{"id":54347,"date":"2022-05-30T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T10:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=54347"},"modified":"2022-05-29T14:29:01","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T18:29:01","slug":"diecast-382-nothing-nowhere-at-no-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=54347","title":{"rendered":"Diecast #382: Nothing, Nowhere, At No Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I think things are slowly getting back to normal around here. I should probably do a little write-up for those that are following my health, but the short version is that dialysis is helping a lot and I&#8217;m doing ok. <\/p>\n<p><br clear='all'><audio controls><source src='\/diecast\/diecast382.ogg' type='audio\/ogg'><source src='\/diecast\/diecast382.mp3' type='audio\/mpeg'>Your browser does not support the audio element.<\/audio><div><small><a href='\/diecast\/diecast382.mp3' download='diecast382.mp3'>Direct download<\/a> (MP3)<\/small><br\/><small><a href='\/diecast\/diecast382.ogg' download='diecast382.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\/diecast382.mp3\">Diecast382<\/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\/L5z6DkZFcYU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen class=\"embed\"><\/iframe><br\/><small><a href='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=L5z6DkZFcYU'>Link (YouTube)<\/a><\/small><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>01:35 Blizzard Sylph<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t believe I haven&#8217;t heard about Sylph until now. I&#8217;ll keep my eye out for one of those glossy mailers. <\/p>\n<p><strong>04:13 Sleep Transitions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I used to wake up sluggish, but in the last couple of months the transition between sleeping and waking is much more gentle. It&#8217;s so gentle that sometimes I can&#8217;t tell if I slept without looking at the clock. Weird. <\/p>\n<p>Related: <a href=\"?p=118\">This now-ancient post from 2006<\/a> where I talk about being a warm starter vs. cold starter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>08:48 V Rising<\/strong><br \/>\nI spent so much time complaining about the lack of pause that I forgot to mention the combat, which is the strongest aspect of the game. This isn&#8217;t another Diablo-esque clickfest. You get a dodge move and your foes get interesting abilities that punish careless button-mashing. The whole thing feels pretty good.<\/p>\n<p><strong>22:10 File Extensions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Microsoft Word is the Internet Explorer of word processors. <\/p>\n<p><strong>29:41 Deus Ex: Pandora&#8217;s Gun<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I know it&#8217;s been a while since I posted anything meaningful. This Friday I&#8217;ll start the new series. I hope you like it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>31:55 Mailbag: Save Systems<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>How important do you think save systems are in a video game? <\/p>\n<p>Obviously, this will vary depending on the length of the video game. For instance, arcade games are so short that they seem like a redundant feature there. Whereas in RPGs, they&#8217;re generally considered a basic necessity. (I&#8217;d be interested to know if you can name one where it isn&#8217;t.)<\/p>\n<p>Are there any other factors and examples you can think of that would inform\/justify the decision to omit a save system, or include a particular kind of save system (e.g. checkpoints, limited anytime, unlimited anytime)?<\/p>\n<p>And were there any games you played and thought, &#8220;Why does this NOT have a save system!?&#8221; or &#8220;Why is the save system like this!?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kind regards,<br \/>\nAndrew<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>43:16 Mailbag: Blogging<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>Do you have any advice for those of us just starting out blogging (via WordPress)? Whether traction-wise, or to do with hosting options and precautions, and whatever else you think are important things to do and consider, I&#8217;d be interested to know what wisdom you have to share on the subject.<\/p>\n<p>Kind regards,<br \/>\nAndrew<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I did think of some advice once the show was over: I have generally avoided using the built-in WordPress system for uploading images. WordPress ends up storing the images in its own file structure. I dislike this because I want to KNOW where stuff is and how to find it. When I make backups, I want to be able to confirm I&#8217;ve got everything. I&#8217;ll often upload a dozen images in a week when the site is going strong, and if you multiply that by 52 weeks a year, and you&#8217;ll quickly have way more files than the WordPress media browser was designed to handle. For the curious, this morning I just uploaded the 9998th image to the site. It would be horrendous if I had to scroll through that ocean of images every time I wanted to add a screenshot to a post.<\/p>\n<p>The WordPress tool is good if you&#8217;re the sort of person who likes to pretend that files exist in the ether and can be summoned by whimsey. But if you&#8217;re the sort who knows how to use an FTP client, then I suggest managing your own images.<\/p>\n<p><strong>46:26 Mailbag: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast<\/p>\n<p>Considering it just had its digital release last week, has become A24&#8217;s highest grossing film, is already a contender for movie of the year, and has become an all time favorite for a lot of people, have you guys seen &#8220;Everything, Everywhere, All At Once&#8221; and if you have, what are your thoughts on it?<\/p>\n<p>Love Pumpkin<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>47:43 Mailbag: Boycotts<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast, <\/p>\n<p>I just realized that, with Microsoft having acquired Zenimax, I can purchase Bethesda\/Zenimax games again! My boycotts:<br \/>\nUbisoft and EA &#8211; single player games. Always-online DRM. Proprietary launchers.<br \/>\nZenimax &#8211; Backstabbed and then tried to acquire a weakened Human Head Studios during production of Prey 2.<br \/>\nDiablo 3 &#8211; always online DRM for single player.<br \/>\nDo you guys practice boycotts that you want to talk about? Have you ever given up on a boycott? I&#8217;m beginning to feel that I&#8217;d have to boycott almost the entire gaming industry with my stance against always-online requirements vs. Google Stadia and Microsoft Xcloud. Might have to bend on that one eventually. <\/p>\n<p>Curiously,<br \/>\nChris P.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think things are slowly getting back to normal around here. I should probably do a little write-up for those that are following my health, but the short version is that dialysis is helping a lot and I&#8217;m doing ok. Hosts: Paul, Shamus. Episode edited by Issac. Diecast382 Link (YouTube)<\/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-54347","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\/54347","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=54347"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54352,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54347\/revisions\/54352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}