Roderick

Three Moves Ahead joins Idle Thumbs

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So, I just read the press release at the front of the site about Three Moves Ahead becoming part of the 'Idle Thumbs family' and I'm entirely happy about that. 3MA is the only other podcast I regularly listen to, as it's filled with deep insights into strategy gaming. I might not play those games a lot myself, but it's such fun listening to it.

:tup:

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I also regularly listen to 3MA - if you have any interest in strategy games I highly recommend tuning in. It's one of the best gaming podcasts I know. :tup:

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To me this is fantastic news. Quality of content wise, these are the two best podcasts going.

http://www.idlethumbs.net/ has some of their featured episodes, but as a listener since the jump I'd also like to point out Episode 22 (sports strategy games), Episode 27 (a fairly combative interview of Lock N Load's developer) and Episode 81 (postmortem with Brad Wardell focused on Elemental...fascinating interview after the horrendous launch of that failed title).

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This is slightly confusing, but I feel congratulations are no less in order.

Congratulations. :tup:

I shall now ingratiate myself fully by downloading 3MA's Alpha Centauri casted pod forthwith.

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My only wish is that they could also have acquired GiantBomb.

And forced them to produce nothing but Persona playthroughs.

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I just signed on to this forum, because I heard that 3MA will be getting a dedicated subforum here.

I guess I should probably give this Idle Thumbs thing a listen, now that I'm here. :)

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This is just incredible news. Three Moves Ahead was my first gaming podcast (after I promised myself never to listen to a gaming podcast) and is a perfect complement to Thumbs. Maybe it'll encourage Jake & Scoops will try some PC games. Congrats, all.

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This is the first I've heard of them. In what capacity are they joining Idle Thumbs? Are they going to simply host their content alongside our familiar thumbs or are they going to be a part of the core podcast now?

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Three Moves Ahead is how I first heard of Idle Thumbs, when Chris was on the pod to talk about Starcraft 2. It's an excellent podcast with many incredibly smart people.

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I've only listened to a couple of their podcasts after plugs on Idle Thumbs. This could be interesting. I'm particularly interested in the introduction of a specific forum.

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This is the first I've heard of them. In what capacity are they joining Idle Thumbs? Are they going to simply host their content alongside our familiar thumbs or are they going to be a part of the core podcast now?

Great question. We're going to be hosting 3MA and when the site relaunches they'll have their own dedicated show page designed by us (which is a statement that will actually make sense when you see the new site). Basically, think of what we have now but with a flexible enough design to support things like the Book Cast and, now, Three Moves Ahead.

Rob and Troy own and will continue to own their cast and Chris, Jake and I will digest their content the same way we always have -- when it hits the RSS feed. We just want to give them a home where they don't have to worry about community infrastructure and hosting costs because we're big fans and feel like our podcasts are wonderful compliments to each other. Hopefully you all agree!

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I am fully in support of this idea. Especially if it means a new forum sub suddenly crops up and I'm inundated with crazy strategy games to try and discuss.

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Have they podblasted about Hero Academy? Because that is the only strategy I care about right now.

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I'd be interested to hear them speak about Hero Academy too, though I think the game is a little on the light side for them. To be sure, there's a lot of tactics in Hero Academy, but it doesn't run infinitely deep. Which, to me, is part of the charm (playing by the seat of your pants is a valid option), but for them might be less so.

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I've heard great things about Hero Academy, though unfortunately not THIS Hero Academy:

http://hero-academy.com/

Yay for internet searches. Looking forward to welcoming the Three Moves Ahead community, though honestly I don't play a lot of strategy. Maybe I can finally go back to Shogun 2 and post about it.

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HOLY FUCKING SHIT I've started listening to these guys, and they're excellent! When I first heard about this I was like "lol wahtever" but now I'm super stoked bro.

For example, the Alpha Centauri one is great, and the Jagged Alliance one is even better!

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Great question. We're going to be hosting 3MA and when the site relaunches they'll have their own dedicated show page designed by us (which is a statement that will actually make sense when you see the new site). Basically, think of what we have now but with a flexible enough design to support things like the Book Cast and, now, Three Moves Ahead.

Rob and Troy own and will continue to own their cast and Chris, Jake and I will digest their content the same way we always have -- when it hits the RSS feed. We just want to give them a home where they don't have to worry about community infrastructure and hosting costs because we're big fans and feel like our podcasts are wonderful compliments to each other. Hopefully you all agree!

Best way to get me to check out a new podcast. "Oh new buttons on site, must push." Though I'll probably go check out their latest episode right now to prepare my body for the official merging.

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I'm happy about this. Quartertothree is a pretty grognardy place, and I know there has been discussion on Troy's blog, but it will be awesome for them to have a real home of their own. They're an interesting group, I hope for awkward forced crossovers between the two casts. Wherein Jake plays War in The East and Bruce plays Pikmin.

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I hadn't listened to Three Moves Ahead before, but I just did and it's great! The Alpha Centauri one, as recommended by others too, was awesome even to someone like me who doesn't play a lot of strategy games and hasn't played any Civ games for longer than demo-length (I own Civ 4 though).

The one with Martin Wallace was also really interesting. It was probably the first time I've consumed an interview with a board game designer, as I only got into board games recently, so it was great to hear some about how they think.

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Thanks for the kind words, guys. We're very happy to be a part of the new whatever this is.

When Sean asked for sample podcasts to highlight it was not easy, since the show has changed quite a bit in its run. We elected to stick with shows that reflect a lot of what we are now, though I am very proud of many of the theme shows we did in our first year: Religion, Strategy Gender Gap (Lara and Jenn have each returned many times since), The Snowball Effect in strategy game design... As a show we like to pick one topic (maybe two) and stick with them, and this is what we thinks set us apart in the early going. That will not change.

Anyway, there is a mostly up to date list on my blog at the moment, but it's kind of hideous, so anything the Idle Thumbs team to make it look less like a list and more like a piece of magic, the better. We're looking forward to having a proper forum where our listeners can plan MP games, talk about stuff they've discovered and remind us how stupid we can all be.

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I think it's quite ironic. Three moves ahead, but beaten to the punch by idle thumbs ;)

I guess that sounded better in my head.

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Thanks for the kind words, guys. We're very happy to be a part of the new whatever this is.

When Sean asked for sample podcasts to highlight it was not easy, since the show has changed quite a bit in its run. We elected to stick with shows that reflect a lot of what we are now, though I am very proud of many of the theme shows we did in our first year: Religion, Strategy Gender Gap (Lara and Jenn have each returned many times since), The Snowball Effect in strategy game design... As a show we like to pick one topic (maybe two) and stick with them, and this is what we thinks set us apart in the early going. That will not change.

Anyway, there is a mostly up to date list on my blog at the moment, but it's kind of hideous, so anything the Idle Thumbs team to make it look less like a list and more like a piece of magic, the better. We're looking forward to having a proper forum where our listeners can plan MP games, talk about stuff they've discovered and remind us how stupid we can all be.

Chris pointed me to the Religion episode last week and it's fantastic.

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