Escapist Podcast: 033: Tim Schafer & Doomsday Preperation

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Panayjon

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Aug 12, 2008
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DustyDrB said:
Past boycotts: Left 4 Dead 2, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, any Valve game that isn't Half Life 3, and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. There are probably more, but I forgot them or just happened to not know about them.

Past successful boycotts: ...

Anyway, the podcast got very echo-ey around the 40 minute mark. Greg and Justin sounded like Turians. It didn't hurt my enjoyment, though. This Kickstarter thing is fascinating. I hope it leads to some original kind of ideas and some change in how game development goes (from what I hear, the term "development hell" sounds like it could apply to much more than what we use it for).
Panorama said:
Oh my God, that avatar is amazing. Never change it.
Not Turian, this was totally a Hanar episode. This one enjoys the podcast and all of the ramblings, praise be the Endkindlers.
 

Steve Butts

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Jun 1, 2010
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bravetoaster said:
I may just be completely naive when it comes to the world of the stock market and whatnot, but if you own shares of a company, is it not YOUR responsibility to know what the company does, how it works, etc.? You mentioned that publishers want to make a profit because they have to be do well for the people who've invested in their stock, but then excuse stockholders from having any personal responsibility or having to educate themselves or have any clue about what's being done with their money.
We were talking about the need for companies to make a profit, which is the responsibility of its executives, not its stockholders.


bdcjacko said:
Blasphemy, Labyrinth is amazing.
It might be amazing, but it's not good.
 

bdcjacko

Gone Fonzy
Jun 9, 2010
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Just now listening to it, and I am so glad my step son has not heard of Spyro Skylanders.
 

Greg Tito

PR for Dungeons & Dragons
Sep 29, 2005
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krellen said:
Susan Arendt said:
When did we even mention Willow?
During the sound check at the beginning, when talking about old fantasy movies. Steve (I think it was Steve) started rattling off titles in the background of bad movies, including Willow.

And I think a couple weeks back his disdain for it came up, too.
I think we've established that Steve hates all movies I like. His disdain for Willow makes sense only in that context, for everyone knows that Mad Mardigan is awesome.

Greg
 

krellen

Unrepentant Obsidian Fanboy
Jan 23, 2009
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Greg Tito said:
I think we've established that Steve hates all movies I like. His disdain for Willow makes sense only in that context, for everyone knows that Mad Mardigan is awesome.

Greg
He really IS great.
 

Endocrom

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Apr 6, 2009
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Personally if it comes down to zombies, I have a little more faith in humanity's chances due to our fantastical modern communication technology. Unless it's like 'Xombie' where everyone on earth gets infected but they only turn when they die. My main fallback is the Grand Canyon or something like it.

"I love you Sorsha? I don't love her, I hate her, she kicked me in the face!"
 

Sightless Wisdom

Resident Cynic
Jul 24, 2009
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Resident audiophile here, I have a request... or two.

In the majority of podcasts so far you've had issues with mic echo bleeding through multiple microphones(I assume that's what's causing it at least). This is really starting to bother me and it was particularly bad in this podcast. I just thought I'd mention it, and I'd hope you could find a way to eliminate that problem with some kind of sound isolation or more uni-directional microphones.

Additionally, you have some serious issues with balancing levels and compressing peaks. Whenever I'm not using in-ear monitors I have to crank up the volume on my speakers to hear the lower parts of speech(which even at loud volumes are difficult to understand) and the resulting volume change leaves my ears in pain when any of you get excited and begin speaking louder. This issue should be a much easier fix. Assuming you have some kind of D.A.W to mix the podcast on, and if you don't I would seriously suggest getting one as it might solve all of your audio issues at once. But this one in particular could be fixed by increasing the gain on the microphones and adding a limiter(normalizer) as a digital compression effect in any D.A.W.

Problems aside, I do enjoy the podcasts. Keep up the good work and I'll certainly be back next week.
 

Wulfsten

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Nov 18, 2010
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I've been listening to your podcast for several months, but this is the first time I felt the urge to chip in.

Susan Arendt demonstrates once again that she's little more than a loud, abrasive person with little insight beyond an affected "let-me-break-it-down-for-ya" persona. She addresses the commenter who complained about Bioware and Mass Effect 3, saying something about a "golden fist up their own ass" - the verbatim quote escapes me. She tells him to either not buy the game or shut the fuck up.

A basic lesson in how the market works, Susie. When the consumers of your product complain about the direction your product is going in, it isn't a wise response to say, or think "well if they don't like it they shouldn't buy it. Either way, they need to shut the hell up." A more intelligent person than Susan Arendt correctly interprets this as a MARKET SIGNAL. It shows that consumers are, by increments, losing faith in the product. Maybe next time they won't automatically buy it when it hits the shelves. Maybe next time, when there's a strong competing sci-fi RPG game on the market, they'll hit up the alternative. Why the hell do you think Bioware sets up forums where people air their grievances? Because they're interested in what all the complainers have to say, because the complainers are the people whose money they want.

