I know I’m guilty of bouts of hyperbole. Activision, EA, and Ubisoft are capable of some truly infuriating behaviors, and it’s really tempting to just throw around words like “evil” and “greedy”. EA is a huge, dysfunctional organization that takes in billions of dollars and employs thousands of people. But I think it’s worth noting that their desire to make money isn’t what makes them a bad company. Their problem isn’t greed, but shocking ineptitude.
 |
This blog is a very unusual beast. I don’t say this to brag. It’s unusually big for a WordPress blog. (Once sites get this busy, they often move away from blogging software.) There’s an unusual level of “engagement” for a personality-driven blog. (If you’ve got a big blog based around a single person, it’s common to have the comments aimed not at the subject matter of the post itself, but at the author.) But here we’ve got long, detailed discussions between people on all sorts of topics. The comments are busy enough to be interesting but not so busy that you feel like you’re shouting into a hurricane. On top of all this, the whole thing is shockingly civil for an open-comment discussion thread where anyone can join without creating an account.
The point is: We have some sort of delicately balanced ideal here, and I’ve been slow to change things because I don’t want to disturb the mysterious alchemy we have. For years people have been asking me to create forums, and I’ve resisted because I don’t want to harm the blog or make it less fun. This blog has been a big part of my routine for 7.5 years now. It works well and I’m very reluctant to mess with it in a way that might make the thing less fun.
But Shamus, why can’t we have some optional side-forum, just for people who want to talk about other stuff?
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Thinking About Forums”
Link (YouTube) |
Thanks again to Jarenth for filling in while I was moving. I’m glad he did such a good job, although I’m kind of disappointed that he did such a good job that nobody missed me. Also, I’ve decided to blame him for the rash of puns on my name, even though I think he’s the only person who was blameless in the matter.
A few things to note because I wasn’t there for the recording:
Samuel still reminds me of Al Pacino.
Anyone notice how Havelock’s pistol is somehow a semi-automatic?
You know, I used the zoom feature all the time at the Hound Pitts, and it never once dawned on me that I was doing it with the mask off. Derp.
I think the problem with the mission briefings is that it doesn’t feel like these guys have enough going on. Running a conspiracy ought to keep you busy. It feels too much like these jokers are hanging out while they wait for you to overthrow the entire country for them.
It kills me that the game gives us audiologs of people that we know and can speak to directly. Audiologs are usually a hack for when direct communication isn’t possible. It’s like the game was afraid of going for too long without the player shanking someone, so most of the characterization was dumped in this non-gameplay ghetto of exposition dumps. Since Corvo has a quasi-dialog wheel, it would have been much better to take some of these audiologs and move their contents into conversation branches. It would still be optional for the impatient, but it would round out our conversations with them and allow the exposition to happen more naturally. It would also fix this layers-of-emotional-removal problem that Chris was talking about.
Link (YouTube) |
This is the first time I’ve ever felt the impotent frustration of being a viewer. When Josh walked away from Campbell I found myself shouting, “The book, Josh! Pick up the book!” at my monitor. Spoiler warning: It didn’t help.
Josh is actually incorrect when he says that the demonstrated path is the only way to reveal yourself to Curnow without having to fight him. However, I can’t really blame Josh. There are many ways for this to play out, and his method was completely new to me.
Since I wasn’t around for this recording, let me do all the nitpicking I’d planned to do for this quest.
The non-lethal path for dealing with the High Overseer is ludicrous. You zonk him, strap him to a chair, and brand him, marking him as a heretic. And everyone just accepts this?
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Dishonored EP6: You’re a Chicken Now!”
 |
With Shamus out for the week, I host and Jarenth guest stars on this exciting installment of the Diecast!
Download MP3 File
Download Ogg Vorbis File
And now for the show notes, complete with the oft-requested timestamps!
00:15 – We talk about what we’ve been doing for the past week. Shamus is a zombie, Chris is a Tomb Raider, Rutskarn is Homestuck, Jarenth’s lost in Echo Bazaar, and I’ve been set on the Path of Exile.
15:55 – Everything and more about the Playstation 4 announcement, and in particular, the implication that “more polygons = stronger emotional connection.” And if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, VideoGamerTV made a helpful abridged version of the conference that has basically everything that’s important in it.
33:00 – We discuss the closure of Civilization World and what it can tell us about the state of Social Games, and how it compares to a similar collapse of the MMO space.
48:00 – Crytek jumps on the free-to-play bandwagon and is also very bad at naming things. We also talk about Cevat Yerli’s statement that “…the notion of a single-player experience has to go away.”
1:02:15 – Round Table Discussion: Are the Elder Scrolls games getting better or worse?
1:18:00 – We round out the podcast with the Assassin’s Creed 4 announcement. I hope you like pirates, because… uh… well I’m not really sure where the hell they’re going with this. Assassins and pirates? Are we going to finally see a video game about pirates versus ninjas? I don’t know, but here’s the announcement trailer.
 |
January 1st 2001 to March 5th 2013. That’s the longest I’ve ever lived in one place. I will say that I am curiously just as able-bodied at 41 as I was at 29, although I find that the after-action muscle pains are much more crippling. I spent yesterday dragging my carcass around the house and wondering if I’d seriously damaged my knees. “Lift with your legs, not your back” people tell you. That’s all well and good, but once my legs are spent, what do I lift with then, huh? Tell me that, Mr. Smugface chair-sitter, with your healthy back and your intact knees. I don’t see YOU dragging YOUR worldly possessions up a flight of stairs in the snow.
Yesterday morning was The Trial of No Internet while we waited for the cable company to show up and turn the valve that controlled the internet pump. He had to run new wire from the telephone pole, because the existing line was only good for television but was too old to contain the precious internet juice. That means this house has never been graced by the blessed electrical impulses of broadband internet, which is a radical thought.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “All Moved In”
Link (YouTube) |
As a result of Shamus’ GRAND MOVING ADVENTUREâ„¢, he was unavailable for… basically everything this weekend. As a result of this, and an intense market research study that cost nearly as much as Rutskarn’s yearly salary (!), we’ve decided to bring in a replacement for Shamus with someone that we estimate will be significantly more successful in virtually every way. So much so that we’ve pretty much just decided to permanently replace Shamus altogether, or at least until such time as he finishes moving his things and returns to smack me upside the head.
So give a rousing welcome to Jarenth, hailing from Blue Screen of Awesome, and enjoy this mostly Shame-less week of Twenty Sided.
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
I really thought one thing, but then something else. There's a bunch more to it, but you'll have to read the article.
Be careful what you learn with your muscle-memory, because it will be very hard to un-learn it.
Sometimes in-game secrets are fun and sometimes they're lame. Here's why.
I was trying to make fun of how Silent Hill had lost its way but I ended up making fun of fighting games. Whatever.
It seems like a simple question, but it turns out everyone has a different idea of right and wrong in the digital world.
Team Cap or Team Iron Man? More importantly, what basis would you use for making that decision?
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2011.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2012.
This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
T w e n t y S i d e d
