Henroid

If anyone is interested, Robert Khoo wrote to us a bit on the PA forum RE the diversity hub. http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/185642/some-thoughts-on-the-diversity-hub-and-lounge

And the fucked up thing is that the PS3 version will probably sell like crazy. Lots of people are hanging on to their PS3s because the PS4 can't BC (for understandable reasons).

I haven't been looking at Starbound reactions closely but Sean's description of playing it makes it sound incredible. Nobody has mentioned to me the exploration aspects being as they are.

Thing I was just thinking: I wonder how his death will impact the classroom. Lots of people didn't learn about the guy, but now that he has passed, maybe (hopefully) there's a boost of Mandela education. I mean, insofar as learning about him and what he did as a person of renown in the same fashion one would learn about MLK Jr. and Malcom X, etc.

Just watched the stream for The Yawhg and am compelled to get the game now. That was pretty awesome and disheartening. Way to go Sean, it's all your fault.

I'm sure there's people who can beat the game at level 1, no upgrades.

Oh I know, sorry about that. I was just speaking from my perspective that I can ignore the blandness due to the difficulty that is presented in its place. In a sense, for me, it's just like starting over in Castlevania. Stage 1, I know what the layout of each screen is, etc. Only it's being presented out of order or whatever. Rogue Legacy makes a good case on how the "roguelike" genre may work best as the supporting design to games rather than the main design. It being platform/action based more than a turn based tile game.

Even if the rooms are set pieces, plenty of them are legit difficult in their layout. Especially when there's spikes involved. Usually when game randomness is like this, it annoys me. But for some reason it doesn't bother me in Rogue Legacy. Dungeons of Dredmor and Diablo and other such games though, the room layouts are just like... okay I get it eventually.

Idle Thumbs 136: Jake Calls It Quits

So this showed up in Canadian Wal-Mart flyers today. It's more Wal-Mart's error than anything but it's the shit that doesn't help Nintendo at all. Granted it could happen to any of them.

There's an update coming. http://cellardoorgames.com/blog/?p=896

That discussion about in-progress video games via Early Access (or outright alpha / beta testing) (the aesthetics at least, about 3D models / animations) had me thinking about a really annoying trend I'm noticing about people who get Early Access games. It's clearly not a finished product, but people complain as if it is. It'd be one thing if it was "this is something they should fix / change while working on it" but it's frequently like, "this game is buggy wtf." Like people don't get it I guess? Is "Early Access" not clearly defined or displayed when people are purchasing the games? I asked someone of Starbound yesterday, "Did you get it now to help beta test it, or just to play the game?" Their answer was the latter so I suggested they wait for the game to be actually done so things like character wipes stop happening as a part of the testing process. They then got mad at me because Early Access is a thing that exists (i.e. "if it's not done why is it for sale"). I didn't have the heart to have to explain the benefits of the process.

I'm fascinated by the stupidity of your buddies when they assist you on missions. In one case, my buddy was in the center of an enclave of enemies, behind a jeep. I didn't see him. I see two bad guys running for the jeep to use against me. Grenade launcher that shit. Bam, mission complete abruptly. It wasn't until I was done cleaning house that I noticed my buddy's corpse.

Ah yeah, they've definitely played Risk before so if that's a good barrier of entry (? for a boardgame, why am I asking that) then it should fly as entertaining.

Hey, I'm popping this thread up a little to ask about Risk Legacy. Namely how long it takes to complete a round of it, because I'm considering buying it to take to my family's Christmas get-together to play with my brothers. Also, how accessible is it?

I'd summarize caring / not caring about spoilers in the same way as liking this flavor ice cream over that. Ultimately, who cares, everyone has their preference and it isn't wrong. What gets me is applying an "inferior" or "incorrect" status to an opinion.

I think spoilers are a legit thing. Finding out the sum of some events prior to experiencing those events yourself (be it watching a film or playing a game) can ruin it. Because as you're going through those events, all you're thinking about is the information you were just given. "Oh okay I see how this adds up to x." There's value in the wonder of where things are leading up to. As for spoilers on how a game is played or experienced (as opposed to the above narrative angle), I haven't really given much thought toward that. For now I see both sides.

Depth in what respect?

I just made it to the 2nd half of the game. The enemies have bigger machine guns on their trucks, they carry rocket launchers pretty frequently, I'm not used to the terrain, and I just used my last pill - and don't have access to underground missions apparently. On the plus side, I discovered that the grenade launcher is magical.

John Walker was actually kinda being more firm than he should've been earlier today about Starbound being an early-access in-progress game, but I think he understands that and was just kinda being all, "Oh, no tutorial, welp." I'm waiting for the game to be done. But I hope we have an Idle Thumbs server at launch because I wanna space it up with people.

The true use of Twitter is to hijack stupid hashtags like: #LiesObamaToldUs Dropping pop-culture and nerdy references all over it, and eventually Andrew Ryan quotes, just to see how many people take to them unironically. I managed to get the account made with the hashtag name to follow me unironically. I feel like I demonstrated something.

That's something I can understand. I feel awkward being so attached to the PA forum community but getting increasingly fed up with Mike. I'll do anything for the former, but for the latter I'd rather not support them.

Jerry's post pretty much comes down to what he wants to do vs. what they did for the sake of doing it. Which is actually pretty understandable; just because a site can grow into a huge network doesn't mean it should. It'll demand more of the owners. Some folks are suggesting this is related to the recent LinkedIn job posting they had, which I only now found out about in typical Henroid fashion, and wow I wouldn't be surprised.

Video games by tangent: Penny Arcade is shutting down the PATV and PAR portions of their site at the end of the year. I'll miss PATV for sure. PAR is another story. I'm not exactly Ben Kuchera's biggest fan. To put it mildly.

Mandela had to fight dirty for a while. The same kind of dirty fighting that a lot of ignorant people in America advocate for just because a black person got elected to the presidency.