Idle F***in' Thumbs Podcast

I need to not listen to this podcast right before I want to go to sleep.

Jake wrote:

We should talk about how good Aliens: Colonial Marines is. *farts*

I was up way longer than I wanted to be because I couldn't stop laughing at that.

shoptroll wrote:

So when did gun/ammo vending machines become a thing? This episode was the first time I've started to question their presence in some shooters lately. It makes some sense in Borderlands, but I'm dubious as to why BioShock (which I'm currently playing for the first time) is selling me ammo out of vending machines when the game is going for a plausible/lived-in environment much like FarCry 3. Like, it's not terribly immersion-breaking until you start to think about it, but there has to be a better way to integrate these systems into a game instead of a vending machine, assuming developers don't want to add NPCs to the game.

You got a problem with unfettered capitalism?

Based on the libertarians/Ayn Rand fanatics that I've known, ammo dispensing vending machines make perfect sense for Rapture.

Gravey wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

So when did gun/ammo vending machines become a thing? This episode was the first time I've started to question their presence in some shooters lately. It makes some sense in Borderlands, but I'm dubious as to why BioShock (which I'm currently playing for the first time) is selling me ammo out of vending machines when the game is going for a plausible/lived-in environment much like FarCry 3. Like, it's not terribly immersion-breaking until you start to think about it, but there has to be a better way to integrate these systems into a game instead of a vending machine, assuming developers don't want to add NPCs to the game.

You got a problem with unfettered capitalism?

Personally, I think it works relatively well in Bioshock because it's in keeping with that theme. It's zany, over-the-top broken capitalism. And a zany ammo / gene splice vending machine is right in line.

It's completely ridiculous, but it's ridiculous in the same way everything else in Bioshock is ridiculous.

As Lenin never said:

We will shoot the Objectivists with the ammo that they vend us.

gore wrote:

Personally, I think it works relatively well in Bioshock because it's in keeping with that theme. It's zany, over-the-top broken capitalism. And a zany ammo / gene splice vending machine is right in line.

It's completely ridiculous, but it's ridiculous in the same way everything else in Bioshock is ridiculous.

Good point. Same can be said about Borderlands, although Borderlands is a bit more cartoonish which is why it doesn't seem to stand out to me.

Not sure why there's vending machines in Farcry 3 since I haven't played that. Seems odd without the context.

However, I was mostly inquiring to see if anyone knew when weapon vending machines first started showing up in games. Seems to me like it's an easy way to replace a generic shopkeeper NPC with a literal interpretation of their function, and I'm curious if this is the start of a larger trend, or just coincidence.

The first memory I have of it actually is System Shock 2. I guess when it showed up again in Bioshock I figured "hey, this is just a thing that Irrational does," and I didn't even notice it had become a thing in any kind of broader sense.

But then, I don't actually play shooters much any more.

We will shoot bees at the Objectivists with the Plasmids that they vend us.

Redwing wrote:

I received my postcard the other day, I've moved since I kickstarted the podcast, so it arrived at my parents place.

It sure is an esoteric little thing, they had no idea what it was. Even after I explained that Idle Thumbs was a videogame podcast they still looked a little blank.

I think they were worried I'd signed up their address for some sort of postal spam from a strange cult or something. :D

Haha, just visited my parents, where I still receive my mail. My dad: "Oh, yes, you have couple of letter. There's also this... thing."

Also: anyone else had his postcard signed by

What is gam??
Vidoe game

?

Somebody should maybe let these guys know that Kentucky isn't actually in the southwest.

UCRC wrote:
Redwing wrote:

I received my postcard the other day, I've moved since I kickstarted the podcast, so it arrived at my parents place.

It sure is an esoteric little thing, they had no idea what it was. Even after I explained that Idle Thumbs was a videogame podcast they still looked a little blank.

I think they were worried I'd signed up their address for some sort of postal spam from a strange cult or something. :D

Haha, just visited my parents, where I still receive my mail. My dad: "Oh, yes, you have couple of letter. There's also this... thing."

Also: anyone else had his postcard signed by

What is gam??
Vidoe game

?

Mine was signed by Clin Renu SsVss and Joli Rod evidently

One episode without Chris and suddenly it's all Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Gravey wrote:

One episode without Chris and suddenly it's all Star Wars Expanded Universe.

Someone needs to invent a Farcry 2 Expanded Universe for balance.

gore wrote:

Somebody should maybe let these guys know that Kentucky isn't actually in the southwest.

