[B coma]

In this episode our intrepid panel reminisces about what it was like to play past the point of fun, and what it meant to walk away from the game in the eleventh hour.

This episode features Deets, P1d40n3, shrug, DonMarco, Schwere Viper, and Rudie!
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Episode #3 Direct Link: Click Here

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Check out the libsyn blog at http://selectbutton.libsyn.com/

and we are already organizing the next episode in the main podcast thread. Enjoy!
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[Deets]

Show Notes:

ulillillia's awesome youtube channel.

DonMarco's ramen setup.

[niitaka]

B Coma, I like how each episode has different album art, where are you getting them? You are a champion amongst men if you say you're making all of them.

[B coma]

my horrible secret: mspaint + photobucket edit tools
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[CubaLibre]

We should enlist vision to do them all, if he's up for the task.
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[B coma]

Show Miscellanea:

Opening and closing music cuts are not games that were actually discussed, but rather games that came to my mind when we chose the topic.

-Opening Music: the Singletrac Jet Moto games were great for the degree of control they give you over your jet craft, and despite the absurd number of buttons required to to control the steering/pitch/roll of the craft nailing the controls made racing in that game feel strangely organic, especially when coupled with the grappling beam mechanic. For this reason I still feel like there are few games out there like it, which is especially shocking given the general clunkiness of similar PSX games of the era. The touchstone for me here was that, I loved the sense of momentum so much that I frequently overlooked the poor level design (I'm addressing in particular about half the levels of Jet Moto 2, in which you're expected to be able to race on high wires above bottomless pits) and some outright sinful glitches (falling through the track frequently on the the Carnival stage). The pleasurable sensation I associated with the controls caused me to persevere through some seriously non-fun garbage in an effort to experience the aspects of the game I enjoy.

-Closing Music: a reference to the ladder scene in Snake Eater, which.
Well if you've ever played it, I assume you will pick up on why it's relevant here.

Bonus Screenshots - what this insanity looks like after editing in Pro Tools:

Screen Cap 1
Screen Cap 2


also I just want to say again: thanks to all who participated in this episode, especially for weathering the storm of technical hazards. If you hadn't, there wouldn't have been a show this week to speak of. Excellent work to boot.
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[shnozlak]

Good 'cast.
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Shnozlak is riding around town on a bicycle.

[negativedge]

haven't listened to it yet, because it's Four in the God Damned Morning, but I've been thinking some lately about the role of quitting in video games. how many games acknowledge the player's ability to walk away? none? what would incorporating this idea look like? I suspect it has something to do with death, which has not just because trivialized in gaming - it has become outright marginalized. no one even thinks about it. if death is incorporated into the actual structure of the game (and this much, some games certainly do: Demon's Souls being the current hot topic and all), there is afforded an ability for the designer to directly engage the player. I'm not sure what it would entail, honestly.

[analogos]

[eskaibo]

I haven't listened yet (downloading now) and this doesn't feel very original, but playing NetHack lately got me thinking that most videogame characters seem to care more about their causes than their own lives. It'd be interesting to see what ways someone could make that not the case.

I guess stuff like Planescape: Torment addresses this in a way, but from what I gather reading about that game, the Nameless One isn't particularly concerned with death.
I suppose I'm thinking less about subverting the mechanical convention of death and more the narrative one!
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♪ x x x ♫ x x x ♫ x ♫ ♫

[eskaibo]

Schwere Viper I'm glad your voice is here to represent the Australian members.

shrug your voice sounds less like the distant rumble of boulders than I expected :(
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[shrugtheironteacup]

If it would make you more comfortable you can blame it on a combination of my terrible mic and all the drugs I was on.

You don't have to know if this is a lie.
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select button
the nature of beards in war

[eskaibo]

From the library video, I was pinning it on your not wearing teeth, but that's a good substitute, thanks.
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♪ x x x ♫ x x x ♫ x ♫ ♫

[Schwere Viper]

[Schwere Viper]

B coma is also AWESOME for featuring my favourite track from Ecco the Dolphin!
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boost chains explode brains

[Mr. Mechanical]

Probably a good thread to mention that a while back when I was playing through Mega Man X I got all the way to the end boss for the first time ever and gave up after a dozen or so tries because I couldn't seem to beat him.

That might sound insane to some, that I could get to the very end of a game and just drop it, but it's not unusual to me. Once I start getting really frustrated (I don't mind being frustrated in general with something, but once I find myself getting angry I know it's time to step away) with a game, no matter what part I'm at, I just put it up for a while until I feel like coming back to it later on at some point.
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[Take It Sleazy]

I think the worst situation is playing a great game, but just not caring enough to finish. Maybe it's just a "want what you can't have" deal. And eleventh hour genre changes are the worst unless it's the last boss and even then it's not ideal.

Also The Warriors game does actually have mostly the same actors. Maybe it's just age or better direction that improved their acting. And The Warriors Street Brawl is a different game altogether from the Warriors Armies of the Night, but your points about selling part of a game were still really interesting especially in the genesis of a game like Geometry Wars.

