Idle Thumbs 76: The Three Antidotes

[Idle Thumbs 76: The Three Antidotes]

Ack! I can't believe you teased talking about Torchlight II and then didn't, Mr. Remo! After your affection for the first one I'm interested in hearing how you find the second, especially with the parallels being drawn to Diablo 2. Any chance of getting Max Schaefer on for another chat?

Also: really enjoyed the discussion of video games vis-a-vis children during the reader mail. I love hearing stories of educators using games to teach concepts, and Sean's insight on the vapidity of mainstream development targeted at kids rings all too true.

I reckon I stand corrected, but it seems peculiar that the pronunciation would be so thoroughly separated from its roots. I figured its pronunciation goes more like kee-HO-tik (IPA: ki:ˈhoʊtik) to match the root, Don Quixote, and I've never heard it said any other way before.

Seriously though, how did it get that pronunciation?

EDIT: Turns out the short answer is that quixotic was part of the English language so long that it basically predated the notion of correctly pronouncing Spanish words.

I had the same response hearing it pronounced that way in the 'cast, and wondered. Whelp, the more you know. Idle Thumbs enriches my life yet again.

I love that it's pronounced that way. It suggests to me an archetype that is so deeply woven into the public consciousness that it simply adapts to fit the conventions of its host language, rather than maintaining an element of exoticism.

Great way of looking at it Chris. I accept your reasoning and shall henceforth get a thrill out of pronouncing it "correctly." Not that one finds many opportunities to drop quixotic.

[Torchlight II]

I can't find this information anywhere and am waiting to be approved for the runic forums, but maybe someone here knows. If I purchase T2 from the website, do I get a steam code as well? Also, if I get T2 from the website, is it just a stand alone client, or do I need the internet in order to play it?

(Im still without internet at home and would love to play it this weekend, so want to know if I can grab it at work and play it offline at home.)

Don't know about the Steam/Runic site question, but an internet connection is not required to play single player, or multiplayer on a LAN. If you can download at work and then carry your computing device home you should be set.

[Mark of the Ninja]

A big-ish "Dust" release that would require space bucks (can't believe we've used "space bucks" in 4 consecutive posts now) is the furry-friendly Elysian Tale. Another good reason to cash in to Microsoft's system in my opinion.

I just feel so liberated having recently built my first ever gaming-centric PC that I don't want to go back to the consoles just yet. If I'm patient I won't have to though - looks like they're working to get MotN onto PC.

EDIT - Pertinent quote from the Forbes article: "Mark of the Ninja launches today on Xbox Live Arcade. The team is currently working toward getting the game on Steam, though a hard date for the PC release has not been made."

[New people: Read this, say hi.]

Erm, hi.

User barichnikov turned me on to the podcast while the kickstarter campaign was going on, and by the time I realised I wanted a t-shirt it was too late to get in. :'(

Something about myself: can't wait to lose time in Torchlight 2. I bought my wife a copy today as well.

[Mark of the Ninja]

Certis on Gamers With Jobs was extolling the virtues in their most recent episode, and while he really piqued my interest I'm reluctant to buy space bucks at this point. I'd love to hear more of you impressions to help tip the scales one way or the other.

I don't pay _that_ close attention to industry stuff -- did the guys from The Behemoth (Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers) really move over to Klei Entertainment (Shank, Shank 2, Mark Of The Ninja)?