Cult of Jared

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About Cult of Jared

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    Thumb Resident
  1. GDC 2013

    Thanks! Turns out the badge was expo only, but I still got to talk to employers, see the IGF pavillion, and invade the personal space of Steve Gaynor. That last one was exciting for one of us. Sorry Gaynor. This is a long shot, but if you live in place I can get to, I will buy you that beer.
  2. GDC 2013

    An odd thing happened, and I suddenly ended up with a GDC pass for the last day. So now I'm throwing together a resume, and trying to figure out which talks are worthwhile. Thing is, I'm working by smell here. So I figured I'd throw this to the peanut gallery at the last minute. If you help me here I will buy you a beer. Who are you going to see? Who would you see? What do I need to know? Will USPS take beer? Help me Thumbs, you and Unicorn-Obama are my only hope.
  3. Bruce Geryk invades russia

    Is anyone else reading Bruce Geryk's War in the East Game diary? It's gotten really good. I know anything about wargames. I don't even know anything about war, or simulation games. So it is fascinating to read his thoughts on the difference between history and a cardboard-based representation of history. Or the first wargames and their failings. Or any number of other things. Y'all should seriously read his words. Here are the four current entries. The last two in particular made me think of the idle thumbs crowd. Weird Twilight Fellowship of the Panzer A Question of Scale Chess Piece Face -Jared
  4. Recently completed video games

    I just finished Portal 2, right on schedule. I liked it, which says a lot given that I was not predisposed to. If ever there was a game that didn't need a sequel, portal is it. Pros -More portals -The narrative did surprise me, which I didn't expect. Recursive style. -A really good sense of moving between distinct places. I miss that sort of thing in smaller games. -Haven't played it yet, but I love the idea behind the co-op campaign. -The comic book they used to sell it. That thing was beautiful. Cons -While it isn't 'Portal 2: more cake jokes', I do hate that we are now exploring Glados's backstory. Every bit I learn about that world erodes my enjoyment of the first game. -I was getting pretty good at portaling by later portals. I could quickly identify the few 'moving parts' in a puzzle, and then all that remained was to conjugate them.
  5. IDLE THUMBS KICKSTARTER!

    The survey just came, and I get to add a name to the Idle Thumbs wall of gratitude. This is very exciting. I can't decide if I should be ZENIMAX THE IMPLACABLE or Spiders-man (who is a mild mannered reporter by day, and 30,000 crime fighting spiders by night). Anyway, how long do I have to decide which fever-dream inspired name I want to submit to the wizard-baboo list?
  6. Plug your shit

    I enjoyed it. I am barely a writer, but when obliged I adhere to the "If you can't make it good, at least make it short" mantra. Your piece is nicely bite sized, but could probably be even more compact. It has one core idea, but still required some scrolling on my part. Also most of your beats fall into the 'sentimental' category. I don't know how much Journey allows for this, but you might try adding some surprises in the middle. Keep in mind I am only an internet person. For real peer review, there is no substitute for the real life people you trust to make your work better.
  7. Other podcasts

    Our podcast cup floweth over. Specifically with this one on audio design. After listening I spent the entire day thinking of novel things you could do with sound. GDC is so very exciting. And I am not even physically present.
  8. Life

    I saw Indie Game The Movie (This Is A Terrible Title). It was pretty good. I hadn't realized that Edmund McMillen was a Santa Cruz native. Best parts: 1) The delicious suffering of humans. 2) 3) In the QA Phil Fish said he is not a huge believer of narrative in games. Which is wrong, but bold, so we love him anyway. Worst part: 1) Not really a movie you can show to people who don't already know these games. To the general public, this will look like any other 'comeback kid' movie. 2) The crowd of bummed out social game developers lingering after the show The movie also made me miss Idle Thumbs. I haven't really found anyone who likes talking about games like I like talking about games, and I like ended up going alone. Looking forward to having piping hot podcasts flowing back into my ears.
  9. Books, books, books...

    I'm not the person you want to ask about Nietzche. I have this pathological hatred of philosophy, which was not disabused when I read his polemic. It has some literary merit beyond the silliness, but not really enough that you should seek it out. You millage will probably vary though. Nabokov is sort of singular. His writing is wonderful to the point of exhausting the reader. Lolita remains the only epic I have enjoyed, and a book I think about all the time. Speak, Memory is on my bookshelf, but apparently he spoils some of his books in it. So I might be a while in getting to it. Here is one of Nabokov's short stories.
  10. Books, books, books...

    Since this is pretty much the only thread I ever frequent anymore, I might as well post my goodreads account. http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6227821-jared-garst Every couple of months I feel the need to be less productive, and add a bunch of books. Then paw over them like some self-satisfied completionist.
  11. Plug your shit

    The best part of the strip is the word "adverbsaries". That is all.
  12. Books, books, books...

    I'm not worried about books significantly changing in the next 7 years, but if I was, I would worry about the loss of dedicated editors. I have long suspected those dudes are more important to quality writing than the original authors. Heart of Darkness is super good. I have never read a book so slowly. Normally I would recommend The Quiet American to follow that, but it isn't public domain. So you might have to make do with short stories from Kipling. Dubliners and Pygmalion are unrelated, but personal favorites.
  13. Books, books, books...

    Can you download public domain books? If you can, then all of literary history is the alternative. If you can't, then boo hiss. And yeah, with current e-readers, books are expensive, ephemeral and exclusive. Which is super unfortunate, as I would genuinely like to have fewer books.
  14. Backlog Busters

    I always thought it was dumb when rpgs start out with rat slaying, until I faced an actual beady-eyed and hateful rat. Now I think games should show you the victory screen if you don't give the rat your lunch money. Anyway I am moving the goalposts. I will now try to play at least 5 hours of all games I believe to be worthwhile. Dungeons of Dredmor finished, VVVVVV up next.
  15. General Video Game Deals Thread

    That's me. Doing the cheeseplate of games is great fun, but fuck coupons. They just remind me that my fun is actually a clever marketing idea. And it really is just the word 'coupon'. If instead they were giving out 'puzzle pieces', where each piece discounted a game more, I would be totally on board. It is rather! Not exactly relaxing though. Are there any estimates for total amount of coal? If there aren't I'll probably just craft my coal. Gambling is foolish, and gambling without any inkling of the odds is double foolish.