{"id":52936,"date":"2021-10-04T06:00:26","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T10:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=52936"},"modified":"2021-10-04T06:31:35","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T10:31:35","slug":"diecast-357-the-magnum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=52936","title":{"rendered":"Diecast #357: The Magnum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once again, thanks to Paul for his patience and longsuffering in the face of my ceaseless filibuster. I imagine it&#8217;s not easy to play second-fiddle to my inflated sense of self-importance, but Paul manages to pull it off. For those of you wondering just how lopsided the conversation is, I&#8217;ve posted a screenshot of the podcast at the end of the show notes.<\/p>\n<p>Also, check out the reverse mailbag question below. I&#8217;d love to hear your answer, even if you don&#8217;t listen to the podcast.<\/p>\n<p><br clear='all'><audio controls><source src='\/diecast\/diecast357.ogg' type='audio\/ogg'><source src='\/diecast\/diecast357.mp3' type='audio\/mpeg'>Your browser does not support the audio element.<\/audio><div><small><a href='\/diecast\/diecast357.mp3' download='diecast357.mp3'>Direct download<\/a> (MP3)<\/small><br\/><small><a href='\/diecast\/diecast357.ogg' download='diecast357.ogg'>Direct download<\/a> (ogg Vorbis)<\/small><br\/><small><a href='?cat=287&feed=rss2'>Podcast RSS feed.<\/a><\/small><\/div><br \/>\nHosts: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peripheralarbor.com\/\">Paul<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/\">Shamus<\/a>. Episode edited by <a href=\"http:\/\/steamcommunity.com\/profiles\/76561198087035658\/\">Issac<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/diecast\/diecast357.mp3\">Diecast357<\/a><\/p>\n<p><table class='nomargin' cellspacing='0' width='100%' cellpadding='0' align='center' border='0'><tr><td><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/H73rlWijS6U\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen class=\"embed\"><\/iframe><br\/><small><a href='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=H73rlWijS6U'>Link (YouTube)<\/a><\/small><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n<p>Show notes:<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>00:42 Death Loop<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>11:34 Dyson Sphere Project<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>16:19 New World: Amazon&#8217;s new MMO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I need to correct what I said on the podcast. I&#8217;ve hopped around and played with a few alts, and now I can see the game isn&#8217;t nearly as dynamic or player-controlled as it seemed at first. The town locations and layout are 100% fixed. <\/p>\n<p>That being the case, I need to curse the developer who decided the Marauder faction leader needed to be on the giant ship in the middle of town. Was it completely necessary to make players climb ALL THESE STEPS just to turn in the next stupid fetch quest? The Syndicate faction is usually overpopulated and dominating on the servers I&#8217;ve visited, and I wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that the Syndicate faction leader is right there between the crafting stations and the player storage, while the Covenant is at the end of a pointless dead end street and the Marauders are at the top of fucking Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n<p>Location, location, location.<\/p>\n<p><strong>37:50 Reverse Mailbag: Favorite Gun<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast Listeners,<\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s your favorite videogame firearm? If you could take a gun from an old game and have it in a modern one, what would it be? <\/p>\n<p>Also, MOST people are going to answer the Doom2 shotgun or the Half-Life 2 revolver. That can be your answer if you want, but see if you can come up with any other amazing examples.<\/p>\n<p>-Shamus<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>39:17 Mailbag: Bad Writing is Bad<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like I said on the show, this question is going to get an article of its own later in the week.<\/p>\n<p><strong>39:44 Mailbag: Sympathy for the Publisher<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast<\/p>\n<p>Recently I\u2019ve been reading Jason Schreier\u2019s book named \u2018Press Reset\u2019. First chapter is about Warren Spector, who needs no introduction (just in case, he\u2019s mostly known for such titles as Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two, Bad Blood and of course CyberMage: Darklight Awakening. Also something called \u2018Deus Ex\u2019, but who knows what that even is).