GWJ Conference Call Episode 477

Fallout 4, Until Dawn, HoTS, Holiday Game Playing, Your Emails and More!

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This week Cory, Elysium and Julian talk about holiday games and a whole lot 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: 

Young Man’s Game - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/ - 23:08

Makin’ Money - Echoside - http://echosidetracks.bandcamp.com/ - 42:42

Comments

I'm still halfway through the CC but I'm just loving the main topic about holiday events in MMOs.
**enters hipster mode** Back in 1997 when I was playing The Realm Online, one of the first MMOs, they had a "Winterseve" event which they repeated in the following years. There was snow in most of the areas, in towns, you could buy containers that looked like presents with big bows on top (and then put in the present like a mage hat or cowl of shifting, inside it for the loved one, so it really was like opening a present, because they didn't know what was in it until they opened it). I even still have a big Christmas tree in my living room.
**end hipster mode**
Now that I'm into Guild Wars 2, there's the Winterdays event to look forward to, with snowmen and gift finishers for WvW and PvP, as well as special instances, weapons, crafting, the works. It's the most wonderful time of the year.

I agree with Julian, that Thanksgiving to Christmas window is one of my favorite times of the year. Certainly helps that my birthday is in December too. But everything's lit up and full of cheer. I'm looking forward to those little holiday markets that crop up in most cities in the Old World. Sadly, I might skip the tree this year though because my kids are so destructive.
I do all of my holiday shopping online though. No way I'm setting foot in a store if I don't absolutely have to.

+1 with Eleima and Rabbit on this time of year. I always finish my Christmas shopping in September, so I've never had to deal with shopping mobs.

Amazing element in a less than amazing game: Being able to build Galaxy X class ships in "Birth of the Federation".

IMAGE(http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/sto.gamepedia.com/thumb/f/f6/Federation_Dreadnought_Cruiser.png/200px-Federation_Dreadnought_Cruiser.png?version=ee041ea39c43822cf3aea9cb95740750)

Heh. If you ever meet up with Kittylexy in real life, Eleima, you can bond over The Realm - she'd resubscribe for a month or two every year until recently

00:02:13 Fallout 4
00:14:08 Until Dawn
00:17:50 League of Legends
00:20:15 Apotheon
00:21:04 Steam Sale
00:23:08 Holiday Game Playing
00:42:46 Your Emails
01:04:27 GWJ Beer Thread

When it comes to christmas and gaming, How the Saints Saved Christmas is one of the finest DLCs ever:

As a non-American, the time between Christmas and New Years is generally the most relaxed and happy time of the year. Not many people are working, get to play with new goodies, plus here in New Zealand it's pretty much one of the hottest times of the year. So lots of beach days and general outdoor activities.

Sometime I would like to experience a typical Thanksgiving and White Christmas, would be a really different experience.

I thought I was the only person still alive that played The Realm.

Seriously, you guys are killing me. The last several weeks have featured emails or topics that hit all my highly opinionated buttons!

Mediocre and/or unloved games? Base building? Score chasing? These are my bread-and butter!

I swear, if you do an episode about mundane simulators and trading games my head will explode!

Well, not really. I'll go slink off and wrote something instead.

This was my first vegetarian Thanksgiving, and FWIW, we had Celebration Roast and really liked it.

Hurrah Rabbit! I'm with you on the festive season cheer, but I guess like doubtingthomas, I too am among the smug folks who have completed their Christmas shopping before December.
Pythagean, being in the Southern Hemisphere too, I enjoy the summer activities as well as the option to escape to a cool room with a board or video game. Where I grew up it would often hit 40 degrees Celsius (104 Farenheit) that time of year, so water fights and swimming pools have always felt like Christmas to me. But I'd also love a white Christmas, which my extended family is planning to make happen in 2018 with a trip to Europe (It's looking like it'll be Estonia).

Looking forward to the Fallout 4 spoiler edition, whenever that may happen. I've finished the main plot and sunk 90 hours into the game total and I think I've got my fill. Great game and I think the advice from Sean and Julian seems right for Cory, if it hasn't grabbed you early on, move on. Too many other great games out there.

