Chris

I started by trying a few full-length pieces that were in the same vein as all the previous intro music, then Jake suggested doing something really short this time around, and I thought that made sense. All of our other podcasts that have intro music tend to get the music out of the way pretty quickly. A big outrageous two-minute theme is a fun and unusual thing for a podcast but that's what we've been doing for years and years and there have been a lot of times during editing where I've wished I could just get on with it. It felt like an appropriate change in direction to me. The idea is that it's not a "song," it's a quick musical identifier.

I don't really think it's reasonable to interpret a score in any other way than in the context of how that score's scoring system has traditionally been used. Almost nobody has ever used 5/10 to mean "okay," so a mathematically-driven interpretation of a 5/10 score to mean "okay" is entirely meaningless. 5/10 is not actually meant to be read as literal fractions of a whole (in which case we'd say 0.5 or 1/2 or something, instead of 5/10); points awarded out of ten are meant as a very roughly normalized way to sum up a reviewer's overall reaction. Even in a theoretical mathematical ideal, this would STILL only have meaning if there was some kind of empirical way to represent what "okay" or "half of full potential" or whatever actually means. If we're using 5/10 as a literal median point and saying half of games get below that score and half of games get above that score, I suppose it would have SOME intrinsic meaning, but that's still not really useful to any actual consumer, because they presumably aren't in the business of intentionally and regularly buying games that get abysmal scores, which would mean they wouldn't have any real practical frame of reference for what something that hits right in the middle of this ideal scale would play like. Ultimately, if they ever got used to such a scale, they would get there the exact way they already do now, which is to mentally frame it in the context of other similar scores from similar publications. I should say that I'm not a big defender of scores as a critical function in the first place. But since they do actually exist and are extremely common, I think it only makes sense to receive any given score in the spirit clearly intended by its publisher, rather than a theoretical ideal which in no way contributed to the process that led to the publication choosing it.

Is that the entirety of your feedback? It's, uh. (Yes it is.)

I don't know anything about this game but this thread title rules

The Idle Book Club 11: Fates and Furies The first full episode of the new Idle Book Club season tackles Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies, a novel depicting two surprising sides of a marriage—and Sarah and Chris frequently found themselves at odds as well. This battle of the sexes was endorsed by President Obama. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Idle Weekend February 20, 2016: The Right Way Is there a right way to play, or are video games the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups of the entertainment world? Are you doing it wrong? Are WE doing it wrong? The Weekenders investigate. On the way, they encounter Sherlock Holmes, shrieking YouTube streamers, and one very pissed-off alien named Frankie the Xenomorph. Discussed: The Witcher 3, Alien: Isolation, Layers of Fear, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Tyke: Elephant Outlaw Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

Everyone is a jerk. I don't think Jonathan Blow is any kind of world-beatingly-jerky monster. He worked for decades as a complete unknown in the video game industry (unknown to the public, I mean—but even in the industry he was only really known in certain circles), then somehow had a hit, used that to largely self-fund a fairly ambitious game and, to the best of my knowledge, paid the people on his team above-market rates in an expensive city even when it required him having to take on more personal debt to do so. That doesn't make him a saint or anything, but him being a public grump feels like a minor sin to me while making games that are legitimately interesting and treating the people working for him well. I guess you basically agree.

Idle Weekend February 12, 2016: Mad Skills The Weekenders welcome longtime friend Tom Chick to the show to talk about how skill matters in our ability to understand games. Can we ever truly "get" something we're terrible at? Do some games give us an ego boost that we should consider in reviews? Also this week: XCOM 2 gives Rob the howling fantods, Danielle yells at empty rooms in The Witness, and Tom has strong opinions about Lords Managements. Discussed: Homeward: Deserts of Kharak, XCOM 2, StarCraft 2, BioShock 2, Massive Chalice, The Witness, Victoria, Firewatch, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

(This podcast has been reuploaded to remove a spoiler. Sorry!! Hopefully your podcast reader triggers a redownload automatically.)

Oh I'm well aware of that, and I make that point often to coworkers; but the larger feeling I'm trying to explain really has nothing to do with whether the game is promoted enough or not.

