GWJ Conference Call Episode 459

Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim, Running With Rifles, LoL Reloaded, Rocket League, Gathering Your Group, Special Community Guest Amoebic, Your Emails and More!

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This week the usual chuckle heads are joined by amazing GWJ community member Amoebic! She comes bearing community-sourced trivia questions and more!

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.

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Add And - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 37:22

XXV - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 1:08:23

Juparo - Broke for Free - http://brokeforfree.com/ - 1:32:09

Comments

Thank you for blessing this post with a Tusks header image.

Running with Rifles looks awesome! I definitely need to give that one a shot.

By the way, here's a link to the thread of the week, since I didn't see it up above:

The Most Unexciting Video Games You Can Think Of

Also, Amoebic, you were awesome. I vote for Amoebic as regular guest host!

+1 Amoebic for regular guest

Great episode, you could hear the heads being scratched after every question. Great work Amoebic! I also dug the topic of the episode. As someone who has just moved to a new city (which doesn't have a huge population) I'm trying to get involved with the local scene and those tips will come in handy.

BAHAHAHA the Shadow of Mordor thing went over just as planned! >:)

Amoebic, you're awesome, and you're the best, and if I ever attend a con Stateside one of these days, I'm gonna plan around whether or not you're attending, because you're just that cool.

I thought it was pretty funny when Elysium kept saying "who am I to come in and jump in a conversation?" because, well, you're the Game King! On a more serious note, I really appreciated the conversation you four had about social anxiety. It just really hit close to home, and I just really, deeply appreciate that people actually talk about it, instead of it just being the elephant in the room.

Also, Rabbit is my new hero, because he knew the answer to my silly Zork Nemesis trivia question. I loved the trivia game, it was such a great idea, and it looks like you had so much fun!!

And Tusks looks cool, and I'm just going to have to check that out. Thanks Amoebic!

00:03:08 Mass Effect
00:07:35 Mirror's Edge
00:09:40 The Sims
00:11:41 Rocket League
00:20.11 Astro A40 Headphones
00:21:42 Pen & Paper RPGs
00:28:44 Tusks: The Orc Dating Sim
00:30:25 Her Story
00:32.47 Running with Rifles
00:35:08 League of Legends
00:37.25 Trivia
00:44:35 Topic: Gathering Your Group
01:08:21 Trivia
01:16:59 Your Emails
01:32:15 Trivia

That schedule makes the listener-submitted test of knowledge sound so trivial.

UNDERPANTS WERE WON.

Certis channelling @usasoccerguy a little there in his Rocket League description

Andrich, you're breaking my heart with those Metroid questions. You should know them, Andrich. I know you should know them. But you don't, and now you get no underpants.

So disappointed.

All seriousness, though, this was a wonderful episode and Aomebic makes for a great guest.

Just want to note that Select-Start is the two player variant of the Konami code, as on the NES select was always used to choose between different options on the menu screen. My brother and I used it all the time for Contra and Ninja Turtles

You were great, Amoebic. Another +1 to have you as a regular guest!

Mass Effect 1 is like Babylon 5 season 1. Hard to sit through and you could skip it and not miss much, but you will miss stuff. Also, bar's been set, other special guest stars.

Woo, Konami code confusion success.

Amoebic, you're a natural. +1 for regular guest.

And put me in with the crowd who replay the first couple hours of a game multiple times if they're not quite satisfied with how their custom character looks—even if it's a TES game in first-person. Speaking of character customization, and Mass Effect and Mirror's Edge, the first (and last) time I played ME, I made my Shep look like Faith, since I had also been playing the other ME at the time.

Eleima wrote:

On a more serious note, I really appreciated the conversation you four had about social anxiety. It just really hit close to home, and I just really, deeply appreciate that people actually talk about it, instead of it just being the elephant in the room.

Same. It was a good discussion, and I'll be thinking about it. Thanks again for having it.

"Dad Bods and Loincloths" is my Rod Stewart cover band.

Great episode so far (I'm still making my way through it). Amoebic is as delightful a guest as I knew she would be. +1 for regular guest status!

Another +1 for Amoebic. You were awesome and the trivia had me laughing out loud frequently.

I really appreciated the topic. I've been on the Internet in gaming for over twenty years but never socialized outside of gaming online since 1998-ish. This podcast led me to join the forums and recently even join social media (just Twitter). My social anxiety is high about this and I frequently worry that I'm like the annoying younger sibling that was dragged to the gaming group in place of a babysitter. I think it is important for me to socialize more and meet new people but I always feel incredibly awkward.

Add me to the group that will re-create a character until I like how she looks in different lighting/clothing and do her dreads bounce right when she runs, etc.

My favorite Mass Effect game by far is the first one. It's the only game in recent years I liked enough to play on every difficulty.

+1 for Amoebic and for the trivia. One of my favorite shows.

As for characters, I'm the guy who recreates my character but then gets bored repeating the same content and stops playing.

Also, the Rocket League lets play had me laughing. It was great.

Another +1 for Amoebic Trivia being a recurring feature on the podcast. That was great!

And next time, maybe I'll actually submit a question.

MeatMan wrote:

Another +1 for Amoebic Trivia being a recurring feature on the podcast. That was great!

And next time, maybe I'll actually submit a question.

I'm submitting next time too! BETTER BONE UP ON YOUR ULTIMA-LIKES THAT ONLY RELEASED ON THE COCOMAX, FELLAS.

Yay meebs! I'm sorry for the Mindwheel question.

also

Gravey wrote:

And put me in with the crowd who replay the first couple hours of a game multiple times if they're not quite satisfied with how their custom character looks—even if it's a TES game in first-person.

