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Idle Thumbs 197: What Happened To Us

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What Happened To Us

This week on Idle Thumbs we talk about our crippling addiction to Destiny, our experiences in a recent AAA first person zombie survival game, and why Far Cry 2 might not be that great after all. What happened to us? We were joined by special guest, Justin McElroy of Polygon and the My Brother, My Brother and Me podcast.

Things Discussed: Dying Light, Destiny, Far Cry 2, Far Cry 4

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Justin is one smart fella, even when sleepy. Have him back!

 

I like the concept of Destiny not providing references to some things, so that they have to be taught or shown person to person. However the lack of in-game communication makes me wonder if its purpose was to create that social experience. Also, it seems like quite a few games do something similar. Warframe comes to mind since I've actually played that one, but surely other multiplayer or MMO games have some experiences like that? Heck even Minecraft has obscure crafting recipes, for example. Still, it is a sweet concept that I might appreciate more now that you point it out.

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I didn't know Destiny had that element of discovery to it.

 

Lack of guidance in video games is such a tricky thing to do. World of Warcraft being an example of putting a game entirely on-rails is a great one. I mean, there was certainly a lot of value in Blizzard stream-lining the process of leveling as they have, where you go from town to town picking up any and all quests you're qualified for, doing them as a group in a single location, and repeating. But they removed the element of discovering content from the game by doing that. When the latest expansion was on its way, Blizzard wanted to give people a reason to go out in the world. In practice it's kinda just fallen on its face and hasn't made any difference at all. The bosses they added that spawn anywhere in the new content are just typical world-raids from the original game (which aren't all that appealing or rewarding). And since they spawn in one of several locations, people just scout and report back to the community, and timers are kept, etc.

 

Discovering content in MMOs is a weird thing to implement because the genre (bad word use, I know) is driven on progression of character strength. Doing anything aside from that is technically a waste of time.

 

But now that I think about it, the Destiny discussion isn't that enlightening. Every MMO I've played has people asking where to find x or how to do y, and Destiny having that to it just means it falls in step with the rest. Maybe I'm misunderstanding a detail or don't have full context.

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I think Sean's question about why Polygon has to cover certain AAA games at all was valid but would have totally accepted if Justin just had said because it's a business.  They get the clicks and I think the scope of their operation requires things like constant coverage of Assassin's Creed or Destiny and an article on the latest Marvel movie update.  

 

But this was a great and fun episode, Justin always made the Besties worth a listen.

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I think Sean's question about why Polygon has to cover certain AAA games at all was valid but would have totally accepted if Justin just had said because it's a business.  They get the clicks and I think the scope of their operation requires things like constant coverage of Assassin's Creed or Destiny and an article on the latest Marvel movie update.  

 

But this was a great and fun episode, Justin always made the Besties worth a listen.

 

This is obviously the answer and I think I was just trying to make that point -- I don't like pretending that everything is all the same -- and it's also kind of an end-around way of pointing out that the entire idea of "the press" being "in collusion" with "indies" is actually insane.

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There is no malaria vaccine, folks.

 

 

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/faqs.html

 

I can confirm however that the drugs you are normally given (the refrigerated pills I think) do in fact give you crazy ass vivid hallucinogenic type dreams...I tended to have the most vivid odd dreams the day or so after taking a dose and they would fade over the next few days until my next dose.

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http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/about/faqs.html

 

I can confirm however that the drugs you are normally given (the refrigerated pills I think) do in fact give you crazy ass vivid hallucinogenic type dreams...I tended to have the most vivid odd dreams the day or so after taking a dose and they would fade over the next few days until my next dose.

 

There are five different drugs, I took Atovaquone/Proguanil (Malarone) while in South Africa since only parts of the country have malaria. You start taking it a few days before hand and then for a week after, no crazy dreams either. 

 

Malaria is honestly one of the biggest reasons I disliked Far Cry 2, it was such an irritating mechanic and made your character, supposedly a professional mercenary, seem rather dumb for not taking one of the five drugs for a country where you can apparently get malaria during the drive from the airport. 

 

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/drugs.html

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Yeah, I don't remember the one I took. Its the one for when you go to the Amazon. I know it was refrigerated and you had to take it every week for 4 weeks or something...

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I think Sean's question about why Polygon has to cover certain AAA games at all was valid but would have totally accepted if Justin just had said because it's a business.  They get the clicks and I think the scope of their operation requires things like constant coverage of Assassin's Creed or Destiny and an article on the latest Marvel movie update.  

 

But this was a great and fun episode, Justin always made the Besties worth a listen.

 

Isn't that basically what he said when he mentioned why he got back into Destiny?

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I think Sean's question about why Polygon has to cover certain AAA games at all was valid but would have totally accepted if Justin just had said because it's a business.  They get the clicks and I think the scope of their operation requires things like constant coverage of Assassin's Creed or Destiny and an article on the latest Marvel movie update.  

 

But this was a great and fun episode, Justin always made the Besties worth a listen.

 

Isn't that basically what he said when he mentioned why he got back into Destiny?

 

Yeah, and he said they covered AAA games because a critical mass of people are interested in them. That's the classy/not-cynical way to say they cover them to "get the clicks."

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Yea that came off as far more cynical than I intended and just like Sean already responded the question was practically made with a verbal wink.  But yea, I should have not even mentioned "getting the clicks" since it really seems connotative of click bait or something.  My bad. 

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This is obviously the answer and I think I was just trying to make that point -- I don't like pretending that everything is all the same -- and it's also kind of an end-around way of pointing out that the entire idea of "the press" being "in collusion" with "indies" is actually insane.

 

That whole discussion kind of reminded me of a post Graham Smith made on Rock, Paper, Shotgun where he said he didn't want to talk about Assassin's Creed anymore really because it has become the Michael Bolton of video games. It just isn't critically relevant anymore even if it is still a reliably commercially successful product.

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/14/assassins-creed-unity-2/

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That whole discussion kind of reminded me of a post Graham Smith made on Rock, Paper, Shotgun where he said he didn't want to talk about Assassin's Creed anymore really because it has become the Michael Bolton of video games. It just isn't critically relevant anymore even if it is still a reliably commercially successful product.

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/08/14/assassins-creed-unity-2/

 

I think RPS can do that since they pitch themselves as more of a niche outlet. Since they're only trying to cover PC games, they seem to have the freedom to write off some parts of gaming culture as not the thing that they're into as a site. Conversely, Polygon is very much trying to be your #1 source for all things gaming/geek culture more generally, so making that kind of call isn't something they can realistically do.

 

P.S. This was my favorite podcast crossever event ever. It was like Idle Thumbs/MBMBaM: Civil War, but actually good.

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The malaria discussion just reminded me of my dad - he's better now but he got malaria in Vietnam and occasionally has "relapses" where he gets very, very ill for a couple of days (sweats, vomiting, fevers, really nuts stuff) and then is fine for another couple of years.

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Regarding malaria, I've taken the prophylactic on several trips overseas. The first pill, taken in Africa, made me hallucinate one night that there was a local dude in full ethnic regalia hanging out in my closet. I had to run my hand through him a few times to assure myself he wasn't real. The second pill, taken in S.E. Asia, made my skin turn lobster red after a couple hours in the sunlight.

Was totally worth it though.

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