Deep Rock Galactic

GWJ Conference Call Episode 710

Titanfall 2 (PC), Planetside 2 (PC), Deep Rock Galactic (PC), Breath of the Wild (Switch), Star Trek Online (PC), Deliver Us the Moon (PC), Hunt a Killer (Mail-in Mystery Game), The Joy of Playing Through the Pile, Your Emails, and more!

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Amanda, Julian, and Rich are joined by returning guest host Jason aka ThatGuy42 to talk about the Joy of Playing Through the Pile.

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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00:02:09 Titanfall 2
00:07:42 Planetside 2
00:10:55 Deep Rock Galactic
00:20:10 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
00:28:23 Star Trek Online
00:38:43 Deliver Us the Moon
00:42:42 Hunt a Killer (tabletop subscription)
00:49:22 The Joy of Playing Through the Pile
01:03:52 Your Emails

A black light used to scan for hidden evidence IRL could go really over the top.

In regards to accidentally re-buying games that you already own, the GOG Galaxy Launcher is a great tool to help one avoid this. I know . . . I know, everyone hates launchers. Still, this one has the excellent feature of pulling in your libraries from all the major platforms (except Twitch). Now if ever I wonder if I own a particular game, instead of looking in four or five places I can just pull up GOG Galaxy and pretty much see most of my game collection.

Re: The Joy of Playing Through The Pile

Similar to many gamers here, this is always a relevant topic for me. The podcast crew touched upon many of the reasons why we've developed such ridiculous backlogs. Since that's illuminating for understanding how to tackle the immense task of feeling "caught up" (if that even matters), here's my take:

Reasons for Sasu's backlog (ordered roughly in decreasing significance):

1. I was just really busy for the last 10 years. I was making big geographic, financial, educational, personal, social, and career-defining changes and events... and then I had multiple babies. Games had to take a major step back in life priority and I'm not sure I'll ever actually "catch up".

2. WoW. A single game consumed what free time I did have for years on end. I honestly don't regret it, since there were so many incredible gaming moments and WoW is and may always be my #1 gaming experience. However, that came at the cost of many others games. I tried to keep active with non-game activities and limit my %-of-life-gaming to something sorta reasonable, which meant I only played a handful of non-WoW games.

3. Steam Sales & Humble Bundles dropped the cost of "filling out my collection" to below a negligible cost. I have collected many hundreds (...thousands?) of games because I knew it was something I was interested in at some point and I really should pick it up when it's 90% off, because when I do want to play it, then it doesn't cost me anything!

4. I want to experience things in the "right" way. Best is the enemy of good. The stars rarely align, when I'm in the right mood, I have 2-3 free hours to fully invest, I'm at home and can use the optimal room & set-up, I own the game and it is installed & updated. There're a lot of games I've been avoiding because I don't have RTX yet, or I want to experience in the "best" VR setup, or I know there's an "enhanced" or "director's" version coming out soon, or it's finally being released on Steam, or I want to play it in couch co-op or with certain significant other or friends. There are so many conditions that they are never all satisfied.

5. Buying games as a promise to myself, that I'd find time to play them. This is a costly and poor method of retail therapy. When things were rough, and I was regretting having so little time for my personal hobbies , I'd read about awesome games... and pick up one here or there and promise myself I'd find time to play it. Narrator: He never did.

6. My personal tastes changed, and I didn't realize it. I kept collecting JRPGs for years because it's something I knew I loved growing up. But... it's been a long time since I've actually finished a JRPG. I think I technically finished FF13 around 2010 and FF12 in 2012. Since then, I think I've played a dozen or so and just lose interest. And yet, I get excited about every latest JRPG that comes out.

7. The indie game explosion of incredible games, and the current golden age of "must play" video games. There are so many fantastic games out that it's so difficult to "only" play the absolute cream of the crop. It's literally impossible to play them all, especially because...

