Roderick

Climbing back on the dinosaur fence A few weeks ago a teaser image appeared on the recently revamped site (now functioning as an archive), with the promise of something grand. It turned out be a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough funds to not only bring back the podcast, but hire a dedicated space for recording it. It strives to give its creators some financial stability and with that, staying power. They carefully calculated that 30,000 US Dollars would suffice for this goal. What they hadn’t anticipated was breaking that number on the first day and hitting 100,000 in the first week. Apparently, the audience was clamoring for the podcast to return and willing to put their money down for it. The timing seemed almost deliberate in light of the massive success Double Fine garnered with their Kickstarter only weeks earlier. Since the Idle Thumbs campaign was planned months in advance it’s obvious no inspiration was taken from Double Fine’s triumph, a move now hotly anticipated by everyone. Which gaming company will be the next to reach the crowd-funding success of Tim Schafer? It might just have turned out to be a gaming podcast - in its own financial league of course. Remo, Rodkin and Vanaman have their work cut out for them now. They’ve already started casting new pods into faces, for the moment exclusively for Kickstarter backers. The joy and giddiness of once again doing what they love could not be more obvious to anyone who listens. The old podcast being recorded, with special guest appearances by Max and Erich Schaefer James Spafford and Sean Vanaman are enjoying a game of Die Weinhändler The Kickstarter campaign was accompanied by a stylish 80s magazine mock-advertisement

Casting pods The new Idle Thumbs seemed focused squarely on a small core of the American branch of the site, with Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin and Nick Breckon not only taking center stage, but starting a journey to internet (cult) fame. Interestingly, it was the British faction that dabbled first in podcasting while the original site still ran. These fun excursions by James Spafford and Marek Bronstring were always more complementary than main course, something the later efforts did manage with high production values, an articulate host of talkers and, well, just damn good chatter. With a penchant for humorous anecdotes, a focus on off-Broadway, unscripted gaming experiences and satirical songs, it struck a nerve with the audience. It felt real. It had charm. These guys were sitting next to each other, they had real conversations and interesting things to say. One worked at Telltale Games, another at Gamasutra, the third at Shacknews. Sirens would often interrupt the recording as emergency vehicles rushed past Remo’s San Francisco apartment. They had a hotline with the number 555-WIZARD-ON, after the Diablo 3 character class’ name and pulpy description became the subject of mockery, then unintentional hilarity. The first run of the podcast lived one good and glorious year, until Breckon left to work at Bethesda (where he would, ironically, proceed to make the excellent Bethesda Podcast). This hiatus lasted only a few months. At the start of 2010 the podcast rebooted, Breckon replaced by Sean Vanaman and Steve Gaynor, both friends of the show. It endured for another half year until the summer of 2010 when Remo announced his own departure - presumably taking his recording equipment with him. He had found a job at Irrational Games, where it should strike no one as a surprise he directed a podcast, this time staying in the background while letting Ken Levine do the interviewing. It seemed Idle Thumbs was truly dead this time, its core members dispersed all over the US. But that was OK. The community was at this point used to it and had learned to take every bit of content and every revival as precious water, expecting the well to dry right after drinking.

Countdown to tears The articles on the site seemed sporadic in nature, hamstringed by a deep-seated need for perfection and getting the tone right. How many pieces must exist that we don’t know of, that never got through the editorial mill? Still, running through archives of the old site, the amount of content is striking. Painful memories of the many times the Thumb fell silent over the years painted a picture of utter desolation. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as it felt? Another trick of the mind: Idle Thumbs lasted as a written source of games journalism from 2004 to 2007, four years. Its podcasting days after that would run from 2008 to the present day, yet the former period still feels much longer than the latter. Even before the podcast, before Jeff Goldblum and the Space Asshole, Idle Thumbs was a goldmine of weird stories and stranger memes. Contributors and community alike ran with Spielberg’s obsession about games making players cry at level 17, Katamari craziness, Remo’s brand of shoes and kissing the very ground Tim Schafer walked on. Tim Schafer is shocked by the quality writing in the one-off Idle Thumbs Journal of Games Marek Bronstring had his own book corner, in which he reviewed the grand total of three books For a while in 2007 it seemed the engine had run out of steam. No new articles saw the light of day and the news section skidded to a halt Looney Tunes-style. Had the hunger for quality finally toppled what was essentially a hobby project? Did the writers all find industry jobs, leaving no space for time-consuming (and unpaid) editorializing? Perhaps the sugar rush of anger simply died out as it eventually had to, because after a year-long lull 2008 saw the rise of the new Idle Thumbs. A podcast with a tone decidedly more jovial and nuanced, at peace with the world - without however relinquishing the sharp insight the Thumb had always offered.

