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Chris

Idle Thumbs 5: The Wizard

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(Sorry for the delay. Nick and I got sick and our voices were useless the other day.)

This week, Nick was left for dead at Valve's offices where he played some kind of video game, Chris and Jake have experienced what's so amazing about LittleBigPlanet, and we keep attempting to cajole you into playing Far Cry 2. Plus: Will Gears of War 2 blow you away? We investigate. There may be a wizard.

Games discussed: Left 4 Dead, Elemental: War of Magic, Gears of War 2, Far Cry 2, LittleBigPlanet, Empire Total War, Diablo III

iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=293436552

RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/idle-thumbs

http://www.idlethumbs.net/

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interesting... it looks like each episode has the following curve:

seriousness
^
|      ** *     **                                    :
|     *  * *****  *                                   :
|    *             **      ***                        :
|                    ******   **                      :
|                               ***      **           :
|                                  ******  ***        :
|                                             **      :
|   *                                           ****  :
|**                                                 ***
+------------------------------------------------------*---> time
                                                     : **
                                                     :   *
                                                     :
                                                     end of the episode

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lol :)

You got the URL right Mr. Remo, I registered strategychocolate.biz and currently have web forwarding pointing to thumbs. I might use it in future to host a blog about the worst bits of tacky game marketing, but that idea is on the back-back burner so it'll probably just point to thumbs for the next two years :)

If I do turn it into a site, then depending on your permission I'd like to clip the intro to episode 2 and embed it on an about page, with credit of course.

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interesting... it looks like each episode has the following curve:

Well, this time the wizard made his presence known during the break and it broke our minds.

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Errr, good episode, but since the first podcast, I've been wondering : is it only me or does the reader's letters section tends to slip toward easy bashing rather than constructive stuff ?

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Errr, good episode, but since the first podcast, I've been wondering : is it only me or does the reader's letters section tends to slip toward easy bashing rather than constructive stuff ?

No, I was going to suggest it myself a little while back, when they said they weren't getting enough email questions sent in. Perhaps you guys might get more if you tried harder to address the ones you do get? They mostly get kinda dismissed. Obviously several of them are a bit too rambling to read out on a podcast, so maybe editing them down to a main question before the show will help.

Also, a minor gripe but something that has been constant since episode 1; whenever one of you is trying to make a serious game design related point or review or whatever, and casting around for words, they almost always get sidetracked by one of the others chipping in and derailing them. Just a pet peeve though.

Other than those minor quibbles, another great episode :tup:

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Despite making brief fun of norfolk'n'clue's name (and threatening to poop in his mouth in an earlier thread a few weeks back) I tried to give that question (maybe the longest and most rambling question ever) as decent and realistic an answer as I could, tried to speak from my experience playing games and helping to make them, etc. I dunno. With a lot of the questions we, I think, really don't know what to say.

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Great show guys. With Chris' permission I've posted the show to Evil Avatar news. Hopefully that helps out with traffic a bit.

~Jim

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I wondered whether I'd come in for some flack. I've not listened to it yet though. Will I want to kill myself? :mock:

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I wondered whether I'd come in for some flack. I've not listened to it yet though. Will I want to kill myself? :mock:

I don't think any of us actually denigrated your question--that certainly wasn't my intention. We lightly ribbed it for being pretty long, but we definitely put a fair amount of time into actually responding.

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Having listened to it, it's not so bad. I can take a little ribbing - and after listening to it, it was stupidly long question. It wasn't really a question was it? It was more of a dump of what was churning around my mind at the time I wrote it. Thanks for giving it a good go though, and I appreciate that (I hope!) you weren't taking aim at me for thinking those things about game-type copying.

There was a game that I was thinking of as well, directly to do with the terrorist thing, except the writer had swapped it around, where you played person of middle eastern origin, and all the enemies in the game were US soldiers. That caused a lot of problems.

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The response to Iain's (it's the proper spelling!) question was probably the best. More like that! Although I still suggest editing the questions before the show.

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and I appreciate that (I hope!) you weren't taking aim at me for thinking those things about game-type copying.

Nope that wasn't a shot at you. It was just one of the things that came to mind when I heard the question so I rambled incoherently about it for a bit.

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Hey, thanks for answering my question. I got more than I expected :tup:

The Wizard song rocked!

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Great show again, loved the wizard song and the Diablo II poop anecdotes. Also the Far Cry 2 discussion, about how best to sell the "Slow Burn Holy Fuck-titude" of a game.

Also, the way you ended this episode was superb - very slick and was a natural close. :tup:

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I'm totally lagging behind with the podcast because I have very irregular podcast-listening hours. I've just now finished The Wizard, which had the best opening ever! Improved Spectral Blade!

Loved the episode, and I'll definitely consider writing you enormous elaborate questions as well :tup:

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Right now I'm writing a Diablo 3 preview for the Dutch mag GMR, and all I hear in my head while writing it is... 'cause I'm the motherfuckiiin Wizard!

THE WIZARD... a formidable wielder of arcane magicks!

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I only need to write the texts to go with the screenshots, so I'll try to sneak it in somewhere. That'll be the second time an Idle Thumbs reference makes it into my articles!

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They'll probably cut it out, but if it gets through; here's the sentence that will be featured alongside a screenshot of... The Wizard:

Een formidabele hanteerder van mysterieuze magie; de Wizard gaat de strijd aan met vijanden van een afstandje met ondoorgrondelijke krachten als ‘Improved Spectral Blade’.

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