kickinthehead

Game manuals were great for the car ride home when my mom decided now was the time to go to the supermarket to do a bunch of grocery shopping. While in the car or walking around I'd read the manuals and look at the box screenshots trying to imagine what the game would be like. Sadly Nintendo seems to be the only one making nice manuals nowadays, but even then only for certain games. The Professor Layton manuals are still super nice with great layouts and tons of artwork! I also wrote used the blank book that came with Myst as my journal

What irks me about the RPS interview is that it felt like John was trying to "win" the interview. I think he was trying to get responses where he could say "Ah-HAH! Another point for me!" This might be great entertainment for people who wanted to watch Molyneux squirm, but it's not terribly useful. In general I get rubbed the wrong way when people think that there's a "win condition" in things that just aren't meant to be a competition. But unfortunately that's how most internet arguments work, you're either for or against. Or at the very least, people will do all that they can to take someone's argument and distill it to something that affirms their beliefs. As for interviews do I like, I love Bill Moyers' conversations. I always feel like he asks thought provoking questions that help me understand more about what his guests are there to talk about.

I just had a crazy thought. What if DAISY is actually "Warupeach"? Using the Mario/Wario formula of turning the letter upside down, a "p" would become a lowercase "d." The other thought I had was that in Super Mario Land, the first several times you reach the end of the world you meet Daisy and she turns out to be a fly or other enemy. What if they were ALL the "real" Daisy and that it's only at the end of the game that she decides to stay in human form when in reality she's a shapeshifter.

I made the Dishonored Serial Season 2 opening that I think you guys were imagining in the beginning of this episode. I saw Inherent Vice (didn't read the book) and the movie pretty much made no sense to me and I was lost almost immediately. It's sort of like the first time I saw The Big Lebowski. Once I realized that the movie sort of didn't seem to care about me making sense of it I just enjoyed it for the performances and how it embraced its ridiculousness.

Oh man, I LOVE this game. I played this game for basically two straight days this week. As I saw new mechanics get unlocked I was getting worried that there were going to be so many components to the puzzles that my brain would get totally overwhelmed, but I never though to myself "This is completely impossible, I'm too dumb for this." I think my biggest moment of "YES I'M A GENIUS" was "Circumlocution" but there were certainly a TON of those moments. I did every single "normal" puzzle first and then went to the tower because that first puzzle in the tower was confusing the heck out of me. I eventually cheated for that first tower puzzle, and then didn't have to use a guide again. Now what I'm left with are the stars which I've gotten only a handful of. I want to get them, but I don't know if I have the patience since just finding where they are in the levels can be something of a chore. I should've taken notes about where the stars were so I could easily go back to them >_< To find the stars you pretty much just have to go back to each level and look for them, right? Oh and I also downloaded the free "Sigils of Elohim" game because I wanted more Tetris assembly puzzles I'm basically recommending this game to everyone who possesses the ability to play it.

Haha this episode was amazing. Trying to convey the nature of Knuckles' redesign was hilarious, and the audio of Chris seeing Dorito-shaped Knuckles was priceless. As always, love the Nintendo discussions. I think this year I'll finally get a Wii U because god dammit so many great games out for it right now. Certainly more exclusives than for the PS4 I was all too happy to spend my money on during the hype. Danielle, "Broman McShoot-Face" is my new favorite term. Also, shameless plug for me. I edited the Sonic Boom Wii U trailers at a place I freelance at (not Sega). The game is... uh... definitely a video game.

Haha, loved the Batman eye makeup discussion. I like how in the movie Kick-Ass the Big Daddy and Red Mist characters still have their eye makeup when their masks are off. They even show Nicolas Cage putting on the makeup while he's suiting up. You can see it around 0:54.

Loved the discussion in this episode, and went back to watch the episode again just to see the details I missed the first time that were mentioned. I remember laughing the first time I saw Cooper blow into his whistle and not even processing that he had been making it. Also, a sandwich with only brie and butter? During the rock throwing scene I totally missed Cooper asking Hawk to put on the kitchen mitts, and just remember later on wondering: "Wait, why does he have oven mitts on?" I have no possible explanation for why they would be required unless the bucket was really cold.

