Chris

I wouldn't be surprised if the totals come out slightly lower now, considering the chart was compiled in May.

We're imitating something far stupider: the cabinet art from an ancient coin-op game of Horseshoes.

I'm definitely down, once I get settled into my real apartment with real internet in October, assuming there are Thumbs playing during North America-friendly times.

It's pretty straightforward if you read the explanations in my post. The described timeline is as follows: Idle Thumbs 1-50 These episodes feature a theme song titled "Wuxtry: Let The Games Begin! (Love Theme From Idle Thumbs)" (as seen in the song's download link on the front page) Idle Thumbs 51 This episode features an acoustic version of that theme song. That acoustic version is titled "The Idle Thumbs Podcast." The Idle Thumbs Podcast 1-13 The sequel to Idle Thumbs was titled The Idle Thumbs Podcast, named after the acoustic theme song on the last episode of Idle Thumbs. That non-live version is also called "The Idle Thumbs Podcast" (as seen in the song's download link on the front page).

All that stuff we say we'll link and then never do "The Idle Thumbs Downloadable Content Thread" In this thread we will hopefully keep a record of the things we promise to link, with a casual "Oh yeah we'll toss that up on the Idle Forums," before proceeding to completely wipe it from our memory. I don't yet know what format this will be in; for now I'll plan to just edit this initial post on a per-episode basis. Here we go. Idle Thumbs 40: Idle Thumbs 40,000 (Nobody Beats the Blizz) Barboo and RemoC On the front page can be found a tiny screenshot of Nick and Chris playing Diablo III and trading a few well-worn Thumbisms. Crazy EVE Online Blog Report Amazing regulation-spurred population decimation. Our Friends in Wisconsin Charming photos from Wisconsin friends! - Many puffins on an island - Lighthouse and smiles Idle Thumbs 37: You Gotta Have Spice Fallout 3: Mothership Zeta Screenshots This attractive screenshot gallery is largely what got me to pick up the Mothership Zeta content for Fallout 3. Wisest Wizard This apparently-real drinking game was mentioned during reader mail. It looks much more complicated than the kind of thing you usually want to do while getting drunk. Idle Thumbs 35: A Great Way to Have Fun The Food News As discussed during the reader mail section, we were sent photographic evidence of Guitar Hero Fruit Rolls: Strawberry Whammy, along with this baffling email. Peruse these links and come to your own conclusions! The Game Conference Game This episode was adorned with a delightful audio clip. As I failed to completely remember during recording, it is called The Game Conference Game, and is entirely a roguelike, and not a text adventure at all. GDC: The Game ...Because the text adventure with which I was muddling up The Game Conference Game in my mind is GDC: The Game, a completely different creation by Jim Munroe. You can also download its Z-machine file, if you're into the IF thing. Idle Thumbs 34: The First Age of Extreme Soren Johnson on Civilization IV In this week's cast, Nick referenced these Stanford lecture slides by Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson, and Chris referenced this PDF manual, which includes footnotes by Johnson about the design changes from Civ III to Civ IV. California Extreme A small selection of the arcade wonders referenced on the show: - Far Cry Instincts: Paradise Lost - The Pinball Device - Amusing Educational Telequiz: The cabinet - Amusing Educational Telequiz: The best question Zangief vs. Sakura This was referenced, and should be immediately watched.Hearts of Iron III Developer Diaries Marc Pane 3 wrote in last week about Hearts of Iron III, and after we failed to respond in any remotely useful way, he provided a link to these informative developer diaries. The Wizard Yes, The Wizard. Idle Thumbs 33: "The Kane of Lynch" or "This Crazy Robot" or "Rock the Mouse" Civilization IV Nick, as described, becomes the subject of a worldwide religious crusade: The Longest Lumines The thrilling, and abrupt, conclusion to my horrible, epic game of Lumines: http://bit.ly/EvkDT Idle Thumbs 32: The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of Trine Here is the Trine preorder and demo page on Steam. On the show, Nick and Chris described co-op in the demo. AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity This raucous and extensively-named BASE jumping game can be preordered or demoed here. We recommend you do at least one of those two things. Idle Thumbs 31: The Future of Games Critical-Gaming Pikmin Course Richard Terrell wrote in with this extremely formidable series on the excellent Pikmin games -- particularly in the context of RTS design and dynamics. Part 1 is here; the rest can be found in the archives. The Horrible Email The name says it all, really. Don't say we didn't warn you. Look At That Horse This miraculous video was referenced in this episode. It's an internet classic. Idle News Podblast - 06/18/09: With Cheese Plate It Will Please You, With a Depth That Might Surprise You This , from the always-excellent Jarosh Barksdale, was referenced in this blast.Idle Thumbs 30: Idle Thumbs E30 Nick's Revolting Yoshi's Island Ad . How this could ever have been considered effective marketing for a game as adorable as Yoshi's Island is beyond me.Bonus Revolting Ad Reader Tim Walker wrote in with this . It's not the one Nick was referencing, and it's not quite as sickening, but you might enjoy it. And by "enjoy it," I mean "vomit."That's all I can recall off the top of my head for the last few episodes. Please reply to this thread if there was something from an older podcast (or these) that we mentioned and then never followed through on, and I'll add it here.

