Idle Thumbs 169: On Blade

[Ben X]

I think "incongruous" is the best description so far - I didn't think the ad was "weird" as in bizarre and it didn't make me feel "uncomfortable", but it certainly was noticeable as with the LootCrate ads that the Thumbs aren't enthused about it. It's thereby less entertaining as well, but putting up with that for 1 minute of the podcast is no big shakes for me.

 

I'd definitely be curious to know what would happen if a Thumb had played WoT and thought it was awful and really wanted to talk about it...

[atte]

If Danielle or Nick think we're doing something totally dumb we will hear it.

At the very end though a drone with an animatronic Steve Gaynor face flies in and says "Good" in Bruce(high quality) voice.

[melmer]

[Twig]

ahahaha oh shit I was not expecting that

[feelthedarkness]

Oh man, if it's Loudmouth Spout Off time:

 

I don't think it's particularly weird, and I don't expect the crew to have to personally vouch for any product. That's a little onerous to expect these people to take some personal responsibility for a handful of products outside their normal purview. Obviously they can bring a more tangible enthusiasm to things they use and truly endorse.

 

I'm sure we have all disagreed with the hosts opinions on games before, so their liking or not liking something shouldn't automatically preclude your interest.

 

I know they will exercise the obvious due diligence of "no hateful material" or what have you.  

[clyde]

The hypothetical situation I enjoy considering is Roberts Space Industries becoming the sole sponsor of the show. 

[Brannigan]

I could only hope that they would send them a box of samples to try out!

They did make lube for maxfun donors, high level donors actually got a box of sex toys if I remember right.

[Bjorn]

They did make lube for maxfun donors, high level donors actually got a box of sex toys if I remember right.

 

Cross promotional Idle Thumbs sex toys. 

 

THIS IS A GOOD IDEA!

 

 

And probably very creepy.

[tegan]

Idle Fists.

[Sean]

I think the fact that we actually LIKE Naturebox and Hover and Squarespace (and even ol' Shari's Berries) is really the thing here. My favorite podcast is the Slate Political Gabfest and they have a bunch of ads but do them incredibly professionally/straight, never giving their personal opinions but always with official "this is an ad" energy.  I think Ben is probably right in that it's the incongruous nature of WoT and Loot Crate that is the issue -- we clearly don't have strong feelings (I actually don't think Loot Crate is a good product now that they've sent us a few... which I probably shouldn't say, but if they were to buy more ad spots we would reject them).  SO I guess the good news is that we're really bad at lying/being insincere on the pod, which I suppose is good for you guys. 

[Salacious Snake]

 SO I guess the good news is that we're really bad at lying/being insincere on the pod, which I suppose is good for you guys. 

 

There is something to be said for that. I appreciate that you guys are sharing your thoughts about this stuff.

 

On the other hand, in the words of Doug, Ramiro and Arthur (and the guy in the back, sorry man):

 

[Bjorn]

Idle Fists.

 

[CaptainFish]

Clearly the solution is to do all ad reads as Brad Reads.

[osmosisch]

Weird is enough of a reason to not do the reads, in my opinion. I'll wait for some sort of official "we are not doing game ads," decision between Jake and Chris and I, but if something is even a little weird/alienating on the cast then I don't think it has any place.  Ads *do* pay pretty well or we wouldn't do them but there is zero amount of money we're comfortable taking if the feedback is "i didn't hate it but it was weird."  The truth is it was weird for US and it caused a big gut check.

I'm just glad my response wasn't unique or, itself, weird. The very fact that you guys are so good about this sort of thing is what made it stand out to me.

[Sean]

Yeah we're pretty much the best. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fart sound.

[Polish Hill]

One read I actually enjoyed was for Hulu Plus.  I've used the service in the past and wasn't particularly pleased with it so when it come up on some podcasts I was interested in how the ad would go.  Lo and behold the Criterion Collection was emphasized and that is something I totally missed during my time with it.  So yea, if at all possible those ad reads where you all have opinions that can be shared seem to be the best.  

 

None of the Thumbs have dogs do they?  How can they tap into some of that hot Bark Box money?  With some minor tweaking I'm sure we could get Jake's pig noise to double as a Beagle noise.

[tegan]

One read I actually enjoyed was for Hulu Plus.  I've used the service in the past and wasn't particularly pleased with it so when it come up on some podcasts I was interested in how the ad would go.  Lo and behold the Criterion Collection was emphasized and that is something I totally missed during my time with it.  So yea, if at all possible those ad reads where you all have opinions that can be shared seem to be the best.

 

I secretly resent the Hulu Plus reads because Hulu isn't available in Canada. OnO

[SuperBiasedMan]

The hypothetical situation I enjoy considering is Roberts Space Industries becoming the sole sponsor of the show. 

 

If they did that I'd really hope the Thumbs suddenly become massively Pro Star Citizen and reject any possible criticism of it.

 

 

I secretly resent the Hulu Plus reads because Hulu isn't available in Canada. OnO

 

Same, and Naturebox isn't available here either.

 

...I probably shouldn't be letting myself spend money on it anyway.

[tegan]

Clearly the solution is to do all ad reads as Brad Reads.

 

hey small businessman

[Spenny]

Same, and Naturebox isn't available here either.

 

and Loot Crate is twice as expensive!

[CaptainFish]

hey small businessman

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I was stuck at the Post Office. 

[missingpiece]

GEOFFREY, OF THE HOUSE GIRAFFEON!

Had to get that out there.  I'm so upset nobody made that play on words.

Also, just read the Transistor review.  I can't remember the last time someone made me do a complete 180 on my opinion on anything.  Wonderfully written, thanks for making me hate a game I loved, ya' jerk!

[tegan]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I was stuck at the Post Office. 

 

[Bjorn]

Also, just read the Transistor review.  I can't remember the last time someone made me do a complete 180 on my opinion on anything.  Wonderfully written, thanks for making me hate a game I loved, ya' jerk!

 

I hadn't actually read Chick's review.  It's rare that I find myself disagreeing with almost every single sentence in a review.  Well, except two.  I think I wholeheartedly agreed with 2 sentences in that (that it's silly you can't review your loadout on the fly, even if changes are only available at checkpoints).  It seems to be a whole lot of words to explain that 1) it's not Bastion and 2) that it didn't engage him on the levels he expected it to.  Also, it's really hard for me to agree with someone's sentiment that a game did not hold his hand enough, that it requires you play with systems to learn rather than explains everything. 

[twmac]

It was a great e-mail!

 

How do you do quality control for a Spongebob video?

 

Sorry I've been working and sleeping for last 5 days.

 

Well I didn't do the cert testing on the Spongebob videos but the requirements for GBA are actually about three paragraphs long and go pretty much like this:

 

"Make sure the button icons are good and the game better not crash"

 

So certing that would have been a doddle, that and Nintendo would have been utterly bewildered by the things.

 

To add to the WoT criticism - I definitely fall into the camp of "please don't do it for any games, even ones you like". Everything else, even the lootcrate one was fine as it didn't really infringe on your topics of discussion.

 

I also support you guys getting a nappy sponsor.