What kills me is that those tumblrs are the go-to link they cite for GGers being harassed. Sending that link is basically like saying: "Look at this collection of how we've been harassed! Well, some of these are fake, we're not sure which ones are. Some of them are proven to be fake, but the person running it doesn't care about taking down the fakes but... STOP HARASSING US." Daniel Floyd from Extra Credits gave his two cents appealing to the "moderate" GGer asking them what they think they've accomplished. He also expanded upon that Kris Straub comic arguing the most vocal and abusive GGers are undermining any hope for credibility:

The nepotism complaint makes me think of the average Americans who argue against a tax on the richest 1% because maybe someday they'll be in that position. I guess that could be a reason GGers started that thing about corruption in the IGF and the system being stacked against those who aren't friends with the right people. But ultimately I think these are all just good *sounding* excuses to attack the people they hate e.g. attacking Polygon because of its Gone Home "corruption" or attacking the IGF because they awarded Phil Fish. This thing has gone on so long I think there are also people in this who are just fighting just for the sake of it, kind of like in that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Battle Lines where the world has been at war for so long that they've forgotten why they're fighting, but they continue to do it every day. -- Oh and one more thing I've been thinking about that I saw Danielle tweet on Monday: "Left wing and right wing video game websites." This idea is both interesting and kind of scary to me. It's interesting in that it might be an inevitability if the games industry continues to grow and sites are born to serve that type of readership. But it's also frightening because it would mean cementing this conservative position into something that is just another part of the industry. Ugh, but thinking that people only divide into one of two groups is a dangerous thought to have unto itself.

I've been lurking in this thread for a while because everyone's had very nuanced and intelligent things to say that either better articulated thoughts I've had and/or taught me a few things! This is my first post in this thread, so I hope I manage to say something that contributes. I think the answer to the question "What do GGers want?" is never satisfying because they give the one they know sounds good which is: A code of ethics on every site (Escapist often cited as the gold standard) and for that site to adhere to it. Ignoring the fact that many sites already have a code of ethics. I recently emailed a GGer whom follows me on Twitter the question I've had: If you could press a magic button and everything you wanted to change in the industry happened right now, what would it look like? Then, in this situation how would it make your life better? So far no response, but I'm very curious. I've also been trying to figure out what their end game when they say stuff like "THIS TRAIN DOESN'T STOP" and "THE FIRE RISES" and their attacks on sites' advertising. If they succeeded in driving all the sites they hate out of business, what then? Then I presume, they'd just get news from the sites that don't talk about social issues... which is something they can do right now. Why don't they? My guess is that first they want an apology/revenge for getting their feelings hurt by articles they think were written to attack gamers to which I think Jonathan Blow had the best response. @Laroquod Nobody "smeared all gamers as sexist". Only people with poor reading comprehension skills think that happened. — Jonathan Blow (@Jonathan_Blow) October 16, 2014

Great first episode! My favorite line in the pilot is probably "Give me a donut." Though the "Holding a small box of chocolate bunnies" and "Oh, it fell" are also favorites. I'd be interested in hearing what you think about the use of music in the show. I feel like it's rare to see a show where the music is as pervasive as it is in Twin Peaks.

Oh god, I played so much of the Worms 1 demo. I don't think I even knew how to get a full version. Though once I learned the Uzi/(hold F1+spacebar) that made you fire dozens of rockets that's all I did. I remember being so disappointed when the newer version of Worms 1 came out and the hadoken and shoryuken were replaced with non-copyright infringing versions. Loved the Smash Bros and cacademon nonsense

On Android I used Hootsuite for a while because I had a bunch of keyword searches that I liked to check obsessively. But now I just use the official app because you can read notifications easily, though the search is kind of bad.

I'd be down for an invite. I'll make more funny Idle Thumbs animations I swear! Well, I would've done it anyway

Hah! I hadn't considered that particular one. That Nestle ad however... I'm super busy with work and other stuff right now, but I have a few ideas kicking around that I want to animate at some point >_<

Okay, I laughed a little too hard at that one. The dad joke I've been using that I heard from a former colleague is his response whenever someone asked him "did you get a haircut?" Was " no, I got them all cut." Fun fact, in Japanese the equivalent term for "dad joke" is 親父ギャグ (oyaji gyagu) which just means "old man joke"

Thanks! It's all done in After Effects with a ton of the "Motion Sketch" tool. Only 3rd party plugin I used is Trapcode Particular (for the condoms flying out of the Olympic village)

I made another silly Idle Thumbs video from the Sonic discussion because I felt like I had to. But oh my god, if I knew what I'd have to see in order to make this I don't know if I would've done it. Warning: CANNOT UNSEE.

I wasn't sure if I'd make another Idle Thumbs motion graphics video, but after listening to the end of this episode I knew that I was. This one took quite a bit longer than the Steam controller video even though I cut about 6 minutes out of the conversation. I even drew storyboards out first before making it, but I'm super happy with how it came out. Enjoy

I just made an account because after listening to this episode I just HAD to make this video for the Thumbs' discussion about how the third Steam reveal should've/could've gone down. Enjoy!