Roderick

IDLE THUMBS: A Retrospective In Triple A

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Enthused by the Kickstarter success, I wanted to write a little retrospective of Idle Thumbs' winding history, an outpouring of love for everyone's enjoyment. And perhaps, you know, get that little tear upon reaching level 17.

I'm cutting this up in five parts right underneath each other, because apparently it's too long to fit in a single post :shifty:

Enjoy!

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IDLE THUMBS: A RETROSPECTIVE IN TRIPLE A

Idle Thumbs just effortlessly breached the $100,000 mark on Kickstarter to continue their podcast. With an original target of 30,000 in mind, it’s obvious even the creators didn’t expect how strongly their audience wanted it to continue. Who are these people, and why does everyone seem to care?

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Far Cry 2, Wizards and Puffins: Idle Thumbs in a nutshell

Gaming malcontents

Back in 2004, a group of young upstart writers - hailing from eclectic internet locales such as Adventuregamers.com and The International House of Mojo - decided to create their own gaming site. Disgruntled at the deplorable state of games journalism they sought to do things differently. What ensued was a site filled with articles often taking the form of angry, expletive-filled rants, skirting the lines of irony and sometimes lost in between. Recall the article simply named ‘I kill you’. Always sharp, often rambling, with a brutal, youthful insightfulness and a pathological need to be contrary.

There were triumphs. Frequently ad libbed interviews with industry professionals - no scrap that - luminaries and mentors such as Ron Gilbert, Eric Chahi and Tetsuya Mizuguchi were highlights and prefigured the direction Idle Thumbs would later take. Quote of the Moment was a showcase of strange and wonderful lines people actually said, detailing such things as Alexey Pajitnov’s desire to electrocute dolphins. The forums, the beating heart of the community, were awash with wonderful and odd graphics of apocalyptic landscapes and fire-spouting mecha-geese.

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The infamous Ron Gilbert interview was accompanied by inspired artwork

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Marek Bronstring, James Spafford and Jake Rodkin celebrate the Year of our Thumb 2006

Then there was a rare meeting of the two teams that ran the site (one based in the US and the other around England/the Netherlands): the rambunctious trip to E3 from 2005, chronicled in a must-see video containing off-hand game reviews, comedy clips and classy Hitler impersonations. Stunts is, and remains, Alex Ashby.

Edited by Rodi

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Countdown to tears

The articles on the site seemed sporadic in nature, hamstringed by a deep-seated need for perfection and getting the tone right. How many pieces must exist that we don’t know of, that never got through the editorial mill? Still, running through archives of the old site, the amount of content is striking. Painful memories of the many times the Thumb fell silent over the years painted a picture of utter desolation. Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as it felt? Another trick of the mind: Idle Thumbs lasted as a written source of games journalism from 2004 to 2007, four years. Its podcasting days after that would run from 2008 to the present day, yet the former period still feels much longer than the latter.

Even before the podcast, before Jeff Goldblum and the Space Asshole, Idle Thumbs was a goldmine of weird stories and stranger memes. Contributors and community alike ran with Spielberg’s obsession about games making players cry at level 17, Katamari craziness, Remo’s brand of shoes and kissing the very ground Tim Schafer walked on.

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Tim Schafer is shocked by the quality writing in the one-off Idle Thumbs Journal of Games

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Marek Bronstring had his own book corner, in which he reviewed the grand total of three books

For a while in 2007 it seemed the engine had run out of steam. No new articles saw the light of day and the news section skidded to a halt Looney Tunes-style. Had the hunger for quality finally toppled what was essentially a hobby project? Did the writers all find industry jobs, leaving no space for time-consuming (and unpaid) editorializing? Perhaps the sugar rush of anger simply died out as it eventually had to, because after a year-long lull 2008 saw the rise of the new Idle Thumbs. A podcast with a tone decidedly more jovial and nuanced, at peace with the world - without however relinquishing the sharp insight the Thumb had always offered.

