Bjorn

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! Hey guys, guys, guys, guys! Minerva's Den is on sale. Not kidding, this is the most exciting thing about the sale to me. It hasn't been on sale since I added it to my wishlist a year ago. And yeah, minigame is super shit because it runs like ass. I'd be happy to sit there and let it run in a corner of my screen and watch buffs and shit go off, but damn if it isn't the worst performing game Valve has ever produced (Valve, seriously, how do you fuck up an idle clicker game).

The servers are still down for me, which is crazy. Valves servers are usually crushed for like 5-10 minutes at the start of a sale, not most of an hour.

So there's a little game thing this time? At least I think there is, servers are getting hammered.

Firewatch is secretly about Celtic ninjas.

I would accept a solution of just doing away with un-moderated Q&As, I can't really think of anything good I've ever seen come out of one.

Local co-op is a big deal to me, since the vast majority of the co-op games I play are with the lady or our daughter. Bungie had always been a staunch proponent of the importance of local play, so to see them ditch it was a real shame. I think a lot of people really underestimate how big of a pool of players want local co-op options. Couples, people with kids, siblings, roommates, there are literally millions of gamers who want at least some games with local play options. Local play almost disappeared during the 360/PS3 generation (seriously, we went a couple of years of having little to nothing to play and eventually bought a second 360 because of the dearth of local games). In the last 5 years there's been a great resurgence of local play, including seeing an explosion of games with local play on the PC, a platform a lot of people always insisted didn't even need it. Five years ago there were just a few dozen local play games on Steam, and now there are almost 500.

They've been locking some items from being tradeable for a week for awhile now, Gem Sacks are the same way. Keeps people from trying to stockpile then flip when prices go up.

Well that's just super dumb. But I also thought it was dumb when Bungie didn't support split-screen co-op in Destiny.

Rumor is that it starts today, right? I wonder if they're going to do something with gems again. I had been tempted to stock up on gems while the price is low.

Ninja Theory is self-publishing Hellblade, so....... Also, apparently more work has gone into the overall theme and setting than I gave them credit for (hopefully).

Well that's a surprisingly timely Songify the News video! Totally sending that to my friend.

So we went to Lawrence Nerd Night tonight (it's one of those lecture series where 3 interesting people are brought in to give a short talk about something they are knowledgeable about). A friend of ours was giving a talk about the intersection of modern feminism and comedy (she was the third and final presenter). The entire 20 minute talk was mostly about comics who directly incorporate feminist themes or topics into their work. She finishes up, and there's enough time to take a few questions. First Question (white dude, naturally): Some people say that equality has been achieved, and there isn't a need for feminism anymore. How would you reply to that? Answer: (greatly paraphrasing) Some people need to educate themselves Third Question (20-something white dude, naturally): (context, the wage gap was BRIEFLY referenced at one point) So I've read about how the top 10 paying jobs are almost all male dominated jobs, and the 10 lowest paying jobs are almost all female dominated jobs. So doesn't the wage gap only exist because women choose to make less than men? Answer: (paraphrased again) I'm here to talk about feminism and comedy, so unless you have something funny to say, I'm going to move onto someone who's interested in talking about the topic at hand. During the wage gap question, the audience started booing the guy before he had even finished his little rant, and one of the other white dudebros at his table piped up, "It's a legitimate question!" One of the coordinators took the stage after this to wrap up the night, and pointedly commented that this was a pretty awkward and awful way to have to end, and not something they'd ever had to deal with before. I don't really have anything to say about this, just wanted to rant about a frustrating end to an otherwise pretty kickass evening.

The lady and I also both agree he has a very pleasing voice!

I had assumed that would occur in no time, given how quickly people try to game anything that involves the Steam market. Thankfully the solution is relatively easy, just make cards not marketable for the first X days after they have dropped, and then remove all cards associated with a game if it is refunded.

Didn't realize it had already been announced. And yeah, typically their games have really dripped with style, which this doesn't feel that way at all. I'm not going to write it off, given how much I've enjoyed their previous work, but I can't say that I'm particularly interested at this point.

I'm listening to the most recent episode of Radar Radio + today. Apparently GamesRadar is where Ludwig ended up after Joystiq. Susan Arendt is on as a special guest, so it's almost like a reunion of the final incarnation of the Joystiq podcast. I'm also quite enjoying it there's good chemistry amongst the hosts and the overall conversation has been interesting. I'm not familiar with the other two hosts, Sophia Tong and Ashley Reed. But I could see this entering my regular rotation.

Ninja Theory announced a new game. Historically I'm a pretty big fan of Ninja Theory, but I've got kind of a middling reaction to this. Where does a story like this go? It's not like you can pretend fight your way out of mental illness with sweet moves in your imagination. Will the mental illness part just be window dressing for, "there was actually an ancient evil at work the whole time!"? The idea of exploring mental illness outside of a modern context is certainly compelling, since that is a thing writers very, very rarely explore. The whole thing is just really freaking weird.

I hope not. As pro-consumer as I generally am, I've never been fully convinced that selling "used" digital games is a thing that should exist. Steam already has such a powerful downward affect on prices as it is, giving users the ability to sell their library directly to one another would make that worse. I'm afraid that would just end up not necessarily being to the long term benefit of anyone. The vast majority of games on Steam likely have little to no real value if they were opened up to a "used" market. All of the naturally occurring controls that dictate market prices don't exist on Steam. There's no regional scarcity. There's already an infinite supply. There's almost no barrier to entry (even selling a game to Gamestop means you generally have to take the time to drive there). Those three things mean that the only possible effect a "used" game system could have would be to drive average prices down significantly, and average developer income, even further down.

If it wasn't clear, I was just joshing Twig and having some fun, until Syn decided to get all weird about it.

Ubisoft retired the Frag Dolls at the end of May.

I've been listening to Polygon's Minimap this week, a daily podcast that summarizes the major headlines of the day. Since Joystiq ended, I haven't had a steady source of gaming news, so this is really nice to just be able to listen to. I don't find Polygon's site or news feed to be that conducive to just catching up on major things, but this works. EpicNameBro has also recently launched a podcast, the Poison Arrow. I really enjoy listing to ENB talk about Soulsborne games, and so far him having a general podcast seems like a decent idea.

Sick burn! I don't feel like it was a perfect burn though, there is definitely additional content you could have explored before wrapping up, so not 100 percent complete.

That's not a normal hobby? Serious answer, the combination of world, tone, exploration, discovery, failure, success and wonder all created a perfect experience (for me). You kind of sound like someone angry that the director's commentary of their favorite movie was bad and so it ruined everything forever. You don't actually have to engage with extra content if you don't enjoy it.

Why would you ruin a perfect game by trying to do all that stuff?