GWJ Conference Call Episode 570

Destiny 2, XCOM 2: War of The Chosen, Eight Minute Empires, Lords of Waterdeep, Video Game NPC Communities, Your Emails and More!

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This week Shawn, Amanda, Julian and Rob Zacny talk Destiny 2, game NPC communities and more!

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00:01:50 Destiny 2
00:21:31 Dead Static Drive
00:24:45 Reigns: Her Majesty
00:29:19 Eight Minute Empire
00:32:20 Lords of Waterdeep
00:36:48 XCOM 2: War of The Chosen
00:41:11 Video Game NPC Communities
00:52:42 Your Emails

Regarding Destiny 2 coop on PS4 with one copy: Julian, this is the way PS does family sharing. It's normal. One of your systems is designated as the primary PS4. On that PS4, any user can play games installed on that system with their own PS username. On the other PS4, only you can play your games. Worked well with Destiny 1 as well.

I think it's important to point out that there's no single player/ multiplayer versions of the game. There's the game and you can choose to do multiplayer content whether it's pvp or pve.

Two things:

1. Regarding contrasting or complementary games, I am finding XCOM 2 and Destiny 2 to be a near perfect balance of, on the one hand, forced choice pyrrhic victories and on the other, a streamlined numbers always going up shooter.

2. Eye contact can be, amongst other things, a culturally bound phenomena. I work with many indigenous youth who, as a cultural signifier of respect for elders, specifically do not look me in the eyes.

Regarding the eye contact thing, this has been kind of the bane of my existence for a long time. I think about it a lot, especially since my daughter is Autistic and eye contact is almost painful for her to do. It's not exactly easy for me either. My trick is to look at the bridge of someone's nose, or their forehead. It fools them into thinking I'm making eye contact, but doesn't overwhelm me. I still don't know how long I'm supposed to do it, though. Looking too long seems to make people uncomfortable, but I don't want them to think we're not having an approved, normal social intercourse.

There's a good game that simulates the experience of a non-neurotypical person trying to figure out eye contact with neurotypical people. It's called Social Interaction Trainer, and it used to be in steam but has since moved to some other platform. My wife and I talk about it on episode 42 of our podcast.

The game puts the player in social situations and expects them to figure out what they're supposed to look at and when, and for how long, but it gives no indication of what the solution actually is. It's a great illustration of how arbitrary the rules about eye contact truly are, and how difficult it is for those of us with atypical neurotypes.

The game got some criticism for allegedly mocking autistics, but I think it does the exact opposite. It's actually mocking the impossible situation autistics find themselves trapped in on a daily basis, simply because nobody views their feelings of overwhelm as being valid.

I used to have staring contests with my cat. I'd even win sometimes!

As a result, I can hold eye contact way past the time of discomfort for the other person. Like DT, I too don't really know how long I should maintain the eye contact for. So I try to notice the subtle indications that discomfort is starting as a guide to when to break off.

The Kreuzbasar in Shadowrun: Dragonfall is one of my favorite fictional communities in any medium. The emotional heft of that story comes from the PC growing from outsider to full-throated member to leader of the community, a journey which makes it easy to fall in love with the place. There are very few dystopian settings I'd want to live in, but I could see myself fitting in in the Kreuzbasar.

Picked up the original Reigns for iphone, love it! Perfect game to pick up and put down at a moment's notice.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

Regarding the eye contact thing, this has been kind of the bane of my existence for a long time. I think about it a lot, especially since my daughter is Autistic and eye contact is almost painful for her to do. It's not exactly easy for me either. My trick is to look at the bridge of someone's nose, or their forehead. It fools them into thinking I'm making eye contact, but doesn't overwhelm me. I still don't know how long I'm supposed to do it, though. Looking too long seems to make people uncomfortable, but I don't want them to think we're not having an approved, normal social intercourse.

There's a good game that simulates the experience of a non-neurotypical person trying to figure out eye contact with neurotypical people. It's called Social Interaction Trainer, and it used to be in steam but has since moved to some other platform. My wife and I talk about it on episode 42 of our podcast.

Thank you! Almost 40 years and I never figured out how to solve this problem. People want you to make eye contact but it makes me soooo uncomfortable. I have just always dealt with feeling bad for business reasons and done it. I have been trying the nose technique at work and seems to be working well!