GWJ Conference Call Episode 663

My Friend Pedro, Children of Morta, Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night, They Are Billions Campaign Mode, Turning Players into Enthusiasts, Your Emails and More!

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This week Julian, Allen, Shawn and guest David Heron talk E3 stuff!

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00:01:20 Children of Morta
00:07:23 Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night
00:12:09 My Friend Pedro
00:20:06 Xbox Game Pass for PC
00:06:04 They Are Billions
00:37:34 Turning Players into Enthusiasts
00:51:25 Your Emails

https://www.justwatch.com/us

is a thing. It's a thing I use fairly regularly when I'm looking up where to watch various tv/movies. As far as I can tell there is no equivalent thing for video games. Anyone aware of one? My guess is that Steam dominated the online game playing service so much that there wasn't much need of one, but we are starting to see that no longer be the case.

My Friend Pedro doesn't sound like anything I gleaned from the name alone.

I'm thinking that turning players into gaming enthusiasts is going to be very much a tailored, individual experience.

A bit like Julian described with choosing Edith Finch for his daughter because of her love of writing and story, I believe transforming somebody into an enthusiast is achieved by generating a positive feedback loop between the player and game. If you are an engaged in good story telling, you can recognise the tools and tricks a game uses to impart that story and may actually expand the player's scope of narrative devices. Likewise, if you were a Formula 1 enthusiast as a child (like me) playing Geoff Crammond's Grand Prix 2 gave me teams and tracks I recognised but taught me more about crafting race strategy.

I feel like the game that transforms somebody into an enthusiast is likely to be an individual gateway, but one that will open the door to other less bespoke experiences with good onboarding like many of the games discussed in the topic.

jrralls wrote:

https://www.justwatch.com/us

is a thing. It's a thing I use fairly regularly when I'm looking up where to watch various tv/movies. As far as I can tell there is no equivalent thing for video games. Anyone aware of one? My guess is that Steam dominated the online game playing service so much that there wasn't much need of one, but we are starting to see that no longer be the case.

Doesn't www.isthereanydeal.com basically do that for PC? It shows you all the storefronts that are selling it, at least, though to be fair, not which platform it's going to run under.

I've got Playnite installed - it's a metalauncher that hooks into pretty much all of my storefronts. I'm not at the point of using it as my default launcher, but I boot it up when I can't remember which launcher to open for a given game (case in point, used it yesterday to find Obduction - which I got for free a few months ago but couldn't remember where). Gives you the searchable functionality of something like justwatch, but for your own library(s).

My Friend Pedro is quite good.

It also really, really should have been a licensed Deadpool game.

For Allen, regarding the board game Coup... Your wish came true as this game exist under another version called ‘Complots’. This version uses a renaissance theme that makes it more suitable for non-geeky-gamers. You should have a look at it:
Your text to link here...

Cheers,

One of my cousins is a Buddhist who walks and goes ice climbing, on the rare occasions it's viable, in the Lake District. He lives on the coast near the lakes. So close to the coast in fact that you can take a cup of tea out of the back door of his little house and drink it on the shore while keeping an eye out for decent pieces of drift wood.

I visit him in the summer most years and he pops down to us for Christmas. On these occasions I get to give him a little guided tour of the games I'm playing.

Whenever I go walking with Richard in the hills, despite being a seasoned rambler, I often feel out of my depth. Huffing and puffing up seemingly endless slopes while Richard, ahead of me, walks casually on as if he is strolling down to the corner shop for a paper and some milk. Roles are reversed when it comes to using a controller. He battles with the sticks, triggers and buttons like he's trying to solve some new kind of rubik's cube. The character on screen rarely looking in a useful direction let alone doing what he is intending it to do. We did have some success a couple of Christmases ago with INSIDE which, with some help, he played through to completion and really enjoyed.

My real triumph though was when I introduced him to the iPad and Monument Valley. It took a little while to get which finger taps and movements to use and to learn the language of the game but after that he was hooked. On one visit to the lakes he devoured Monument valley 1 and 2.

There was something very peaceful about reading a book while listening to the scattered but tuneful musical notes and atmospheric sound effects of the game as Richard, fully absorbed, played on through the levels.

With Xbox game pass i'm not seeing anything i'm interested in that is also not being on PC. I'm honestly not seeing a reason yet to buy the new xbox. I'll be able to play everything on my PC with better performance and keyboard/mouse.

I think one of the best shooters to introduce people to is the Uncharted series. I know they’ve got lots of problematic plot elements but as a distillation of story, shooting, and beauty, I can’t think of much that beats it. My dad has played through every single Uncharted game and loved them all.

They are probably easier for non gamers to get into because they use a lot of common elements from action movies. If you've seen Indian Jones you already have a big leg up on understanding what the Uncharted series is all about.