend who reminds me a lot of Trevor, too. I read very few things about Trevor that I couldn't see him doing...

Also, there were so many things that made Trevor so believable. The experiences at Sundance. The time he got sick. It just seemed like it would have taken too much work to make him up, I guess.

If you've seen Fight Club, it was easy to understand that Trevor is just Tom. I thought this much was obvious. But then, maybe that speaks volumes about how many people have see that excellent film.

Believe me, Fight Club is not what you think and Tom has captured the spirit of that perfectly.

--Dave

Yeah, I keep meaning to see it, but my wife is very much not interested. (I can't even get her to watch the Matrix -- I'm pretty sure that Fight Club is out of the question.) Any time we rent movies or go to the theater, we pretty much have to agree, so it's not likely that I'll see it soon, but I'd like to.

"Yeah, I keep meaning to see it, but my wife is very much not interested."

It's not as much of a guy film as she probably thinks. Just rent it and make her give it a try.

"Just rent it and make her give it a try."

Has your wife seen it? They seem to have similar taste in games...

At any rate, I'll try next time we go and rent movies. No telling when that will be, but whenever it is, I'll rent it.