8. ...I'm a completionist, I have a really hard time allowing myself to play on "easy" mode ("I'm good enough! I don't need no stinkin' easy mode!!"), and I hate using guides. This unholy trifecta makes for wasting away the relatively little time I've got on games I absolutely don't want to be playing. Red Dead Redemption 1 was a bad offender that stands out, but there are dozens of others.

9. I love the hell out of VR. Yet I am surprisingly sensitive to VR-sickness and still have trouble playing for more than a few minutes. It's made it really hard to invest time in games that I know are going to make me sick and unable to function when I put it down (like when the baby squawks and I need to go help right away).

10. I can't justify playing certain games before completing pre-requisites. The Witcher 3 can't be played until 1 and 2. I can't play Dark Souls until I finish Demon's Souls. I can't start on my PS4 or Switch backlog until I wrap up those last PS3 or Wii U stragglers. I guess this is related to completionism, but a lot of it is I love following a continuing story, or the progression of game mechanics as they age.

11. I can't justify playing a multiplayer-focused game when I can't git good. Overwatch & Rocket League sit on the pile because I don't want to let people down and I don't want to spend too much time to get okay at it when I could be investing it elsewhere in single player games.

12. I can't play Ring Fit Adventure because it's sold out everywhere and I refuse to reward a damn reseller.

WHEW.

All that being said (and feeling a little better for it actually), I love games more now than ever. There are games that blow my mind every time I try something new. Just playing the absolute top tier of games leads to incredible experience after incredible experience. I agree that there is sooooo much joy to be found in sifting through the Pile. And I'm finally actually getting to it these days. I've played more in the last 1-2 years than I did the previous 8. Also, I'm working on accepting the "good enough" experience as better than the "waiting for best" experience that never arrives. (:

Teviko604 wrote:

In regards to accidentally re-buying games that you already own, the GOG Galaxy Launcher is a great tool to help one avoid this. I know . . . I know, everyone hates launchers. Still, this one has the excellent feature of pulling in your libraries from all the major platforms (except Twitch). Now if ever I wonder if I own a particular game, instead of looking in four or five places I can just pull up GOG Galaxy and pretty much see most of my game collection.

My brother literally called me last night after listening to the episode and called me an idiot for not using the new GOG Galaxy launcher for 15 minutes.
It really is a major improvement, and can even connect to my PSN library. Very slick!

I've been making little..."new year gaming resolutions" and most of them have focused on backlogs and now...it's been crazy how much it helps me not only finish more games, but spend less because of how I'm playing games now. Here are the rules that I've slowly put on myself. I believe they are in order of what year I created them:

1. Make a list of games you want to play for the year, and try to only buy them. I made exceptions for super duper sales or games that were not announced before January and I really wanted to play

2. Finish 1 game per month on average, so 12 a year. This was to combat me buying 2-3 new games within a month because fomo/sales

3. Once you start a game, do not play anything else until it is finished. The exception here, multiplayer and sports games - basically games that don't have an end can be thrown in to break up time spent in one game/world. This was due to me starting something, then not finishing it for like 3 months. The best part of this rule is, because I'm playing one at a time, once I hit hour 5 or so, if I'm not enjoying it, I'll just stop playing it and move on without the feeling of, "oh i just got busy playing other things so maybe I want to go back to that game". Nope, just say I played it, I didn't like it, and move on spending my time playing things that I'm enjoying.

4. Make a list of games you already have and you WANT to finish, and apply #3 to that list. Obviously, there can be more than 12 games in a year that you want to finish and that carries over into the next year

The combination of that list has me at 9 completed games since the start of 2020 (8 of which were backlog) and only 3 games purchased with only 1 being full priced. I look at sales sometimes and think, "well...I won't be able to fit this in my list within the next couple months so I can wait for a sale" - which can turn into me not buying it at all and maybe having it fall into a solid black friday deal.

My list is also in order of shortest to longest based on howlongtobeat.com because I would fall into analysis paralysis when trying to decide which to play next after spending 80 hours in two separate Dragon Quest games (builders 2 and XI) which had drained me. 7 games later, I'm about ready for another long winded RPG. We'll see if after playing Astral Chain, would I be willing to skip playing Judgment and Death Stranding to start Divinity Original Sin 2.

