GWJ Conference Call 779

Football Manager 2021 (PC) The Ramp (PC), The Artful Escape (Xbox SX, PC), Moonlighter (Xbox SX), Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous (PC), Burnout and Work/Life Balance, and more.

Click Here to Download!

Amanda, Glendon and Rich talk with Tom (aka Skrout) about burnout and work-life balance.

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.

  • Subscribe with iTunes
  • Subscribe with RSS
  • Subscribe with Yahoo!
Download the official apps
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android
  • Download the GWJ Conference Call app for Android

Comments

Love the discussion about Football Manager. I was on the ground floor of this franchise back in 1992 when the first game came out (it was called Championship Manager in those days). "Making your own stories" was even more prevalent back then, because the relatively simplicity of the game in the 90s required the player to use his or her imagination and "fill in the blanks" a lot more than is necessary now. For example, there was no graphical game engine, so you have to imagine what was happening on the field based on text description of the action. There were no post-game press conferences, so you would conduct pretend interviews with yourself in your own head (and I swear I'm not the only one who did that!). Player "personalities" were far more basic, so you'd craft your own narrative about what certain individuals were like. Etc. etc.

Anyone who is interested in testing out Football Manager now, but is intimidated by its depth, should know that there are also "Touch" and "Mobile" versions of the game that are significantly stripped-down while still maintaining the core of the experience.

Since I have the floor, I'd also like to note that Ramp is by one of the founders of Grizzly Games, who produced the similarly-chill and low-stakes Islanders and Superflight, so definitely check those out.

And The Artful Escape is a wonderful experience. Glad to see that one getting some praise.

Thank you for reading this far.

00:02:15 Football Manager 2021
00:08:58 The Ramp
00:15:21 The Artful Escape
00:27:38 Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
00:40:11 Burnout and Work/Life Balance
01:04:36 GWJ Donation Drive

Tasty Pudding wrote:

Love the discussion about Football Manager. I was on the ground floor of this franchise back in 1992 when the first game came out (it was called Championship Manager in those days). "Making your own stories" was even more prevalent back then, because the relatively simplicity of the game in the 90s required the player to use his or her imagination and "fill in the blanks" a lot more than is necessary now. For example, there was no graphical game engine, so you have to imagine what was happening on the field based on text description of the action. There were no post-game press conferences, so you would conduct pretend interviews with yourself in your own head (and I swear I'm not the only one who did that!). Player "personalities" were far more basic, so you'd craft your own narrative about what certain individuals were like. Etc. etc.

Anyone who is interested in testing out Football Manager now, but is intimidated by its depth, should know that there are also "Touch" and "Mobile" versions of the game that are significantly stripped-down while still maintaining the core of the experience.

Since I have the floor, I'd also like to note that Ramp is by one of the founders of Grizzly Games, who produced the similarly-chill and low-stakes Islanders and Superflight, so definitely check those out.

And The Artful Escape is a wonderful experience. Glad to see that one getting some praise.

Thank you for reading this far.

This is reminding me of a wrasslin' version of that. You'd put together matches and track wrestlers across a year/season. You'd get crowd feedback stats and injuries to handle. Good times.

Tasty Pudding wrote:

Love the discussion about Football Manager. I was on the ground floor of this franchise back in 1992 when the first game came out (it was called Championship Manager in those days). "Making your own stories" was even more prevalent back then, because the relatively simplicity of the game in the 90s required the player to use his or her imagination and "fill in the blanks" a lot more than is necessary now. For example, there was no graphical game engine, so you have to imagine what was happening on the field based on text description of the action. There were no post-game press conferences, so you would conduct pretend interviews with yourself in your own head (and I swear I'm not the only one who did that!). Player "personalities" were far more basic, so you'd craft your own narrative about what certain individuals were like. Etc. etc.

Anyone who is interested in testing out Football Manager now, but is intimidated by its depth, should know that there are also "Touch" and "Mobile" versions of the game that are significantly stripped-down while still maintaining the core of the experience.

Since I have the floor, I'd also like to note that Ramp is by one of the founders of Grizzly Games, who produced the similarly-chill and low-stakes Islanders and Superflight, so definitely check those out.

And The Artful Escape is a wonderful experience. Glad to see that one getting some praise.

Thank you for reading this far.

IMAGE(https://external-preview.redd.it/R3kEUMocDnkOB8xIad97U6k5mWtItup4D1xvtjHp_0o.jpg?auto=webp&s=b2ea7cd3938173004e3d4ae2ead96170eb269c6f)

Ah yes - took me about 3 days to work out that the game hadn't crashed, it just took about 35 minutes to set up a new game. That only had the English leagues in it. And didn't have the real players in.

I disagree a little with Rich's take on alignment in WotR: Hulrun is almost certainly LN (leaning LE and hanging onto his class abilities by a hairsbreadth) rather than LG You can be a "step away" from your power-granting deity and still hang onto your abilities. The various random crusaders are not usually divinely empowered and can be any alignment; most are probably N, LN, LG, or NG, but you'll find CG, CN, and the full spectrum of evil in there, too, and as seen several times in the game, demons will mess with your mind, often really badly. The explicitly LG characters like Seelah and Irabeth actually do seem like genuinely good people.

I do not disagree with his general take on the game as being good therapy for this moment in history and an overall blast to play, however. And I furthermore agree that it's an absolutely amazing example of the genre. it is scratching all the itches.

