In-Game Chat

We’re free and open at the following link.

It was only ever going to be about Valve this past week and, as you might imagine, a single hour is hardly enough time to digest the news openly and come to terms with how we feel.  We do a better job chatting up Zach Barth from Zachtronics (Future Technologies Consolidated), discussing past release SpaceChem and present release Ironclad Tactics.  Also, Grand Theft Auto 5 is still happening for some people, but I guess we don’t care anymore.

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We’ve reshuffled our loot table at the following link.

Though we’ve played it for days upon days, we’re discovering our real opinions about GTA V in real-time, and who can say how long these particular feelings might last?  We’re wary of good news regarding Diablo 3’s plans to rightfully compensate their adventurers.  Dave Fennoy and Cissy Jones walk us through the process of acting in our most-loved emotional tribulation, The Walking Dead, and we round out the show with Christoffer Greulich discussing the terrific co-op arena fighter, Forced.

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We’re in an uneasy alliance at the following link.

Herein: our love of cooperative gameplay, be it an organized MMO dungeon crawl or frantic arena combat.  Also, the tribulations of Final Fantasy XIV’s return to market, Steam’s half-answer to account sharing, a new sort of Vita, and a troubling lack of enthusiasm for the new Grand Theft Auto.

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We’re soothing the savage breast at the following link.

As something of an experiment, we’ve decided to focus this episode more on the listening than the talking.  Music has been integral to the experience of games for nearly as long as there have been games to enjoy, and we’d like to take some time out to highlight some of our favorites and yours, and to share a few moments with creators and composers of soundtracks and soundscapes.  We’ll be repeating this experiment from time to time, so enjoy it now, but get in touch with us and request or comment on your favorite tracks for shows to come.

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We’d buy that for a dollar at the following link.

It would be hard to pretend that EA wasn’t offering the Humble Origin Bundle to garner praise and sow good will, but it’s also hard to pretend it isn’t working.  As much well-deserved hate as EA has borne in recent years, it’s worth reiterating that consumer sentiment is useless if it can’t be adjusted, and voting with our wallets simply doesn’t work if you keep them closed.  If positive reinforcement works for puppies and children, then we can assume it works to some degree for publishers.  And radio hosts.

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We’ve been kept in the dark at the following link.

It would be hard for us to hide or deny our love of up-to-the-minute facts about the state of the games business or the progress of our most anticipated titles, but a reveal wouldn’t amount to much without the anticipation.  For that to work, publishers have to cultivate their lies and develop their policies in secret, and we try to remember that some degree of misdirection is fair.  But there’s a point beyond which every word they utter becomes suspect, and no two of us seems to agree on where that line should be placed.  We’ve been told by what passes for games journalism that gamers seem incapable of rising above their own entitlement – to product, price, and content – but it seems that where information is concerned, many of them have forgotten to pick the plank out of their own eye first.

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We’re head over heels at the following link.

While it’s nice to be rewarded for skepticism with the sure knowledge that you dodged a bullet or avoided an unwise purchase, it’s a far better thing to be pleasantly surprised by something you hadn’t been hoping for at all.  In this case, having never strapped one of the contraptions to my own head, I’ve been doubtful of the Oculus Rift’s capabilities and I’ve harrumphed about it often.  But the consistent goodwill toward the Rift has it creeping up my interest meter, and now, with the joining of John Carmack’s positronic cyborg brain to the Oculus imaginarium, I have no choice but to be excited for whatever the hell it is that thing will do.  No choice at all.

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We’re exploring the overworld at the following link.

It’s not uncommon for the developer of a newly announced MMOG to promise players the moon and stars and to insist they’ll offer a revolutionary way of getting there.  What’s strange to me is to see them (apparently) abandon the safest choices made by their peers, and to borrow so heavily from the most successful games in nearly every other genre and category.  If Everquest Next can deliver on even a portion of what they’ve promised and alluded to, then it will be well worth our time to investigate everything it has to offer.  But the odds are against them – against all of us, really – and I’m beginning to doubt the moon and stars exist at all.

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We’re taking the high road at the following link.

I can’t say for sure what’s gone wrong lately with people whose job it is to craft, promote, and celebrate video games.  I understand that games are literally serious business, and in a certain light might well be confused with serious art, but the lengths to which heads have gone up asses is beyond my ability to understand.  I know how easily a cause or an argument can grow to fill your entire field of view, but I don’t know how a person can stand to let what should be a cherished pastime become a bone of such incredible contention.  There are a lot of folks (myself included, sometimes) who should lighten up, maybe, and just enjoy some games.

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We’re dropping quarters in the slots at the following link.

It’s honestly worth having Arjay look at me like I’m speaking gibberish if it means he’s taking the time to put himself on record about one thing or another.  Or, as is the case in this episode, if he’s making the effort to explain something to me like the five-year-old I appear to be.  Here I’m talking about fighting games, the culture surrounding them, and the competitive scene that motivates the top-level players.  That fighting games exist, and that they support a competitive scene is literally the sum of my knowledge about them, as if they were a rumor, so rest assured that my questions about the EVO tournament are genuine and that my attitude isn’t affected.  I’m really this clueless and stupid.

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We’re of two minds at the following link.

I swear sometimes I can hear the internet rolling its eyes when I go on, at incredible length, about some MMOG or another.  I’m perfectly aware of how it sounds when I’m having my way, and I can promise you that even my co-hosts drift off in search of any other thing in the entire world they can be thinking about when I do.  But there’s not much they can do to stop me running my mouth, so I’m damn well going to spend a half-hour this week on Final Fantasy 14, and many more half-hours in the future, I’m sure.

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Our heads are up for hunting at the following link.

Whether he’s jumped out of the pan and into the fire or made like a rat from a sinking ship, Don Mattrick’s emergency teleport from Microsoft to Zynga is sure to make him a profit and allow him continued use of his unnaturally thick skin.  This is a perfectly rational decision for a man of business, of course, and there are a great many reasons to absolve Mattrick of the blame that’s been heaped upon him in the weeks since the XBO’s reveal.  But every gust in the recent shitstorm has only served to remind us of the fact that this is all just business, run by men who wield billions and are payed in millions.  Yes, we’re well aware this is how the world is run and there’s (supposedly) nothing wrong with that.  But then why are our inner children so far out of sorts?  This was supposed to be fun and games.

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We’re whistling for the wind at the following link.

For the first time in the longest we’re actually motivated by the summer doldrums.  We’re generally impatient people and we’d love to have the new consoles and many new games in hand, but we’re also anxious to clear this extraordinary backlog of games from our ledger.  We won’t get it done of course, but we’ll labor under the illusion that we will, and we’ll happily add to the list during every sale and discount the summer cares to offer.  Two steps forward and two steps back, I suppose.

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