I have bought nearly every one of my Christmas presents online this year.

I think one of the main problems with Fallout 4 (alluded to in the CC) is that like most Bethesda games, it just dumps about a million quests on you in the first 5 hours, and I think for quite a few people it can be intimidating. I remember when I first played Fallout 3 (first of series I played) I felt a bit subconciously put off by the fact I had about 15 quests open at the start and no idea where to start. It's a hump I had to get over myself and I loved the game after that.

Don't Starve is definitely a game I would want re-skinned... just fix the colours. Way too drab (and I'm playing fallout?).

I think I may be the special snowflake you were looking for. My wife is probably buying me a copy of Fallout 4 for xmas, and I'm OK with waiting. She's playing the crap out of her own copy now, but isn't the type that needs to talk about a game, while I've got JC3 and an extensive Pile to keep me busy for a month.

Sean, I think you're looking for me.
I was excited about Fallout 4 the first day I heard the announcment. But with a full time job and four kids a game like that is a commitment I have to save for the holidays. That's why I pre-ordered Just Cause 3 instead and now I'm dropping a LOT of hints around my wife that I'd REALLY like to play Fallout 4 ...

Surprised nobody mentioned Animal Crossing as a game that not only recognize the seasons and holidays, but makes up new ones just for itself to fill in the gaps.

It does highlight the issue with "Seasonal" gaming though - the need for real world time to progress before you can experience it. Animal Crossing doesn't really like it when you play with the system clock to move up these events, and it makes sense from a developer's perspective why they'd withhold seasonal content to coincide with real-world holidays - (ie, boost in sales).

Aside from MMOs, where control of the world state is absolute, how else should Seasonal content be handled? Should it be gated so you can *only* play on certain dates? What about the southern half of the planet, where snow on Christmas is as anachronistic as snowmen in July?

There's a special achievement in Costume Quest for playing on Christmas. One of my kids made sure I logged in to get that a couple of years ago.

IMAGE(http://oi41.tinypic.com/wk3c3s.jpg)

qaraq wrote:

I think I may be the special snowflake you were looking for. My wife is probably buying me a copy of Fallout 4 for xmas, and I'm OK with waiting. She's playing the crap out of her own copy now, but isn't the type that needs to talk about a game, while I've got JC3 and an extensive Pile to keep me busy for a month.

Marchantia wrote:

Sean, I think you're looking for me.
I was excited about Fallout 4 the first day I heard the announcment. But with a full time job and four kids a game like that is a commitment I have to save for the holidays. That's why I pre-ordered Just Cause 3 instead and now I'm dropping a LOT of hints around my wife that I'd REALLY like to play Fallout 4 ...

I have a massive backlog and a 2-week-old child. I've almost bought about 30 things on sales over the past few weeks, but held up because of both potential gifts and the unlikelihood of actually playing anything.

qaraq wrote:

My wife is probably buying me a copy of Fallout 4 for xmas, and I'm OK with waiting. She's playing the crap out of her own copy now...

Alz wrote:
qaraq wrote:

My wife is probably buying me a copy of Fallout 4 for xmas, and I'm OK with waiting. She's playing the crap out of her own copy now...

Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate that we can't shift it between Steam accounts. Probably with family sharing we could, though then she wouldn't be able to play it and that's a line I don't want to cross. Although I wonder if there's anything to the idea that, our property being joint, we both have the same rights to the game. Certainly, if I contracted to buy it and then got hit by a bus, she'd still be on the hook for that debt, so why can't we both use the product? (yeah I know, contract & license not purchase, and this is the beginning of a deep and ugly rathole so I'll stop now.)

qaraq wrote:

Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate that we can't shift it between Steam accounts.

I guess it's only a silly question if you haven't played FO4 before but ... can't you create multiple characters? Or is it an issue that you both can't play at the same time?

Tanglebones wrote:

Heh. If you ever meet up with Kittylexy in real life, Eleima, you can bond over The Realm - she'd resubscribe for a month or two every year until recently

Gladly! Honestly, sometimes I kinda want to jump back in, if only to rummage through my stuff and see if I can still run Anvil with my two accounts and auction off the last chests, but... Yeah, only 24 hours in a day.

