Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Dec 3, 2019

Filed under: Music 50 comments

 Music Class Part 2: My TracksPrevious Post

First I complained about the Monthly platform. Then I shared some of my work. Now I want to talk about what I learned while taking Andrew Huang’s class.

As with my Bad and Wrong Music Lessons, you should take all of this with a grain of salt. I’m figuring this stuff out as I go, and I’m likely getting lots of details wrong. Also, in the past I’ve noticed that posting Wrong Stuff about music is a great way to get musicians to show up and give me a bunch of education for free. It’s the classic internet problem. Ask a question…

“What’s a good chord progression?”

… and aside from people telling you to “Google it“, you’ll get ignored because people have better things to do than answer questions for lazy info-beggars. But if you make an assertion…

“In A minor, the a-F-C-G chord progression is pretty much the only one anyone uses.”

…then lots of people will stop and tell you how terribly wrong you are. Some of them will even stop to explain why! It’s free knowledge! All you need is a lack of self-respect!

Annyway, here are some of the most interesting things I learned:

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Music Class Part 3: Stuff I Learned”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Music Class Part 2: My TracksPrevious Post

50 comments

Diecast #281: PC Building, Fallen Order, Mailbag

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 2, 2019

Filed under: Diecast 103 comments

 Diecast #280: Stadia, Jedi Fallen Order, Half-Life AlyxPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #282: Christmas Lights, Streaming Services 

We are very quickly running out of year! I need to spend the next couple of weeks in a mad panic, trying to make some kind of sense of the whole thing so I can write my end-of-year thoughts.

In a fit of uncharacteristic productivity, we managed to clear out the mailbag this week. As always, if you’ve questions for the show, the email is in the header.

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast281

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #281: PC Building, Fallen Order, Mailbag”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Diecast #280: Stadia, Jedi Fallen Order, Half-Life AlyxPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #282: Christmas Lights, Streaming Services 

103 comments

The Irishman, or I Heard You Write Blog Posts

By Bob Case Posted Saturday Nov 30, 2019

Filed under: Movies 64 comments

 Shut Up About SHUT UP ABOUT PLOT HOLESPrevious Post

Next PostMuch Ado About Star Wars 

Martin Scorsese’s latest movie, The Irishman, was released on Netflix this past Wednesday. It’s about the life and times of truck driver-turned-mobster Frank Sheeran and his relationships with his family, Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, and various figures in the northeastern underworld. I won’t go into any more detail than that because I don’t want to spoil people who haven’t seen it (yet – there’ll be a spoiler section below, I’ll let you know when it’s imminent). But I have thoughts about the movie.

Link (YouTube)

One thing you may not know about me (since it’s never really come up) is that for most of my adult life I’ve been fascinated by organized crime. I don’t just watch movies about gangsters. I watch documentaries about gangsters, read books about (and even by) gangsters, read books about the cops who chase after the gangsters, and go to websites that report on what the gangsters are up to these days. And not just American mobsters but Latin American gangsters, Hong Kong gangsters, Mumbai gangsters, Russian gangsters, Nigerian gangsters, you name it. There are a thousand different varieties, and I’m interested in all of them.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Irishman, or I Heard You Write Blog Posts”

Bob Case MrBtongue is the Pele of complaining about videogames and will soon be the Garrincha of complaining about TV shows. You can find his Youtube channel at youtube.com/user/MrBtongue.

 Shut Up About SHUT UP ABOUT PLOT HOLESPrevious Post

Next PostMuch Ado About Star Wars 

64 comments

Thankful to Origin Support?

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 28, 2019

Filed under: Rants 138 comments

 Patreon UI ProblemsPrevious Post

Next PostI Don't Need Your Stupid Game Bar 

To all of my readers in the US and Canada: Happy Thanksgiving. Today I’m celebrating the onset of Stockholm Syndrome as a user of EA’s Origin gaming platform. I ought to be irritated at EA for causing a problem, but instead I’m feeling grateful for how they fixed it. To understand this goofy tale, we need to go back to…

Last Saturday

I figure it’s time I should look into the new Star Wars game everyone is making a fuss about. The reviews are good across the board and I’m very curious if the game is actually good, or just good compared to EA’s disastrous Star Wars efforts over the past couple of years.

So I buy the game on Steam. Then to my horror, I realized that EA has Trojan Horse’d the Origin Launcher into the damn thing. I launch the game on Steam, and it turns around and launches Origin, which should then (theoretically) launch Star Wars… Fallen… uh… what is it again?

Arg. Can I just do a little aside on how much I hate the title for this game?

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Thankful to Origin Support?”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Patreon UI ProblemsPrevious Post

Next PostI Don't Need Your Stupid Game Bar 

138 comments

Who Broke the In-Game Economy?

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Nov 26, 2019

Filed under: Column 121 comments

 The Dumbest CutscenePrevious Post

Next PostGamers Aren't Toxic 

I’ve been doing this game critic hustle for over a decade now, and one question that keeps popping up is, “Why are in-game economies so broken?” How come nothing makes sense? You’re halfway through a game and you’ve got enough money to start your own country. It’s weird that your character has this much wealth, and it’s even more weird that you can’t really do much with it.

So people ask me: What’s the deal here? Can’t game designers create a properly balanced economy? Why do roleplaying economies always dissolve into nonsense like this?

It’s annoying, I know. Different games have different kinds of currency, different ways of handling progression, and different ways of handling loot, but it’s still really common to have games where the player is able to trivialize the economy by just collecting and selling loot.

The good news is, there is a reason for this. The bad news is, it’s your fault.

Or more specifically, it’s the natural result of a perfectly reasonable series of expectations on the part of the player, and those expectations lead inevitably to this absurd conclusion.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Who Broke the In-Game Economy?”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 The Dumbest CutscenePrevious Post

Next PostGamers Aren't Toxic 

121 comments

Diecast #280: Stadia, Jedi Fallen Order, Half-Life Alyx

By Shamus Posted Monday Nov 25, 2019

Filed under: Diecast 145 comments

 Diecast #279: Hyper Light Drifter, Superliminal, MailbagPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #281: PC Building, Fallen Order, Mailbag 

If you want a podcast that’s an actual discussion and not me thoughtlessly talking over Paul for an hour, then don’t miss the Eh! Steve! Podcast this week, where I discuss Control with the hosts.

Direct download (MP3)
Direct download (ogg Vorbis)
Podcast RSS feed.

Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast280

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #280: Stadia, Jedi Fallen Order, Half-Life Alyx”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Diecast #279: Hyper Light Drifter, Superliminal, MailbagPrevious Post

Next PostDiecast #281: PC Building, Fallen Order, Mailbag 

145 comments

Eh! Steve! Podcast: Control

By Shamus Posted Sunday Nov 24, 2019

Filed under: Notices 50 comments

 Happy HolidaysPrevious Post

Next PostMerch Madness 

Are you looking for some extra podcast this week? If so, then you’re in luck. I was a guest on the Eh! Steve! podcast and we talked about Control. You might remember I did an analysis of Control a few months ago, but here we have a discussion and talk about a lot of stuff I didn’t cover in my series.

If you follow the comments on this site, then you might recognize one of the show hosts. Chris sometimes comments under the ccesarano moniker.

Note that this isn’t a replacement for the Diecast, which will still go up on Monday morning according to the ancient traditions.

While we’re here, I might as well do a rant about… Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Eh! Steve! Podcast: Control”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Happy HolidaysPrevious Post

Next PostMerch Madness 

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