Chris

Idle Thumbs 46: First Annual Year

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YAY for referencing a mandelbrot set. really liked the episode, does anyone else listen to each episode twice in the week it comes out? Just cos I usually miss a bit with travelling when listening.

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YAY for referencing a mandelbrot set. really liked the episode, does anyone else listen to each episode twice in the week it comes out? Just cos I usually miss a bit with travelling when listening.

Not really, I do rewind a lot during listening.

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By this point I think having a stupid storyline is basically a Red Faction tradition. It's been quite a while since I played the first one, but from memory the introduction goes something like this:

"Wasn't sure what to do with my life after I left college, so I signed up to work in the mines on Mars. I thought it was going to be some sort of holiday camp, but it turns out they actually make us work hard! This isn't what I was expecting, I'm going to brutally murder a guard in cold blood."

When you guys were talking about Moses, I was wondering how this Super Moses RPG would actually work. You can't start off by parting the Red Sea, that's totally a level 10 Moses ability. I figure you'd have to work up to it slowly, so level 1 Moses could part puddles so that ladies can walk down the street without getting their shoes wet, but level 3 Moses could part the dishwater in the sink so you can remove the plug more easily.

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Thinking of Moses as a modified cleric...

At level 1, Moses can cast 3 level 0 "part minor water" spells per day, parting 1 unit of water per casting (thinking of a "unit" as a gallon).

A level 5 Moses can cast 5 "part minor water;" 3 "part light water," parting 1d8+5 units of water; 2 "part moderate water," parting 2d8+5 units of water, and one "part serious water," parting 3d8+5 units of water.

Going by that I'd assume Moses in the Bible is Epic level. Sounds about right -- Miracle is a level 9 Cleric spell, and you don't get those until level 17.

:gaming::shifty:

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When you guys were talking about Moses, I was wondering how this Super Moses RPG would actually work. You can't start off by parting the Red Sea, that's totally a level 10 Moses ability. I figure you'd have to work up to it slowly, so level 1 Moses could part puddles so that ladies can walk down the street without getting their shoes wet, but level 3 Moses could part the dishwater in the sink so you can remove the plug more easily.

No level 1 is turning a staff into a snake. level 3 is plagues of insects and frogs.

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By this point I think having a stupid storyline is basically a Red Faction tradition. It's been quite a while since I played the first one, but from memory the introduction goes something like this:

"Wasn't sure what to do with my life after I left college, so I signed up to work in the mines on Mars. I thought it was going to be some sort of holiday camp, but it turns out they actually make us work hard! This isn't what I was expecting, I'm going to brutally murder a guard in cold blood."

Not cold blood, exactly. At the beginning of the game, you're leaving the mine at the end of your shift, and see a guard abuse and eventually kill another miner. This, as opposed to all the other horrible crap the miners are put through, is the final straw, and you attack the guard.

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Another cool game about Jack the Ripper is Waxworks. It's actually four games in one, or rather it has four sections that you can play in whatever order you want and each one has a different theme. Overall the game hasn't aged very well and can be really frustrating, but I really enjoyed the Jack the Ripper section. It does a cool thing where you play as Jack's fictional brother who looks like him, so you have to run away from the police while trying to track down and stop your brother at the same time.

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Oh man, Waxworks! I never played that, but I read a review somewhere that mentioned it had some gruesome contents. I wanted to play it so bad!

edit:

Waxworks_8.png

Jesus.

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Oh man, Waxworks! I never played that, but I read a review somewhere that mentioned it had some gruesome contents. I wanted to play it so bad!

edit:

Waxworks_8.png

Jesus.

Holy Neck-hole thing! Creepy! :eek:

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YAY for referencing a mandelbrot set. really liked the episode, does anyone else listen to each episode twice in the week it comes out? Just cos I usually miss a bit with travelling when listening.

Dead Space: Mandelbrot 2: Death Spiral. Coming soon from Visceral Games. "It's like Dead Space meets math meets Dead Space 2, with a little bit of Llamatron sprinkled on top!" - ign.com

I usually listen at least twice, because I'm almost always doing something else as I'm listening, and sometimes miss things.

I was listening again today and realized that nobody addressed the "turning off" of achievements in this thread. If you bring up the guide, go to the "Settings" tab, and select "Notifications," you can turn off all on-screen pop-ups. You'll still get the achievements, but they won't interrupt your gameplay in order to tell you that you got them. It also turns off message and friend notifications, though, so may be inconvenient if you want those.

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Dead Space: Mandelbrot 2: Death Spiral. Coming soon from Visceral Games. "It's like Dead Space meets math meets Dead Space 2, with a little bit of Llamatron sprinkled on top!" - ign.com

FUCK NO.

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Holy Neck-hole thing! Creepy! :eek:

Pretty accurately based on one of the pictures of the victims. Hooray for verisimilitude through graphic images!

I am just listening to ep 18 over again, with the section about Dante's Inferno and the video games based on literature. My god, if only they'd known how accurate their worst case predictions were.

:oldman:

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Towards the end you were discussing the problems with video game story telling. I think the main problem with video game narratives is that they draw influences from static and linear art forms…. And not necessarily because devs watch too many blockbusters.

If I could give one piece of advice to video game writers, it would to create strong realistic worlds and characters rather than focusing on “epic” stories. Writers should provide the pillars for the story’s progression, but the characters and the players actions should be the catalysts for the narrative.

Hopefully that made sense… it turned out to be much more difficult to articulate than I thought it would be.

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Howdy, Goodjer here. I just had to make a forum account here to thank you for an awesome podcast. It's the only other podcast I listen to (GWJ first of course :grin: )

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I havent read this thread so maybe this was already said,

All 3 of you seem to hate achievements but something that nick said made me realize how much worse they could be. Right now if you dont care about achievements all that happens if your gamerscore stays low and maybe someone will call you a noob.

Now if Nick's idea of having it unlock content in the game was used there would be a tangible reason for getting them.

Now if you wanted to unlock the extra level, or bonus weapon or whatever bullshit concept art they had you have to go out of your way to complete these ridiculous achievements. Im glad the system is how it is now, if you like them well then there is a nice # everyone can see to see how own you are, if you hate them there isnt anything important you are missing out on

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That does happen in some games. For a while it was the case in Team Fortress 2, I believe, and people set up servers just for getting the achievements.

I think as long as you have some sort of interactivity that allows for actions outside of what is considered sensible or expected, people will make use of that capability. Either you limit the possibilities, or you allow the player to jump on the NPC's head while he relays some tragic tale, and grind out achievements for three hours, and generally "play it wrong".

I have my reservations about achievements, but in theory the prospect of some optional additional structure to a game is a good one.

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*acheivement unlocked: a year in the life of a thumb*

another great episode capping off a great year of podcasts, I wish you all countless more years of comperable wizardry!

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Something disturbing is happening to my mind :x

OH NO WHAT HAS HAPPENED

Edited by subbes

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