Also, I love you for posting that Planescape screen cap.

Eleima wrote:

Back in 1997 when I was playing The Realm Online, one of the first MMOs, they had a "Winterseve" event which they repeated in the following years.

Very fond memories of The Realm and its seasonally snowy environs. I had recently relocated to Houston from the Chicago area when I started playing and what passes for winter down here just felt all wrong, kind of helped a little bit.

Tanglebones wrote:

Heh. If you ever meet up with Kittylexy in real life, Eleima, you can bond over The Realm - she'd resubscribe for a month or two every year until recently

Wait, it was (is?) still alive and kicking?? How did I not know about this?

Crazed Java wrote:

I thought I was the only person still alive that played The Realm.

Nope, there are apparently a few of us old baldric-wearers still walking the earth.

benign1 wrote:
Tanglebones wrote:

Heh. If you ever meet up with Kittylexy in real life, Eleima, you can bond over The Realm - she'd resubscribe for a month or two every year until recently

Wait, it was (is?) still alive and kicking?? How did I not know about this?

Last I checked, it was. But that must've been over a year ago. Any efforts to resolve realmserver.com this morning are failing.
Edit: according to reddit, the site is down but the game and servers are up. Kinda have the hankering to download and resubb, if only to support them.

benign1 wrote:
Crazed Java wrote:

I thought I was the only person still alive that played The Realm.

Nope, there are apparently a few of us old baldric-wearers still walking the earth.

Hunter's green FTW!!

A couple of my favorite holiday-related Easter eggs:
In Spaceward Ho!, colony planets have Santa hats on Christmas* and turn into Easter eggs on Easter.

*instead of the usual cowboy hats, of course

Sid Meier's Pirates! observes Talk Like a Pirate Day by turning the menu and dialog text up a notch.

As for re-skinning games, the series that comes to mind for me is Dark Souls. I have played many hours of each game in that series. I love the mechanics, the unknown, and the difficulty. Unfortunately for me I have a low tolerance for horror and I always end up quitting the games because I just feel too depressed and icky playing them. It might just be me but I would much prefer a more high fantasy re-skin. That being said it would be a dramatically different game without the dark tones and I do think that changes what the creators had in mind when they made the game.

Omnivore wrote:

As for re-skinning games, the series that comes to mind for me is Dark Souls. I have played many hours of each game in that series. I love the mechanics, the unknown, and the difficulty. Unfortunately for me I have a low tolerance for horror and I always end up quitting the games because I just feel too depressed and icky playing them. It might just be me but I would much prefer a more high fantasy re-skin. That being said it would be a dramatically different game without the dark tones and I do think that changes what the creators had in mind when they made the game.

There are theories about how Dark Souls might influence the design of the new Legend of Zelda game, and thinking about that makes me very very happy.

Alz wrote:
Omnivore wrote:

As for re-skinning games, the series that comes to mind for me is Dark Souls. I have played many hours of each game in that series. I love the mechanics, the unknown, and the difficulty. Unfortunately for me I have a low tolerance for horror and I always end up quitting the games because I just feel too depressed and icky playing them. It might just be me but I would much prefer a more high fantasy re-skin. That being said it would be a dramatically different game without the dark tones and I do think that changes what the creators had in mind when they made the game.

There are theories about how Dark Souls might influence the design of the new Legend of Zelda game, and thinking about that makes me very very happy.

I have the same reaction to the Souls games, much to my chagrin. The prospect of a Souls-inspired Zelda is incredibly appealing.

You could definitely play Fallout New Vegas as a melee character. In fact, even though I had gone with guns for most of the game, the final missions I did full melee because most of the firearms didn't have the damage output to damage the heavily armored characters at the end, but the fist that fired huge ball bearings when you punched things did. That goes along with FO3 Van Buren where guns were extremely rare and most of the game was melee.

I'm still enjoying FO4, and I agree with doing a lot of side quests really supports the main plot. It gets you invested and makes the choices more interesting. I imagine someone who just plowed straight through the main plot would be the kind of person who joined up with the Institute right away and said screw the surface world. :p