Cult of Jared

Sorry about the poorly written question. It is a game that I don't especially recommended, which I was using to access a question about cock-blocking social games. 'You may enjoy yourself in 8 hours' does sound vaugly, uh, medical.

Is anyone playing Vindictus? You should play Vindictus, and you should skip all cutscenes and dialog. Some thoughts: -Wham! Biff! Pow! Woo! -Plot is bad. So bad. So bad. -Not really an MMO: there is no persistent world. At least not in the first 5 levels. -Made by the 'Maple Story'* people. It is hard to imagine the same people working on both games. There is probably an acquisition or a story behind the difference. -Still unsure what to think about the free to play model. I wouldn't be playing if it immediately cost money, but the store button looms over a game I'm trying to enjoy. -It downloads an executable, but insists on running it through a browser window. I guess that is theoretically more accessible? *Terrible South Korean ultragrind game.

I had a roommate who was, by all accounts, amazing at counterstrike. He got amazing by memorizing exactly where everyone would be standing, and then sniping them through walls. In essence, endlessly repeated action on limited map selection. Never played counterstrike myself - talking out of my ass here - but the comparison amused me. The networking is terrible, but if you get a group without crippling lag that's great too. Mechanics like the chain hook, which allows you to disable the boss and yourself for a time, add a sense of team reliance and gratitude. After fighting Clifford the big red gnoll chieftain I felt a tremendous sense of camaraderie with the internet strangers I had done it with.

California's 'no violent video games for minors' law hit the supreme court. The court is very free speech oriented, going 8-1 in favor of animal cruelty videos, so the law will probably be shot down. I can't say I ever saw what the big deal was, from either side of the issue. If I were an overzealous politician, I would be starting moral panics over gambling in games. World of Warcraft's unstopability is partially due to its good implementation of gambling mechanics. I've heard tales of foreign MMO's which take gambling to the logical extreme: allowing one lever pull per microtransaction, no caveats. Even the latest Team Fortress update has you finding crates, which you can pay to unlock. "You have earned an opportunity to gamble! Get excited!" And with the advent of Chinese gold farmers, all the above rewards have cash value. Should we be worried? Where does compelling game design end and exploitation begin? When can we expect laws concerning gaming-gambling. What should they disallow? PS: This post might be flamebait. Hard to tell before people react to it. Schrödinger's flamebait. If the cat is dead, I'm sorry.

There should probably be a Dance Central game where all the moves are miming someone playing Dance Dance revolution.

Counterstrike? Huh. Forget Peter Molyneux, journalists should be looking to interview these folks. Actually, counterstrike might be hilariously close to a grindy Korean MMO. Speaking of which, I noticed the grind in Vindictus. The game expects you to play and replay the same set of areas to completion, while doing little to change the experience between runs. Maps are linear, with few enemy types and no randomization. The thing is: it is still fun to replay. I guess the moral is that good, expressive basic mechanics are the best thing you can do for replayability.

Fair enough. The launcher should have a -noAnimes switch, which would skip dialog and superimpose a paper bag over the face of all NPCs. One thing I really like is that increasing your strength allows you to pick up and toss larger rocks. Makes the game less of a spreadsheet management engine. More games should show your strength outside the character and inventory screens (looking at you Fallout).

Remo giving listeners the silent treatment is appropriate, given this is an interview. This is all the Cliff Bleszinski you can expect to hear for the foreseeable future. Speaking of which, I'm wondering what will happen to the podcast when(if?) they run out of industry luminaries to interview. I can't imagine irrational paying to produce the meandering nonsense sessions which made Idle Thumbs great.

I feel that after seeing this, I have gained all the entertainment Kinect has to offer.

Cliff Bleszinski is a remarkably good speaker. This episode is very easy listening. Try it kids.

Lord of the Rings Online is definitely doing some things. Anyone played it recently? Can we get some opinions on it?

Apparently few people have tried the 'free to play' changes. Since I can't really recommend trying the game, I'll provide an executive summary. I would still be interested in hearing opinions, even if they are based on the abstract of the changes. -Purchasable items are what you would expect: additional character slots, classes and quests. 40% of the traditional bag space is now purchasable. The game gives many 'gift items' early on, to pressure players into purchasing these. The riding skill must be purchased. Gameplay past level 20 is clearly designed for the riding skill. -The many achievements award a token amount of their store currency. Let's call the currency 'Banana Bucks of Middle Earth'. This seems scaled so a fully leveled character will be able to buy a single piece of content Also relevent is the Chris Hecker talk discussed on some previous episode. This game is essentially giving cash rewards for completing achievements. Those are the parts that seem most relevant. Inform me of any missing parts. There are also large sections of the game that do not distinguish between subscription models. It might be fair to say Turbine now have a business model more interesting than their game.