In my case at least, it's not so much that I'm worried about blowback; those people already think they're connecting incredibly important dots anyway. I don't know if I can necessarily explain why I generally like to keep that line drawn, it's just an instinct thing, I guess. To me Idle Thumbs has never felt like a "behind the scenes" kind of podcast. We've always all been game journalists or developers, but it's never been a podcast ABOUT those things, like Tone Control or Designer Notes. We used to do occasional interview segments on Thumbs with other game developers and it just never really felt right to us. Idle Thumbs is not so much about process, it's about sensibility. And even there, it's not so much about declaring a sensibility so much as it is feeling one out over the course of the entire run of the podcast. Obviously even all of what I just said is more declarative than I like to be with this show; it's not very meaningful to say what Thumbs is or isn't supposed to be, because the only thing it is supposed to be is what we enjoy on any given week. There aren't any hard lines to draw, and I don't think our own work is verboten or anything like that. Nevertheless, it just doesn't feel as "right" to me. I'd rather be a guest on someone else's podcast where there are simply no concerns of muddying the waters at all. Plus, that would give me the opportunity to plug Idle Thumbs to a new audience. (Collusion, corruption, etc.)

The other day I was putting away a baking pan and forgot it was still 400 degrees and now I have a big blister. Edit: wait is this the right thread?

I didn't mean to suggest I've ever tried a stealth playthrough of an XCOM 2 level (it never occurred to me actually). But on this note: What's the best way to end concealment? I don't feel that I have a good handle on this. Is it better to end via Overwatch (for some reasons) or by proactively firing? I'm probably missing something about this, but it feels like only the first soldier to open fire out of concealment actually gets a bonus, because after that soldier fires, the rest of your squad is spotted. It feels like there's something about this mechanic that is more significant than it has felt to me, so I must not be taking full advantage of it.

Oh shi

We actually considered this at length but it just introduced way too many weird technical issues that aren't worth going into. Oh well!

Just to clarify, it says "Delilah is annoyed." There are a couple times in the game the radio can be disabled, but the one you're referring to is optional. It only happens if you bring up the overheard conversation.

Idle Thumbs 248: The Bear's Black Heart Happy birthday to you. We're getting really into The Witness, and we've kept it spoiler-free. Happy birthday to you. Nick has also joined Chris in his Just Cause 3 devotion, and we mull over the lineage and legacy of Myst. Happy birthday to you. There's also a teddy bear that keeps singing "Happy Birthday to You." Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to— Just Cause 3, The Witness, Myst, Riven, The Dig, ancient daddy long legs, a terrible teddy bear Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

So glad someone found this!

Welcome new folks! Or, new folks who are also old listeners. Enjoy the forums!

Yeah I wasn't crazy about this either, mainly because . We obviously ended up focusing on different aspects of the book but yeah I originally intended to bring that up.

Idle Thumbs 247: The Clone Progenitors Welcome, cadet. Your mission: go back in time, and kill baby Hitler. To assist you in this perilous but vital task, you will be outfitted with an array of dice, two decks of standard playing cards, a two-stroke go-kart engine, one swarm of bees, and a Carl's Jr. Western Bacon Cheeseburger. Good luck. Never give up. Never surrender. Oh, and if you see Winston Churchill, give him this teddy bear for me. Discussed: The Witness, Return of the Obra Dinn, Tharsis, Churchill Solitaire, Sage Solitaire, Bridge, Reality on the Norm Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

That definitely was not my intention, but I take your point, and I'll be more careful about this kind of thing in the future for sure.

Idle Weekend January 29, 2016: Far Gone Prestige What makes a "prestige" game? Is it arty graphics? Heady themes? Years of adoration in the press? Difficult puzzles mixed with BBC lectures? The Witness is only the most recent example of the phenomenon. Elsewhere, there are adventures to be had rating bad video game movies and spoiling the hell out of Fargo Season 2 in a post-show free for all. (But don't worry, we made it easy to skip!) Wear your fluffiest coat! Discussed: The Witness, ThatGameCompany, Jason Rohrer, Starward Rogue, Final Fantasy IX, The Magicians, Best of Enemies, Fargo Season 2 Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes

There was about a decade's worth of abstract puzzley adventure games set in realistically rendered and sometimes surreal worlds that followed Myst and The 7th Guest. (I would say a modern game like The Room is a more streamlined descendant of this.) I honestly can't remember names at this point but the hardcore adventure game community was largely split into camps about which of the two main approaches (Myst-like puzzle-first design or LucasArts/Sierra narrative-first design) were the right way for adventure games to go. It's dumb to think about now because it's one of those now-irrelevant tribal chest-beating arguments that nobody cares about, but it was totally a thing for some reason.