T w e n t y S i d e d
Even if you don’t listen to our podcast, if you listen to any podcast then I’ve got a question for you in the show notes below. I’m just curious how people consume these things.
Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac.
Diecast298
Link (YouTube) |
Show notes:
00:00 Pandemic Update
We’re okay. Keeping busy. Hope the same is true for you.
03:09 Podcast listening habits
I’ll repeat the question here: What’s your typical podcast habit? Do you binge? Listen once and then never again? Revisit favorite from time to time? Do you listen on a commute? During long periods of No Internet? When travelling?
I don’t just mean this show, I’m talking about podcasts in general.
08:50 Receiver 2
Link (YouTube) |
I don’t know what the voice-over guy is on about, but this seems like a terrible cult. Can’t I just join one where they take all your money and you live in a smelly commune while enduring constant gaslighting by the leadership? That seems like it would be way more fun than this.
14:57 Paul fixed his mic
Hardware problems confuse me, but Paul evidently knows what he’s doing.
22:26 More Cities: Skylines
31:01 Kids play The Stanley Parable
Don’t get me started on kids these days and their inability to parse meta humor based on established storytelling tropes in the context of modern-day narrative design.
38:52 Fun with Shaders
Here is the post on Art and the Computer that I mentioned during this segment.
Link (YouTube) |
52:05 Mailbag: Dragon Quest Builders
Dear Diecast,
as you guys like Minecraft I was wondering what your opinion (if any) is on the Dragon Quest Builders games.
While the first game didn’t allow quite as much building as the second one, it was still possible to build some impressive stuff.
Vale,
-Tim
Link (YouTube) |
54:57 Mailbag: Industries of Titan
Dear Diecast,
There’s a cyberpunk city building game called Industries of Titan now
out in early access. I don’t know much about it yet, but I thought it’s
something that may be up your alley! (Or “Your respective alleys”? How
do you say that when you talk to multiple people?)Website
Let’s play that I’m currently watchingRegards,
RFS-81
57:52 Mailbag: Overseas
Dear Diecast. . .
Hi Shamus and Paul, have either of you ever travelled overseas? or abroad? I’m not sure what they call travelling to other countries in America.
Also, completely unrelated question, what is your favourite bounded region in 3-dimensional space?
Thanks for making such a wonderful podcast and hoping you two keep up the good work.
Hoping your all well, Henry Chadban.
Secret of Good Secrets
Sometimes in-game secrets are fun and sometimes they're lame. Here's why.
What Does a Robot Want?
No, self-aware robots aren't going to turn on us, Skynet-style. Not unless we designed them to.
Spec Ops: The Line
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
The Opportunity Crunch
No, brutal, soul-sucking, marriage-destroying crunch mode in game development isn't a privilege or an opportunity. It's idiocy.
Starcraft 2: Rush Analysis
I write a program to simulate different strategies in Starcraft 2, to see how they compare.
I rarely listen to any podcast. I think I have maybe listened to three Diecasts total. I do read the show notes every week though. I did listen to to the Force.net’s podcast every week waaaay back in its hey day when the prequels were a new and ongoing thing, but that was probably only a period of maybe a year or two I guess. Even then, I would never go back and re-listen to an old episode.
I would also not go back to an old podcast. The format is generally conversational, and even more contemporary than a long-form video or documentary. (Many podcasts are basically low-budget, informal news-programs.) There’s very little content that would still be relevant, more than a few months after the podcast originally aired. I think I’ve re-listened to exactly one podcast, which is the Pit Of Doom episode of Hello Internet. I went back to it, because I was curious about the original predictions of automated vehicles, which have at least been delayed, even if they’ll probably still happen long-term.
Do you mean that you would not re-listen to a podcast episode that you’d already heard or do you mean something else?
Personally, I go back to old podcasts all the time. It doesn’t make sense to start listening to a history podcast or a narrative podcast with the most recent episode. There are also podcast series which cover a new topic in each episode. In those cases, the order doesn’t matter at all and there’s no difference, practically speaking, between listening to an old episode and a new one.
I would not re-listen to an old podcast, and also would not listen to an old podcast if I missed it when it first came out. Most are just too timely for that to be useful – I’m not a historian.
This is me. My total podcast listening experience consists entirely of the time Penny Arcade played fourth-edition D&D.
Oh, and I’ve accidentally clicked on the YouTube embeds a time or two when my tablet lagged. That puts you in second place. Congratulations?
I hate podcasts. I don’t like listening to audio of people talking spontaneously.
However, I love to participate in discussions, so whenever there’s a specific topic I’m interested in or I submit a question I’ll check the timestamps and listen to that and ONLY that.
I freely admit to being very strange.
This is also something I do. (Listening to only part of the podcast using the timestamp if there’s something in there I want to discuss or particularly want to know.)
I am much better at reading than listening, so podcasts are not my thing. I listen to some of the Diecasts because I do find the topics interesting, but finding an hour a day to semi-concentrate on something other than reading is hard.
If I’m doing nothing but listen to a podcast, I tend to get bored, start thinking about other stuff, and tune it out without noticing in favor of whatever is going on inside of my head. The next thing I know, I have a great idea for my next GURPS campaign and no idea what the podcast has said for the last 10 minutes.
If I’m trying to also do something that involves reading, I will tune out the podcast in favor of what I’m reading. Almost everything I do involves at least a little bit of reading, or at least seeing text at some point, and my brain intensely prioritizes text over audio. I will end up reading the ingredients on a box of crackers and tune out a podcast about something I’m actually interested in.