It's funnier than it is accurate. And it's not that funny. 4/10 funnies at best. Besides, complaints about the <#> <body part> <helpless animal> formula are missing the point. Or so I believe.

I'm having a hard time listening to these podcasts. They are produced at the behest of ZENIMAX THE IMPLACABLE - and some reptilian part of my brain believes this makes them untrustworthy. I'm being unfair, the three episodes provide no real cause for concern, but I wonder how good a 'podcast conceived as a promotion' can be as a podcast.

This is one bad-ass six minute video. <object width="640" height="390"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpkjtWuPs8&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLpkjtWuPs8&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="390"></embed></object> Makes me wish I had any emotional connection to the way games used to look.

So I've been slowly playing through Bioware games, and they are pretty miserable. Also sometimes great. Does anyone remember the Quest for Glory series? I haven't played the series since age eight, but I remember it doing many of the cool things Bioware games do. As I remember them: -combination rpg/adventure game -varied puzzle solutions based on which character class you picked. -character import between games. -super-cool eastern european flavor. -spot on humor. Can anyone refresh my memory? Is there a legal method of obtaining these games?

I sent this 'question' too late for it to be read. -- subject no question here, move along Did you know Psycho has three sequels and a direct to TV movie? Psycho II, Psycho III, Psycho IV: The Beginning, and Bates Motel. They all start with a firm handshake and a "Congratulations Mr. Bates, you are cured". While games and movies cost as much as they do, there will be cache-in sequels. This is ok, because those sequels will be promptly forgotten, and the original will regain its unblemished radness. -- I'm genuinely bummed. Where do I send my stockpile of questions now?

I'm vaguely disappointed the questions weren't way worse. The first exposure to the public could have sounded a lot like an EA shareholders meeting, with nerds coming up and asking for pictures of wizards on 386's. Stop exposing yourself to the public, it's gross.

If anyone asks a question over 10 seconds, Chris will tackle them.

So we've seen a city built with the principles of Randian Objectivism, and we are going to see a city based on American manifest destiny (or something). When will we see a city built on Rock and Roll? I'll show myself out.

Thanks for the links! You can also buy these individually for way less than the collection. Does anyone remember how the plot worked? I remember the fifth game allowing you to kill off almost any character, which is kind of mind blowing if true. It came out in 1998. I think I only watched a friend beat it though, and I might be conflating this with a different game. The thumbs sometimes talk about RPGs and adventures being cast from the same mold, referencing Monkey Island games having a monetary system. These games might be a much better example though, they involve getting money for slaying monsters in the wilderness.

I had the same thought while typing that out. It is unnerving how pavlovian these catch phrases have gotten. I'm not trying to be alarmist, but if the next fart-meme spliced between *WIZAAAARD* and *Baboo!* is *Kill the president of the United States* there might be problems. Chris Remo is the Red Queen of video games.

I didn't think that much before posting in this thread. The questions of mine they did read I was pretty unhappy with, and maybe even regret sending. While questions that I really like are passed over. Maybe this thread is a method of fighting back against the machine! No offense to the machine. Chris Remo is the Hivemother of video games.

I was disappointed this wasn't read: Concerning strategy macguffins The Beyond the Sword expansion for Civilization 4 had a quest system, which was borderline wacky for a turn based strategy game. Do these return in Civilization V? Have you talked to any designers the initial role for quests and their possible future? I saw exactly zero commentary on this, which is weird considering Civilization 4 became “more like world of civilization-craft 4, am I right?” I guess The Idle Thumbs didn't like this subject as much as I did. Well I HATE YOU TOO. CHRIS REMO ISN'T MY REAL DAD. Maybe I should have tied it into other strategy sub goals, like the achievements in Starcraft 2. These quests are selected randomly though, which makes them way weirder.

Oh christ. Was going through the questions I sent to Idle Thumbs. Forgot I sent this. Please don't arrest me. Subject: Baby, why you gotta be like this. Text: Oh Honey. C'mon. Not this again Honey. Yes, well I know it's a good job, but I thought we had already... Ok, stop this. We had 11 episodes together, And 50 before that. You are just going to throw those away? Didn't those mean anything to you? I just don't understand? No, you're right, I just don't understand. You are absolutely being unreasonable here. Oh that is bullshit and you know it! I was fucking good to you! You asked for questions and I sent you questions, you asked for dreams and I sent you my god damn dreams. Ok, if that's the case then I never liked your podcast anyway! Not that it's even a podcast most of the time, you just talk about how dreamy Clint Hocking is all the god damn time. Good job, nice incisive commentary there. Your walking out? Ok, good. Nice dialog honey. Way to engage our issues. You'll come running back soon you bitch! You'll come back.