Bel starts the show off with a discussion about the challenges of playing classic games on modern televisions and how his journey has led him down a rabbit hole that ended up with the Retro Freak.  From there we talk about what happens when the expectations of gamers leads to toxic expectations.  Namely this came into scope over the last few weeks with the reaction to two recent Nintendo Directs.  From there we drive into a discussion about making your own goals in a game and how Tam has found that effective in Guild Wars 2.  This leads to a discussion about when games bribe you to behave a certain way.  Finally we close the show out with Kodra talking about making meta events happen, and oftentimes folks are willing to flock to a zone if you manage to do all the early phases.

Topics Discussed

  • Retro Games on a Modern Television
    • The Retro Freak
  • When Expectations Turn Toxic
    • Nintendo Fans Are Extreme
    • Gamer Identity
  • Guild Wars 2
    • Making Your Own Goals
    • Games Bribing You
    • Making Metas Happen
Direct download: aggrochat_episode309.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:06am EDT

This evening we record an entire show where we basically talk about three games.  The first of these is Ooblets which came out this week in early access and how it is a blending of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Pokemon and a Card Battler.  From there we talk about Ghosts of Tsushima and how it presents Samurai gameplay in a new high fidelity light.  Additionally we talk a bit about Kurosawa mode which offers you a unique black and white/film grain way of playing the game.  Finally Bel talks about his adventures being a post apocalyptic fedex driver in a world seemingly run on twitter likes…  aka Death Stranding.  He talks a bit about the odd social aspect of the game where other players can only have a possible positive impact without ever causing any negatives.

 

Topics Discussed

  • Ooblets
    • Early Access
    • Dance Battles
  • Ghosts of Tsushima
    • Ghost Mode
    • Samurai Mode
    • Kurosawa Immersion Mode
  • Death Stranding
    • Beautiful World
    • Interesting Social Mechanics
Direct download: aggrochat_episode308.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 10:14am EDT

Tonight Belghast completely botches the intro to the show and has to record a second one, and it is absolutely not like the rest of the crew let this slide calmly.  We start the show talking about Cross Code and how it is now available on consoles, and was quite possibly the best roleplaying game of 2018.  Bel dives into a discussion about how connection based matchmaking is destroying any joy that can be found in crucible. This leads into a whole discussion about the best sorts of matchmaking we have played under and also a long discussion about how peer to peer connections are problematic.  We talk about the concept of what if we could choose the length of a game before starting it.  This also leads to a discussion of how more games need clearly identified difficulty settings and allow players to understand the ramifications of that choice.  From there we dive into a discussion about how it is oftentimes hard to find information that is more or less considered to be common knowledge in a given community.

Topics Discussed

  • CrossCode on Consoles
  • Skill Based Matchmaking vs Connection Based Matchmaking
    • How to Ruin and Iron Banner
  • Peer to Peer Connections are Problematic
  • Variable Length Games
  • Why We Need to Stop Caring about how others play games
  • The challenge of finding gaming ancestral knowledge
Direct download: aggrochat_episode307.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:35am EDT

This is one of those shows when we had a long list of things to talk about, but we just sorta started on one topic and it developed a mind of its own.  First up we talk about Bel and his insane grinding nature when it comes to the Four Job Fiesta.  From there we reprise a topic that got bumped last night and talk about the unique nature of Guild Wars 1 almost trading card game like skill based system.  From there we dive into a discussion about the changes that were made with Guild Wars 2, and how they may have taken some wrong advice from the data at the time.  This dives into a discussion of what makes up a role in a game and how exactly games tend to message that.  We go through a whole series of leaps and wind up in a discussion about how freedom to change your build feels really good in games like Guild Wars 2 and Diablo 3.  It even descends into a discussion about what exactly makes up the nature of a “Character” in a game, and if it should just be a cosmetic choice and everything of importance be account bound.

Topics Discussed

  • Bel and grinding in Final Fantasy V
  • Guild Wars 1 Card Based Spells
  • Guild Wars 2 and Abolition of Roles
  • Taking the Wrong Queue from Data
    • People who like only Tanking or Healing
  • The Secret World - When a game has wrong choices
  • What makes a Role a Role
    • And how is it messaged?
  • Freedom of Choice is Really Important
  • What makes a Character a Character?
Direct download: aggrochat_episode306.mp3
Category:gaming -- posted at: 9:18am EDT

1