Edited by Rodi

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Casting pods

The new Idle Thumbs seemed focused squarely on a small core of the American branch of the site, with Chris Remo, Jake Rodkin and Nick Breckon not only taking center stage, but starting a journey to internet (cult) fame. Interestingly, it was the British faction that dabbled first in podcasting while the original site still ran. These fun excursions by James Spafford and Marek Bronstring were always more complementary than main course, something the later efforts did manage with high production values, an articulate host of talkers and, well, just damn good chatter. With a penchant for humorous anecdotes, a focus on off-Broadway, unscripted gaming experiences and satirical songs, it struck a nerve with the audience. It felt real. It had charm. These guys were sitting next to each other, they had real conversations and interesting things to say. One worked at Telltale Games, another at Gamasutra, the third at Shacknews. Sirens would often interrupt the recording as emergency vehicles rushed past Remo’s San Francisco apartment. They had a hotline with the number 555-WIZARD-ON, after the Diablo 3 character class’ name and pulpy description became the subject of mockery, then unintentional hilarity.

The first run of the podcast lived one good and glorious year, until Breckon left to work at Bethesda (where he would, ironically, proceed to make the excellent Bethesda Podcast). This hiatus lasted only a few months. At the start of 2010 the podcast rebooted, Breckon replaced by Sean Vanaman and Steve Gaynor, both friends of the show. It endured for another half year until the summer of 2010 when Remo announced his own departure - presumably taking his recording equipment with him. He had found a job at Irrational Games, where it should strike no one as a surprise he directed a podcast, this time staying in the background while letting Ken Levine do the interviewing. It seemed Idle Thumbs was truly dead this time, its core members dispersed all over the US. But that was OK. The community was at this point used to it and had learned to take every bit of content and every revival as precious water, expecting the well to dry right after drinking.

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Climbing back on the dinosaur fence

A few weeks ago a teaser image appeared on the recently revamped site (now functioning as an archive), with the promise of something grand. It turned out be a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough funds to not only bring back the podcast, but hire a dedicated space for recording it. It strives to give its creators some financial stability and with that, staying power. They carefully calculated that 30,000 US Dollars would suffice for this goal. What they hadn’t anticipated was breaking that number on the first day and hitting 100,000 in the first week. Apparently, the audience was clamoring for the podcast to return and willing to put their money down for it.

The timing seemed almost deliberate in light of the massive success Double Fine garnered with their Kickstarter only weeks earlier. Since the Idle Thumbs campaign was planned months in advance it’s obvious no inspiration was taken from Double Fine’s triumph, a move now hotly anticipated by everyone. Which gaming company will be the next to reach the crowd-funding success of Tim Schafer? It might just have turned out to be a gaming podcast - in its own financial league of course. Remo, Rodkin and Vanaman have their work cut out for them now. They’ve already started casting new pods into faces, for the moment exclusively for Kickstarter backers. The joy and giddiness of once again doing what they love could not be more obvious to anyone who listens.

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The old podcast being recorded, with special guest appearances by Max and Erich Schaefer

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James Spafford and Sean Vanaman are enjoying a game of Die Weinhändler

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The Kickstarter campaign was accompanied by a stylish 80s magazine mock-advertisement

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It’s a seg’

Throughout the many beginnings and ends, the Idle Thumbs community remained the thread that connected everything together. Site revivals invariably saw sharp influxes of new forum members, but it always stayed tight-knit, cozy and personal. People sharing a history not uncommonly stretching back to 2004 or before and keeping the spirit alive. But not unchanging. Looking back, the forums reflected keenly the vibe running through the entirety of the Thumb. In the early years, the community was as angry as the site was; the phrase ‘we already hate your game’ describing accurately how vitriolic and cynical it oftentimes got. As the podcast arrived, so a feeling of mildness and sophistication did ‘droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven’. Recent discussions about the state of the gaming world have turned to self-reflection, a closer scrutiny of the way we behave ourselves rather than surveying exclusively how developers should service our needs. As it stands the Idle Thumbs forums are a rare place of civility and mutual understanding in an industry littered with crassness, sexism and one-upmanship.

