Stomm! Rob and Clive are joined by long-time friend of the Speakeasy Chris Rogers to talk about one of the most iconic British comic characters of all time: Judge Dredd. We pick apart one of his most iconic tales, The Day The Law Died, and see how that story is a distillation of everything that makes the man who IS The Law so great.
Geekery and comics. It doesn’t get much more Speakeasy than that!
Warning: contains gratuitous prog-sniffing.
The following article is a guest post.
A new generation of young professionals has changed the way the gaming industry works. Aside from revolutionizing the industry with fresh ideas and concepts, they as consumers are also starting a shift in the demographics for a lot of games, especially in the social casino genre. Before the dawn of casinos for the mobile platform, casino gaming was strictly confined to a certain age group. But as the PlayStation generation entered the professional world, their taste for games changed as well—and gaming developers are lining up just to get the biggest slice of the cake.
In a report by Super Data Research, the $2.9-billion industry became one of the fastest growing segments of the digital gaming industry. According to their research, the growth is attributed to the emergence of younger players to the once highly saturated niche gaming enterprise. AppTopia, a smartphone application analytics firm, said that the former target demographics of social casino games is the 35-50 age bracket divided equally among male and female players.
So what changed the landscape of social casino gaming? What paved way for players aged 21 and up to join a previously uncharted territory?
According to Zoe Mavrofora, Marketing Manager for Lazyland, social casino games’ biggest draw to younger players is the social aspect of the game. “This provides users with all the tools and applications they need in order to play, share, communicate and have fun, whilst drastically increasing user loyalty through constant activity. The main advantages are in reaching a wider, younger audience, creating revenues from user in-game spending and activating word of mouth and viral effect advertisement mechanisms,” Mavrofora said.
Christopher Palmeri of Businessweek said that social casino games heavily borrowed elements from the console gaming industry “to reach beyond its core customer—women 55 years old and up—to a younger demographic.” One notable example is IGT’s Avatar, which uses assets such as 3D animations. The gaming manufacturer, which worked closely with the likes of Pocket Fruity operator Gaming Realms and the Bellagio, goes beyond the usual casino experience and tries to make the games as immersive as possible.
The social gaming industry is expected to become bigger by the end of 2015. While social casino games have already penetrated the younger market, consistency is the key to stay relevant in a volatile market like the social casino industry.
It’s been a while since I visited a film night. Nice to get out every once in a while. Continue reading Goin’ South: BraineHownd Shows Code Grey
I wish I could say that this year I’d manned up and joined Gimpo as he patrolled the borders of London. Continue reading Witness Statement: The M25 Spin, 2014
Aah, a night at home alone. The perfect excuse for a curry and a horror movie. To me, my Unwrap stack!
Sometimes you forget how much you’ve missed something until you get it back. Continue reading Spin The Black Circle
Join me, whydoncha, as I explore the unexplored hinterland of my DVD collection. Continue reading Movies Unwrapped: RATMAN
If you’re at a loss for something to do in the Christmas doldrums, allow me to recommend a little light listening.
I wanted to push a site that I’ve been a fan of for a while. If you like cult movies and TV, you’ll dig this too. 
Retro Ladyland is the brainchild of Charlotte Cooper, an old friend of mine. She runs a vintage shop, Missy Lil’s, and writes for vintage fashion magazines. But she’s a big movie buff, and has poured her passions into Retro LadyLand. She’s managed to snag exclusive and slightly twisted interviews with all sorts of interesting figures from the world of cult and trash film and TV, making the site a bit of a must-read if the notion of reading exclusive interviews with Heather Langenkamp or Betsy Baker floats your boat.
I caught up with Charlotte recently and asked her to explain herself.
ROB:
How did you come up with the notion for Retro LadyLand?
CHARLOTTE:
I was and still do write for a vintage fashion magazine and love it, but sometimes talking endlessly about floral designs and skirt lengths can be a bit… I hate to say it, but a bit dull…
I have always been a celebrifile (I have just invented that word) and thought, lets try and contact someone and interview them and to my amazement the first person I asked said yes! Then I thought about the format, something that would make my interviews ‘stand out’. I had never written fan fiction before, but knew the market was vast, so I thought, why not incorporate both? An interview with a back story and viola, Retro LadyLand (Two capital L’s) was born.
ROB:
What’s the philosophy behind the site. Or rather, to put it in a slightly less wanky way, what is Retro LadyLand designed to do?
CHARLOTTE
I see it like your favourite band singing all your favourite hits at a concert, instead of going to see a band and them playing their new album, which you don’t know and frankly aren’t there for (I think we can all relate to that). In the majority of my interviews, although I do skim over the more up to date aspects of their career (as in Adrienne Barbeau talking about her time in Argo), I like to concentrate on why we love them, their heyday… How we remember them. But most importantly, Retro LadyLand is designed to entertain.
ROB:
You’ve snagged some great interviews with some amazing figures. How on earth did you get hold of them?
CHARLOTTE:
I just e-mail them, politely and sincerely and once I got one ‘biggy’, they all started to say yes… Although the Krankies asked for money!!!
ROB:
What’s the favourite interview you’ve done for Retro LadyLand?
CHARLOTTE:
My favourite is hard, as they are all such lovely people. Listening to Shani Wallis talk about Sinatra, Liberace and Garland was a rush and Heather Langenkamp was a teenage hero of mine. But I think it has to be David Bradley (Kes). He was so lovely and sincere and was so young when he played Billy, but still loves to talk about his time filming with Ken Loach, plus it is also one of my all time favourite films.
ROB:
We love spoilers here at Excuses And Half Truths. So, are there any upcoming treats you can let us know about?
CHARLOTTE:
I have a festive treat for our Christmas special: an interview with Eileen Dietz. Now horror fans will know that name straight away, but if not, she was the Pazuzu, the devil in The Exorcist. The face that gives you nightmares! Also coming up we have Dana Barron, who was the first Audrey in the Vacation movies and I’m very excited about Nancy ‘Robocop’ Allen, coming soon too! Happy reading!
Well, that’s a sack full of goodies. Retro LadyLand is a solid read, and full of interesting material for those of us that love a bit of cult. Thanks to Charlotte for chatting to us. Check out the site, and say hi. Tell ’em I sent ya.
RETRO LADYLAND THIS WAY>>> CLICK on MICHAEL MYERS FOR ALL THE GOODIES!
Merry Santa!
As our Xmas gift to you, dearest Listenership, here is the second of our bonus Speakeasies. Clive and I are reading each other’s stories from last year’s Zombie Christmas anthology, The Dead Files Vol. 3 (pick it up at Amazon for the zombie fan in your life). This time around, Clive is reading my story of the best Christmas Day ever: Slayride.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 