Jake

The Idle Thumbs Podcast Episode 12: The Silken Goku

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In the fifth sequel, College Baby goes up against a silken goku-wearing mo' cap artist.

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These rapid-fire-episodes are bitter sweet. Bitter in that it won't be long until it will stop FOREVER... until some people from the community make "The Idle Thumbs Fans Podcast for Fans, Guest Starring Jeff Goldblum, Director of Good Stuff".

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The 'WebMD Rising'/SC2 Medic sections are the stuff GoneGoldGameGold's are made of, and it hit me just as Steve mentions making the game version that in a few weeks/month I won't be hearing anything nearly as funny or insightful about my favourite hobby (barring a Gunga Galunga 'cast) again. Then i got back to the laughing along with you guys.

I really need to find that video on Achievements. As I am generally against achievements (I do enjoy when they're given for experimenting with gameplay/humour), I'd like to hear what a scientific (sort of) look at them would reveal.

On a completely different note, Jake, you should get a Big Bird head/mask and wear it to PAX. Keep those who still think you look like something other than human, guessing even after the death of the podcast.

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I think the saddest part of the death of Idle Thumbs is going to be when years from now when no more pods are being cast into my face and i'm playing some game and it sets off something in my mind that makes me think about it in terms of an idle thumbs story and i'll be ultra bummed. I'm going to miss hearing Chris tell stories about awesome shit that happens in games.

Also, awesome cast.

Highschool Baby goes to College

had me laughing so hard that I almost died in a WoW raid, so thanks.

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I wonder if Microsoft already knows that achievements can lead to less replay rather than more. They create an end-game to what was a previously endless experience, which encourages people to move on to a new game.

I don't necessarily see how this is a bad thing for game studios or publishers. All they gotsta do is get you to grab another one of their games, rather than one of their competitors.

Where did achievements initially come from? Is it an Xbox thing or a Steam thing? They seem to be here to stay as a controversial game staple of dubious value (or at the very least, no clear consensus about good practices). I dunno how I feel about that. Are there any games of note that do not include achievements?

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I don't necessarily see how this is a bad thing for game studios or publishers. All they gotsta do is get you to grab another one of their games, rather than one of their competitors.

Where did achievements initially come from? Is it an Xbox thing or a Steam thing? They seem to be here to stay as a controversial game staple of dubious value (or at the very least, no clear consensus about good practices). I dunno how I feel about that. Are there any games of note that do not include achievements?

They started on Xbox 360 (and then were picked up as Trophies by PS3.) They are required by MS/Sony for all games that ship on those platforms, so the only games of note that wouldn't have them in recent years would be PC/Wii/portable-exclusive games. As we've seen with Steam/Starcraft 2, people are starting to invest in them even when not required.

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I wonder if Microsoft already knows that achievements can lead to less replay rather than more. They create an end-game to what was a previously endless experience, which encourages people to move on to a new game.

Easy fix. Make achievements for replaying the full game 6 times over.

Edited by syntheticgerbil

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Excellent episode.

Talking about those "achievements". They used to be eastereggs or secrets in games. For example, nowdays collecting the D.I.P. balls in R.O.T.T. would be considered an achievement rather then receiving the 100,000 points, or Scott's mystical head (2,764,331 points).

In general I think achievements are kind of lame. A lot of them are simply doing X a bunch of times rather than doing something really special and unique. I'd rather get some kind of in-game "reward" for doing certain things than unlocking a picture on my profile. And with reward I mean show some interesting cut scene or open up some non gameplay altering area. You know, what eastereggs used to be.

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Excellent episode.

Talking about those "achievements". They used to be eastereggs or secrets in games. For example, nowdays collecting the D.I.P. balls in R.O.T.T. would be considered an achievement rather then receiving the 100,000 points, or Scott's mystical head (2,764,331 points).

In general I think achievements are kind of lame. A lot of them are simply doing X a bunch of times rather than doing something really special and unique. I'd rather get some kind of in-game "reward" for doing certain things than unlocking a picture on my profile. And with reward I mean show some interesting cut scene or open up some non gameplay altering area. You know, what eastereggs used to be.

Yeah but you are a curmudgeonly old fuck who A) references Rise of the Triad B) as R.O.T.T.

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Ain't nothing wrong with some ROTT.exe. Gonna bust out some flame wall. Or get a god mode pickup and actually become a god. Sometimes you would shoot dudes and they would play possum. ROTT was sweet. Where's ROTT Forever?

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They started on Xbox 360 (and then were picked up as Trophies by PS3.) They are required by MS/Sony for all games that ship on those platforms, so the only games of note that wouldn't have them in recent years would be PC/Wii/portable-exclusive games. As we've seen with Steam/Starcraft 2, people are starting to invest in them even when not required.

I would say they've existed well before the 360, they just had a different form; mainly unlockables as opposed to gamerscore.

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Loved the episode and enjoyed the Jake/Famous/Hot talking about the development side of things. Wish you would dohave done that more often.

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Loved the episode and enjoyed the Jake/Famous/Hot talking about the development side of things. Wish you would dohave done that more often.

Oh yes, I totally agree. I always enjoy reading(/etc) about that stuff. The post mortems are my favorite part of Gamedev Magazine.

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I don't necessarily see how this is a bad thing for game studios or publishers. All they gotsta do is get you to grab another one of their games, rather than one of their competitors.

Where did achievements initially come from? Is it an Xbox thing or a Steam thing? They seem to be here to stay as a controversial game staple of dubious value (or at the very least, no clear consensus about good practices). I dunno how I feel about that. Are there any games of note that do not include achievements?

Oh it's absolutely a good thing for everyone, but maybe not the player. Studios sell games, and Microsoft sells licensing, there's no benefit in creating a game that people buy and replay in their business models. The only people that seem interested in that, are free-to-play micro-transactions developers, MMO developers and Valve. Everybody else wants you to buy their game, play it enough to remember it for the sequel, then move on to their next game.

xbox definitely created the concept of achievements, steam picked them up for TF2, then the PS3 made trophies. I think the best implementation of achievements by far has been World of Warcraft, but that's because an MMO's scope is so huge that you don't have to look far to reward something that intrinsic to the experience. They expose people to things they may have never focused on before, set challenges for people that are reasonable, and the high-end ones can be used as proof when forming pick-up raids that someone is a competent player.

Also, achievements are a little more natural in an MMO because the question of "what's the point?" is applicable to most actions. What's the point of leveling? What's the point of earning reputations? What's the point of getting gear, when all it does is make you better at getting more gear? If you've already developed a healthy relationship with these concepts, and know the real answer is "beacuse it's fun" or "i guess I don't want to do this particular grind", then the idea of another possible goal is enjoyable. Plus the achievements in WoW are so vast that only one person in the world has ever completed them all, and recently more were added so I'm not sure if that's still true.

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oh man I remember Rise of the Triad and how its bad 3d sprite engine used to make me physically ill.

I normally don't do achievements (perhaps because I don't own any consoles?) unless they are directly tied to an unlock like in tf2.

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oh man I remember Rise of the Triad and how its bad 3d sprite engine used to make me physically ill.

Same here. But Doom made me sick as well, not to mention Wolfenstein.

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