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Idle Thumbs !!: With Bagblast

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Idle Thumbs !!:

Idle Thumbs <i>!!</i>


With Bagblast
It's Reader Mail! Episode 300 is looming big on the horizon, but we pushed it back a ways so we can live in this moment together and enjoy what we have. Join us in delaying the inevitable, with an all-reader-mail, all-video-games podblast.

Discussed: Spyro the Dragon, Minecraft, Myst, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Donkey Kong Country

 

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To me, the most important thing about Idle Thumbs is the community.  As long as it's maintained, I'll continue being here to support you. :tup:

 

During the 'trying stuff out' phase and since the normal schedule is now at night, would you consider reintroducing the 30m pre-episode game streams?

___

After the show, Chris decided to answer some questions about the future of Idle Thumbs in the Twitch chat: http://i.imgur.com/MG9xrjK.png

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I only caught the end of the stream and haven't listened to the episode yet. Just want to say that I think this is a good move and I'm happy to keep up with both shows. For what it's worth I like this new idea more than the last -- I even considered suggesting something similar in the last few weeks, just thought I would sound like a jerk if you guys had already made a decision. Thanks for all the casts and blasts.

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This is my favorite podcast, and the only one I've continued to enjoy for its entire run. My interest in Idle Thumbs has long outlived my interest in video game podcasts more generally. As risky as this move may be, as long as a pod continues to get cast in my face from your general direction I'm excited.

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It's interesting that Nick came away from all the streams thinking that people's "favorite boss" picks are based on mechanics. It might just be who I talk to about this stuff, but I've generally found the lore, music, character design, etc. to be much more important factors in people's picks. 

 

I wonder if this is chat's fault.

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I've been listening to Idle Thumbs since the kickstarter reboot and it quickly became my favourite podcast as well; while I obviously enjoy all the video game talk, the main reason I like Idle Thumbs are the people behind it, so I'm very glad that you guys will still be blasting pods in our faces. Thank you and good luck guys!!

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I started listening about 2 years ago, and your podcast has been something I look forward to each week ever since. Like others have expressed, the Thumbs are the real reason I listen, and I'm excited to listen to what you guys put out next. 

 

Thanks for all the casts!

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(I hope nothing like this idea isn't floated in the back half of the episode, as I haven't finished it yet.)

 

Have you guys considered also keeping Idle Thumbs going, just putting out episodes less frequently? I'd be fine if it morphed into The Idle Game Club, to follow the network's other monthly cast. Along those lines, you might all agree to play the same 1-2 for each monthly episode – the discussions when multiple hosts have gone deep on the same game have been a highlight in the past.

 

At any rate, I'm excited to listen to whatever you guys put out. 

 

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22 minutes ago, Kyir said:

It's interesting that Nick came away from all the streams thinking that people's "favorite boss" picks are based on mechanics. It might just be who I talk to about this stuff, but I've generally found the lore, music, character design, etc. to be much more important factors in people's picks. 

 

I wonder if this is chat's fault.

 

I think my favorite bosses are based on mechanics, but also, it is always chat's fault.

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All this talk about Mario lore but you still refuse to ask the real question. Who is Warupeachi, and why is she hidden away?

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32 minutes ago, Cbirdsong said:

(I hope nothing like this idea isn't floated in the back half of the episode, as I haven't finished it yet.)

 

Have you guys considered also keeping Idle Thumbs going, just putting out episodes less frequently? I'd be fine if it morphed into The Idle Game Club, to follow the network's other monthly cast. Along those lines, you might all agree to play the same 1-2 for each monthly episode – the discussions when multiple hosts have gone deep on the same game have been a highlight in the past.

 

At any rate, I'm excited to listen to whatever you guys put out. 

 

 

We're going to keep the Idle Thumbs feed going in case we want to push anything to it (that's why we're launching a new cast rather than just modifying Thumbs). I don't know what form that would take. It probably wouldn't be a game club like that, as that would immediately reintroduce the kind of ongoing pressure I'm trying to reduce, haha. Even with the Book Club, I already end up taking a lot longer to read the book than Sarah does because I have introduced so many extra dumb projects into my free time (mainly Idle Thumbs-related), and then I feel bad about it, so my big goal here is to rid myself of as much of that homework as I can.

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I've been here since this was just Idle Thumbs: The Website. I'm here for the community and to listen to you guys in any way/shape/form you want to do this in! I'm happy you're not afraid to shake things up! :tup:

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As someone who is a couple casts behind and doesn't have the time *right now* to listen and find out what's going on: can someone give a quick summary? :)

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1 hour ago, pabosher said:

As someone who is a couple casts behind and doesn't have the time *right now* to listen and find out what's going on: can someone give a quick summary? :)

 

Idle Thumbs the Podcast to go on hiatus after Episode 300

 

Thumbs to record 'mini-eps' eg. Bagblasts in lead up to 300

 

Thumbs secretly recording new podcast on new feed

 

New podcast will not revolve around video games so Thumbs can take a break from constantly seeking out new games to play in preparation

 

New podcast will feature same (first 1-50) Thumbs - Jake, Chris, Nick

 

Everyone should stay subscribed to Thumbs feed as that is where they will put new Thumbs stuff if and when it happens

 

No plans for Patreon or Kickstarter at this stage due to awkwardness doing this when podcasts are sponsored/have ads

 

Twitch streams will continue

 

Idlethumbs.net and other hosted shows not going away

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In response to Clyde Bink's email about playing a different version of The Sad Story of a Modern Idiot; it sounds to me that he did in fact download the wrong game. The game he describes sounds exactly like Memory of a Broken Dimension. A super cool game everyone should check out. The version currently on itch is a prototype/proof-of-concept and the full game is expect to drop sometime this year.

