Jake

Idle Thumbs 120: The Spectacle Was Incredible

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Idle Thumbs 120:

 

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The Spectacle Was Incredible

How many explorers does it take to escape a haunted cave? Clearly far fewer than we packed into our 4 player Spelunky co-op run. Nick and Sean are let back in the room even if it's to talk about The International, the fascinating history of The Bureau is discussed, and for some reason Ace Ventura 2 continues to occupy space in the brains of human beings.

 

Games Discussed: Gone Home, Dota 2, Spelunky, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, X-COM: Enemy Unknown (2010), XCOM, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, Duke Nukem Forever

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Talking about music in Gome Home. I really cannot recall any music besides the riot girl tapes...

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Talking about music in Gome Home. I really cannot recall any music besides the riot girl tapes...

 

There's a bunch of ambient music and diary background music. I think the default sound mix in GH may have the music a bit too soft, actually.

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"Video games" should be caled "computer games" because a virtual reality beamed straight into your brain wouldn't have any video in it but computer games will always need a computer no matter what 

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Does "XCOM" refer to the original X-COM? If it does, it should be X-COM, not XCOM. The way you can tell X-COM from XCOM is the dash.

It refers to the canceled product which preceded The Bureau, which was called "XCOM."

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"Joel" Hayward here. Name's Joey, actually. 

In short, yes, it was more a contemplative than suggestive thing I was talking about. Like I said, the term is going to become effectively meaningless.

I brought it up largely because there's a lot of people on the internet that are hating on Gone Home because it's "not a game". Whether they actually believe that or are incorrectly assuming that's why they didn't like it, I don't know. I just think it's telling about the place that games have come from and where they're going that the reaction of some people is to immediately backlash against games that do things differently.

Also, like I said it's fairly navel-gazey, so I didn't expect the question to actually air.

Thanks for reading my mail, though!

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How sad, we broke the Crusader Kings II streak! I'm looking forward to hearing Sean's thoughts on it in the future, at least.

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Much like «movie» is today a common word for the medium that nobody laughs when they hear because it sounds like a term some clever salesman came up with in 1906, I think «video game» will become the term for all sorts of interactive video entertainment, which, by the way, will be the term that corresponds to «film» in the year 2050. Anyway, what it's being called is also probably among the least important things to worry about for the people working in it. Not to say it's not an interesting thing to discuss, but I have the impression some people feel there's a lot to be gained in terms of gaining acceptance for the medium by giving it a different name, which I don't think is the case.

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Certainly. Mediums don't get named in hindsight. The perception of it though is still affected by what its name is, which is why you may not be a shouty 14-year old Call of Dutyer but if you tell someone "I play video games" they may still think that. 

 

Also oh god I seemed to have made everyone on the Thumb crew angry.

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i have just always thought the term video games sounded old fashioned because i am a lifelong star trek fan and calling the games in the holodeck video games just seemed wrong, and yes the games in the holodeck are games just like gone home is a game

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Oh yeah, I'm always ashamed to say I play video games; people nod and smile and act like I just told them I like reading books, watching movies or listening to music but you can see it in their eyes.

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It could be worse, you could be bogged down in a "hip-hop vs. rap" kind of nonsensical semantical nightmare. "This isn't a video game, it's an INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE."

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"Holo-program".

I'll probably not live long enough to see that in my life and that bums me out.

You could just shorten "hologram program" to "holo-program" to "holo-gram" and pretend you have seen it because holograms exist (in limited fashion).

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"Holo-program".

I'll probably not live long enough to see that in my life and that bums me out.

 lol "holo-program" is like the manufacturers technical name for it, what about "the game" what is that? it is just easier to call them all "computer games"

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interactive digital entertainment experience, or IDEE for short (which is Dutch for Idea)

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 lol "holo-program" is like the manufacturers technical name for it, what about "the game" what is that? it is just easier to call them all "computer games"

lologram

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