I'm also eager to hear about all of your PC builds! Which classes/heritages/mythic paths are y'all playing? I went Aasimar Slayer(Deliverer)/Paladin/Oracle with the Angel mythic path myself.

I can already tell I'm going to want to do Azata (Probably go bloodrager or skald for that one), Aeon (looking at balance priest/[some arcane class]/mystic theurge there), and Gold Dragon (probably [melee class]/sorcerer/dragon disciple) playthroughs and possibly Trickster(not sure which class I'd pick for that one) as well.

davet010 wrote:

Ah yes - took me about 3 days to work out that the game hadn't crashed, it just took about 35 minutes to set up a new game. That only had the English leagues in it. And didn't have the real players in.

Yes. And it was wonderful.

The lack of real player names never bothered me in this (or in Kick Off or Player Manager, both of which I loved). Champ Man 93 came out only a year later, though, and that did have real names, along with a foreign transfer list.

Timespike wrote:

I'm also eager to hear about all of your PC builds! Which classes/heritages/mythic paths are y'all playing? I went Aasimar Slayer(Deliverer)/Paladin/Oracle with the Angel mythic path myself.

We have a treat that’s related to this in the works that I can’t wait to share with people!

For now though, I’m playing a Hungerseed Tiefling Sword Saint with a monk dip. Functions for both melee DPS and as an off-tank - really enjoying it so far. Still haven’t gotten up to mythic path yet despite all my hours in the game and the beta, so that’ll be a spur of the moment decision!

I REALLY dug the topic this week -- kinda leaning into the "WJ" side of the site.

I'm still processing a lot of it, but so much of it resonated, especially the irony of feeling burnt out but keeping crap hours to delay that next day from coming. Thankfully I'm in a better place in my current job that I've had for >2years, but I've previously worked as a lawyer in corporate law firms and was super burnt out without even realising it.

I also appreciated the comments about how the whole dang system and world these days seems designed to burn you out and too many so-called solutions are just putting extra burden on YOU to deal with it.

Also I was fascinated by the part about types of games being helpful/unhelpful for where you're at with burnout. I think of Civ as my happy place, because it takes my mind off things, but have to admit that its legendary "One More Turniness" is not conducive to getting a good night's sleep.

Overall, a great discussion and one that feels unique to GWJ's flavour; not really found elsewhere.

Felix Threepaper wrote:

Overall, a great discussion and one that feels unique to GWJ's flavour; not really found elsewhere.

Thanks for the kind words on the topic. I was nervous suggesting it (and heck, even talking about it) because I know games are an escape from *points vaguely at everything going on in the world right now* and I didn't want to intrude on the escape.

But I know with all that is going on, a lot of people are struggling, and I wanted to help if I could, and start the conversation

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:
Timespike wrote:

I'm also eager to hear about all of your PC builds! Which classes/heritages/mythic paths are y'all playing? I went Aasimar Slayer(Deliverer)/Paladin/Oracle with the Angel mythic path myself.

We have a treat that’s related to this in the works that I can’t wait to share with people!

For now though, I’m playing a Hungerseed Tiefling Sword Saint with a monk dip. Functions for both melee DPS and as an off-tank - really enjoying it so far. Still haven’t gotten up to mythic path yet despite all my hours in the game and the beta, so that’ll be a spur of the moment decision!

Oh cool! I'll bet that is fun to play. I'll be interested to hear which Mythic path you choose, too. (You get that pick after liberating Drezen, by the way.)

Apple Podcast app isn't listing this week's show.

Quite possibly a problem on my end, but it's never happened before...

Jonman wrote:

Apple Podcast app isn't listing this week's show.

Quite possibly a problem on my end, but it's never happened before...

Same here. I'll ping Amoebic and sort it out.

Oh my. Can you try refreshing the now feed?

Amoebic wrote:

Oh my. Can you try refreshing the now feed?

There it is!

I loved The Artful Escape so much that I actually took notes while playing it.

I was hooked from the start. The “start game” screen features this amazing folk song in the style of Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie. I sat there listening to the song for several minutes before clicking start. It reminded me of the movie Inside Lewan Davis. The flyer for the concert is featured there as well, which gives some context to the upcoming story.

Speaking of movies, this game also made me think of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. The humor in the game made me think of Douglass Adams’ Hitchhiker books. The humor was also similar to Monty Python and the animation in the game reminded me a lot of the type you would often see in a Monty Python movie.

For me, the biggest appeal was the art. It made me think of all of my favorite album covers from the 70s. Just amazing! Sci-fi fantasy at its best!!

The burnout conversation was incredibly apropos to me. I've been doing the same job, with increasing seniority and responsibility for 20 years now, and I'm so done, but trapped by the need to maintain good health insurance for the constellation of chronic conditions my family has, and being the sole breadwinner, I can't just jump ship and start over in a new industry, taking a huge paycut.

It's gotten to the point where I daydream about quitting, about unemployment and just not feeling stressed all the time. Something's gotta give, and there's nothing that can give. The wife is back in college, specifically as a vehicle to getting into a more lucrative career, so there's another couple of years of me needing to keep at it.

My skillset is massively specific/narrow, but deep (because again, same job for 20 years), so doesn't lend itself well to other things.

I'm trying to drum up the will to give finding a new job in a different field a go, but it feels like a tall order, particularly in 2021. My wife's like "you could make loads more money in tech", and I'm all "what on earth makes you think I'm remotely qualified for any of those jobs? Not to mention that swapping one morally compromised corporate behemoth for another one isn't really a great solution?