Enjoyed this one, and not just because you read my email. I don't see the link in the show notes, so here's the link to Holoseat.

A couple notes (some related to the discussion):
* By accuracy I'm talking about delay in start/stop of movement. Early versions needed multiple revolutions of the exercise equipment before responding. Now it's barely noticeable. Not sure it would manage twitch shooters, but it's hard to say.
* There was also the comment about using it in conjunction with a controller, assuming the game supports mixed inputs or you use a joystick to keyboard emulator it works just fine. My co-devleoper J uses that method with it.
* If you use our reference platform these days, the DeskCycle 1/2, then you can sit in a normal office chair and sit at your desk and use it normally, although on early versions J use the recumbent bike. If you look through our blog we've got a few pictures and stories from people who are beta testers
* Holoseat is an open hardware project. The documentation is all available if you'd like to build your own. Assuming we can get moving forward again we wanted to release a pre-assembled "kit" with easy instructions on how to attach it to the compatible equipment of your choice.

Feel free to hit me up with anything if you've got questions.

Brimstar wrote:

Enjoyed this one, and not just because you read my email. I don't see the link in the show notes, so here's the link to Holoseat.

A couple notes (some related to the discussion):
* By accuracy I'm talking about delay in start/stop of movement. Early versions needed multiple revolutions of the exercise equipment before responding. Now it's barely noticeable. Not sure it would manage twitch shooters, but it's hard to say.
* There was also the comment about using it in conjunction with a controller, assuming the game supports mixed inputs or you use a joystick to keyboard emulator it works just fine. My co-devleoper J uses that method with it.
* If you use our reference platform these days, the DeskCycle 1/2, then you can sit in a normal office chair and sit at your desk and use it normally, although on early versions J use the recumbent bike. If you look through our blog we've got a few pictures and stories from people who are beta testers
* Holoseat is an open hardware project. The documentation is all available if you'd like to build your own. Assuming we can get moving forward again we wanted to release a pre-assembled "kit" with easy instructions on how to attach it to the compatible equipment of your choice.

Feel free to hit me up with anything if you've got questions.

Ahh, thank you! Sorry for that, main post updated.
Thanks again for your email

Amanda, regarding dipping your toes into appreciating Star Trek:

1. I strongly discourage starting with The Original Series. Yes, there are a few good episodes, but many bad ones, and the style, pacing, and especially the mysogyny of that series is really offputting today.

2. Instead, just watch a few particular one-off episodes. I can't recommend the following more highly:

The Next Generation ep. 6x15 "Tapestry"
Deep Space 9 ep. 1x19 "Duet"
Enterprise ep. 3x08 "Twilight"

If film is your preferred medium, start with either ST II: The Wrath of Khan for old-school Trek or ST: First Contact for the best TNG film, before moving into the series.

Anyone who likes character-focused sci-fi should love those three episodes, and the films are pretty good but not as spectacular. Afterward, if you want more, then yes, start DS9 or TNG from the beginning, with the caveat that if you can find a list of Worst Episodes for each series, you will enjoy the series far more by skipping those particularly bad ones.

I never, EVER restart a game from the start if my save is still accessible. If you set it aside because you burn out on it, then you're just going to burn out on it again if you replay from the start. Instead, I will grab a walkthrough off the net and I'll read through until I find where I am, that re-familiarizes myself with what's happened in the game, and gets me caught back up on the system.

The one game that I started over and over from the beginning was Final Fantasy 4. That's because every time I played it I started it on a different system, and didn't have access to my save. That's also the only one where It's taken me 4+ attempts pulling it off the shelf to finish. Most of them take me 2-3 cycles at most, continuing where I left off each time.

As for buying games that I already own, I've done that way too often. I try to remember to check Completionator to make sure I don't have a copy already, but sometimes I forget and then I get it home and realize it's the 4th copy of that game I have.