Thanks folks!

Jake will understand (sadly).

I think The Idle Thumbs Podcast, the podcast, was named after Idle Thumbs 51's live performance of Wuxtry: Let The Games Begin! (Love Theme From Idle Thumbs), which was called The Idle Thumbs Podcast and then later recorded as a studio (apartment) version for inclusion in the podcast that would bear its name.

According to the music list on the front page, the name of the acoustic version is apparently "The Idle Thumbs Podcast."

Hey dudes!

My cellar is impeccable!!! Ahah! Aha!

If Sean and I had had microphones strapped to us for the entirety of the PAX weekend, we would have naturally produced a podcast whose transcription would be roughly as follows: And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon Weinhandler And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon I am the Weinhandler And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon And I'm Nick Breckon I vill handle your weins And I'm Nick Breckon

I am the one with the real beard

Ignore this rabble. It's fine. Also, play Full Throttle.

Please don't suggest people pirate materials on this forum.

I don't think that's the case. I think they've just been trying to figure out what the new X-Com game would be for a really long time. Take-Two got the IP rights back in 2005.

It saddens me that you dropped out of the goddamn Neptune's Pride game.

I'm not sure what you mean by "strictly" -- obviously not every person who worked on SWAT 4 is still there -- but Irrational definitely developed the game.

Good post. I completely agree, obviously.

Indeed, that character is the Borges tribute. Yes, agreed.

What do you mean by "they"? You mean, more demanding works of fiction? I'm pretty sure there are more than enough books that have learned from more current media. I mean, we're completely awash in works of fiction, be they films or books or television shows or whatever, that require absolutely zero attention span or mental expenditure. I don't mean to be an asshole here, but seriously, it's hardly the case that you can't find a million billion books that are extremely accessible and easy to read. Do we really need even MORE authors to take that attitude? Aren't there already plenty? Again, I don't mean to imply that accessibility is inherently a bad quality. I'm sure plenty of those books have something to offer. I'm just saying, that's ALREADY the default attitude. I would be pretty bummed if it became the ONLY attitude.

Again, conveying actual information is a completely different thing to writing a piece of fiction. Sagan was trying to impart specific, concrete knowledge. However, even here, there are parallels. My uncle is an astrophysicist, and he has written numerous books about space. They make no sense to me. They're dense, and complicated, and require a very high level of understanding. He will never have the same public profile and broad reach as Sagan, an amazing communicator. But that doesn't matter. He's writing for other scientists. He's writing for people who ALREADY know the stuff Sagan is teaching. Similarly, a writer of fiction can choose to write for people who already read a lot of books, who don't need their sentence and plot structure to fall within traditional, accessible bounds. That's one of the rewards of reading a lot -- or listening to a lot of music, or playing a lot of games, or whatever. You have access to more complex works that you wouldn't have if you were a more casual consumer of that type of work. Yes, it is different. Fortunately, nobody has proposed anything that jarring. A college-level textbook shouldn't assume an appropriate existing amount of knowledge? Maybe it doesn't assume a level of knowledge that's right completely up to the absolute point at which the class is being taught, but you're already admitting it's not starting from ground zero. Clearly, some works benefit from assuming existing competence, knowledge, or familiarity. Some of them can, and choose to do so. However, it's insulting to say that an author who includes an obscure language in his work is "relying on" it "to make it seem more dense." If that inclusion, to you, is AUTOMATICALLY made for such arbitrary reasons, then I suppose this isn't even a conversation that can resolve, because you're implicitly declaring that there are certain types of content that are off-limits, or at least which you claim can only represent a particularly immature motive. You're looking at it from the completely wrong angle, I think. An author might want to tell a story that includes certain elements. He might then decide or realize that this will make his story less accessible to certain people, but I very much doubt there are many authors who decide, as the very first step in the process, "I'm going to make something obscure and elitist!!!" My point is, there are a whole lot of people in this world, and they have a pretty massive range of education, experience, literacy, willingness to engage with fiction, patience, and time, and the notion that there's something wrong or "elitist" with certain creators of fiction writing for other people like themselves, instead of just targeting some completely made-up, arbitrary "average person" or "mass audience," is really depressing to me.

I haven't read that work, but Eco actually does similar stuff in several of his novels. He'll include passages--sometimes long ones--from Latin texts, or snippets of French, or whatever else, and I sure don't speak Latin, but it would be a less textured, less interesting, less authentic book if he had "balanced" the accessibility such that the average reader could fully comprehend everything. There's also a character in The Name of the Rose who speaks in a gibberish-like amalgamation of numerous different languages, and he's a fascinating, awesome character. You can generally piece together what he's saying based on the English (well, translated Italian) bits, but his speech would clearly be more accessible to someone who actually knows multiple European languages. Again, I'm glad Eco didn't feel the need to take that into account.

I'm not thinking of it that way. I'm saying it's not mandatory.

Well, they don't. Nobody has to cater to anyone. People can use all kinds of excuses to defend bad art. It doesn't mean that there isn't plenty of good art where that excuse would be a legitimate defense. The same is true on the complete other side of things; something can be overly simplistic in a negative way, or it can be elegantly simplistic in a positive way, or it can be erroneously accused of or defended as either.