The Onomatopoeia Episode

[fishbang]

For the life of me I can’t remember what we were trying to articulate in this episode (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20090901.mp3).

It’s been too long since our last show for us to bother with much of a preface. Batman is discussed at length, which is no kind of surprise, though we can’t promise you’ll like everything we have to say. We’re not all finished with it yet, so our final conclusions have yet to be drawn. We can’t imagine that standing in your way.

Again, this week, we are beset with troubles and will not be recording on schedule. Scott has been afflicted with PAX-plague, Jeremy’s having significant hardware problems, and I just can’t get my shit together. Arjay’s cool, though. That’s pretty much always the case.

[lucklesswonder]

BAM! POW! JELLICLE!

Sorry, old joke. Years ago, watching the Adam West Batman movie, a friend and I just started yelling out random words. And there had just been a commercial for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats.

By Crom. Hope things get better for you guys again.

[Psykoboy2]

Help me out a bit Luckless....do you have the full image of your avatar....or could tell me more of what that is?

[lucklesswonder]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/3744914617_d8c2fe2195.jpg

That's my Adventurer, by Akubra. It's the same block-style as the Raiders fedora.

Haha! And it's next to my giant Last Crusade poster.

[Iron Past]

Not that I think you were really calling it a flaw, but choosing to play through the game with something that's unnecessary turned on isn't a bad design choice. ;)

Not that you're the only one to say something, I've had the same conversation in the main thread about people who just leave detective mode on. I know it's probably too late now, but trust me, you won't miss anything. The only time I ever turned the detective mode on was when I was actively looking for something or planning an attack--I never left it on in a passive sense even when in predator rooms--and not only found all the Joker teeth my first playthrough without even trying, but finished only missing about 30 'riddles.' The trophies stick out more in regular vision (where they glow bright green), the vents are almost always backlit, and a quick scan of the environment as soon as I enter gave me all the info I needed about the area. But like I said, you're not the only one and having an in between mode where things like grates or weak walls were highlighted actually sounds really cool.

By the way, it sounds like Jeremy might not have turned off "camera assist" in the settings, I found that removed the jerkiness of the camera (though I dearly wished it was more pulled back) and have no idea why the default is set to on. And I got all 1000 points earlier today! I still need to finish the show, but keep up the good work, I always enjoy listening. :)

[lucklesswonder]

Layering the different visual modes would have been great. The general aesthetic of the normal view was awesome. If I could have layered indicators over that only for armed hostiles, I would have been happy. I really liked the mechanic of the Detective Mode, and how much more analytical it was, but I agree it could have been done differently.

There were a lot of things I have problems with now that I overlooked two weeks ago. What you guys said about melding into the shadows---Yes. I felt so overexposed throughout most of the game, even when I knew the thugs couldn't see me.

And I have to ask, was James being ironic with the "this is the game we need, not the game we necessarily want"? I laughed at that, because it reminded me of Gordon's hero speech at the end of Dark Knight.

[fishbang]

I wish that it had been my wit, but I didn't mean to make the reference at all. I'm not sure if that makes it more or less interesting - that a Batman game could inspire a comment from a Batman film without there being a conscious connection.

[Iron Past]

Okay, while my voice message was certainly nothing special, I about died laughing in the car listening to the Google translation thingy. Maybe I'll keep calling in just to see what Google types out...

...by the way, I promise I'm older than I sound. :o

[Vigil80]

FYI, more volume is always better, I say. Loud noise can always be turned down, but if something's too quiet, you can only turn it up so far, at least on every mp3 player I've ever had.

You guys sounded kind of tired to me this episode. Hope the illness bouts are overwith. Drink plenty of fluids, and try to play at least 2 hours of games a day.

[bulletfood]

wait, glue my packaging back together? should i be worried?
the ao rating in games is just as much of a distributing kiss of death as the nc-17 or x rating for films. it's a shame that most people associate those ratings with porn instead of just adult content. the criterion unrated version of robocop was extremely violent (if it were rated it would be x), but it was not pornographic. do you guys think that inorder for games to become more adult oriented they should skip the ratings system all together and be released as unrated versions? or should we just have to import the european versions like farenheit?

[nabokovfan87]

so ive been searching the forums for an hour now, anyone have any idea on how i go about getting my podcast added to cog?

lemme know, off to edit!

[lucklesswonder]

In regards to the ratings issue:

I've been playing The Witcher on my PC. The Enhanced Edition, Director's Cut has all the "mature" content that was never removed from the European version, but which had to be removed for distribution in the States. Part of the "mature" content was labeled as sexual content. I thought it meant sexually explicit content. I wasn't bothered by this. I have to admit, my prurient side was somewhat in anticipation. I mean, really. I'm a guy. If the polygon count is high enough, boobs are boobs.

However, I found the sex scenes were rather tastefully, sometimes humorously, done. Nothing was really shown (and I don't mean the Shakespearean "nothing"; points for whoever gets that). So, I thought, what's the deal? Why all the hullabaloo about removed sexual content? And then I found out. After each sexual encounter, you receive a collectable card with a painting of the woman on it. In the uncut version, the woman is naked. In the edited version, she's slightly more covered up.

THAT is what had to be changed. That is what they had to take out to make American distributors comfortable. As James said, we are a nation of prudes.

[kyrieee]

The 'build your own world' MMO you guys were fantasizing about actually exists. It's called Wurm Online

Here's a link if you want to read about it (it's a really good read, I recommend it):

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/06/08/frontier-psychiatry-wurm-online-interview/

Also, regarding Dust 514 I think that one of the main ways it will interface with EVE is through the economy. It's been implied that the weapons, ammunition, vehicles etc will be built and supplied by players. Knowing EVE and CCP that sounds like something they would do. The transportation of players is another interesting topic. I can't imagine them just letting Dust players attack any planet deep inside some empire's territory (it would be lame) but at the same time I can't see them letting EVE players have Dust players in their cargohold. There will be too much griefing, and it would be un-EVE if they forced capsuleers to 'play nice' with Dust mercs in their cargohold

Another thing: in an interview from PAX one CCP dev hinted at T3 capital ships because of their subsystem structure and the possibility of subsystem targeting! Pretty exciting =)

[Count Elmdor]

Any update on the next episode? Did you guys record one last week? I need a hit!