Jake Posted January 22, 2015 Idle Thumbs 194: A Grave Ghost The match is about to start, the anticipation so thick you can see it in the air. Dust2, of course. You strap on your MicroSoft HoloLens (Pimple edition, bought new) and scan the crowded auditorium. Aimbots found: Six. Wallhacks: Eighteen. You're not sure why you even came. You put the device back in its huge carrying sack and go home to manage your fake baseball team. Things Discussed: Microsoft Windows 10, Microsoft HoloLens, Super Mega Baseball, The Uncle That Works For Nintendo, Nintendo 3DS XL (2015), The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D, Gravity Ghost, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 Listen on the Episode Page Listen on Soundcloud Listen in iTunes Subscribe to the RSS Feed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patrick R Posted January 22, 2015 Speaking of Majora's Mask being creepy, it is the setting for the scariest Creepypasta I have ever read (outside of Pale Luna), BEN Drowned. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tegan Posted January 22, 2015 I can't believe that Jake and Danielle didn't take Sean's "isn't there already a 3DS XL?' to clarify that the new Nintendo 3DS XL is actually fucking called that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted January 22, 2015 My brain rejects that name every time I see it, so I didn't think to say anything on the cast. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
juv3nal Posted January 22, 2015 Speaking of uncles who worked at nintendo, my folks rented a house out to the Arakawas when they were in Vancouver and I had the same babysitter as their two daughters. They even had us out to their mansion in Bellevue once after they left Vancouver. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elvaq Posted January 22, 2015 Oh man, I've been doing testing on Gravity Ghost for a little bit and (spoiler) it is really good! Hoping to hear more discussion on it next week as I think a few of the Thumbs would really get into it. The story is also told in a pretty interesting way, piecemeal and out of order (but it totally works). Relaxing fun times Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sclpls Posted January 22, 2015 Oh yeah, I remember watching the developer of Gravity Ghost stream the game a month or so ago, and it looked rad. Happy to hear more favorable impressions for something that looked so interesting and promising. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eRonin Posted January 22, 2015 Speaking of cheating in professional eSports, I was surprised there was no mention of what is probably the biggest case to date: the 2010 Brood War match fixing scandal. Several high profile players (including Savior, considered by many to be the greatest Zerg player of the mid-2000s) were guilty of throwing matches to fix bets. It caused a drastic reduction in popularity of Brood War as a professional eSport (and StarCraft in general in Korea), and the Korean eSports governing body, KeSPA, punished those involved severely for it, including life-time bans, prison sentences, and fines. Fortunately around this time, StarCraft II was released, which deflected attention from the controversy as new leagues were propped up by other organisations. Brood War continued to be played professionally on a large scale for a couple of years until eventually the top Brood War players switched over to playing StarCraft II full-time. Had SCII not been released that year, I think the impact would have been much larger. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gormongous Posted January 22, 2015 "I don't think there's a way to come back from the early days of your sport being rife with a bunch of childish cheaters, and expecting anyone to ever take it seriously." I get what Sean's saying here, but I immediately thought of the Black Sox. That hardly killed baseball, even at the peak of the dead-ball era, and from what we can tell once baseball became better documented, it was only the tip of an iceberg of cheating, almost too widespread ever to be called out. People kept watching and the culture slowly changed, that's all. I know e-sports are different, but I also think society is remarkably forgiving of any competitive activity wherein cheaters are able to prosper, so long as there is punishment when they are caught and there are legitimate players with which to juxtapose them. EDIT: Okay, Jake talks later about institutions "getting burned" before they understand the public trust of viewership, if that's the idea then I agree with the rest being said. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Henroid Posted January 22, 2015 ... I'm just now starting to listen to this episode but what the hell is the "New Nintendo 3DS XL" and what does it have over the regular 3DS XL because I just bought one a month ago. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
juv3nal Posted January 22, 2015 ... I'm just now starting to listen to this episode but what the hell is the "New Nintendo 3DS XL" and what does it have over the regular 3DS XL because I just bought one a month ago. oof I feel for ya, "we've" known about it since august. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Merus Posted January 22, 2015 ... I'm just now starting to listen to this episode but what the hell is the "New Nintendo 3DS XL" and what does it have over the regular 3DS XL because I just bought one a month ago. Basically it's got a better processor, more buttons and a little analog nub for Monster Hunter, and they improved the 3D screen to do head tracking so the 3D doesn't go wobbly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
juv3nal Posted January 22, 2015 also apparently nintendo is letting devs make titles that wont even run on the older 3ds, although I think the only confirmed example of that is the xenoblade port. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuperBiasedMan Posted January 22, 2015 Coming Christmas 2015: The New 3DS XL One Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Problem Machine Posted January 22, 2015 Rubbing in the cheese tease Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Problem Machine Posted January 22, 2015 Yes I'm comfortable with how creepy that sounds out of context. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
syntheticgerbil Posted January 22, 2015 Thanks Jake, now I'm hyped for Grim Fandango as well and feel like I need to put a PS4 on a credit card to play it but... But there's no reason to hurry, I have played this game like 12 times! (And no I'm not getting it on Steam or GOG.) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jake Posted January 22, 2015 Why not on steam or GOG? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zerofiftyone Posted January 22, 2015 Rubbing in the cheese tease I was so excited and then immediately so let down. You guys are just rubbing salt in the cheese wound. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badfinger Posted January 22, 2015 You guys say "ocarina" weird! That's not meant to be critical it just... filled up my whole brain when you said it. Also Pete Rose TOTALLY bet on his own team. It has been impressed on me, with baseball people who are way smarter than me, that him betting on his own team to win when he was the manager has large repercussions over an entire season. If you are betting on yourselves to win every day in a game where the best teams ever lose 40% of their games, you are doing irrational things to try to win beyond what you should be doing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cordeos Posted January 22, 2015 The baseball team of all women with beer guts and beards reminded me of a team I build in some version of NBA 2k for dreamcast. Physical traits had no effect on ability in that game, so I made a team of max height and either the minimum or maximum weight, essentially football linebackers and spaghetti noodles. Because the game was designed around the standard basketball player sizes, the larger players would sort of merge if they were too close together. Later I added some extremely short players which made the game hard because I couldn't see them behind my sumo wrestler players. Good times. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
syntheticgerbil Posted January 22, 2015 Why not on steam or GOG? In general I don't like to play games on my PC if I can avoid it since it's kind office work time around it. Plus consoles allow me to play in my living room and hang out with my wife. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jennegatron Posted January 22, 2015 Does anyone have a link to what Sean wrote about quitting the NFL? I have been seriously considering it especially since the official lock out a couple years ago, and his argument will make me at the very least justify sticking with it to myself. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Roswell47 Posted January 22, 2015 I think it's kind of odd to dismiss an entire competitive scene because of one or two incidents. Even weirder is thinking it's dead at birth when CSGO is getting about the same numbers that Dota2 did two years ago and CSGO only got popular last year. Sean, I don't know how much you're following the pro Dota2 scene these days but just last year two teams got caught match-fixing. Notably, one of the teams was Arrow Gaming. You can also just Google the seemingly innocuous number '322'. I don't really get comparing cheating in a video game to cheating in live sports when it's so much easier to cheat in a video game and there's very rarely any legal repercussions. The 2010 Brood War kerfuffle in South Korea is the only one I can think of that has gone to court. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
melmer Posted January 22, 2015 Oh no you didn't! You gouda be kidding me Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
