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Sean

Idle Thumbs 151: A Fascinating Experience

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Also, "doge" is supposed to be pronounced "doggie," but I've always said it as "dohje" because it's inherently funnier.

 

Fear does not exist in this doge.

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I'm a little miffed that you apologized for getting Mayumi's gender wrong but never said anything about getting mine wrong when I wrote in.

Also, "doge" is supposed to be pronounced "doggie," but I've always said it as "dohje" because it's inherently funnier.

Also also, you have convinced me to watch a movie about Dota.

Also also also, I think Google Glass is cool. :getmecoat

We're the worst in all ways ;(

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Firstly: The intro song is incredible. I had planned and planned and planned to record my voice, and then never got a quiet room and the time to really warm up (hmm thinking about putting in too much effort and actually not putting in enough) and then said "oh I bet he's done now". It's amazing, so well done.

 

 

Second: THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT DOGE 2048. The fact that you have to reinterpret the tiles as numbers and/or learn the new patterns is fascinating. The fact that it's a silly doge meme just means that people who like silly memes have been indoctrinated into actually thinking and learning an interesting conversion system. I'm really glad that someone who can actually articulate it brought it up.

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Sean has lately become what Jake was around episode 37-39 or so, a weird obstructionist playfully chaotic force, except you guys are all way better at podcasting now than then, so it's way more enjoyable. 

LOVED this episode. Wept that I wasn't able to record my voice track in time to get on that sweet new intro.

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I would like to point out that myriad is both a noun and a adjective. "A myriad of reasons" and "myriad reasons" are both valid uses of the word.

 

Video games.

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The part about hating on Google Glass wearers had me in stitches, because the way Chris describes it is exactly how I feel about it.

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I'll preface this by saying I've played almost no DOTA 2 but do listen to DOTA Today.  Also, I'm probably a terrible critic.

 

Free To Play was enjoyable and while I think it did a good job of exploring the various reactions family members could have to the idea of a professional gaming career it seemed to ignore many other topics.  I agree with Sean that it did a great job of showing how big the prize pool of the International was compared to other competitions.  And while I can't recall the someday it will be bigger than the NFL comparisons my guess is its probably just framing a statistic like we often get with more niche sports (MLS attendance is larger than the NBA and NHL).  

 

It certainly didn't read like an advertisement because while the Source cinematic stuff was interesting and the money is cool some of those guys come off as broken.  The player with the girlfriend storyline was just depressing not to mention the fact that the film talks about Fear as being the old guard and also has a quote from someone saying a career at 27/28 is pretty much not viable.  And his team finished 7th.

 

It may not translate into the narrative the documentary was trying to build but I wish they would have examined the training or how a casual player becomes a professional.  We got a glimpse of how Dendi's piano playing might have helped his work on the keyboard but that was short.  Even if these players are doing full 12 hour days just in the game it feels like there has to be something more, how do they strategize or what sets the teams apart?  The Chinese team had some aura but they never delve into how or why that's different and the concept of teams of a single nationality versus mixed are only briefly mentioned.

 

Overall it was interesting and as someone with a vague understanding of the game I enjoyed it but it seemed like it could have been more.  Give me a summary of the players earning potential or talk about sponsors.  Maybe even look at the controversy possible when dealing with young adults that don't have much or any PR training?  But yea, Free to Play.

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YES I know that this is a thing that people who make podcasts hate, but

 

The girl with the pigtails is identified as Ms. Mora Grissom, and the controllers they use to play SMB3 are real weird:

 

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Not NES Advantages, but close? Here's a picture of Mora mid-game for scale

 

Also, it's real great when the show suddenly gets into pop culture potpourri mode. The interstitial segment on Downton Abbey + Ninja Turtles + PHP was particularly fantastic. 

 

ALSO PT II, I just want to appreciate the Quadrilateral Cowboy trailer from last year. Just fantastic.

 

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I think part of Free to Play that most caught my attention was HyHy's struggle. While Dendi's history is certainly a tough one, it is still something in his past and thus less dramatic because its a static event, where as HyHy's problems were very much of the present, and not only that very much of his own making. 

HyHy felt like the player who had the biggest choices to make outside the game and the biggest consequences to those choice.

 

Overall it seemed to give a good overview of the type of stories and drama that occur in pro gaming, but without ever taking a deep dive on those stories it presented which was frustrating.

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I would absolutely love to have the new theme song as a separate track. I love the fullness of the sound: the electric organ, the rad drums, the horns and the choir give it such a body. How many people fit into that choir, by the way? And how many of them are forumites?

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My dad bought an NES advantage, and when using a regular Nintendo controller would hold it upside down. He did that because he said you get a faster reaction time on the buttons using already built in muscle memory from two fingers than one thumb.

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My dad bought an NES advantage, and when using a regular Nintendo controller would hold it upside down. He did that because he said you get a faster reaction time on the buttons using already built in muscle memory from two fingers than one thumb.

"Claw" style grip (left hand thumb on d-pad, right hand index / middle / ring finger on face buttons) isn't unheard of in the fighting game community, but it's not particularly common. Like the NES Advantage, by the time people get that deep, they usually just use a fight stick.

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Oh he's probably right, and I have seen other people do it. I just clearly remember him doing that and the stated reason for it.

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Funny, I just stopped watching GB's quick look of Betrayer and my immediate reaction was hating a lot of it and having this kind of gross feeling.

 

So rolled into listening to the episode where it was discussed and Sean basically puts those feelings into words for a legitimate critique.

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I get the feeling I'd find the monochrome world extremely depressing. I get physically ill nowadays when I play something like Wolfenstein 3D, which is the bleakest, most colorless world in every way. Betrayer has the option to put the color back in, but it still seems and sounds so... sparse and morose.

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I get the feeling I'd find the monochrome world extremely depressing. I get physically ill nowadays when I play something like Wolfenstein 3D, which is the bleakest, most colorless world in every way.

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It's weird how like every single Google hardware move is towards a future that no one wants. It's like people that read a bunch of cyberpunk novels and didn't realize that the setting was like this horrible world.

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It's like people that read a bunch of cyberpunk novels and didn't realize that the setting was like this horrible world.

 

I think that's why cyberpunk is dying/dead/undead? The worlds of Gibson and Sterling are fucked beyond belief, but most fans of them think they're the coolest thing ever.

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I get the feeling I'd find the monochrome world extremely depressing. I get physically ill nowadays when I play something like Wolfenstein 3D, which is the bleakest, most colorless world in every way. Betrayer has the option to put the color back in, but it still seems and sounds so... sparse and morose.

It is sparse and morose, for the most part: the atmosphere is very similar to the STALKER games, for instance. But if it's the color you're worried about, the "bring the color back" slider works super well.

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