I’ve found that the things I can do while listening to podcasts are pretty much (a) play puzzle games (I am having a resurgence of my long-time love affair with Pipe Dream since I semi-recently discovered it’s available to play in-browser on Internet Archive), (b) data entry of really boring numerical data like grades, or (c) house/personal care activites (brushing my hair, mopping the floor, etc.) The problem is, those are all things I tend to do for less than an hour at a time, so hour-long podcasts are not a particularly good fit for those “hands busy, eyes busy, brain not busy” times when I’m likely to want to listen to them. I end up listening to 15-20 minutes of a podcast, pausing it because my hair is brushed now, and then discovering I still have it open 12 hours later when I’m trying to close down as many windows and tabs as possible before I go to bed. Then I have to decide if I want to try to listen to the rest of it, abandon it, or listen to the next bit while I brush my hair (or whatever) tomorrow and should leave it open over night.
For what it’s worth, I also don’t tend to watch movies because they’re too long, and prefer 30 minute TV shows to hour long ones for the same reason. (I’m always seeking out new 30 minute episode dramas with interesting ongoing arc plots, which is a very specific niche that is rare in American TV so I’m often watching foreign shows.)
On the other hand, I can read a book or play a game like Civilization for 5+ hours straight.
(In school I survived by writing down lots of notes as a way of paying attention, by taking math and computer science classes that tended to involve a lot of board-work rather than just listening, and by taking discussion classes in the humanities since I can pay better attention to a conversation than a lecture.)
This. I’ve listened to maybe 2 Diecasts all the way through. If I see something that really interests me in the show notes I’ll go and listen to that segment, but that’s very rare.
I just find the information value of two (or more) people having an unscripted and unedited conversation pretty low. I’d rather read a back and forth email correspondence where both sides have time to think out their responses in a way that podcasts don’t allow.
I’m always hungry for audio content! Some of the work I do is pretty rote and it’s a blessing to have something for my brain while my hands are busy, and also when I’m out running, cleaning, cooking etc. I find I can’t listen to conversation and do reading or thinking work at the same time, so I’m also constantly on the lookout for ambient music which is interesting enough but not too interesting.
I download everything to my mp3 player which I’ve flashed with Rockbox. It doesn’t play Crisis, but it does play Doom! Sadly they’re no longer manufactured so when the two I currently have die I’ll be in trouble. No internet connection means that if a podcast doesn’t offer an mp3 download I have to go to great lengths to try and scrape one from the page source or download and convert it from youtube.
When discovering a new podcast, or going back through the archives of one I already listen to, yes, I tend to binge them. Sometimes I save an ep I liked, or DL it again. Rare, though. I try to be productive. Playing games and listening to podcasts is easy and fun, but doesn’t fulfill me the same way a good bit of writing does.
Travel within Australia or America can involve going over the sea. Tasmania and Hawaii are both island states. I was born in another country, though since coming here I haven’t left. Funny thing, I was planning to travel internationaly this year. I got my passport right before corona blew up. Maybe later in the year, though it’s not looking promising.
Interesting thing is everybody in Australia(in my long experience living there) says “going overseas” to refer to any inter-country travel(which is of course correct), while in England everybody seems to say “going abroad” instead, even though it’s also an island country.
I don’t (currently) listen to other podcasts, but when I started listening to Diecast(around #100 or shortly before, I think), I just started with the then-current one: I don’t think the format of Diecast(which tends to revolve largely around current* and upcoming games, as well as the mailbag) lends itself well to archive binges. If I listened to a podcast about, say, history, or programming or other topic, that would be a different matter.
*broadly speaking
I mainly listen to this podcast. I binge it, but also listen pretty much daily (especially now.) I like listening on it taking walks, biking for an errand or while trying to sleep.
I’ve listened to every episode twice or more (at least the old-cast ones)
I only listen to a couple of podcasts but my method is to subscribe via RSS (my preferred method for receiving anything that happens regularly) and then probably consistently listen to them all as they come out.
Might binge the archive of a newly discovered podcast if it seems worthwhile and there’s not an overbearing amount to get through.
Largely agnostic between listening from phone/laptop, unless I find myself wanting to increase the playback speed in which case I probably need to be on a proper computer because I’ve not yet gotten frustrated enough to find a media player for my phone that will do that.
Recently acquired a bluetooth headset which has introduced the option of listening to things from either device while getting on with cooking, cleaning, or something else with my hands, which is nice.
Re: Increased playback speed on phone
VLC can do that. Their mobile version is pretty good imo.
Dude, VLC on phones? Truly, this is the future. I mean, minus the robot-butlers, flying cars, and jetpacks. At least we still have the mega-corps.
The one and only podcast player for phones: antennapod. It can subscribe to rss feeds and playback the audio as well at several speeds. It also has functionality to search for new podcasts. It is free/libre and open-source software as well.
Active podcasts I follow as they go, listening when a new episode comes out. When I go through archives (like with the History of Rome), I binge.
Same here. Mike Duncan’s History of Rome podcast and his newer ‘Revolution’ podcast are excellent for binging. These ones would be interesting to listen again.
Most podcasts including diecast are more focused on current events. I listen these as they come, and then never again.
I usually listen to podcasts while doing household chores. It is akin to listening to the radio, except that I decide what’s on.
Don’t listen to any podcasts, or at least not wholly. If there’s a subject that interests me and it’s not too long, I might skip to the section on the diecast by the timestamps on the show notes.
