GWJ Conference Call Episode 625

Moss, Beat Saber, some general VR discussion and Magic: The Gathering Arena. Also, getting deeply invested in your games, your emails & more!

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This week Allen, Amanda, Michael & Sean talk about becoming deeply invested in a single game, and how a relationship with a game can change over time.

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: 

B3 - BoxCat Games - http://box-cat.com/ - 42:58

Mt. Fox Shop - BoxCat Games - http://box-cat.com/ - 1:05:36

Comments

I love this community, and harbor a deep, unwavering affection for those who shepherd this truly special place and ensure it remains an oasis of kindness, thoughtfulness, and generosity. Running the Secret Stan is a privilege, and a way for me to give back a mere fraction of the support that I've seen from Goodjers over the last decade or so.

With all that said, let me gently and lovingly provide an etymology lesson on the nickname Trichy. It was given to me in the navy, as an abbreviation of my first name, Dietrich. While serving in my nation's uniform, my courage, selflessness, and blinding physical attractiveness inspired the hip-hop group Run DMC to pen an opus in tribute to just how truly amazing I am. They spent months in consultation with me, desperate to truly capture the essence of this zenith of human evolution that was now serving as their muse. Imagine my despair when a record executive, no doubt weary from the sleepless nights needed to usher this modern-day symphony into the public consciousness, failed to verify the spelling of my name, and spelled it as pronounced. This executive, of course, committed ritual suicide out of overwhelming shame, but it was too late, as the tune had already formed the bedrock of our cultural zeitgeist.

However, Run DMC, eternally grateful to me for providing them with the clarion call to creation, cleverly and subtly inserted a subliminal reminder as to the proper pronunciation of my name. Jump to 1:27 in this video, and see if you can spot it.

While I personally don't cringe at all when I hear my name spoken as the secret middle name of Richie Rich, Run DMC has contacted me to let me know that they may be seeking legal action to those who forget the hard "ch" sound at the end. I'll hold them back as best as I can, but I just wanted to let the hosts of this wonderful conference call know about the judicial sword of Damocles that dangles above their noble noggins.

00:01:55 Moss (VR)
00:05:56 Oculus Quest
00:11:41 Beat Saber (VR)
00:16:16 More VR Discussion
00:22:44 Magic: The Gathering Arena
00:35:33 World of Warcraft
00:38:39 YouTube Shows
00:42:58 Getting Deeply Involved in Games
01:05:36 Your Emails

Beckett wrote:

00:01:55 Moss (VR)
00:05:56 Oculus Quest
00:11:41 Beat Saber (VR)
00:16:16 More VR Discussion
00:22:44 Magic: The Gathering Arena
00:35:33 World of Warcraft
00:38:39 YouTube Shows
00:42:58 Getting Deeply Involved in Games
01:05:36 Your Emails

Thank you! You are doing an amazing job!

trichy wrote:

puts in effort to put me in place

OH MAN
Sorry I went with this Dietrich pronunciation instead of the Run DMC one! The dictionary has failed me!
IMAGE(http://costumesociety.org.uk/images/uploads/Film_set_photograph_of_Marlene_Dietrich_for_Josef_Von_Sternberg%E2%80%99s_film_production,_Morocco._c1929._IMGUR..jpg)

Beckett wrote:

00:01:55 Moss (VR)
00:05:56 Oculus Quest
00:11:41 Beat Saber (VR)
00:16:16 More VR Discussion
00:22:44 Magic: The Gathering Arena
00:35:33 World of Warcraft
00:38:39 YouTube Shows
00:42:58 Getting Deeply Involved in Games
01:05:36 Your Emails

I just wanted to say what jralls beat me to saying. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

(Kudos this week's crew for calling attention to Beckett's work too.)

Am I the whole one who thought the first game of the week was Maus instead of Moss?
In my brain: Someone made a vr game about Jewish-Polish mice trying to escape and survive from Nazi cats? I mean, that's surprising, but could be interesting as an interactive experience...
Oh not that. That makes more sense.

Availability of timestamps plays a pretty big role in whether a podcast gets to stay on my regular rotation these days, so big thanks to Beckett for helping to keep this one in the mix

Regarding the Uncharted-style game sans combat, I would love to see a game like that, but I am 100% with Sean. There would be an audience for it, but that audience would be significantly smaller. I couldn't imagine it being anywhere close to large enough to justify the crazy budget of that style of game.

I think the revolution began this week.

Beckett wrote:

00:01:55 Moss (VR)
00:05:56 Oculus Quest
00:11:41 Beat Saber (VR)
00:16:16 More VR Discussion
00:22:44 Magic: The Gathering Arena
00:35:33 World of Warcraft
00:38:39 YouTube Shows
00:42:58 Getting Deeply Involved in Games
01:05:36 Your Emails

Thanks for taking my job!

Spoiler:

no seriously, thank you. Life got in the way

I really liked the question about a big-budget game without killing. I straight away thought about Breath of the Wild, and I think there's a great killing-free game in there.

Most shrines are puzzle-based anyway, and those that involve combat could be reworked to be about navigating around a threat or manipulating enemies into a trap or lockable-room. Similarly, Divine Beasts could be all puzzles, with Blight battles being about using the environment to neutralise them/their attacks.

Random encounters could be about getting good at perfectly timed dodges or parries to avoid getting hurt and making an escape.

The Master Sword would still be in the game, but as a tool that either breaks evil barriers, or seals the enemies/purges them of the 'blight'. I think even the fight against Ganon could be a mix of surviving his attacks and using the sealing power of the Master Sword whenever you saw an opening. I think that sounds really fun and wouldn't diminish the scale of the game at all. Your primary goal would just be to 'Seal Ganon' instead of 'Destroy' him.

On a related note, the GameBoy Colour had a pair of Zelda games (Oracle of Ages, and Seasons) and while both involved combat and puzzles, each of them placed a greater emphasis of one if those two things. So it even makes sense within the franchise to fully commit to the puzzle side of things. The story could be that you need to prove you're worthy of the Triforce of Wisdom, or something like that.

I'd play that.

To echo the sentiment of others, thank you, Beckett, for your consistent efforts in providing timestamp info for the show. It has been useful more times that you'll know.

Sean, I applaud your decision to commend Beckett on the podcast. It brought to mind Shawn's reference to the feared fragility of his presence.

"I think the revolution began this week."

God, I hope not.

Also, an additional big shout out to the Chairman for his long stint doing the timestamps as well!

Amanda had mentioned a "relaxing" streamer on this episode that I wanted to check out, but I couldn't quite catch the name. Or I should say I couldn't process the name in a way that I'm able to spell/search for her. Sounds like "Pomo Dolly" but I'm not having any luck. Help?

I heard the same and also can't find them.

Sorry! Ppomodoli. Though it seems like she's doing more ASMR than gaming lately...no complaints from me though!

Awesome! Thank you!