GWJ Conference Call Episode 466

Donation Drive 2015!, Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, Metal Gear Solid: Phantom Pain, Destiny Patch, Rocket League, Threads of The Week, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Elysium, Cory and Amoebic tackle so many GWJ forum threads!

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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Comments

Awesome, Amoebic is back!

I know what will be on the ipod on the way to work tomorrow.

Oh dear.

Corrections:
Violet Valhalla = Mysticviolet

Educational games: Sokobond Is a game I wanted to play, but couldn't remember the name of during recording but it's apparently a good fun chemistry learning experience!

Dry unfunny sarcasm is sh*tty and not good for radio and I should have followed up worth a "but, seriously..."
Learning and growing

Sorry, Sands, Hearthstone still sends me into a rage every time I play it.

Then MGSV, then Dark Souls... sorry guys, you lost me this week.

It's cool though, obviously not every discussion is going to work for every listener! The variety in the podcast continues to be phenomenal.

I was a little bit disappointed that nobody mentioned the final Dragon Age Inquisition DLC, Trespasser, which is PHENOMENAL. (Or maybe someone mentioned it after I tuned out, which... if so, I apologize.)

Amoebic's husband checking in: holy crap is she every right about Lovers in a Dangerous Space-Time. Wonderful game. Play it!

Amoebic wrote:

Oh dear.

Corrections:
Violet Valhalla = Mysticviolet

Educational games: Sokobond Is a game I wanted to play, but couldn't remember the name of during recording but it's apparently a good fun chemistry learning experience!

Ooh! I'm a chemist! I look forward to trying this out...

00:02:34 Donation Drive
00:10:00 Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime
00:15:30 Destiny: The Taken King
00:25:08 Rocket League
00:32:55 Hearthstone
00:39:56 Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
00:43:00 Bonfireside Chat Podcast
00:46:04 Threads of the Week
01:15:00 Your Emails

In reply to Sand's concerns about Pokemon in his area, I have read that Pokemon are tradable.
So it would be possible to get the rare one that is sitting in Alaska, or on a volcano, or on the Eiffel Tower.

I can't wait to see the videos of people playing this in public parks !

pinkdino99 wrote:

In reply to Sand's concerns about Pokemon in his area, I have read that Pokemon are tradable.
So it would be possible to get the rare one that is sitting in Alaska, or on a volcano, or on the Eiffel Tower.

I can't wait to see the videos of people playing this in public parks !

This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for pokemon larp.

Yay Amoebic!!!!!!! We love you!!! Stay forever!!

Had a good laugh about the Game King being detained at the Canada - US border. Boy, do I know how that feels, the US immigration services and customs can really suck sometimes.

+1 on Sokobond, which I really loved and 100%'d. Was lots of fun.

And of course... obligatory "yay, donation drive" comment. Fancy car, here I come!!!!

I'd like to echo the "yay Amoebic" sentiments.
So I will.
Yay Amoebic !

One more on the yay Amoebic front!

Yay!

Double post for being that happy she's on the podcast!

Edit: The cutscene from Bioshock that sticks out to me isn't the Andrew Ryan one, but the one in the opening after the lighthouse, with the reveal of Rapture:

The integration of sound effects (whale!), that beautiful score by Garry Schymann, and the decaying grandeur of the visuals.. it's brilliant at setting expectations and creating an aura of wonder that the game somehow managed to live up to.

The Dark Souls podcast seems to be called: Bonfireside Chat rather than just Bonfire Chat. I'll give it a listen.

Awesome episode guys!

I can also confirm that Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime is playable with the younger set. Just make sure they have their right and left on LOCK. (HA!)

I've been thinking about what's changed in Hearthstone since launch and why it might be a different experience for returning players.

As far as I can figure out, the increase in card pool is actually what has helped rather than hindered the game.

When hearthstone first launched the card pool was pretty small, and this had a number of consequences for deck building and laddering.

First, if you wanted to build a deck there were very few different approaches to build a given deck for a given class. There was one card that fit one role and if you wanted to do that, you needed that one. Now things are a little more varied so you can approach a class/deck with a few different choices (some may be stronger than others) but it opens things up.