+1 for timestamps! If a podcast doesn’t have timestamps, there’s a very high chance that I just skip the whole thing, unless I’m very interested in the topic(s).
I listen to podcasts basically constantly – I only really stop when I really need to concentrate on something at work, am consuming other information (reading, watching a film, playing videogames…), am talking to people or am tired of people yapping in my ear. As such I do re-listen to a lot of podcasts, but only really when they have some sort of throughline. Stuff like the Diecast that’s a “let’s talk about videogamey stuff” type podcast is one and done, but I’ve listened to The Chapter Titles Were So Good (where they review and come up with comedic misinterpretations of every chapter of the Harry Potter books in order) four times all the way through, twice for Dusted (super analytical reviews of each episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, would’ve done more times, but I learned one of the people on it is allegedly a horrible, horrible person who abused his wife – the other host), and three times for Our Fair City (steampunk story-based pseudo radio-drama thing). There’s more examples, but I’m sure the point is got. I will in a fit of nostalgia occasionally try to go back to marathon non-episodic podcasts that I enjoyed, but I’ll never make it more than two or three episodes.
I find that podcasts are ideal listening while on a commute; I can’t listen to them while working because they take up too much of my attention.
I really only listen to videogame podcasts, because nobody I know IRL is into games and this is the closest I can get to talking about them.
Do you drive on your commute, or is a train/tube ride? I have to drive for mine, and I’ve found that I process next to nothing on the way. I get to work or back home, and I can barely remember if I heard Pat Benatar or To to while driving.
Don’t judge me.
Honestly I think this is OK, so long as you’re entertained in the moment? Maybe give audiobooks a miss, could be a trifle confusing…
I don’t listen to any podcasts ever. You see, while some people listen better than they read, I’m definitely one of those people who read better than they listen. When someone speaks I basically need to pay full attention to them if I don’t want to miss any details (and it doesn’t help that English is my second language). If I use the length of this episode as an example, that’d be like a whole hour spent for me.
That is not to say I’m incapable of listening, but trying to absorb information via my ears just isn’t my preferred way of absorbing information, nor is it the most efficient way for me. If you transcribed an one hour episode, I bet I can read the whole thing in half hour at most.
And just to clarify, I’m not saying reading is better, or people who prefer to read are superior (I know some people are literally like that), but rather I’m saying that my brain is literally better geared for reading over listening. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody enjoy reading and listening equally, but the point is, some of us vastly prefer one format over the other.
Finally, I don’t like listening to music with lyrics either, unless I intend to just tune the words out (or treat them as noises). I also don’t like watching videos that much, but at least my eyes are preoccupied/entertained too when I’m watching a video, I guess? I still prefer to just read though, either way, unless the video itself is the point.
And sorry if you already know all this, but I get the feeling that this “reading vs. listening preference” thing isn’t actually common knowledge.
> And sorry if you already know all this, but I get the feeling that this “reading vs. listening preference” thing isn’t actually common knowledge.
I think it’s fairly common knowledge (at least among nerds), but a lot of people spend a fair chunk of their day commuting, and of those a fair fraction are either driving (best not to read, really), get travel sick if they read in a vehicle (hello!), or commute on foot (also me, sometimes)
I definitely prefer to read – audio-based entertainment is strictly additional brain stimulation when I’m doing something where reading isn’t an option.
I can attest to that. Never listened to podcasts and way prefer text over audio/video. I just can’t concentrate on audio, since it takes too little concentration to just do that, but too much to do something else at the same time.
But, I have a new job and I’m now listening to podcasts on the commute. Driving takes the perfect amount of concentration to listen to podcasts at the same time. Plus, with an hour a day, you actually progress quite quickly in it.
So, I asked around until I found a podcast I like (unfortunately, not this one), and I started way back at the first episode, 8-ish years ago. Production value does a lot for me, there, because I get annoyed when I can’t understand the podcast while driving, and I have a hard time changing to a different thing.
> I just can’t concentrate on audio, since it takes too little concentration to just do that, but too much to do something else at the same time
This is one of the reasons I listen at 120% – it pushes it over an attentional threshold where I can consistently concentrate on it (and not get bored)
I hated podcasts until I stumbled onto this trick, and now I listen to a few hours most days while choring or exercising.
I think most people know this on an intellectual level but don’t realize how severe it is for some people. On my way to my degree, literally the only reason I went to class was to keep up appearances. I would go so far as to do homework for other classes while making it look like I was taking notes for the lecture that I was in.
I much prefer to read, simply because I read very fast, and audio versions of text feel far too slow for me. I do still listen to podcasts like the Diecast and watch Shamus’ videos, though – often when I’m working on something else, as you say.
Exactly. I don’t have time for podcasts, way too slow. Audio books are the same. I have tried listening to some of Shamus’s but it just isn’t really me.
A significant factor here is that I don’t have a long commute or other downtime where a podcast or audio book could be ideal entertainment. For my fairly short commute I prefer to just listen to music.
It’s also part of the reason why I don’t mind a lack of voice acting in video games – I usually end up reading the subtitles and skipping through half the dialogue anyway. I feel a bit sad about it if the VA is good, but I just can’t stand waiting around for the actors to finish.
Same for me. I’m deaf, which doesn’t help, but even if that weren’t a factor, I can’t imagine I would ever choose an information delivery method that takes a good 10x as long as simply reading. It would have to be REALLY entertaining and/or a format that doesn’t work written (e.g., I love Planet Earth because of the cinematography. With the slow pace of the narration, I could get probably 100x as much information in an hour of reading, but it’s not the same as actually watching the bower bird set up his bower or the hunting dogs take down a wildebeest).