That turns out to be the core of the Idle Thumbs podcast. It looks at games from a human (and humane) perspective rather than an insular, gamer’s point of view. What do games do for the human experience, and what happened when that grenade rolled down the hill in Far Cry 2? The podcast’s intro tune, a passionate chanting of ‘video games’ building up to a crescendo, has become the promise that smart and irreverent gaming commentary is on its way. The Kickstarter’s overwhelming success has ensured that it will remain so for at least the coming years. So sayeth the Wizard.

Roderick Leeuwenhart, March 2012

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‘Wache’, Idle Thumbs’ one-time semi-mascot

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Chris Remo, also known as Remo Extremo, Chris Remo Action News or simply Boost

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That was great, nice work Rodi! I think this should go up on a corner of the front-end site somewhere.

Only a brief mention of Idle Forums though? I guess they would need their own potted history; it will only take 70 posts and need to be written in some kind of Lovecraftian cipher.

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Fantastic read, thanks Rodi!

And yeah, it deserves a spot on the site someplace.

Edited by castorp
stupid comma

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Oh!

I was planning on writing a MetaFilter post about Idle Thumbs once the Kickstarter campaign is over, can I link to this post?

ANYONE ELSE ON METAFILTER READING THIS, I HAVE ALREADY CLAIMED IDLE THUMBS FOR A POST. DO NOT GANK. THANKS.

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ANYONE ELSE ON METAFILTER READING THIS, I HAVE ALREADY CLAIMED IDLE THUMBS FOR A POST. DO NOT GANK. THANKS.

No worries from me. I am too lazy for ganking.

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:pwned: Extremo. (callbacks are appropriate here, right?)

I cannot look at Vans shoes without being reminded of Remo Extremo. :tmeh:

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Man. As someone who came into this forum when the podcast died a second time, I feel like there's a ton I missed out on. I mean sure there's archived stuffs, but being there for the moment is better than looking at things in hindsight.

But now I have to know. What is the significance behind Remo's shoes?

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Man. As someone who came into this forum when the podcast died a second time, I feel like there's a ton I missed out on. I mean sure there's archived stuffs, but being there for the moment is better than looking at things in hindsight.

But now I have to know. What is the significance behind Remo's shoes?

You might find this to be helpful reference: http://old.idlethumbs.net/display.php?id=28 (Sorry Chris)

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An excellenty enjoyable read, Rodi! :tup:

I seem to recall the Extremo shoes laying part-waste to another Thumb's flat at some point... :shifty:

Edited by Wrestlevania
name-checked entirely the wrong person. #whatadick

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I'm pretty sure he kicked down the banister at Spaff and Yufster's place. I may be wrong, but I remember a picture of a guilty looking Remo standing next to a messed up staircase.

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I'm pretty sure he kicked down the banister at Spaff and Yufster's place. I may be wrong, but I remember a picture of a guilty looking Remo standing next to a messed up staircase.

It was the then-home of Thumbs Ben Andac and Lawrence Bishop, in fact!

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It was the then-home of Thumbs Ben Andac and Lawrence Bishop, in fact!

Shit, I gotta put this in, this is history gold we're mining here.

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Didn't a hapless chair get destroyed by a Senior Thumb at some point also..?

We need complete and accurate documentation of all Thumb wanton destruction.

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Didn't a hapless chair get destroyed by a Senior Thumb at some point also..?

We need complete and accurate documentation of all Thumb wanton destruction.

Yes. In Idle Thumbs 7: Stop Doing Interviews. Steve "Hot Scoops" Gaynor's chair, which was really a table, broke. In that thread, there is also a picture of Chris' stair breaker.

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