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Eric Johns joins Craig and Russ in the third Chair. Eric is one of the big cheeses over at Wyrd miniatures, the miniature gaming company responsible for Malifaux, Puppet Wars, and more nightmarish creatures then we'd care to think about.

Since Wyrd just made the jump to plastics, we figured Eric would be a great person to help us get insight into how plastic models are made, and how this process differs from metals.

Later, we discover that Eric actually plays quite a few digital games, so he and Russ talk about their favorite easy to pick up and play digital games.

All that and our other not-too-horrible segments including:
- Total Fan Girl
- Do You Ever Notice
- When you wish upon a game
- & More

Link to the episode:
http://www.thed6generation.com//d6g-ep-112-plastic-production-digital-diversions

Please let us know what you thought of the show!

Great show as usual! Really nice to hear about Wyrd going plastic.

I think it's interesting how it seems like they went to plastic and are charging around the same for their models as they were in metal and I haven't really heard anyone complain about it like you'd expect to hear when GW moves a model to plastic and doesn't drop the price. Wyrd being a smaller company probably has a lot of risk tied up in moving to the more expensive start-up costs plastic has associated with it.

It will be very interesting to see how the plastic experiment goes for them and how they eventually move their whole range into plastic like it sounded like Eric was saying they planned to do.

Only made it through Achievements so far. A word about the "First Law" trilogy by Joe Abercrombie - great stuff! Yes, it's a trilogy, and yes it's "dark" - but I would definitely say there are heroes and villains...just hard to tell who is what until you've read the whole thing and had a chance to digest it. Abercrombie has some other books set in the same world - I've only read "Best Served Cold" - which is a straight up revenge story, and is stand alone from the original trilogy. You don't have to read the original trilogy to read it, but some characters from the original make minor appearances (and a minor character from the original is a main character in this book). I think there's one other standalone...although I haven't read it, so I can't comment.

I'll throw out 2 more suggested authors:

Guy Gavriel Kay - a bunch of stuff set mostly in the same world - I would recommend "The Lions of Al-Rassan" as a starting point. I don't like his very first trilogy, "The Fionavar Tapestry" that much, but the rest of his stuff is excellent.

Scott Lynch - "The Gentlemen Bastards" series. Aptly described as fantasy meets "Oceans Eleven". First book is called "The Lies of Locke Lamora", and the 2nd is "Red Seas under Red Skies". Planned to be a 7 book series. Word of caution, though...Lynch has become as bad as GRRM as putting out books, though he's apparently been battling severe depression the last few years.

Good episode, although I did feel a bit sorry for Craig during the phone-game section

Joe Abercrombie writes great pulp. And First Law is definitely darker than Game of Thrones...at least when you come to the last book, and the real background is revealed. GoT is more social realism fantasy than noir fantasy...although I guess GoT can disillusion you more about the behaviour of regular humans.

There is another classic game being remade these days: http://www.xcom.com/enemyunknown/
To me, at least, this was the true jewel of the 90s computer game industry. I kept it on my hard drive well into the 2000s, although it admittedly was showing its age.

I realize you want the game people in on the plastic/resin interviews, but as I mentioned when you talked to (a very tired) Neil Fawcett about resin casting, I do so miss the polymer scientist and/or plastic engineer's viewpoint in there. But then again, I am a materials science nerd.

"Revolution" sounds...dumb. But then again, I find zombie fiction pretty dumb as well, so I guess I'm not really in the boat with any of you guys

[edit] Oh yes, and I got the "Playing at the world" Jon Peterson book on Kindle - I have been looking for something like that for a while. 10% in. His writing is a bit chunky, but he is good on the details and showing how and why said details are important.

Very fun episode guys.

One thing, The Blade Itself is much darker than the Song of Fire and Ice. Yes, people die in in the Song, but you actually like many characters for periods of time. In the Blade.... Your favorite character is a crippled tourturer, just imagine what the others are like. I found myself depressed while reading this series and I struggled with other book afterwards, because things were going to well for the characters and I kept expecting the worst. It made for a very stressful times. Still, the books were very well written and the concept was very interesting. The swerve at the end of the series was scary good in a dark, DARK way. Read with caution, Craig.

The Wraith

Another great show as usual. I thought that Eric's plastic segment was quite a bit more informative than the segment on resin a while back. There was enough in there that the casual observer (ie me) learned a lot, but didn't get bored.

Re. Joe Abercrombie. I'm somewhat biased as I went to school with Joe (and a very good WFRP GM he was too), but I recommend his books highly. There aren't many good guys by the time you get round to "Best Served Cold", although I do think that that one is my favourite of his. It's kind of a fantasy heist movie, although the heists are assassinations and the movie is a novel...

What was the name of the book that Eric said he was reading? The one about wargming...

Another enjoyable episode guys. Thanks!

I really enjoyed the interview with Eric about the plastics. As others have already said it was very informative. Could have easily been dry, but all the personalities involved insured that it wasn't.

Digital diversions wasn't as interesting for me just because I don't really have time for them at the moment. Haven't even turned my poor Xbox on in months :-( (But, Halo 4 is coming...)

But, all in all...good stuff yet again!

I'm looking forward to hearing more about Russ and his experiences with Infinity. I recall awhile back you guys were not very enthralled by the system. Curious to hear what has changed for you and how you view it now. That would make for a great review segment.

I'd also love to hear and interview with Zach Tewalthomas who is heading up Dust Tactics/Warfare at FFG now that Mack Martin headed off to Wyrd.

Similarily, it'd be great to interview Mack Martin about what he's doing at Wyrd these days.

A fine show. I always enjoy the big board game reviews but this was a nice change. But a slight shame that Craig couldn't add much.

I would like to commend Russ for asking "the difficult questions". And for Eric Johns's candor in replying. So often podcasters are enamoured by their guests that they fear upsetting them, and ask mundane questions that only bring forth the usual PR spiel.

It was very decent of Eric to give some solid answers to things that are usually only speculated upon. It was also refreshing to hear that self-deprecating humour with regard to his own products.

That's the kind of guest I want to listen to.

And now I'm addicted to blood brothers. Thanks, Eric!

Great show guys! I especially enjoyed Digital Diversions. For my son and myself, One Epic Knight has become our new favorite! Thanks for the suggestion.
Also, is it just me, or does the knight's voice sound just a little bit like Craig when he's doing Rapid Fire?

Eric's interview was excellent as well, though I wish interviewees would not use speaker phone when chatting (I'm guessing it was speaker phone anyway). It makes them sound very tinny, picks everything up in the background, and is hard to listen to.
However, his comments about the struggles of moving to plastic were extremely interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed it.