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Jake

Idle Thumbs 124: Blockbuster Black Case

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Idle Thumbs 124:

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Blockbuster Black Case

Nick falls into a created world - a world both more real and more horrible than our own - from which he may not return. He is lost to us now, reachable only from within the rift, in his virtual dream state. Chris is lost as well, but it's in the intricate workings of an iPad app about Beethoven.

Games Discussed: Oculus Rift, Polo, Soccer, Burn:Cycle, Godus, Where is my Heart?, Superhot, Beethoven's 9th

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I feel like Nick was actually not a huge asshole, but constant Nick-bashing for 4 years as a joke has made him legitimately just the weirdest dude who dreams of argodale.

 

Also is Chris' bostonfig keynote available anywhere?

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I'm not sure where you were looking on the internet, but "the sport of kings" is not polo, it's thoroughbred horse racing.

 is the sport of kings.

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think Sean sold card Hunter a bit short. There's no actual energy mechanic in the game. The weapons that needed "energy" actually need Power Tokens, which you get when you level up. It's a mechanic to force you to choose which and how many awesome items you want to have, not to make you pay to use the weapons. The only thing you *need* to buy with real money are the 11 new adventures, but I look at that more as DLC than F2P, really. The treasure chests and club memberships are completely skippable, and IMHO actually ruin the game for you if you go for them. Less loot hunting.

 

The costumes are meh. cosmetics

 

Promising he's not a shill for the gamely yours

Astro

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Like Chris, I had also never heard of Maniac Mansion as a kid and thus had no idea Day of the Tentacle was a sequel.  As a side note to that, I recently replayed DotT.  Still a really good game.

 

In regard to the Gone Home era, the narrative would have been very different if it had taken place in the present.  The relative social isolation of Sam and Lonnie in Gone Home plays a big part in their story and relationship, something that would have taken a different form if they had access to Facebook, Twitter, cell phones, etc.  I think Steve said one of the reasons the game takes place when it does is the lack of cell phones because then Sam could have simply called Katie instead of leaving the much more intimate journal entries.

 

Also, did you guys get the replacement candy?

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Greatly enjoyed the background "Ford Force" as Nick uttered "Blockbuster Black Case".

 

Was that added in post or was it an instinctive Snooglebum reference for the second episode in a row?

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I haven't listened yet, but based on the description, I think it's worth posting this Burn:Cycle promo for everyone's enjoyment:

 

 

I got stuck pretty early on not knowing what I was supposed to be doing.

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I loved the Monty Python-level of randomness in this episode. It's something I loved from the earlier 'casts.

 

This is an odd sidebar: has Chris played Dota 2? I can't see him getting into the game with Sean, because the second they try to play against people, the matchmaking will probably rocket to a level that would make the game very unfulfilling for a new player.

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Alternate episode title: Bend it Like Breckon

Aww man, this is going to be the new "Bogost in the Shell"

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I loved the Monty Python-level of randomness in this episode. It's something I loved from the earlier 'casts.

 

This is an odd sidebar: has Chris played Dota 2? I can't see him getting into the game with Sean, because the second they try to play against people, the matchmaking will probably rocket to a level that would make the game very unfulfilling for a new player.

 

Chris always says he doesn't want to devote the time it'd take to get good. But then he goes and plays 600 hours of Spelunky, so I think he's basically just a baby.

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I feel like the learning curve distribution for a game like Spelunky is way better than DOTA2. Just sayin'

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Both Spelunky and Dota have a reputation that they require a huge 100 hour committment or you shouldn't bother with them.   It's silly.  I enjoyed both from minute one and am not particularly good at either.

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I am super surprised that none of you guys have heard of Ursula Leguin. Pretty important science fiction writer. Some really incisive stuff about cultural power dynamics, gender and sexual identity, etc. Basically science fiction written from an anthropologist, rather than technologist, perspective.

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I am super surprised that none of you guys have heard of Ursula Leguin. Pretty important science fiction writer. Some really incisive stuff about cultural power dynamics, gender and sexual identity, etc. Basically science fiction written from an anthropologist, rather than technologist, perspective.

 

I don't think any of the Thumbs are really into genre stuff, even super-smart genre stuff like LeGuin or the like. It bums me out, sometimes.

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Studio Ghibli also made a movie based on a series she wrote, Tales from Earthsea.

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Studio Ghibli also made a movie based on a series she wrote, Tales from Earthsea.

 

And it is incredibly, unwatchably boring.

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The first like 30% of this episode is just everyone interrupting each other. It's great.

 

Unrelated to virtually anything in the podcast: those Blockbuster cases are sort of seen as collector's items now. I know the Virtual Boy ones pop up on ebay from time to time.

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The first like 30% of this episode is just everyone interrupting each other. It's great.

 

Unrelated to virtually anything in the podcast: those Blockbuster cases are sort of seen as collector's items now. I know the Virtual Boy ones pop up on ebay from time to time.

 

The beginning 30% of this podcast is pretty great.

 

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Nick's MMOGG ("massively multiplayer online god game," just say "mog" really slowly for full effect) already exists. It's called Archlord and it came out in 2006. I know this because it had maybe my favorite tagline for a review: "You probably shouldn't play Archlord." Suffice to say, it wasn't very good. Becoming the archlord required the backing of at least one of the huge guilds in the game and tons of grinding, so the joy of being a supreme being was undermined by the incredible fear that anyone could take it away if you upset or bored them.

 

And wow, it's still going on, I guess? Free to play, of course.

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