Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 284

Mass Effect 3, Code Runner, Wizorb, A Mother's Inferno, Fairway Solitaire, Coco Loco, Rift, Special Guest Justin McElroy, Questions With Shawn, Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Section, Your Emails and more!

This week Sean, Julian, Shawn and special guest Justin McElroy talk about Diablo III's release date, Wasteland's Kickstarter, appearing in games and more. There's also a Mass Effect 3 spoiler section after the credits!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Sponsor

Tech Thing Daily
Game Thing Daily
Good Old Games

Mass Effect 3 Catch-All
Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread
Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Thread
A Mother's Inferno
Wizorb
Coco Loco
RIFT
Code Runner

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

Rift is sort of F2P. You can play Rift LITE which is the first 20 levels free:

http://www.riftgame.com/en/lite/

... No Journey? I'm shocked.

garion333 wrote:

... No Journey? I'm shocked.

I think we should each contribute money to the site as a demonstration of our displeasure at the lack of Journey coverage. Who's with me?

shoptroll wrote:
garion333 wrote:

... No Journey? I'm shocked.

I think we should each contribute money to the site as a demonstration of our displeasure at the lack of Journey coverage. Who's with me?

Julian, Lara and Karla recorded a spoiler section, but the show was getting too large already. It will be on next week's show.

Certis wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
garion333 wrote:

... No Journey? I'm shocked.

I think we should each contribute money to the site as a demonstration of our displeasure at the lack of Journey coverage. Who's with me?

Julian, Lara and Karla recorded a spoiler section, but the show was getting too large already. It will be on next week's show.

You mean you cut content so that you could withhold it for later? I knew it! This is a low point in gaming.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

You mean you cut content so that you could withhold it for later? I knew it! This is a low point in gaming.

I know, right? *sigh* Waiting for Steam sale then.

shoptroll wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

You mean you cut content so that you could withhold it for later? I knew it! This is a low point in gaming.

I know, right? *sigh* Waiting for Steam sale then.

No, not even that. I am done with the GWJ Conference Call. They lied to us and manipulated us so that they could make us download next week's free podcast and listen to an ad for Audible.com. These kinds of anti-gamer stances are reprehensible, and I'm not going to stand for it.

First they give us an incomplete ending, and NOW they're withholding content intentionally? I'm so getting on Child's Play for a petition on this. Who's with me?

Certis wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
garion333 wrote:

... No Journey? I'm shocked.

I think we should each contribute money to the site as a demonstration of our displeasure at the lack of Journey coverage. Who's with me?

Julian, Lara and Karla recorded a spoiler section, but the show was getting too large already. It will be on next week's show.

Oh, great. Instead of sticking with their artistic vision, they're going to ret-con the end of the show to be about Journey. What a bunch of sellouts.

Dyni wrote:

What a bunch of sellouts.

I knew this site was about to hit the skids when they announced the PAX Panel. I just didn't expect it to come this soon #TheyBetrayedUs

I was suspicious ever since they collaborated with Audible. Clearly, Audible's CEO has taken over GWJ and is lording is over Certis night and day. In person, I'm sure. Like, over his shoulder and everything. With bad deodorant.

It's not reasonable to give Certis credit for everything good at GWJ and fault Audible for everything you don't like. They're in a partnership and need to be held equally accountable.

LarryC wrote:

I was suspicious ever since they collaborated with Audible.

A source tells me that there's some backroom dealings about requiring an Audible subscription to listen to the show starting next quarter... It's bad enough we have to pay $0.99 for the Lara Krigger track on each episode, but this is the last straw.

Since when did Certis and Elysium start taking their fans for granted?

We meant to put the Journey spoiler section (which was AWESOME fun, by the way) out as day 1 DLC for 25% of the price of a normal episode, but we were afraid that was too expensive.

Instead, we decided to hold it for a week-2 "free content" release in order to deepen our customer relationships. Hopefully this keeps you from returning your copy of Episode 284, thus breaking the "used podcast" cycle that's frankly crippling our industry.