Don't even get me started on hair clipping with ears in Dragon Age Inquisition.
Probably 3+ hours spent before deciding "You know what, f*ck this, you're going to be bald."

Might be one of my favourite main topics on the show in a while, and a great episode all round. I can totally relate to Amoebic's 'terrified yet excited party planner' at cons/meet ups. Social anxiety is such a weird thing, I'm pretty sure I overdo it in trying to get people involved at cons, but it's so worth it when it works.

+1 for more Amoebic (and trivia on the show for that matter)

Also, Rocket League is my life now. See you on the field Sean.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:
MeatMan wrote:

Another +1 for Amoebic Trivia being a recurring feature on the podcast. That was great!

And next time, maybe I'll actually submit a question.

I'm submitting next time too! BETTER BONE UP ON YOUR ULTIMA-LIKES THAT ONLY RELEASED ON THE COCOMAX, FELLAS.

...Please continue to submit.

Let me join the chorus that Amoebic did a wonderful job.
Thanks to you all for a great show.

You guys really need to make good on getting Amoebic back on. She was an interesting perspective and she had great chemistry with all of you. Definitely add her to the rotating host pool if she's up for it.

Timespike wrote:

You guys really need to make good on getting Amoebic back on. She was an interesting perspective and she had great chemistry with all of you. Definitely add her to the rotating host pool if she's up for it.

Agreed--it was a really delightful episode this week and I think it would be great if Amoebic was on more often.

Log_In_Lain wrote:

I really appreciated the topic. I've been on the Internet in gaming for over twenty years but never socialized outside of gaming online since 1998-ish. This podcast led me to join the forums and recently even join social media (just Twitter). My social anxiety is high about this and I frequently worry that I'm like the annoying younger sibling that was dragged to the gaming group in place of a babysitter. I think it is important for me to socialize more and meet new people but I always feel incredibly awkward..

I was very much in this same situation before I joined up with GWJ a few years ago. My first meetup was for PenCon that was going to be three whole days (!) with a big group of people I had never met before. My anxiety was through the roof and I kept freaking out on the drive there wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. Even for the first few hours of being there I felt like constantly running away and heading back home.

However, there were so many welcoming people that eventually I settled in and just started to talk and play games with all of these people and it ended up being a great time. Amoebic mentioned during the podcast that there are a lot of lurkers on the forums that show up to these events and then kind of separate themselves from the main group. There was some of that going on, but the great thing was that whenever someone noticed this happening, they would immediately invite that person to join in on a game/conversation/whatever. It was really amazing to see how great everyone can be.

TL;DR version: if you're a lurker or you only listen to the podcast, you should really keep an eye out for any GWJ-related events/meetups in your area and do your best to attend at least one. I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

As for the question about games with the "What have you done?" style endings, the one that immediately came to mind was

Spoiler:

Braid

With many different ways to interpret that game, the ending certainly makes you question your character's motivation and adds a new dimension to the complex, ambiguous story.

The less obvious one that was more of a "Best of a bad situation" finale was Deux Ex: Invisible War. This disappointing follow-up to one of my favorite games of all time finds you in a no-win situation, having to make a snap moral decision in the last mission to determine which nightmare scenario ultimately befalls humanity. Somehow, it makes it feel like the worst of all decisions is to keep the status quo - the hidden bad guys manipulating the world stay hidden, life goes on for everyone else like normal, and nothing you've done mattered in the slightest.

If you want to feel like a terrible person, or a good person with no agency in the world you're trying to save, play Invisible War.

My most recent foray into "you're the bad guy!" endings (from a fairly recent game, so be warned if you peek) was...

Spoiler:

The Last of Us

It definitely added a bunch to the game, which otherwise would have felt pretty pat for its genre.

Very nicely done Amoebic. You were a fantastic guest!

I admit, I was a little cool on the trivia idea, but you had me laughing my ass off on the way to work.

Thanks and cheers!

Great episode. It seems redundant to say how awesome Amoebic was, but well, you were. Also, I love you guys, but since Lara has gone solo the podcast has been a bit heavy on the white dudes. Amoebic was a breath of fresh air and I hope she comes back often. And it would be great if you could get a more diverse group of guests.

Trivia was great to listen to, but I'm obviously a bad gamer, I would have done terribly. I really thought the Thomas Was Alone question was a low hanging fruit. At least nobody guessed Thomas.

I wouldn't go so far as to say I have social anxiety, but it can take me a while to warm up in new social situations. If you give me a job to do though, I'll dive in the deep end. It seems like Amoebic has a similar characteristic. Give me a clipboard and some stickers and I'll get everyone rounded up and appropriately involved.

I replayed Mass Effect 1 not too long ago and you know what? Screw you guys :p It's still a great game. It has a lot of rough edges, but its ambition is great. I respect when devs try something ambitious, even when they don't stick the landing. It also makes me wish for the ME2 that polished the ideas of ME1, rather than abandoning them wholesale for something much safer.

Great episode. It seems redundant to say how awesome Amoebic was, but well, you were. Also, I love you guys, but since Lara has gone solo the podcast has been a bit heavy on the white dudes. Amoebic was a breath of fresh air and I hope she comes back often. And it would be great if you could get a more diverse group of guests.

Yeah, we've been feeling that pretty strongly too. It's mostly time-crunch and practicalities that make us less guest-heavy than we have been in the past. Getting a new guest up and running takes time and planning that I've frankly been falling down on with everything else going on.

Now that Amoebic's been setup and gets our process it'll be easier next time!