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PODCAST

Nerds Amalgamated

Nerds Amalgamated

Your weekly dose of nerdy chaos — straight from the Aussie nerdverse. 🎮🍿📺 We’re DJ and The Professor: lifelong geeks breaking down the week in movies, TV, gaming, and pop culture, with a healthy obsession for indie devs, comics, and creators who are shaping the future of fandom. Every week, we serve up: 🎙️ Hot takes and deep dives on what’s blowing up (or bombing) in nerd culture. 🕹️ Spotlights on indie games, comics, and creators — real talk, straight from the people making the stuff we

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All Episodes

46:53

The Future of the Sims, Responding to Toxic Fans and...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/10/08

EA have announced that they aren't working on The Sims 5 after a decade. Instead, they're farming out future content releases to the fans. Is this a sign of EA's laziness or is it the right move?Toxic fans ruin everything. Fortunately, studios are developing techniques for protecting actors and fans from their actions.A recently discovered bacteria eats plastic. Yay. Also not yay. Can it cause a grey goo scenario? We hope not.The future of The Sims-- EA turns to the fans to keep The Sims relevant |

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54:13

Steam Record Playercounts, Suing OpenAI and Earth's...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/10/01

Steam has once again broken their record for most concurrent users online. So where are all these new users coming from? What do they want? What does this mean for the future of Steam?OpenAI is being sued for copyright infringement. If they lose it could mean the end of the existing LLM AI hype.For the next few months Earth will have a new moon too small to see with the naked eye. Well maybe you can see it if you squint a bit.Newly released steam player counts--

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1:26:40

R18 for Gambling Games, Lionsgate AI and How Sleep...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/09/24

Australia has now brought in an R18 rating for games featuring gambling. We discuss the merits behind this change and whether it will really protect the children from gambling addictions.Lionsgate have decided to use AI to create AI generated "augmentations" to their films. We go deep on deep fakes, and appropriate usage of AI.New research explains how sleep resets your brain and prepares it for learning more the next day. So learn how science might help you reach your full potential by sleeping

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1:24:05

Oxenfree Erasure, Disney Vs Peter Cushing, Gene...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/09/17

A New Nerd Approaches and his name is Phoenix If you own the game Oxenfree through Itch.io, you're about to lose access to it. The Netflix owned games studio is pulling the game from storefronts and libraries, leaving nothing in its wake. This time, even if you own it, you won't be able to download it. This should be completely unacceptable, so how do we fight back?Disney didn't have the rights to use Peter Cushing's likeness in Rogue One, and they're being sued about it. We discuss IP law and the

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46:56

Japanese Censorship, Humans in Heat & Jenna Ortega on...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/09/10

Suda51 and Shinji Mikami got together to talk about Japan's CERO system of games classification. They've raised some excellent points about the inconsistencies in the system.Humans don't like the heat much. New research shows that the fatal limit for temperature and humidity might be much lower than expected.Jenna Ortega thinks more women led franchises should be original IPs, not gender flipped traditionally male roles. This take is certainly not controversial and won't lead to heated arguments in

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1:11:26

How Epic Store Finds Users, Debunking the Marshmallow...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/08/27

Epic Games Store's long running free games program seems to be paying off for their user acquisition strategy, despite their low sales of exclusives. They still can't hold a candle to Steam though.The Marshmallow test is supposed to determine a child's future. The latest studies actually debunk it, and prove that you really aren't limited. At least not that way.The US FTC has finally banned fake reviews. YAY. We'll see how they enforce it but hopefully this leads to a major reduction in fraud.Epic

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1:01:12

Banning Roblox, Olympic Maths and D23 Announcments

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/08/20

Roblox is now banned in another country for child exploitation. These are serious allegations, so we're lucky serious journalists have investigated and uncovered the reasons why Roblox isn't great for kids. We discuss the issues and whether Australia should follow suit.Mathematicians have worked out the optimum swimming stroke, and are training swimmers to perform it at the Olympics. We also discuss the just past Paris Olympics and some of the standout memes from the event.Disney have announced

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49:40

Warframe CEO on Live Service Games, Jim Shooter on...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/07/30

The CEO of Warframe developer Digital Extremes has explained why he thinks there hasn't been another Live Service hit like Warframe.Jim Shooter, a former Marvel head, has some thoughts on modern comics - There isn't enough dialogue apparently.Sharks in Brazil have gotten their fins on large amounts of cocaine from drug smugglers. Everything humans do affects the environment, including dumping contraband in the ocean.Is Live Service game an actual good model- Big publishers ‘eject too soon’ from live

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57:18

Viggo Mortensen on Franchies, The Indie Games Bubble...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/07/23

Viggo Mortensen hasn't been seen in any big franchises since Lord of the Rings. He's got a very good reason for that, and he isn't likely to go back. At least he's willing to tell us why.We've seen a lot of great indie games in the last few years, but it's starting to look like the bubble might be popping. Sooner or later it'll be back, but at what cost?Watching yourself perform karaoke makes you blush. Scientists used this to find out why we blush and what's going on inside your brain when it

en

52:49

Ants Performing Surgery, Why We're Addicted to Games...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/07/16