IDLE THUMBS: A RETROSPECTIVE IN TRIPLE A Idle Thumbs just effortlessly breached the $100,000 mark on Kickstarter to continue their podcast. With an original target of 30,000 in mind, it’s obvious even the creators didn’t expect how strongly their audience wanted it to continue. Who are these people, and why does everyone seem to care? Far Cry 2, Wizards and Puffins: Idle Thumbs in a nutshell Gaming malcontents Back in 2004, a group of young upstart writers - hailing from eclectic internet locales such as Adventuregamers.com and The International House of Mojo - decided to create their own gaming site. Disgruntled at the deplorable state of games journalism they sought to do things differently. What ensued was a site filled with articles often taking the form of angry, expletive-filled rants, skirting the lines of irony and sometimes lost in between. Recall the article simply named ‘I kill you’. Always sharp, often rambling, with a brutal, youthful insightfulness and a pathological need to be contrary. There were triumphs. Frequently ad libbed interviews with industry professionals - no scrap that - luminaries and mentors such as Ron Gilbert, Eric Chahi and Tetsuya Mizuguchi were highlights and prefigured the direction Idle Thumbs would later take. Quote of the Moment was a showcase of strange and wonderful lines people actually said, detailing such things as Alexey Pajitnov’s desire to electrocute dolphins. The forums, the beating heart of the community, were awash with wonderful and odd graphics of apocalyptic landscapes and fire-spouting mecha-geese. The infamous Ron Gilbert interview was accompanied by inspired artwork Marek Bronstring, James Spafford and Jake Rodkin celebrate the Year of our Thumb 2006 Then there was a rare meeting of the two teams that ran the site (one based in the US and the other around England/the Netherlands): the rambunctious trip to E3 from 2005, chronicled in a must-see video containing off-hand game reviews, comedy clips and classy Hitler impersonations. Stunts is, and remains, Alex Ashby.

I'm fine with someone of Italian descent becoming an Indian, but now that the inimitable Erkki mentions it, it's really weird that this stealthy assassin would run around wearing a custom made mash-up of colonial uniform and white cloak, ensuring that he is instantly recognizable wherever he goes*. *except in snow, but the assassins specialize in urban, not environmental camouflage.

Those screenshots are great and if there's an emphasis on hunting I'll be super fucking happy because that was the greatest thing in Red Dead Redemption and exactly part of the departure package AC needs.

Like Bill Murray being paid to show up at golf tournaments to be funny and just enjoy himself - which is one of the reasons Ghostbusters 3 is (thankfully!) not being made right now. Seriously, there is no reason whatsoever for another Ghostbusters to ever exist. They were great, let's move on. OK, there's a real choice here. Either we're going to ruin elmuerte's weekend, or we're going to ruin a pretty cool pun made by Vanaman. I'm on the dinosaur fence here.

Good to hear, Peter!

Very cool! Looking forward to Prometheus and may I be the first one to say that I don't really care whether or not there are 'aliens' in this movie. I just want it to be a good sci-fi flick on its own merits.

The thing about Weekend at Bernie's is that it isn't known in Europe at all. So I never heard of it, until I went to Los Angeles for three months and I came across it all the time in screenplays I read! Characters would be making references to Weekend at Bernie's at the weirdest places. People at fictitious weddings were doing the 'Weekend at Bernie's dance'. The darndest thing. So I resolved to get to the bottom of it, but only got around to watching the movie last week. Turns out the dance is from the sequel.

Knowing Bobcat Goldthwait, it'll probably be a bit o' both.

Last week I saw Weekend at Bernie's for the first time. The film rests on a single joke that surprisingly kind of stays funny all throughout!

Yeah man, this game, you're riding buffaloes and bisons. I'd actually be interested in learning more about this period of American history. I know bits and pieces about the Boston tea party and how that one dude ran across the country on a horse to warn all the cities the British were coming. But what I don't know is, for instance, what role the Dutch Republic played at the time, or what tensions ran through the various factions. I concur with Chris that it's sad we can't just have a straight-up historical game. At this point I've made peace with the sci-fi framing of Assassin's Creed, but I'd still like to see a ballsy historical game at some point. About the Napoleonic wars because holy shit that's the craziest and most interesting bit of European history ever I've been reading all these books about it and it's bafflingly interesting I don't believe for a second you can't find an audience for that, I think gamers as a group are underestimated hugely about the breadth of their appetite.

I only recognize that commercial with The Wizard starting at some point. Sidenote: during the coldest days of winter you had better believe I desired a Snuggie wizard fleece.

LA Noire featured the ability to read at least portions of what recently transpired back. I have to say that I'm no particular fan of this. It seems like a lazy way to chronicle what happened. If it's important for the player to keep track of things, I prefer a more elegant, in-game way of doing it than just plomping down the screenplay wholesale.

Looks just gorgeous! I've never played Sim City. Perhaps I'll give the demo a go?

WOAAHHHH, this has been confirmed for outside of Japan? Damn that's great news! 999 was by far the best thing I played on the DS last year and I anticipate the sequel highly. Can't wait! Sombre, I'm sorry for not reacting to this thread earlier, I didn't even know it was here

This sexual harassment thing is just plain disheartening. And weirdly relevant in the light of recent discussions we've had here on the Thumb.

Nope! Chuck Testa.

There's a story there.

There's some excitement surrounding this 3DS downloadable, since it's Nintendo's first completely new franchise in about a hundred and fifty years. Also, it's Western armadillo tower defence, so that's neat. Anyone here try it? I get the feeling Miffy and Tanu might be good candidates for already having bought it. It's ten European Euro's, so I will first hear how classic it is before purchasing.

It's always a good time for sexy sax man.

Really cool Ben there!

Gward, looks to me as if you've already got all the answers right there. What more do you want? This situation is a terrible one and the girl is obviously not mentally strong enough to decide either for or against you. You'll have to be the brave one here and step out of this asap. If I recall the previous situation correctly, that was always going to be the right thing to do, and even more so now.

This is well and truly unfathomable. Idle Thumbs just effortlessly scrounged up 100k. I can imagine Chris, Jake and Sean are getting a little spooked at this point.