I also retain what I’ve read MUCH better than what I’ve heard. If I meet someone new, for example, reading their name allows me to remember it, but I am very unlikely to remember their name if I’ve merely heard it.
I mostly listen to podcasts while going for a walk or doing other vaguely outdoorsy stuff, like gardening. Cooking, too, sometimes, although that’s usually Youtube videos.
When I find a podcast I really like I listen to it from the start and then follow along. A lot of what I listen to these days is just audio heavy Youtube videos, though – I wrote a little bash script that passes videos to youtube-dl when I share them with termux. Convenient way to slim down my bloated watch later playlist.
I don’t usually revisit episodes I heard before, but there’s occasional exceptions. Like when I was thinking about whether I wanted to take advantage of GOG’s Darkest Dungeons discount recently – I listened to the diecast where you talked about it (and then listened to the plumbing story, too). I’ve revisited episodes out of nostalgia before, too, but that’s rare. Also, I remember in 2014/15 when my father had/died of lung cancer, I spent a lot of time in hospital as moral support without much to actually do. I probably listened to most episodes four times back then.
I listen to podcasts (or audiobooks) whenever I can spare the attention – commuting, cardio, choring.
So…less, at the moment. I’m not commuting a whole bunch right now.
I mix bingeing with subscriptions – I tend to queue up a playlist from the backlog of a podcast I like but came to late, and then sub in single episodes of podcasts that I’m up-to-date with as they come out
I don’t currently listen to the Diecast. The current format isn’t for me.
There’s a few things – the two-dudes-talking format works better, I think, with more contrast between the dudes. Wiseguy and wizard, logician and empath. I’ll listen to shows about topics I don’t care about at all just for an enjoyable parasocial atmosphere – for example, I’m not an Apple user, but I’ve listened to at least the last 250 Accidental Tech Podcasts the week they came out. I wasn’t interested in D&D before I started listening to Total Party Kill, but I listened to those hosts on The Incomparable and the more social format worked as an extension of that.
The Diecast isn’t that kind of show, it’s more about the content than the vibe. Which leads me to the last thing…
I tend to listen to podcasts at 120% or more – most of the shows I listen to are American, and Americans talk so slowly it’s unbearable. I bring this up because it relates to something that turns me off the Diecast – this is a pretty loosely edited show, with lots of non-signalling syllables left intact. Stutters and false starts are generally left in, slowing the pace and lowering the information density. I think that’s OK when people conceptualise of your show as hanging out but it’s frustrating when the appeal is in the content.
That’s weird. I stopped watching Yahtzee because I just kept losing him due to there not being natural pauses. I wonder how many people need their content sped up compared to people who need their content to be more naturally paced.
I can’t use YT’s slowdown settings either, because it distorts the audio which really bothers me.
I can’t use audio slowdown/speed up at all. It stresses me out. Like my brain knows this isn’t the speed the person was originally talking and the dissonance makes me uncomfortable, as though I just took some heavy drugs.
Some TV networks have taken to speeding up scenes to fit in more commercials and it makes me want to throw my remote across the room.
You own a…television? :O
Heh. Mine isn’t even a flatscreen.
And I get the programming via satellite.
But not cable. I’m not a barbarian.
I’m pretty sure the cost of electricity not used, should pay for the cost of an upgrade to a new (but not super-new / ultra-high-def) TV in like, a year. If you’re curious, look at the electricity usage sticker[1], then look at a new TV in a store, and do the math based on your average TV usage.
[1] Or use a Kill-a-Watt to measure from the cord, how much the TV is using for electricity.
Conversely, I’m so used to hearing Internet people 20% faster than usual that if I find myself watching on a device without speed control (Chromecast, for instance) they sound a bit drunk.
I too, can use the speed-up but not the slow-down. Shortening the time between sounds doesn’t sound too bad, but whatever tech they’re using for slow-down makes things sound like there’s new pauses between sounds, rather than lengthening the existing sounds.
Yahtzee has a decidedly rapid-fire delivery style, and I don’t tend to feel the need to speed him up – he’s one of the few people whose speech is reasonable information-dense at native speed.
One notes that he isn’t an American, and thus hasn’t succumbed to that continent’s habit of dragging words out to interminable lengths.
(I stopped watching Zero Punctuation ages ago, though, because it stopped feeling fresh to me)
Huh. You know, I’m typically the sort of person who “interrupts” others because I perceive pauses where there were none intended but this is news to me.
Yes, the stutters and stuff are unedited – that doesn’t really bother me. I think the speed is fine, something like Zero Punctuation level of speed (not to mention actual editing out of pauses and linking together re-takes) is not comfortable unless I’m actively, only, concentrating on the content in question.
I usually consume podcasts whilst I’m performing some other task (or falling asleep): it’s basically modern-day radio. I also have a very loose definition of podcasts as, for me, most youtube content I consume is just a podcast with an image. Digression aside, if the Diecast speed was increased, I wouldn’t be able to multitask and absorb the information at the same time. For a shorter length of show it would be okay.. I mean, who can’t spare 2-5 minutes for a quick knowledge buff? But an hour show? That’s just tiring.
I get what you’re saying about Americans speaking slowly. Basically everyone who isn’t Scottish, Irish or from the Northwest in England sounds slow to me (and that includes any foreign speakers I’ve come across in my life – yes, anecdote doesn’t mean reality)…. but I don’t find the show that slow.
