Roderick

I find this news about Double Fine developing smaller games in a shorter time very positive. It confirms my own ideas on what they would do next. After Brutal Legend I did predict they wouldn't make another 5 year+ development monstrosity, but would go the way of downloadable, episodic, or at least an in-between form. I also like how Tim basically states that a Psychonauts sequel or spin-off is something he'd like. Of all his games, it was the one universe that really justified more exploration and expansion.

Someone needs to make a badass Youtube video of Snooglebum's remix with footage of a pimp Ezio going through town in slo-mo wearing a posse of dancing prostitutes around his body. Like a gangster.

Besides having always loved playing games, I’ve also always loved watching other people play games. Instinctually, since games are meant to be played, one is lead to think that watching games is at best a poor substitute for playing them yourself, something for when you’re waiting for your turn. I recently came to the realization that this isn’t so. Spectating, if I may call it so, is its own thing altogether. The realization came when I started to notice that what I see on the screen when I play games is not what I see when I watch other people play. There is a sort of hyper-focus during playing, a subconscious filtering of information. All the fluff is registered and ignored, so that the player is better able to deal with the important stuff. The user interface (numbers, bars, mini-maps) are important, so are enemies and their movement. Background visuals, details in the worlds, are chucked. Take the recent Bioshock 2. Here’s a game that is visually overwhelmingly rich and saturated. The player is forced to make distinctions between what is necessary information and not, to be able to function in that world. Since Bioshock 2 is so heavy on details, the game actually makes it rather difficult in the beginning. Pretty soon she’s used to it however, and by that point, what is seen in the game differs from what the person watching next to her sees. Especially during times of action, her focus is purely on objectives, on enemy positioning and combat strategy. She switches weapons, fires plasmids and avoids hazardous terrain. It’s difficult to register what actually happens in the brain, how things are visualized, but it’s undeniable that the visuals on the screen are only a slice of what she’s really focusing on. How much ammo does she have? Where can she replenish her health? Where’s that enemy hiding? What’s a good strategy to lure them out? A mini-map is probably the worst detractor: the player will almost exclusively think about the level in terms of the mini-map layout, instead of the actual surroundings. How different is this from how the game is perceived by a spectator? Think more in terms of watching a movie. What happens on screen is all there is. Sure, the spectator may empathize with the player’s struggle and strategize about things, but still this happens on a different plane, more along the lines of watching sport on TV and shouting suggestions or predicting what will happen. Devoid of the entire meta-game that rolls in the head of the player, the spectator sees and knows only what is happening on screen. The change in perception is often staggering. I have noticed details I didn’t see before. Levels suddenly became beautifully designed worlds instead of gameplay challenges to negotiate. It’s a fundamentally different experience. The state of passive onlooker versus active player changes the perception of the game in a big way. In many ways, I see more when I’m just watching. And this is not even considering the sports-element, the emotions you feel when you watch someone pulling off something incredible. That’s a whole other layer altogether, one emphasized by actual sports gaming. Watch a few amazing Korean Starcraft league matches and you’ll know. But that’s another story and not what I’m writing about here: a more intimate form of watching when your friends play games, on the same couch. Watching games is a totally different thing from playing games, with its own unique pleasures. The gamer and the spectator are, in fact, not experiencing the same thing. Spectators tap into a different layer, process the information differently, more like a narrative, like a movie, whereas the player perceives the events from a strategic, gaming viewpoint. As such, watching games is neither lesser than playing them, nor a waste of time. I instinctively felt this long before, intensely enjoying the act of spectating. Now I can conclude that there’s actually a reason for it.

Right now I'm going through the entire old world again to experience everything one last time before the cataclysm sweeps the Barrens away It's absolutely great to see everything again. The one thing World of Warcraft is so stellar in is its presentation of a big, breathing, detailed world, contintents full of colours and creatures. So immersive!

I listened to The Ballad yesterday while painting. Then listened to old podcasts, 14 in particular. What surprises me was how these older podcasts play out: Chris is constantly being serious and shouted over by maniacal children Jake and Steve. All are constantly apologizing for sounding like douchebags Absolutely brilliant. Also: No matter how many times I listen to The Ballad, I'm always pleasantly surprised by the Wizard bit at the end, which I consistently forget is there (even if I just listened to it). Not even Pachter knows...!

