Sean

Yep, this. What is the point? We could've talked about the SC MLG circuit as well, but I don't see the point of talking about how Riot organizes and sponsors all of their tourneys when Valve is never going to do that.

This pure, wild, irresponsible conjecture but it wouldn't surprise me for TI5 to be the last one (or any future tournament) and Valve says "go forth, community, do your thing." That would be the most Valvian thing ever. (Not saying I hope they do, I'm in the camp of wishing they did MORE, to be honest, but it wouldn't surprise me.)

We'll report back to confirm but I assume they are really nice. ( A smart woman once pointed out to me that women often pay way more for underwear and get what they pay for so I started buying nice underwear at Nordstroms and don't regret it considering it's touching my most sensitive areas most of the time I'm awake)

The extra 18 minutes of this cast is just a weird pre-cast segment we recorded weeks ago about Star Wars and Indiana Jones; it was a fun chat.

Medium's magazine portion is called Matter. It's good.

This is an interesting thing to consider because I don't think the games I've made have ever prescribed to Chris's notion of respecting the player's time. I don't think he would say that about something like The Walking Dead but I wonder if that just boils down to the fact that he liked The Walking Dead despite it having some cruft. Anyway, I'm sure he'll chime in. The thing is (and this is obviously pure speculation) I think I would probably say the same thing about DA:I if I were to play it (I sure that feel way about the Mass Effect games). But, as pointed out above, I will put tens (or hundreds) of hours into something for a very small or brief payoff (DayZ, Dota 2). I grew up hunting and fishing so that means you spend hours and hours and hours alone waiting for a moment that may never come. I find that slow burn really pleasurable. The issue for me is actually stakes. (I get the sense that the critique I'm about to levy isn't quite appropriate for DA:I, so give me a pass on that -- this is more of a general criticism of big 40+ hour video games like ME, AC, Destiny, Borderlands, whatever). It's really hard for me to invest that initial ten hours or whatever when I know that no matter what I'm going to end up as a powerful hero. I'm just clocking the hours until the game goes "ok, yeah, you can go do the heroic thing now." The stakes in Day-Z and Dota are very high. You have to actively and intelligently engage with the systems -- not just go through the motions but use a mix of smarts, skill and ingenuity -- to set yourself up for the unexpected moment where you need to attack or defend. That moment can happen at any second so all the moments in between, the moments that stitch together to make the entirety of the game experience need to be spent in active anticipation. The critique "does this game respect my time," is sorta moot in this instance in that ALL of the time spent playing the game, literally every second, has (and more importantly feels like it has) consequence.

FW is less about narrative choice and more about natural relationship development and exploration.

Dota Today 14: The Summit 2: We're back with a slightly new format and some new thoughts and opinions from Sean and his good buddy James. We talk The Summit 2, Team Secret, and Oracle. Game Discussed: Dota 2 Listen on the Episode Page Subscribe and rate us on iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed Subscribe on Soundcloud

I was asking a question, not making a comparison. "Oh, it's LIKE Dark Souls?" "No." "Oh, OK."

There's been a lot of good points said in here about Serial and I think my opinion has remained about the same -- I think Chris and I are pretty aligned on it. A point I wanted to bring up, in terms of how we make really broad comments about representation -- specifically RACIAL representation in the media get flip-flopped pretty conveniently. I think it's an inarguable point that Adnan's (and Hai's) race matter not just within the context of the story but in his conviction. The degree to which they impact Serial the podcast and his actual conviction are of course up for debate but it would be erroneous to say "it didn't matter." I think Sarah said something to this effect. She, in her guts, didn't think this was a To Kill a Mockingbird-style racial conviction (and I think she was a little careless in her tone when saying this) but at the same time layered in the facts and opinions of the jurors into the series in a way that I found to be honest and responsible. It seems like a big mistake to make statements like "not her story to tell," or "this is bad because of the way we report about minorities, traditionally in the media." Those don't seem like useful critiques. When Scott Peterson was on trial for the double homicide of his wife and unborn baby (creating one of the biggest bullshit tv trials of the decade) a few very similar crimes had happened throughout the US, one within a poor latino family, if I remember. The story then is -- we're only caring about Lacy Peterson because she is a white woman, look what happened here in Arizona and nobody cares. I don't think that's a useful critique either. The fact of the matter is there is real thought to be put into the responsibilities of journalists (and just "the media") in reporting vs entertaining AND it's important to consider the politics of representation within the piece but in terms of Serial it seems like the criticisms and petty dismissals get chalked up to a sentence or some unsubstantiated, highly-subjected paragraphs.

Would like to hear your thoughts on the format -- I'm aware the mix is bad and might try to fix it tonight (but doesn't matter if you've already listened).

Please share time-stamp of my last podcast woof.

Great post.

I don't see why not. I put a class of whiskey in mine the other night. Coldblum is versatile.

This is precisely my point on this week's forthcoming cast.

Man...

Yeah, it was me just wanting to up my game because I was impressed -- and that just means "be better."

Or...

Cloud Atlas is next to impossible to spoil unless someone lays out the structure of the book for you (which he didnt!)

Bad things happen when you're traveling because life is a confusing and chaotic mess of the unknown but I've always found it pretty fucking remarkable that I can go anywhere on this planet in 24 hours.

My biggest question when people pull a "they're all cows," ending is... what is the point? What does the fact that ACTUALLY MEAN? What should I take with me when I leave? I don't get it.

!!! so, i didn't realize the game was temporarily out of print so it's in it's grey-market-price-gouge span of its life BUT you should know you can play this game alone. you can sit there with all of the materials and enjoy it like a choose your own adventure game, absolutely. maybe not the best way to play but you can play, enjoyably, with 1-infinite number of people (although 2-3 has been what i've done and it was great)

how dare you

I need to retire "Oh noooo" at least from the podcast :/

Oh.