Regarding my bingeing habits, I usually listen one at a time to a podcast/show when I’m relatively up-to-date or when I’ve recently binged on it… if I’m not in that post-binge zone I can usually just sit and listen to cumulative shows until I get tired of them.
Don’t much listen to podcasts and never revisit them. Here I usually skip to the question/answer section. The only other one I made a point of listening to was Visual Novel Book Club, which is largely a summary of the video game they’re discussing, and I haven’t kept up with it.
I’ll re-listen to old Let’s Plays constantly, though, hide the video and use the audio as background noise. Something where all the conversation revolves around an ongoing event.
I listen to history podcasts. Those are different from regularly serialized ones. They tend to deal with a specific topic and series of events, and many of them effectively have an end date. For example, Mike Duncan’s famous History of Rome podcast went to the end of the Empire, and then it was done. He went on to a new podcast with a new topic. On the upside, you can binge if you wish, but you may need to listen from the beginning or be totally lost.
Paul, your kid’s playthrough of The Stanley Parable is a weird combination of Mr. Magoo crossed with an alien who’s till trying to figure out humanity. ^^;
Yeah, it really was a strange experience. It’s hard to be frustrated at someone for being bad enough at a game to not be offended at it for making fun of them for following or not following instructions.
While exercising (outside, but rarely inside) or doing other physical activities (yard work), driving (especially long drives), and (sometimes) while cooking.
Almost never while working (it kills my programming brain).
If I get excited for the podcast, I try to listen as soon as it comes out, so there’s nothing to binge. If it’s good content, but not exciting, then I’ll tend to binge through some backlog and then lose interest again – start building up a new backlog.
Almost always one and done. Same for similar YouTube content.
Exceptions being story style podcasts, like This American Life or Radiolab. Those might get re-listened to, but usually on long road-trips. These are basically short audiobooks.
Yes.
No internet, no way to download. :(
Yes. Road trips are prime audiobook and podcast situations.
Since the Diecast is not available on iTunes, I download the mp3 file to my phone and listen to it while I’m riding the UBahn to my dance class each week. (Cell phone reception isn’t great while underground.)
Now that I don’t leave my home for dance class (or anything else), my husband and I listen to the Diecast while we’re making dinner together.
I don’t like to binge anything, so I usually listen to each new podcast during the week that it’s released.
I almost never re-listen/watch old content of any kind, unless I’m searching for specific information.
I hope this helps!
Aww, that’s so sweet! My wife listens to the show occasionally as well.
I have never relistened to a podcast after having listened to one, and I usually won’t listen to a podcast more than a week or two old.
I listen to podcasts while doing chores around the house (cooking, cleaning, yard work, etc.) and sometimes while exercising. My podcast-specific habits depend on the nature of the podcast. I listen to the Diecast as soon as it comes out so that I can participate in the comments. Otherwise, I’ve set the podcast app on my phone to auto-download new episodes from certain podcasts to be put in a queue and listened to in approximately in the order that they were released. If I somehow manage to exhaust the queue, I’ll manually download episodes from the archives of certain other podcasts. For these archived episodes, I prefer podcasts whose episodes are single-topic and self-contained and where timeliness isn’t a factor.
As for city builders and Industries of Titan, well, I’m no expert on either. However, I believe that there is a long-standing tradition of combat in certain city-builders which you might not be aware of if Sim City is your only reference point for the genre. I know that Impressions Games’ historical city builders, including the Caesar series and Pharoah, include combat. Some of the Anno games may as well, though my Wikipedia-skimming has been less conclusive than I’d like in that regard. The point is that there is precedent, possibly plenty of it, depending on how you look at it, for combat in city-builders.
I think my first encounter with battles in a primarily “city builder” game was in The Settlers, of which I played, I think, the first three? It struck me oddly in the same way that the building does in primarily combat games like Starcraft. Construction occurs on the timescale of months, while combat (at least the exciting parts) happens on the scale of minutes or even seconds. It breaks immersion for me to have those two things consume similar amounts of time. Then, in order to balance the game, defensive structures need to be immensely nerfed in power, or you’d just build a castle in the way of an invading army that wasn’t there when they started their march. The way the mechanic is often dealt with just seems so unrealistic that I have a hard time taking anything else in the game seriously. It kinda works in a cartoony game like The Settlers, or a super-future like Starcraft, but when the presentation is banking on gritty realistic Sci-Fi like Industries of Titan, it feels out of place.
Did you ever play Civ? In the Ancient Era, a turn is supposed to represent several decades. It takes your warriors multiple decades just to walk out of your city.
Yeah, the Civ games definitely have the same problem, but they aren’t really “City building”. If we’re going to point this problem out in other places, Minecraft leaps to mind as well.
Combat is the reason why I tend to play both 4x and city builder games on easy most of the time, unless I stick with them for longer I tend to neglect combat because what I just like watching my city/civilization/empire grow. IIRC I never finished Settlers 2 precisely because I did not enjoy its combat. And if I play 4X I tend to turtle up and go for some kind of victory that does not require rolling over my neighbours.
Also, some random titles of varying relevance that sprang to my mind: Space Colony had two paths through its campaign, one with combat and one without, also Startopia had combat that was only relevant in like two or so scenarios, oh and recently Surviving Mars has combat only in a couple of its special events/scenarios.