Thanks for the spoiler section - right on time!
Just finished my first ME3 playthrough and needed someone else to tell me that I am not the only one baffled by the ending.

Woo, Tiki Bar TV, that takes me back. I know, only seven years, but I'm pioneering hyper-hyper-nostalgia.

Gravey wrote:

Woo, Tiki Bar TV, that takes me back. I know, only seven years, but I'm pioneering hyper-hyper-nostalgia.

Pretty soon you'll be taking pictures of yourself on a cell phone, looking at them immediately, and reminiscing sadly about how you were so young back then.

Gravey wrote:

Woo, Tiki Bar TV, that takes me back. I know, only seven years, but I'm pioneering hyper-hyper-nostalgia.

Did they ever come back? It seems like a ripe Kickstarter candidate (take a drink).

shoptroll wrote:
Gravey wrote:

Woo, Tiki Bar TV, that takes me back. I know, only seven years, but I'm pioneering hyper-hyper-nostalgia.

Did they ever come back? It seems like a ripe Kickstarter candidate (take a drink).

I would but I've no Dr. Tiki to prescribe me one.

I am so incensed, I've donated $20k to the Human Fund, as a burning beacon of my outrage.

I take umbrage at "dirt boring Starship Troopers". Even the movie and animated series based on the movie were alright.

RolandofGilead wrote:

I take umbrage at "dirt boring Starship Troopers". Even the movie and animated series based on the movie were alright.

The pinball machine I'll give you. The movie?

During the listener-questions segment many games are discussed. Since these aren’t included in the show summary on the web site, here are the games mentioned in this episode.

Question on story endings and ME3
Assassin’s Creed
Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite
72 Hours (a book)

Question on gameplay and Bastion
Metroid
The Witcher

Question on games for iPad 3
Sword & Sworcery
Jetpack Joy Ride
Angry Birds
Fairway Solitaire HD
Infinity Blade 2
Galaxy on Fire HD
Mass Effect Infiltrator

Not Optimized for iPad 3, but still good
Dead Space
Pinball Arcade
Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
Ticket to Ride
Small World
Forbidden Island
Great Little War Game
Ghost Trick
Crimson Steam Pirates
Loop Record (?)
Everything by Pop Cap
Scribblenauts
Super Crate Box
Worms HD
Coco Loco
Chu Chu Rocket

Gorilla, you're my hero.

rabbit wrote:

Gorilla, you're my hero.

+1. I just got an iPad 3 earlier this week, so I especially appreciate that section of the links.

rabbit wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

I take umbrage at "dirt boring Starship Troopers". Even the movie and animated series based on the movie were alright.

The pinball machine I'll give you. The movie?

Agreed.

The movie seemed to completely miss the point of the franchise.

The animated series, however, was excellent.

I disagree with Rabbit's assertion about the ending that...

Spoiler:

it ends with you losing, at least from a Paragon perspective. Or that it's a dream, but it still follows through the themes of the game.

The response to the Rachni Wars was to essentially mass-produce the warrior species Krogans and “presumably” systematically kill the Rachni until they became extinct. The Alliance believes that they were fully justified in doing this. If you rescue the Rachni queen in either ME1 or ME3, the response in either game is that they will just repeat their mistakes. And in fact, they kind of do.

The side effect of creating all of these Krogans was civil unrest, and as a result the Genophage was released, completely decimating their population. The Alliance believes that this was the best thing to do. Mordin thinks it was ethically sound. You can question this logic in ME1 to the guide in the citadel, who says she doesn't understand your point. If you try and reverse the Genophage, the position of most races is that history will repeat itself and you shouldn't have done that.

The Quarians, despite all common sense, try to fight the Geth yet again, knowing what the result has been for every previous attempt! And there is the implication that everyone is afraid the Geth will turn back to supporting The Reapers again.

There are even hints that similar conflicts that happened during this cycle, happened for the Prothean's cycle as well.

Not to mention the actions of Saren or The Illusive Man, and how they think they are doing the right thing and Shepard is just prolonging what is inevitable. Not to mention how the Council and The Alliance constantly ignore the warnings of the incoming Reaper invasions because they would rather dunk their heads in the sand, not work out petty differences between each other, and fend for themselves because that's what's worked before.

