Episode 264 – Stark Raving Mad

9 Comments

1. Teemu Helasharju
   January 30, 2013 at 3:06 am | Permalink

   Holy bus I qwopped balls when I heard Graham’s voice on this. You gentlemen singlehandedly made my morning.

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2. Teemu Helasharju
   January 30, 2013 at 3:20 am | Permalink

   I’ve always pronounced him Jace Bellend (No offence to Jace Kid).

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• Onas
  January 30, 2013 at 11:06 am | Permalink

  I must have called him “Jackie Be-Learnin’” like a dozen times at my local shop. Man was my face red when I first played Duels!

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3. Myke Okuhara
   January 31, 2013 at 2:35 am | Permalink

   I was trying to place the person captured in this episode’s thumbnail, and then it hit me, I recognize Graham Stark from the thumbnails of Penny Arcade TV videos. You’ll notice by the way I phrased that that I probably have not watched any of those videos, a situation I intend to immediately rectify. Look how fast I’m rectifying; I didn’t even bother to un-split that infinitive.

   While we’re on pronunciations, you’re likely to find some people who don’t even pronounce the title of this show the way most others will. “Mana” is a Native Hawaiian concept of a spiritual energy contained in special objects or people, roughly analogous to something like Karma. It’s pronounced with a soft ‘A’-sound, more like “Maw-nuh” or “Muh-nuh”. I’ll admit, it was a bit of a culture shock hearing it with a hard ‘A’ while I was living on the Mainland.

   Also, I believe that planeswalker is actually pronounced Jake Heffernan the Milk Scooper. That’s not a Hawaii thing, it’s just an idiot thing.

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• Mike
  January 31, 2013 at 10:17 am | Permalink

  When I first became aware of the Pacific Islander word “Mana” for magical power I realized I’d been pronouncing it wrong all this time, but it’s easier to keep saying it this way than to make myself re-learn it (especially since saying it this way seems to be the common convention). Thankfully Bill says it properly so he’s able to make up for the rest of us fools when he’s around.

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• Myke Okuhara
  January 31, 2013 at 12:35 pm | Permalink

  And I’m certainly not asking anyone to change the way they’ve been saying for years just because of that, particularly since mana’s already a pretty well established mechanic in its own right when it comes to tabletop gaming and video games.

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• Onas
  February 1, 2013 at 12:59 pm | Permalink

  You guys don’t suppose the common “MAN-a” pronunciation is a contributing subliminal factor to the general lack of women in the game, do you?

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• Mike
  February 1, 2013 at 1:36 pm | Permalink

  {Serious Response}

  The biggest factor in the pronunciation is probably the strong influence of the Judeo-Christian literary tradition on Modern English speakers (“Your ancestors ate manna in the desert” etc.).

4. Myke Okuhara
   February 2, 2013 at 1:37 am | Permalink

   {super serious response}

   I think the quantity of women in the game is directly proportional to the quality of hygiene of all the men that play the game. Excepting Mana Pool listeners,of course, but there are only so many of us studs to go around…

   Reply