<\/p>\n<p>The chapter describes many ups and downs of his career, but suffice to say that the man is a veteran of the industry. What striked me, however, is how he described his approach to creating games \u2013 that in order to make a great game, you have to go over-budget and over-time. Otherwise, it\u2019s simply not possible. To quote: \u2018Can you name one game that has shipped on time and on budget that anybody cares about?\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Now, I know it\u2019s a common thing to point at publishers and accuse them of being incompetent, greedy nincompoops. And many times it\u2019s probably true. There were many cases in that chapter that described exactly that &#8211; great games were crushed, because publishers had no idea what they were doing (my favourite example was when Eidos marketing told Spector that they won\u2019t let him do a western game, because that genre is dead and is never going to make any money\u2026 and then Red Dead Redemption was released).<\/p>\n<p>But, at the same time, I can understand them a little \u2013 imagine if you hire someone who openly admits that he will go over-time and over-budget because, well, that is how he rolls.<\/p>\n<p>Just to be clear, I love pretty much everything that Spector was involved. The man is a genius, no doubt about that. But, I mean, that attitude must be infuriating to work with. I wonder how many devs share his beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t have experience with making games, so I want to ask: do you think it\u2019s true? That in order to be truly great, the game needs to go overboard and be done under pressure? Or it\u2019s simply a matter of proper organization?<\/p>\n<p>Cheers,<\/p>\n<p>Darek<\/p>\n<p>PS: This question supposed to be only three sentences long. But tell me guys, can you name one question that had appropriate length that anybody cares about?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>44:24 Mailbag: The Trilogy<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>Trilogies! Who doesn&#8217;t like the anticipation of an excellent game getting a sequel, having the sequel change everything good from the first to bad, and having the third piss on the first&#8217;s grave. Messy Effects aside, I wonder whether the trilogy is actually a great opportunity to iterate and improve game concepts. One particular example that jumps to mind is the Creeper World series. The first was fun, but especially from a production value perspective, not much more than a playable prototype. The second changed almost everything and I like the gameplay quite a bit less than the first. The third stays more true to the concept of the first, yet still uses many good ideas from the second, and has much better production value. (but still pretty basic, it&#8217;s pretty clear the dev is a programmer, not an artist. Which is fine.)<\/p>\n<p>Are there other games that used their trilogy to iterate and improve? Or do any notable missed opportunities come to mind?<\/p>\n<p>With kind regards,<\/p>\n<p>Marvin &#8220;can also write questions shorter than a novel&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>51:07 Mailbag: Star Wars Visions<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast<\/p>\n<p>Have you guys seen Star Wars Visions? I know it&#8217;s a bit of a meme nowadays that anything that&#8217;s not the sequel trilogy is the greatest Star Wars thing since the originals but Visions felt genuinely fresh and fun in a way that the fanservice-ridden Mandalorian season two wasn&#8217;t and it isn&#8217;t even canon!<\/p>\n<p>Love, Donkey<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The Filibuster<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As promised, here is what the podcast looks like in our audio editor:<\/p>\n<p><div class='imagefull'><img src='https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/images\/diecast357.jpg' width=100% alt='' title=''\/><\/div><div class='mouseover-alt'><\/div><\/p>\n<p>The top bar is Paul&#8217;s audio. The one below it is my audio. You can see that my audio is mostly an unbroken blue line. Paul&#8217;s audio is mostly a horizontal line (no sound) with occasional vertical lines where he might jump in with an &#8220;I see&#8221; or an &#8220;Oh, yeah. Right.&#8221; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once again, thanks to Paul for his patience and longsuffering in the face of my ceaseless filibuster. I imagine it&#8217;s not easy to play second-fiddle to my inflated sense of self-importance, but Paul manages to pull it off. For those of you wondering just how lopsided the conversation is, I&#8217;ve posted a screenshot of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diecast-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52936"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52944,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52936\/revisions\/52944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}