You can take one of two messages out of this:
1) Shepard's “can't we all just get along” belief actually is naive, and Order is required to prevent Chaos, no matter how horrible that “Order” is, because the nature of war and conflict is inevitable.
2) Shepard's belief is actually right, and those who control society are actually causing as many problems as they are solving. War and conflict are not inevitable, but the powers that be refuse to see this in their misguided assumption that they know what is right.

Regardless, in addition to the theme of sacrifice, the past repeating itself was constantly being brought up in this trilogy. That Order is better than Chaos.

This is why Sovereign told you that the point of the Reapers is “beyond your comprehension”. Some incredibly powerful force (who we do not know) thought this was the best solution long, long ago. They came to the conclusion that history will always repeat itself no matter what, that the cycle will continue. Destroy the synthetics, and they will just build it again, then freak out when those synthetics become self-aware, and then those synthetics will overtake the entire universe and no organics will ever live again. A better solution is to let organic life thrive until it advances to the peak of it's civilization, then harvest them through the Reapers and let the cycle starts from scratch. And The Catalyst thinks you are too simple-minded to understand this.

This is providing order to what otherwise would be chaos. The Catalyst says exactly this. Yes, this is a terrible solution full of flaws. Yes, the evidence you have seen in this cycle disproves this claim. That is the entire point. This is the horrible tragedy of the story. This horrific threat you have been dealing with to save the galaxy was someone thinking they were doing the right thing. It's what you have been dealing with this entire trilogy, just on yet another scale up in the chain that you never knew existed.

However, The Catalyst has a safeguard in case the solution stops working, and you have the ability to choose which one it is. It is exactly what you wanted all along. It stops the Reaper threat, no matter what you choose. The problem is you have to play by it's rules, because it thinks it knows best. And while every single option removes the Reaper threat, they all come with consequences. Starting with the mass relays disappearing, since they are linked to existence of The Reapers.

This is why there might be an argument for Synthesis being the “right” choice if you think homogenization is the best option.

But in truth, “Destroy” is the “Paragon” ending, which is why you have the vision of it being what Anderson would have done. Yes, it comes with losing the Geth that you (possibly) just tried so hard to save. Not unlike letting Ashley die just so that Kaiden can live or vice versa, you are now forced to make the sacrifice of killing all synthetics just to save the organics.

But what it does that the other choices do not offer is this: All organic life continues on, possibly completely reset but still untouched by the “synthesis” option, and free to live without the Reapers. It is the most hopeful, because unlike the “synthesis” choice that supposedly guarantees peace at a cost, it continues to hold Shepard's belief that the Catalyst was wrong in it's assumption that the cycle will just repeat itself and we will eventually just make machines that will destroy us again. Not unlike the other Paragon decisions that also has this assumption. Life begins anew, and hopefully Shepard's decisions (or the myth of "The Shepard") makes sure it stays that way.

Sidenote: The other two options make it clear Shepard will die. For the Destroy option, the child merely says that part of you is synthetic and does not make it clear what will happen to you. It explains why this is the only option where it hints you may still be alive.

That said, if you want to believe the indoctrination theory, there are a ton of dissections out there that are surprisingly detailed.

kuddles, that's one of the best positive breakdowns of the ending that I've read. Nicely done.

Spoiler:

I think also that there's an inherent dislike to Catalyst because he's powerful and presumes to be all-knowing, almost as if he's the hand of the developers dictating to you what's what. It's important to realize that Catalyst is also a character and that what he says isn't necessarily accurate - it's just how he and his ilk perceive reality. He could be totally wrong and not know about it, though there's still not much you can do about it. Welcome to the Reaper Council. You're still the powerless human.

What many don't realize, even at Catalyst's rather blunt exposition is that the Reapers are not synthetic after all; they're the winners of the original organic/synthetic conflict. They're what's left of the organic civilization that started it all.

I never got to see how the animated series ended.
Anyway, good call on Baldur's Gate coming go iOS
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