You are listening once again to the Negative World Podcast for some reason. Let Anandxxx, Triforcebun, the awfully quiet Abdooooo and as always your host Pandareus delight you with their varied topics: Nintendo's Blue Ocean strategy; how RPG elements are dumbing down games; the best uses of motion controls (though as expected we spend 50% of the time bitching about them) and do lives, continues and gameovers have their place in games today still?
Let's remember Triforcebun is, of course, author/artist of Brawl in the Family!
The music is different this time but still comes from your lovable despotic site owner, Zero. And stay tuned after the podcast for a surprise celebrity guest!
lol, I might have gone overboard with the editing. We already were talking fast, but I may also have taken out a couple of pauses and breaths here and there... I'm out of breath just listening to it!
Wait, you're changing up the music!? Oh man! I actually have a new song in the works that I'll probably be posting live on my soundcloud within the next few days.
Anyway, downloaded and will listen tomorrow. Probably.
@OD net NIN I've thought about this, but considering that...
A. a large portion of our listeners (for now anyway) are forum members and B. we have new guests on every week
...it kind of makes sense to go with our forum names because real names would just be a bunch of random, new names all the time that wouldn't actually mean anything to the people listening.
It's only unfortunate that Abdooooo had to be so quiet because of his setup. I would have liked to hear him more! Also, I think I cut his topic way too short, it must have run for 15 minutes max, but with the restarts I guess I lost track of the actual running time.
Sorry, Abdooooo! I'll make it up to you if you manage to get rid of that hum.
Other than that, the chemistry was great! Any slack left by Abdooooo and I sure was picked up by TriforceBun and Anand!
You know guys, this thread isn't just for patting others our ourselves in the back and criticizing the podcast (thought those criticisms are welcome!).
If you want to add something to what we discussed, that would be great! I mean, once I get started on a topic I always manage to forget a couple of the points I want to bring up. For instance, in the RPG elements discussion, I wanted to bring up their addictiveness but forgot (thankfully TriforceBun touched on this with his "people like to get stronger" argument).
Still, there is no way we said everything that could be said. I mean, I know there are WoW fans here... don't you guys have anything to say to defend yoursel... I mean, any counterpoints? We want to hear them!
It's a minor thing, but having the podcastees talk about what their topics are at the beginning is a good idea. I was going to suggest this before, but forgot to.
I'm not very knowledgable about the RPG scene but I did think the discussion on the relevance of saves/game overs was very thought invoking. It really comes down to what type of game and what type of challenges you face in a game. If its hard as s#!+ and calls for a lot of memory and relflexes I would go with game overs. I would also think that the length of a board would determine if game overs or saves really matter. If you can possibly get through a board in a minute, by all means punish those that can't make it.
Damn, I forgot another point I wanted to make about RPG elements (and how they DO add depth... when they're in the right genre).
Sports games.
RPG elements in sports games are awesome. I think the "career" mode that pretty much every sports game offers nowadays, where you create you guy, customize him, then go through training and seasons to accumulate XP and boost his stats... that's an excellent use of RPG elements. Hell, those mode basically ARE full-fledged RPGs. And they can be great single-player content in a type of game that is generally way more fun in multiplayer.
Of course, they need to be balanced well. If by the end you've got maxed-out stats and can beat anyone with ease, well, that's kind of stupid. Choosing how to customize your guy should remain that: a tough choice.
@Pandareus I've always wanted to try out the Mario Golf game on GBA that has the RPG elements. It's a shame that they never tried that in the console versions.
I was talking to a friend at work (who really should join this site, he's a huge Nintendo fan, albeit more of a PC gamer overall) about how to manage RPG elements without allowing for those who spend more time/energy on sidequests and stuff to end up super overpowered, because that creates a weird catch 22 where the more "diehard" gamers end up finding stuff that makes the game easier, even though those are the type who tend to prefer more challenge.
Basically we both agreed that a more interesting route than overpowering characters is just allowing for more different play styles. So you're not necessarily working to get your character super powerful, you're working to get them more in line with your own style... I guess.