Jake

Idle Thumbs 167: And That's Why Skeletons Fart That Way

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Jesus did they hire a 12 year old to run their corporate twitter?

 

Aren't all corporate twitter accounts run by 20 something year old "social media experts"?

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in 1998 my brother and I started saving our allowances to buy a dreamcast, four controllers, games and a TV (We didn't have one because my parents didn't really want one). It was so hard saving for a year, but on 9/9/1999 we bought one with five launch titles. It was so amazing. I was so sad when the motor that spins discs in my dreamcast died years later.

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When the discussion of the guy playing Street Fighter with a PS1 controller came up, I somehow missed the first few seconds and wondered what this hilarious Stradivarius of controllers would be. I was imagining something with a lacquered wood finish or something equally ridiculous.

 

Also, this conversation was a great example of why I love Idle Thumbs, becase everyone immediately jumped to/ran with the conclusion that the guy goes by "Luffy" because he was some weird Eastern Bloc Art Haus guy and not that he just took the name of the stretchy guy from One Piece.

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I am a very old man and didn't find the beginners' stream for The International to be helpful.  The announcers were patient and enthusiastic, but hearing things like "this gives +10 armor" doesn't mean much when I don't know why Dota has armor in the first place.  If it's for the typical reasons, I couldn't tell if "plus ten" was a significant amount.

 

I am also still unable to "see" Dota.  I saw a big blob surrounded by smaller blobs move around a green-on-gray map.  Then suddenly an even bigger blob poofed into existence in front of the (player controlled?) big blob.  Smaller blobs surrounded the biggest blob.  If this was meant to be an attack I couldn't tell.

 

There was also a lot of switching in between characters, which I could only distinguish because the portrait at the bottom kept changing.  I had no idea what this map looked like overall or where people were headed.

 

Chris's statement that he expects to find this stream useful is probably true since he knows more about Dota.  But for me it felt like staring into several dirty lava lamps at once.

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I think it's almost impossible for someone who has never played Dota or knows literally nothing about Dota to be able to catch on no matter how Beginner Friendly the stream is.

 

Something like a slow-motion breakdown of an entire game after the fact, though, with frequent pauses and explanations could do it, maybe.

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Whoever is the person who designs video game male protagonists needs to stop with the extra cool dude layers:

 

vJS2fqo.jpg

 

Aiden Pierce has a jacket+orange lining + puffy mock turtleneck sweater + shirt + scruffy body hair + iconic cap

 

Sg5Zz8U.png

 

Infamous Second Son dude has jean jacket + cool dude punk vest + hoodie + Pacific Northwest Grunge © flannel + unruly hair + beanie

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Whoever is the person who designs video game male protagonists needs to stop with the extra cool dude layers:

 

480px-PenguinMarioPNG.png

Overalls + penguin suit + shirt + iconic cap.

 

(I'm going to assume that Mario isn't nude under his suits.  Dear questions at idlethumbs dot net: Is Mario nude under his suits?)

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(I'm going to assume that Mario isn't nude under his suits.  Dear questions at idlethumbs dot net: Is Mario nude under his suits?)

 

Under these clothes I'm naked.

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Whoever is the person who designs video game male protagonists needs to stop with the extra cool dude layers

 

They need to do this, it symbolises the different layers to the characters.

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Aiden's clothes in Watch_Dogs really bothered me. None of his outfits you could buy looked like something an actual human male would ever wear.

He's supposed to be a sneaky hacker but wears the most ridiculously cliche outfits, anyone could pick him out of a lineup

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He looks like how they dress the male mannequins at a clothing store. 

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I can't believe you all got through a discussion imagining a time traveling Spelunky, and no one mentioned its inspiration Spelunker.  It's obviously not the mind blowing experience that Spelunky would have been in the late 80s, but worth bringing up that Spelunky's direct progenitor is from that era.

 

Edited to add: Spelunker did inspire the same level of obsession of Spelunky for some people.  They guy who owned my local video rental store couldn't stop playing it, even though he didn't even get past the first room most of the time.  I used my allowance most weeks to rent one game for the weekend.  For months every time I went in, if the store was dead, he would be playing Spelunker on the little TV he kept behind the counter. 

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Spelunker is an iconic and beloved staple of the kusoge ("shitty game") genre in Japan, which is really fascinating to read about.

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So I am going to cop to not having read this thread (or even finished listening to the latest episode), but Jake & Chris' suggested Wire article has already been published, albeit over at the Daily Dot:

 

http://www.dailydot.com/geek/dash-con-controversy-tumblr/

 

It's a fascinating read and does a good job of curating the most relevant Tumblr and Twitter posts to make sense of the madness.

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gaymerx was AMAZING! I had a wonderful time there and never felt so comfortable in my life at a con.


I got to dress up in this cute sundress I've been DYING to wear but haven't because of the shit I get for being a not being a woman. I didn't get hassled or get into a fist fight and actually got complemented for what I was wearing!


Other than that I had a blast meeting new people, talking to cos-players and going to panels. 

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I love the total cheese cake look of the art in Dragon's Crown. I know the perception exists that all games are like this, but more now than ever this isn't really the case. Just like every game portraying women as hyper sexualized objects was bad for the medium, a video game industry where no cheese cake, no tittilation for tittilation's sake, exists also makes for a poorer medium.

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I can't believe you all got through a discussion imagining a time traveling Spelunky, and no one mentioned its inspiration Spelunker.  It's obviously not the mind blowing experience that Spelunky would have been in the late 80s, but worth bringing up that Spelunky's direct progenitor is from that era.

 

I was aware of Spelunker, but for some reason never played it, even in the wake of Spelunkymania. I should probably rectify that!

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Abyss Odyssey is still on sale for $9.99 through the Humble Store for the next 3 days if anyone is interested in picking it up.  The release date discount is already over on Steam for it.

 

I was also checking out its description, and had no idea of this feature:

 

Work as a community to defeat the final boss together. When the collective community of Abyss Odyssey players defeats the final boss enough times, his mask breaks to reveal a new identity. Each time this is achieved, new content will be unlocked in game, including new enemies and other dynamics. 

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