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I'll tell you what, games or no, Chris fumbling words at the end of this episode and Jake giving him shit for it is the most I've laughed at the cast in a while. Love it.

 

That... doesn't sound like a good thing, but it is meant to be??

 

PS Nick shouting FUCK CHRIS vindictively was also good.

 

Also as far as patreon goes, you could offer a separate feed without ads for those people? (Tho last I checked they don't support such a thing in their system, annoyingly, so you would have to set it up yourself...) I'm sure you've already thought of that, but hey I'd be willing to pay I think!!

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I've already said my piece about the changes in the 299 thread, so I just wanted to note that I tuned out briefly between the Mario lore discussion and the commentary on This American Life/Serial so when Jake made the comment about a joint venture with Serial I briefly got excited and was then immediately destroyed.

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Can one of the pre-300 episodes be episode 12? You went from 11-2 to 13 and I didn't notice the absence of 12 until tonight when I was wrong about its existence. :c

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Just now, SL128 said:

Can one of the pre-300 episodes be episode 12? You went from 11-2 to 13 and I didn't notice the absence of 12 until tonight when I was wrong about its existence. :c

 

I'm hoping for Surprise 2: Donkey Cock Country.

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2 hours ago, Twig said:

Also as far as patreon goes, you could offer a separate feed without ads for those people? (Tho last I checked they don't support such a thing in their system, annoyingly, so you would have to set it up yourself...) I'm sure you've already thought of that, but hey I'd be willing to pay I think!!

 

This is exactly what we'd want to do. The challenge is coming up with a solution that 1.) is easy for people to authenticate and use, 2) has some kind of mechanism by which we can detect whether people are abusing the ad-free feed and spreading it to non-subscribers, and 3.) is actually technically achievable by us. Being limited to any two of those is much easier, but I think we'd want to have all three before we launched such a system.

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I don't think I'd even want to hear an ad free version, the ad reads are often Good Content.

Anyway this feels like a good decision to me. Making a clean split instead of a rebrand means that further IT episodes are much more feasible in the future, when things are less fucking crazy and the idea of having to play a game a week seems appealing rather than onerous. In the meanwhile, I'm eager to see what you come up with as a high concept for the new pod.

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Introducing Thumbsland with Thanks Nick!

 

I guess I do tend to remember more mechanics bosses than narrative bosses. It also can't help that of the few SP games I do play these days, many of the ones that weren't Dark Souls have this trend of dealing with bosses through QTE's or simply firing all the dakka at them until they die. Another bunch of games just bait and switch you right at the end.

When I think of really good narrative boss fights I appreciate most of them come from the Metal Gear series, whether it's the final showdown with The Boss, the cheesy punch out with Liquid Ocelot, or the showdown with Solidus at the end of Sons of Liberty.

'Fighting' Dr Breen in Hl2 or GLaDOS in Portal are another couple of good narrative boss fights.

I still think a lot of these have good room for mechanics showcases but they're definitely sequences where the narrative payoff was far more important to me than the gameplay elements.

 

Oh well listening to the entire podcast made me realise I just fully lost it and went on some giant tangent.

My favourite Dark Souls 3 narrative boss fights are either the Undead Legion for the kind of drama of them being so infected with the abyss that they're forced to just sit around and fight each other forever and Oceiros the Consumed King for being this mad old transformed father who's gone insane and is constantly looking out for this child he cares for but can't seem to track down. Having him fight you while he's constantly distracted by the well-being of this child, Ocelot felt kind of touching on a personal level not usually found in Dark Souls. Some of the other boss fights that involved partnerships were also more interesting than others, the fight with one of the NPC's who had descended into madness or the fight with world weary Prince Lothric or the fiercely protectionist boss of the DLC as well as one of the other boss fights with the knight in the same dlc just felt more satisfying? I guess. It just seems like, in a game where you're mostly fighting these faded monstrosities that have completely sunken to despair and subsequently forgotten themselves more important that you meet and combat some of the few remaining somewhat sane people in the land. it's like it's touching that these people are still forming relationships despite all the horrible bullshit that's happened around them.

 

I think one of the most touching points of souls would be how the thief Greirat chooses to help you after being crushed by grief at knowing that his friend Loretta has died, how he ends up giving up on life by taking increasingly dangerous risks but still chooses to do so in a way that helps people, and also how despite almost everything to be said about the character of Patches his respect for Greirat moves him to attempt to possibly save his friend's life albeit while disguised as an onion knight.

 

Also getting even more meta about Dark Souls for a second I absolutely do think it fits into the world that a character that is retaining their sanity would choose to avoid conflict. In a world where people are trapped in endless cycles of war someone waking up and saying "fuck all the small time fights, I need to get shit done" just seems to fit for me.

This means that people who speedrun and Nick Breckon may be some of the only characters in Dark Souls who are woke by choosing to not waste their time in eternal combat instead racing ahead to accomplish the mission of keeping or disrupting the endless status quo that is lighting the bonfires.

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