The maps, buildings, etc of Industries Of Titan all seem like they’re similar to how X-COM: Apocalypse was built. You’re messing around on a map, but also have building management, but also aliens come kill you sometimes. It seems pretty cool, although I doubt I’d have time to play it. :)
I used to mostly listen to podcasts at the gym way back in the before times. Now sometimes while working out at home. Sometimes, I listen to podcasts when I’m playing some game that doesn’t have dialog and where I’m tired of the background music. At the moment, that’s Star Realms, Race for the Galaxy and Magic Arena.
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About Industries of Titans, I’ve watched a Let’s Play for a bit and it is not an RTS in the classical sense. You do have to fight off waves of rebels at certain intervals while building your city. Some of the old Sierra city builders, like Caesar or Pharaoh, were like that too, on some maps.* There is an option to play without enemies, in any case. You don’t have an avatar in the game, but you can move the camera inside a factory and place machines inside it. My favorite is the Monetization Station where you make money by putting a citizen in front of a stream of ads. Which is hilarious because it doesn’t look like they can actually buy anything.
I’m kind of hyped about it, but with a sandboxy game like this, I’ll likely be tired of it before it’s actually finished, so I’m holding off… speaking of which, did Satisfactory ever announce a timeline for going to 1.0?
* Also Stronghold, but that game was more about building fortifications than building the city. Though you still had to do both.
The next Satisfactory update is the Steam release, which is still at least a month out. They don’t have a 1.0 announcement yet.
That’s unfortunate, a friend wants to play it in co-op with me but I tend to burn out on these games pretty quickly so we’re waiting for 1.0.
My “podcast” listening is almost entirely limited to podcasts that show up on Youtube. And for those, some I follow every episode, and others only when I’m bored or looking for a specific topic. Also, thanks to Paul for starting to host these on Youtube.
I used to have an hour commute (several years back). In the morning, I listened to AM radio, and in the evening, podcasts. I think Tuesday happened to be the day that a particular live tech podcast happened during my commute, and I loved those days. I felt more informed. Even so, I eventually switched to audio books, and then stopped the commute entirely.
I usually download episodes of this podcast when it comes out, then listen a few times during the week.
I generally listen to my podcasts at work on Wednesdays on my phone via Google Podcasts. The first podcast I listened to (We Got This! With Mark and Hal) released new episodes on Tuesday nights, so that became my habit. I stay current with the ones I listen to but don’t ever really relisten to episodes. When I try a new podcast, I’ll listen to episodes that sound interesting, but I don’t usually go through the entire back-catalog unless it’s relatively new or is something like Greatest Generation or The Dragon Reread, where they’re going through a show or something.
Re: podcasts – they’re mostly background noise while I work, and my attention drifts in and out. If I’m not listening to podcasts it might be random TV shows, or youtube videos. I can almost never tolerate giving my full attention to any podcast (the closest I’ll get is playing a turn-based game like Civ while listening on headphones).
I only listen to one other podcast besides this one. I read the show notes as soon as they go up, but usually don’t get to listening to them until days later, and, since I listen to them while working in the kitchen or cleaning, I will usually listen to them in multiple segments. Sometimes they’ll get backed up and I’ll have a few weeks to get through and listen at 1.5x speed.
I mainly listen to podcast by wave, depending on games I play.
Typically when:
– Playing pure action (arcade shooter) or slow/pause-able games (management, after the learning phase).
– Doing manual repetitive task. Not often, like when refletching arrows or scanning/sorting a pile of paper.
– Resting: lying down but not sleeping, waiting while traveling. Very rare.
For example since I’ve started playing M&B2: Bannerlord I’m kind of binging on podcasts.
Currently I also listen to podcasts when playing VTOL VR (plane simulator), Iron Wolf VR (submarine simulator, except when in multiplayer obviously), or H3VR (shooting range and objectives against bots).
Not too long ago it was while playing Rimworld or Oxygen not Included.
When it comes to podcasts I only ever listen once then never again. It usually fills the role of random streams where I put them on in the background while I do other things on my computer.
In terms of Stanley Parable I picked it up during the Winter Sale in 2014 then never played it. I went back a couple years ago and saw there’s an achievement for not playing it for 5 years so I figured, sure I can wait a few more years. Just checked and 5 years have passed so I guess I should actually play it now.
I prefer to listen to podcasts while I’m doing household chores or yard work. Problem is that the Diecast doesn’t work into that schedule since I generally do that stuff on Sundays. I prefer to listen to most podcasts at 1.3x speed. Which my mp3 player does not support. I also don’t have enough podcasts I like. It’s a bit frustrating on each front.
I generally do not binge podcasts. However I binge podcasts based on activity. Like if I know I have a long car trip– binge. To binge it has to be the type of podcast that can support it. I don’t binge current event podcasts and I do binge dramas. Like Night Vale was good for binging (and I quickly lost interest after) and Diecast is not. I listen once and once only to a podcast. Unless I fall asleep.
I generally listen to a podcast when I’m doing something I do *not* enjoy that can make the time pass quicker.
I, too, only listen during chores.
Audio/words is hard while concentrating on other tasks (work, driving).
Easy for me when doing something mundane but necessary.
I queue a few up at a time (listened to three over the weekend).
The conversational format is great.
Please consider expanding the games covered in the diecast. I don’t mind the satisfactory/factorial talk, but run me through indies, AAA, new games, old games, more!
Also, thanks for the Doom Eternal spoiler heads-up. Gave me a chance to skip it. It’s on my list to play!