I'm fairly certain the guy that said that is from New Zealand...

drdoak wrote:
gore wrote:

Somebody should maybe let these guys know that Kentucky isn't actually in the southwest.

I'm fairly certain the guy that said that is from New Zealand...

It came from Vanaman first! No excuses! I mean that dude actually lives in the southwest, he should have some kind of idea about which states are there!

See, this is why it bothers me. Vanaman said that it's the Southwest, and of course his non-'merican guests just believe him, and now their understanding of United States geography will be all the poorer FOREVER.

gore wrote:

See, this is why it bothers me. Vanaman said that it's the Southwest, and of course his non-'merican guests just believe him, and now their understanding of United States geography will be all the poorer FOREVER.

It's your own fault for having so many states, we make do with 6!

Hmm. I'm 65 minutes into this episode and Nick hasn't been introduced yet. Or I skipped something by accident.

UCRC wrote:

Hmm. I'm 65 minutes into this episode and Nick hasn't been introduced yet. Or I skipped something by accident.

It's the Dishonored return of Nick Breckon. The actual return will happen later.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Hmm. I'm 65 minutes into this episode and Nick hasn't been introduced yet. Or I skipped something by accident.

It's the Dishonored return of Nick Breckon. The actual return will happen later.

It was pretty crazy that he was there for the whole cast, but didn't really say anything until the end.

TheCounselor wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:
UCRC wrote:

Hmm. I'm 65 minutes into this episode and Nick hasn't been introduced yet. Or I skipped something by accident.

It's the Dishonored return of Nick Breckon. The actual return will happen later.

It was pretty crazy that he was there for the whole cast, but didn't really say anything until the end.

Yeah, I was picturing this Dishonored image, with Nick on the ledge with the rest inside casting the pod.

Right in the middle of tonight's Walking Dead was a trailer for Bioshock Infinite. And right in the middle of that:

"I'm Blown Away" -ign.com

I can only hope the Thumbs had something to do with that.

gore wrote:

Oh hey, I guess Scoops talks about Gone Home on the Brainy Gamer Podcast.

Why is Patrick Klepek talking about that game?

Famous has fallen way too far down the MOBA rabbit hole. He's lost all perspective. When he literally got angry / snarky with Jake for not wanting to be yelled at by other gamers I wanted delete the podcast off of my phone. Another conversation with him defending MOBA experts and that might be it.

I'm just happy Nick is back.

DSGamer wrote:

Famous has fallen way too far down the MOBA rabbit hole. He's lost all perspective. When he literally got angry / snarky with Jake for not wanting to be yelled at by other gamers I wanted delete the podcast off of my phone. Another conversation with him defending MOBA experts and that might be it.

Oh, you're going to love this. It's the physical manifestation of what you usually see on them text boxes.

They're like roid apes. Just...

I love humanity sometimes, how we're all marching towards the abyss as a whole. Can't wait for Skynet to activate.

Guys like that give gamers a bad name. It's a shame there's so many of them...

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Guys like that give gamers a bad name. It's a shame there's so many of them...

I've come to accept that dudes like that are the answer to "what is gamer."

It may seem like pedantry, but I would never self-describe as "gamer" because I feel the term is becoming more and more loaded to specifically describe highly competitive, aggressive play. Those guys may be "gamers," but I'm... a guy who likes video games. And I suspect that the COD kids would have an equal disinterest in being associated with a person like myself.

And before anybody reminds me, I consider this site to simply be named incorrectly. It should be "peoplewholikevideogamesandhavejobs.com." Unfortunately you couldn't just call it "peoplewholikevideogameswithjobs.com", because you might mistakenly assume that it is the video games themselves who have jobs.

gore wrote:

Unfortunately you couldn't just call it "peoplewholikevideogameswithjobs.com", because you might mistakenly assume that it is the video games themselves who have jobs.

Either that or games which haves jobs in them such as The Sims.

I wouldn't call those guys "gamers" though at least based on what the video shows. I generally think of it as people who enjoy games (and not just video games) and the general culture around the hobby in some way. It's just a specific term for enthusiast or hobbyist in my mind.

But I think everyone has a different idea of what the "gamer" label represents.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

Guys like that give gamers a bad name. It's a shame there's so many of them...

You mean it's a shame for the composition of the human race? That's what I thought as I watched that. Those are future (or current) parents of other humans. Lack of perspective all over the place there. It makes a wide receiver in football doing a touchdown dance seem a little less ridiculous.