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Idle Thumbs PAX 09: Ron Gilbert !!

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" PAX 09: Ron Gilbert !! "

Idle Thumbs kicks off its PAX coverage and continues its trend of interviewing Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert on a bidecennial basis with this hastily-edited affair. Enjoy.

Games Discussed: DeathSpank, The Secret of Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, World of Warcraft, EVE Online, Animal Crossing

Figured this episode could use a thread, great interview with Mr. Gilbert!

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Adventure with a dash of RPG is one of my favorite genres, sadly it's usually more RPG with a dash of adventure.

I never got into Meretzky's Superhero League of Hoboken, but always seemed cool. Raising cholesterol has a superpower was humorous as well.

The first and fourth (bug filled as it was) Quest for Glory games. I never got to play the fifth one, but I loved the divergent paths based on class resulting in more adventure variance than RPG. Also, the fact I was a thief with magic and also a paladin because i brought my character across was pretty sweet, since I felt like all the options were open to me for my due diligence (and borderline obsessive loyalty to the Coles.)

Anyone play Lands of Lore? Beside Patrick Stewart, there were adventure hot spot screens to explore. Few and far between, but still pretty cool, and immediately what I thought of when they showed the 'adventure' side to Starcraft II.

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Top notch interview (inbetween all the shit you were chatting :mock:). I think Ron's a really interesting guy but 90% of the interviews with him consist of "Are adventure games dead?" and/or "What killed adventure games?" followed by stock questions about his current game - it's great to come across a more in depth conversation about a relatively wide range of topics.

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Whoa... this has got to be one of your best episodes ever!

I liked it when Ron started talking about unanswered questions, it made me think of Lost and then he brought it up.

Edited by Erkki

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Great episode, it was quite an enjoyable listen. Also, I laughed when I saw the title of the show in itunes.

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When Ron said "I don't want story in my sports games" and Chris jokingly replied "I do", I realized that a football RPG would actually be completely awesome. Something where you'd create a character and played games solely from his point-of-view, and in between you dealt with all the trials and tribulations of being a sports star. God knows there's enough moral choices and potential branching story paths there. Like whether to take steroids or not, have your bodyguard shoot someone in a nightclub or not, screw Paris Hilton or not, etc. I don't play sports games, but I would fuckin' totally play that game.

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Oh man it was me who said "I do," and thats probably one of 4 things I said the whole time. Don't take what little contribution I was able to make away from me!

I'm full of shit.

Edited by Jake

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Oh man it was me who said "I do," and thats probably one of 4 things I said the whole time. Don't take what little contribution I was able to make away from me!

Man now we can't even tell ourselves apart!

it was me

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Excellent episode, guys. Very interesting conversations and opinions on a lot of topics. Having fun at PAX yet? :gaming:

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When Ron said "I don't want story in my sports games" and Chris jokingly replied "I do", I realized that a football RPG would actually be completely awesome. Something where you'd create a character and played games solely from his point-of-view, and in between you dealt with all the trials and tribulations of being a sports star. God knows there's enough moral choices and potential branching story paths there. Like whether to take steroids or not, have your bodyguard shoot someone in a nightclub or not, screw Paris Hilton or not, etc. I don't play sports games, but I would fuckin' totally play that game.

I heard that Mario Super Sluggers has a story mode that is very RPGish. No branching paths or steroids though.

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Probably one of the best audio interviews I've listened to on a video game podcast. I confess to some embarrassing ignorance of who Ron Gilbert was before I listened, but he just had such chemistry with you guys that I couldn't help but do a bit of research. He seemed to fit in as well if not better than Ken Levine on the Gamers With Jobs; I hope I can hear from Ron again sometime.

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