This is literally the only podcast I ever listen to. I am frankly overwhelmed with the insane amount of entertainment content available to me: I’m subscribed to a bunch of YouTube channels, I have dozens of movies and TV shows to watch on physical media or Netflix, I have hundreds of books and comics in both physical and digital format and I have literally thousands of videogames, of which I’m certain I haven’t even played half of them, so I’m entirely discouraged from seeking out more entertainment avenues, and that means I’m not going to look for more podcasts. I’m sure there are a few out there I’d love to listen to, but seriously. And seeing how I still have to work during this pandemic I certainly don’t have more time to peruse my entertainment backlog.
Also, I have to pay full attention to this sort of thing. I can’t, for instance, play a videogame while I listen to a podcast or I won’t retain any of it. The most I can do while listening to a podcast or audiobook is something that requires no real attention from me, like chores. And I’m not precisely the greatest chore-maker in the world, so to speak. I could listen on my way to work, but I travel in motorcycle, so not ideal.
I take in 90% of my podcasts while commuting or traveling for work. As such, I haven’t listened to a podcast since the last week of February. XD alas!
I generally don’t relisten to podcasts, unless there’s a very interesting or evergreen topic in the archives (e.g. if it’s a history podcast). I don’t listen to them ver often, and I don’t have a set pattern – sometimes I do it on Soundcloud, other times on Spotify, and sometimes on the respective podcast’s website.
I listen to them during work, or while I’m playing a more zen-like chill-out game (or when the game is more grindy, but I tend to avoid those kinds of games).
I listen to audio files on my commute to and from work. as i get car sick the coach has eliminated any hope of reading (my preferred option) so i’ve passed onto audiobooks, podcasts , and audio dramas.
Of the three i barely ever listen to podcasts (shut up and sit down being the main one) it’s tough for my brain to follow them and sometimes i just don’t get along with some of the voices or i find the content boring (i could skip but it’s not really the point, i want to be able to put it on and not need to touch my phone after that )
Audiobooks have gotten a lot more mileage out of me , especially since i discovered the “smart audiobook player” app which is really great for what i need. Here too the voice of the narrator can make or break the book though and there are books i’ve just abandoned because they don’t translate well to audio (or the book itself was… dull at best)
Audio/radio dramas are fantastic, these are usually my preferred entertainment. It takes a while to find something i think i’ll like but when i do i’ve got hours of listening primed. The advantage is that the production values are usually good and since there is a multiple cast there is no one individual, voice that i can get so bored by that it kills the story for me. (i cannot help but recommend the bbc’s tumanbay, their old lotr series, and their “strange case of charles dexter ward” revisiting which are all great fun and, like most things with the bbc label, are produced to exceptionally high standards! i’m going to dig out the hitchhickers guide next i think)
I’m happy to take audio series suggestions from those who have them!
In general i will only listen to a file once (although there have been exceptions, i think i’ll be going back to the “nightwatch” audio book just because i had so much fun in that world) so they are disposable to a degree, especially podcasts which are produced so frequently that i may not even have the chance to finish one by the time the next one comes out and which don’t usually have a cohesive narrative between episodes.
My commute goes through blind network spots, so all my audio files are downloaded prior to the commute and loaded onto my phone such that i can use the aforementioned app. (with all it’s nifty qol features) which is also why i prefer to get things that are already finished or at least come in large chunks (give me a 1h file, and i need to download it every day/two days … give me an 8 h book or 20 h of audio series and i’m set for weeks) so whilst i wouldn’t say i binge, i would say i like to complete my narratives and have them completed before i even start.
I can’t really concentrate on podcasts when not doing anything for visual stimulation, so I tend to listen to podcasts while either commuting on the bus/train, going on walks or playing Factorio. If I ever go on long drives I listen to podcasts then as well.
As for age, I have no objections to listening to older podcasts, but since I have mostly binged listened to the archives of the podcasts I listen to(except the Diecast, I strangely have yet to feel the temptation to trawl it’s archive) I tend to mostly listen to them soon after they come out. I don’t have any fundamental objection to relistening to podcasts, but with so much content out there I have yet to consume, it seems wasteful to listen again(same deal with films/books, though not video games probably because the experience changes significantly with replays). After a few years I suspect I’ll probably be happy to relisten to the better stuff though.
>>it seems wasteful to listen again(same deal with films/books
I reread a lot. One of the reasons for that is that I find my experience with books changes as I get older. I definitely relate to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn very differently as a 37yo than I did when I first read it at 15. Also, each year, Persuasion gets a little closer to overtaking Pride and Prejudice as my favorite Austen (and Mansfield Park has slowly climbed the ranks from dead last by a country mile to a strong third, just above Northanger Abbey). There is at least one book (The Blue Castle) that I mourn not having discovered until my 30s because I didn’t have the experience of growing along with it.
But I also read very quickly, so it’s not like it’s a big investment of time. There’s a new Dresden Files coming out in July, and I still have a good month and a half to decide whether I want to reread the existing 15 or so (including the short story collections, so I’m not sure of the exact number off the top of my head) books before I read the new one.
I must admit, I don’t listen to the Diecast; haven’t for quite some time. Largely this stems from not playing any of the games you guys play and not really being interested in the games that interest you, so . . . Sorry.
In any case, my consumption of podcasts: I generally listen on my commute (20-30 minutes, depending on traffic.) Since I work in a lab, I spend portions of my day doing rote work, so I listen to podcasts while I’m in the lab as well. This means my consumption of podcasts can be anywhere from 40 min. to several hours a day. I guess that counts as bingeing, but I tend not to listen to multiple episodes of the same show at once.