My rants on Captain August are apparently Lovecraftian. I wonder how it measures this, as the theme of the rant was absolutely not about madness, ancient gods, incestuous demon offspring.

That's amazing! Will there be wizards? I hope the audience is packed with pointy heads and ponderous white beards. Also: live rendition Space Asshole.

This is fantastic.

Don't knock it. This isn't an ordinary gift. This is 'Gift', with a capital letter. It transcends mere giftdom and becomes an act of purest Giftitude.

You're two for two. Though Matt Berry is by no means as hilarious as Chris Morris whom he followed up sadly. I love Matt Berry though! In Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and AD/BC, love him

Warwind is probably one of the only 90s rtses I DIDN'T play. Couldn't get my hands on it. Shame, because screenshots always appealed to me! Ever since World of Warcraft, the series has gone to a different place. I guess that was only logical, things do change. But I remember I was already upset when they changed the music from War2's brooding, sweaty, epic soundtrack to War3's rather generic fantasy one. Wonderfully done, but still rather predictable and less identifiable.

THANK YOU! That's it exactly. Oh man, I couldn't find it because instead of Michael Keaton, I remembered Steve Guttenberg to be in this. Oh, I'm so relieved.

Oh, that's pretty cool. Looking at it, it seems like it would have been quite an atmospheric adventure.

Oh, it's a typical Hollywood comedy, set in probably New York or a New Yorkish city.

I'm going to call in the POWER OF THUMB to help me find this movie that's probably from the 80s or early 90s. I can't find it, so maybe one of you knows. It's about lunatics going on leave for a trip to the city. One of them ends up in a church and naked. The protagonist is also a loony, but at the end gets the girl, I think. There's probably some contrived action plot going on too, but it's a comedy. It's probably bad. But I need to know

I got the DVD in the mail about a week and a half ago. I didn't have the super de luxe version, just the one with the really pretty Steve Purcell slipcover. I'm loving the DVD commentary things, you guys! Famous Vanaman, take it away!

Really? I thought I was doing my 'sardonic smile' face. Good Mentos/Coke gambit, Nachimir. You rock those Mentos.

Is it the Japanese walls in the back? Because that's classic prison decoration

Here's a change of do's: Perfect for the summer! The Netherlands are blasted by a heat wave right now, so I couldn't wait to get it off.

Not something particularly pleasing, but also nothing really grave: on Monday I had a small hyperventilation attack of sorts and I wrote a little bit about it, along with how that experience interconnected with Transformers: The Movie. http://www.captainaugust.com/moonlit-encounters,-one

Red Dead Redemption is dead now.

It works nicely. I have to say in relation to the podcast that I am super psyched for the 3DS and can't wait to play with it. I understand the skepticism, but the reports we've had (from such notables as Warren Spector) all seem to say that this is the new big disruptive tech, it's not a gimmick, that this thing shows 3D is not just a fad. I'm completely with you on the Kinect and Move, however, these things are Trojan horses, so to speak. Not at all for 'normal' gamers. They're going to at least to attempt to bring the Xbox and PS3 in the same direction the Wii has gone, with all the disenfranchising of the 'hardcore crowd' involved. The silly thing is, as a gamer you can't help but feel excited at new forms of control, but especially in the case of Kinect it's easy to forget that the actual application to games will reap things that we won't be particularly interested in. To bring it back to the comparison of these technologies to the 3DS: the latter actually does enhance the gaming experience, adding possibly interesting new gameplay options (like the touch screen did) in a way that will speak directly to us as that 'hardcore' audience (I hate that term so much).

I would've thought the audience had become jaded of this sort thing after years of these marathons. It warms my heart it still is successful. No matter how often-done, this sort of thing is fun to watch!

I love how you can feel Chris dialing the crazy down and sticking with hugely informed opinion for this podcast. Were you doing it over the phone, by the way? It sounded that way, though it never had that awkward 'phone chemistry' thing going.

Still, it was fun, right? Right, guys??!