Everybody go play The Warriors for real though, it's the greatest.

[shrugtheironteacup]

Forced myself to skip awkwardly through this trying to avoid instances of me talking.

It occurred to me, and I mentioned this after the recording was over, that I don't so much suck at videogames as I am lazy about videogames. In cases like a Metroid, I have the option of getting better at the game and not sucking or I can go back and load up on other shit to make it easier. So long as the "make it easier" option is there I, as a lazy gamer, gravitate toward it, but can't bring myself to do it, and so long as the option is there I can't be bothered to just stop sucking either.

Which is why I can beat God Hand but not Metroid Prime. God Hand never really gave me the option of not sucking.
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select button
the nature of beards in war

[Renfrew]

I haven't listened to this yet, but I'll try to soon.

I got to the last dungeon in Silver, then quit playing. I came back several years later to try to FINISH THE FIGHT, but I couldn't remember how to play, so I ended up starting over.

[vision]

[B coma]

[spinach]

hoho i've been mentioned
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http://thenicestpeople.tumblr.com

[P1d40n3]

Man, kinda sad my interruption ruined the ullilia thread of discussion.
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[Ronk]

really enjoyed the episode. good job you guys. you kind of went a little haywire near the end, but i still enjoyed it. good use of snake eater (for some reason, that song still sends chills down my spine, even though it's the metal gear game i played the least)

i'm sort of in shrug's boat in that i'm kind of a lazy gamer. and as i'm getting old, i seem to start more games than i finish. and really it's not because i get super irritated (though that has been the case for a couple of games) it's more like i keep getting distracted. if it's not something outside of the game, then it might be something within the game that reminds me "hey i should go play ______" until it gets to the point where i stop the current game and just try to play the one that pops into my mind.

i've kind of gone from "see where this game kind of goes until i get to the end" gamer to "i'll see what this game has to offer and mess around with it until i'm bored" kind of gamer. which is why i probably have more fun experiences pac man championship and outrun 2, than i do with starting up a new 30+ hour saga.
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[spinach]

kirby's adventure kind of sucks.
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[Ronk]

personally i've always enjoyed kirby's spin-off games more than his lands or adventures.
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[Deets]

[negativedge]

Jesus Viper, I would do anything that suave as shit voice of yours could ever tell me

[negativedge]

There's an idea here, and as I'm listening Deets is discussing this in relation to Policenauts, that fun is overrated. I play a great number of games that I'm playing for, I guess, intellectual or analytical satisfaction. I'm trying to pick apart the design or theory behind a game, or looking for specific aspects of design that the game is renowned for, or attempting to fit it into the critical oeurve, or whatever. And then sometimes I think that whole idea is retarded and I'll pick up something with immediate kenetic satisfaction. I think these are all valid reasons to play a video game. In WoW, pretty much everyone I play with complains about how the game isn't fun in the slightest. We all sort of commiserate with one another about how terrible it is, but we keep playing anyway, both for social reasons and for the dark satisfaction of persistent character advancement that is at the malformed heart of Numbers Go Up. I want to contend that these are valid reasons to play a game as well, but I might need better examples.

[negativedge]

man this ulilililililailaialialaialialailaialalllililililia discussion is pretty interesting, guys. I guys it somewhat relates to the limitations or even absurdity of authorial intent -- the idea that the subjective idea of enjoyment can produce interesting results, up to the point of breathing life into what is ostensibly a terrible game by owning the crippling faults rather than attempting to nullify them.

[negativedge]

guys I think I'm the only one in the world that legitimately loves Panzer Dragoon Orta :(

[B coma]

Nope.

I cried when editing that part ;_;


DRAGON TEARS
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[negativedge]

[eskaibo]

[Schwere Viper]

[luvcraft]

[antitype]

Just listened to this. Good stuff, though I am a bit surprised that there was not one mention of World of Warcraft. However, somebody said something about GTA that spoke to the same kind of truth: that the scope of a game can outstrip its vision, and when developers plunge you into a huge, inviting, compelling world that makes you want to do shit, it's utterly deflating when you realize it really is a bunch of inane shit.

Of course, I missed out on the WoW vs. Galaxies podcast as well, but I feel like sort of a poster child for, uh, "I'm still playing this game even though I fucking hate it, if only because in-game 'friends' 'need' me there for raids or I'm just plain addicted or whatever." WoW is probably just one example, but MMOs in general were never mentioned here (I assume because everyone involved has been wise enough to avoid them), but especially since ACHIEVEMENTS (which certainly did get mentioned) were integrated, WoW has become an even more insidious mouse wheel, dangling one piece of cheese on a string after another...

Fortunately, I did quit at some point, but long after I should have. Fuck the "endgame" (this applies to post-game achievements/collect-a-thons as well).
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last.fm | mubi | steam

[CubaLibre]

Glad you're diggin up all the podcasts man, keep posting your responses as you have them if you have them.
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