I also used to listen to podcasts when I had long drives, but those days are gone.
I also don’t re-listen to “favorite episodes” of shows, but very few of the shows I listen to are formatted wherein that would be something you’d want to do. The only exception would be that I listen to church sermons in there as well, so those I do re-listen to. But I’ve never said, “I have to listen to that interview with what’s-his-face again!”
I’m not a regular Diecast listener, even though I regularly consume all your other content and regularly listen to other podcasts. But I’ll answer in case it’s still relevant.
Podcasts I listen to basically fall into a few different categories, and my listening habits are different for each one:
Story-driven (e.g., Serial)
These podcasts tell a narrative (either fictional or non-fictional) that builds from episode to episode. For these, I start at the beginning and work my way forward—which is pretty much the only way these make any sense. I pretty much never re-listen to episodes once I’ve heard them the first time.
Educational (e.g., New Rustacean, History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps)
I also listen to these chronologically, but do sometimes revisit them later. For example, I’m currently on my third listen of New Rustacean (a podcast that teaches the Rust programming language). I first listened to it before I’d learned Rust at all and got a sense of what the language was about; then I re-listened to it after first working through the Rust book, when I could understand most of it, but couldn’t quite follow the more advanced topics, and now I’m coming back again to get a better understanding of those topics.
Pure news (e.g., Linux Headlines)
I listen to these pretty much as they come out. I might go back a few episodes if I miss some, but I wouldn’t go all that far back.
General gabbing (e.g., Ubuntu Podcast)
These shows might feature some discussion of news, but it’s more about the discussion that takes place. For these, I listen in reverse-chronological order but don’t mind going back several years if the content is fun. (And, sometimes, the “topical” content is just as fun when it’s dated–it can be interesting to learn/be reminded of how people thought of a development when it was first “breaking” and compare that to views from The Future™). This is probably the category I’d put the Diecast in–if I start listening to it more, I’ll start with the most recent episode and work my way backwards. Since I always listen to the most recent un-listend-to episode, I might listen to an episode from 6 months ago, then an episode that was just released, then another from six+ months ago; jumping around like that doesn’t bother me at all.
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I realize all of that makes it sound like I listen to a ton of podcasts. I really don’t: I listen only when driving by myself, exercising, or when washing dishes/vacuuming/other repetitive cleaning. (I currently live in a place without a dishwasher, which has boosted my podcast listening time more that I’d like!). Also, podcasts compete for that time with audio books—I typically listen to podcasts during that time, but will sometimes get into an audio book and go weeks barely listening to podcasts at all (which is kind of nice, since it gives me a bit more content to catch up on!)
The podcasts I listen to are:
This one.
Many a True Nerd Patron Podcast
Hello Internet
Hello Internet is the only one I listen to more than once, months/years later.
I listen to podcasts at home, on my computer. I just sit back and listen because if I’m doing something else while listening, I’ll miss stuff and have to playback what I miss which gets annoying.
I was listening to the Diecast way back in the day but I’ve terribly neglected the current version, it’s not really a matter of any preference, or lack thereof, for the cast or anything. After you stopped doing Spoiler Warning I mentally moved the blog to “text” and I access it mainly at work where I can’t listen to audio content, and when I come back home most of the time I simply forget that there was an episode.
This might have something to do with me not listening to podcasts in general, when I want some background conversation I usually turn to a couple tried streamers or let’s players and I’ve sort of reached content saturation for things to listen to while doing other stuff on PC. I can squeeze something in if I want to listen to a particular episode but at this point it’s a case of “making time” rather than “filling time”.
On that note, thanks for transcripts on your recent videos.
I listen to podcasts when I go for a walk or when I am relaxing at the beach.
I also have a job where I am occasionally away with lots of downtime and poor internet access. So I find podcasts makes time go quicker.
Also like listening to old podcasts of diecast or the RPS one. I still enjoy hearing the dynamic of the old diecast crew hanging out together. It is also a nice to go back in time a few years and hear what was important or what you guys were looking forward to.
I don’t generally listen to a podcast’s back catalogue unless it’s fairly new and I only need like half a dozen episodes to catch up. That said, when I started listening to Fear the Boot, I went through all 150ish back episodes just because I loved listening to the hosts so much… Which may have been a mistake, given that I got burned out and haven’t listened to them in over a year. I’m almost caught up with a particularly funny bad movie review cast (which I won’t name because politics), but that’s more of a funny show than the usual podcast format.
Generally, I listen on my commute plus a few other times when I can just mindlessly listen, like when I’m cleaning out my project supplies (“Oh, I should actually make that.” vs. “I’m never actually going to use these.”) or when I have a long project to do at work. (For example, since we’re essential but not getting much business right now, while I spent hours painting machines and walls the last two weeks.) I’m just starting to collect enough podcasts that I have to make a little time to get through them all in a week, so maybe while I’m getting dinner together or something, too.
I was previously listening on the way to work, so it would take a few days to listen to the whole thing, but I was never far behind. Now that I’m working from home, I’m not driving, so I have been a little behind. I listen while I’m working, but only if I’m doing something kind of mindless. I just started this one today.
When I first discovered your page (a few years ago), I did kind of binge them in reverse order. I didn’t go all the way back to the beginning though. There’s really only one other podcast I listen to, The Purple Stuff Podcast, which is only about once a month.
For both of them, I just download the MP3 and listen on my old time. I’m too set in my ways to figure out podcast players.