The smaller card pool also accentuated the power spike between the good legendaries and the other cards. This also meant that if you wanted to compete you "NEEDED" many legendary cards for your deck. With the added expansions they were able to build on class synergies and tribal synergies. Added to that a bit of power creep at the lower rarities, and you are not nearly as severely handicapped for building a deck that isnt heavily speckled with legendary cards. In fact, many of the top tier (shudder) decks will only use 0-2 legendary cards from packs (Usually Dr. Boom and a Class Legedary) or some of the legendary cards you are guaranteed to get if you buy the set expansions (Loatheb or Emperor Thaurissan).

Back then one of the best decks you could play was Control Warrior it would leverage warrior armour to get to the late game and bury you under an avalanche of flashy legendary dragons etc. This certainly contributed to the idea that you couldnt compete without expensive cards. For the moment that deck has fallen out of favour (because of another problematic warrior deck but at least that one doesn't use 12 legends) and you can browse the Hearthstone deck database and see many instances of high rank/legend decks that are dirt cheap to craft/build (you still have to be an excellent player though).

That being said the game still has some issues, and I have no idea how long it will remain relatively easy to hop in. For now though, the timing seems pretty good.

Ameobic!!!

I like the trend of awesome people from the community coming back as regulars!

Yeah great stuff guys - got me through some particular tedious tasks at work today. I'm a long term listener of the podcast, but I rarely get involved on the forums (Nice new site BTW, Drupal FTW!)

I've been playing Hearthstone on and off since Blizzard optimised it for iOS (iPhone in particular) and enjoy it, but refuse to spend money on it. It's a nice game to play on the commute!

Anyway, I've found that with a basic deck I can find myself hovering around rank 19-20 and have had some pretty decent games for my skill level and it's only after several months that I've decided to up my game by diving into the solo adventures to unlock some more cards - apparently this is the only way I can get the Grim Patron card, which seems to be the most popular option for warriors (my class of choice).

So I guess I just thought I'd share since Sean mentioned he was into it, see if anyone had any similar experience with the game or advice for a casual Hearthstone player who wants to maybe try to at least get to rank 15 (without spending any money!)

I always wait for the reviews before buying a game even if it seems like a safe bet. Game series will inevitably have that moment when they fall off the cliff, amazing developers will get to that point where the vital people have left and the next game doesn't live up to their rock solid legacy. There are games that seem fantastic in concept, art style and even game play but, when played, they are missing some vital spark. I never take one review as gospel but I'll look at lots of reviews good and bad and try, although it's harder with games than movies, to favour reviews from people with similar tastes to my own.

So I picked up Hearthstone after our little chat. Some of us admitted that it's kind of a game for babies and also that I am now one of those babies.

I was really delighted to hear Amoebic back on the podcast!

You guys all transformed an awful commute into an awesome experience. I don't think I'd be functional today if I hadn't gotten such a great dose of community splendor!

...I could've sworn that was the theme to Family Feud, not Price is Right.

Damn, I think you're right.

Re: my email on inviting game night groups

This confirms a conversation SkylarHawk and I have had about our conference call dopplegangers: Elysium and I are certainly distant cousins, "this sounds incredibly difficult, I don't want any part of it". Thanks for the perspectives, I think this next game night will be easier.

The previous Pokemon game from Google that you were talking about was part of their April Fools last year. Some of their promo videos look like early versions of what we now know is Pokemon Go.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/31/55...

http://kotaku.com/googles-early-apri...

I don't mean to sound snarky, but the next time you guys talk about video games and education could you please get an expert in the field on? Like a teacher, school administrator, researcher, or someone else of the like.

I think you're doing a great job, but I think that someone with a more informed perspective could be able to add something more to the conversation.

Beckett wrote:

00:25:08 Rocket League
00:32:55 Hearthstone

7+ minutes about Rocket League (per week) just doesn't seem like enough.

I had no idea about being able to play the game as captured soldiers.

This morning I captured a dude named Filthy Mammoth. I may need to finish the game as him on sheer principle.

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

I don't mean to sound snarky, but the next time you guys talk about video games and education could you please get an expert in the field on? Like a teacher, school administrator, researcher, or someone else of the like.

I think you're doing a great job, but I think that someone with a more informed perspective could be able to add something more to the conversation.

I second this! The podcast was grab bag of lil tidbits from forum threads and caller emails; if experts are to be guests I would prefer they have a more dedicated and structured topic spot as well.

Hrdina wrote:

Awesome, Amoebic is back!

Awesome. I play Rocket League with a celebrity.

Ball Cam off.

Oh it's on doc awk, BALL CAM OFF!