A species of carpenter ants will perform surgery on their wounded comrades. These gory scenes take place after vicious battles with other ant colonies. This is the first time that surgery has been observed in non-human animals.Much has been made of video game addiction, which is a real and scary thing. But not every case is medical addiction, and there might be good reasons why people are turning to games.Crunchyroll have decided to close their comment section permanently. The exodus of commenters

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38:55

Happy Whales, Eve Open Source & Hollywood Exodus

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/07/09

Scientist have found that whales are happier when humans are not around, and this was during the first year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, when human activity on the ocean was limited. Which begs the question do whales really hate humans?Eve Online's creator CCP Games have decided to go open source...will this make the game immortal? Only time will tell...Hollywood is facing an exodus of film crew workers, is this the sign that the Hollywood cinema is coming to an end?Whales hate humans- University of

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48:21

UnSocial Multiplayer, The Curse of Geoengineering &...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/07/02

A classic MMO designer thinks modern MMOs aren't giving players enough ways to play together. MMOs have changed over the last 20 years, and are no longer the only way to play with your friends. So what's really behind the changes?A new study suggests geoengineering might actually just move the issue from one place to another. Who will bear the consequences of trying to prevent global warming?GTA has never been made into a movie. One of the Rockstar founders has come forwards to explain why.Modern

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36:15

Save TF2, Save The Crow and Save Arctic Foxes

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/06/18

Team Fortress 2 has been overrun by bots. A new campaign to save this game from the hackers and cheaters who are ruining it begs Valve to make a difference. We discuss how this relates to the Stop Killing Games campaign and the various ways Valve and the community can save the game.By all accounts, The Crow's reboot will not be any good. Can it be saved? Who will watch it?The Arctic Fox is on the brink of extinction, except for the diligent work of a team of fox breeders working to save the

en

1:17:26

Paid Mods, Microsoft Recall and GRRM's Rants

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/06/04

Sorry about the audio quality on this one. The people responsible have been fired out of a cannon into the sun. The problem has been fixed and we'll be back to our usual quality next week.Should we pay modders for their work? After hundreds of hours playing modded games, and even designing some mods himself, Professor's got some thoughts on this.The future of PCs is AI. Or is it? The Nerds disagree that Microsoft's Recall will gain any traction.George R R Martin is ranting about how movies and shows

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59:12

Why Gamers Smurf, The End of Anime, Adults Only...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/05/28

According to surveys, most gamers Smurf - that is high level players using a low level account to stomp noobs. So why do you do it, and is it as bad as it sounds?The end of anime's Golden Age may be upon us. Miyazaki says so, but he's just won an award for anime. So is it self-deprecating humour or bragging?The Australian government has suggested social media should be for adults only. The Nerds discuss why this won't work.Fecal matter transplants are a seemingly miracle treatment for a variety of

en

1:05:23

Stop Killing Games Update, Isekais Are Off the Rails...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/05/21

The UK has issued a response to the Stop Killing Games campaign with a possible angle of attack. Remember to keep signing your local petitions to help make a change.The creator of Ghost in the Shell Arise thinks Isekais are off the rails and that the real world doesn't suck that much. Has he been outside recently?AI deepfakes are being used in a new type of scam called Pig Butchering. Keep yourselves safe.Joycon Lawsuits- Two Joy-Con lawsuits against Nintendo are dismissed | GamesIndustry.bizRob

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49:18

Victory Over Sony, The Hunt for Gollum, and Rise of...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/05/14

Helldivers 2 players have achieved a major victory over Sony, leading to the PSN account requirement being retracted. Good work troops.WBD are planning some more Lord of the Rings movies, starting with The Hunt for Gollum. The Nerds discuss why they've picked such an overdone part of the story to cover.Plastic eating nanobots may be coming to a water treatment plant near you. Scientists have developed a type of nanobot that "eats" plastic and can be filtered out of the water supply.Helldivers vs

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1:05:20

TikTok Ban Vs Game Developers, Cryonic Brains and Why...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/05/07

The USA's TikTok ban coming into effect could affect game developers too. We'll break it down and go over the possible effects.If you want to preserve your body for the future, you might turn to cryonics. If you can't afford a full body, you can just preserve your brain and hope someone grows you a new body in the future.Marvel movies suck. Everyone's saying it. Even the cast and crew are saying it. Here's why.Tiktok bans affects gaming- The US is banning TikTok, could Fortnite and League of Legends

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52:16

Fixing Voyager 1, The battle for Videogame Libraries,...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/04/30

The Australian Stop Killing Games Petition is now active. Sign it here: e-petitions – Parliament of AustraliaHow does NASA repair a spacecraft nearly a light day from Earth? NASA engineers have spent the last few months working on a solution to a faulty RAM chip, and we'll discuss the changes they had to make to save the stricken craft.The Entertainment Software Association are vehemently against video game libraries. This makes some sense from a copyright perspective, but absolutely none from a

en

50:57

Game Devs Are Worried About Live Service Games, Binge...

Nerds Amalgamated ·

2024/04/23

The Australian Stop Killing Games Petition is now active. Sign it here: https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN6080Live service games seem like the future of gaming, but the tide seems to be changing. A survey of game developers says that the majority are concerned about the future of live service games and their sustainability.Do you prefer binge watching or waiting weekly for each episode? The creator of Scott Pilgrim has very strong opinions on this, and thinks you should too.Gamers have

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