Yes, the commenter didn't make his point well, and didn't have anything constructive to contribute to the conversation, but it is never appropriate to tell a consumer who's legitimately losing faith in your product to shut up or get out. Luckily, Steve and Justin quickly corrected Susan, but the fact that she was so openly hostile and confrontational evinces a sad lack of integrity on her part.

As a related side-note: Yes, game developers, and their publishers, are profit-making businesses. Of course they're trying to make money. This does not invalidate concerns from consumers that their products are eschewing artistic vision in favour of lowest-common-denominator appeal. The games industry was built on niche audiences; developers would do well to respect them. Niche audiences are more reliable buyers, they frequently advertise your product for you, and they're the ones who end up buying every single DLC. They have every right to complain that game designers are sacrificing vision for the bottom-line. Vision is what this audience want to buy. And frankly, it's a smart long-term strategy to develop a reputation for niche games that excel in terms of their artistic achievement. That's how Bioware built its reputation, and it's asinine to say that Bioware has no stake in maintaining it because now it has the mass market and all the original niche audience are such fanboys that they'll buy whatever Bioware puts out, so who cares about their whingeing.

I repeat: the market works in incremental shifts and trends, not in boycotts.

Susan Arendt has always bothered me, as she never seemed to contribute anything to the discussion besides an overweeningly entitled token female voice, but I never avoided the podcast because of it. Now that she was outright rude to one of the commenters (who is ultimately paying her bills, mind you), I'm genuinely put off by the podcast.

Just to clarify for simpletons like Ms. Arendt: This doesn't mean I'm boycotting the podcast, or that I'll never visit the Escapist again. But will I avoid podcasts that have her in them? Maybe. Will I be more inclined to look around for other gaming podcasts? Definitely. If I find one that features only intelligent and professional people like Steve and Justin, will I choose to listen to them instead? Most probably.

Sorry for the tl;dr post, you guys run a generally great podcast with some great music.
 

Rassmusseum

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Oct 11, 2010
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To the above poster, you make it sound like Susan herself is an executive at EA and that she's telling people not to buy Mass Effect 3. It's not her product, so it's she doesn't have to not "tell a consumer who's legitimately losing faith in your product to shut up or get out," she has no stake in it.

I do totally agree with you that Susan can sometimes be a bit abrasive and over the top though.
 

Wulfsten

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Nov 18, 2010
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Rassmusseum said:
To the above poster, you make it sound like Susan herself is an executive at EA and that she's telling people not to buy Mass Effect 3. It's not her product, so it's she doesn't have to not "tell a consumer who's legitimately losing faith in your product to shut up or get out," she has no stake in it.

I do totally agree with you that Susan can sometimes be a bit abrasive and over the top though.
I get what you're saying, Rassmusseum, but I wasn't really trying to make the point that she was professionally responsible for Mass Effect 3 in any way... what I was more trying to convey was that the reaction she had in the podcast is really bad for video games and the gaming community. It promotes hostility and confrontationalism, alienates listeners from her podcast and gamers from their game developers, and it was clearly trying to pander to the game developer side of the market.

As someone whose simple mind is trying to ape the trappings of journalism, Susan should try to realise that her loyalties should always lie with the consumer, not the producer, no matter how desperately she wants "insider" access. So she should make a bit more effort trying to empathise with the concerns of gamers rather than telling them to "shut up or get out". I don't think I've ever heard Susan Arendt side with consumer concerns on any issue that wasn't outrageously black and white already.

It's a worrying trend in the gaming community that those in ostensible positions of authority, be it journalists or members of the industry, regularly show sneering condescension and even open contempt for their audience, bandying around terms like "trolls", "fanboys", etc. They seem to be forgetting that gamers, even the loud, obnoxious ones, are what pay all their bills and ultimately feed their ravenous egos. For god's sake, you wouldn't see professionals in any other industry talk to their constituency in the same way that games journalists and game developers do. It's like they're all ashamed of being in the games industry and are desperately afraid that someone will associate them with those mom-hating basement-dwellers.

It's good to know that someone else shares my opinion of Susan, even in part. I am genuinely baffled as to why she has been made senior editor. She's a mediocre writer with no good ideas (really, you're going to write an article about how Skyrim was good, Dragon Age was good, wouldn't it be great IFYOUPUTTHEMTOGETHER??! Please.) and her spoken manner would aggravate the Buddha. Maybe she's a hard worker and she puts time in behind the scenes, and that's fine, but for heaven's sake keep her out of the public eye.
 

Susan Arendt

Nerd Queen
Jan 9, 2007
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Wulfsten said:
Rassmusseum said:
To the above poster, you make it sound like Susan herself is an executive at EA and that she's telling people not to buy Mass Effect 3. It's not her product, so it's she doesn't have to not "tell a consumer who's legitimately losing faith in your product to shut up or get out," she has no stake in it.

I do totally agree with you that Susan can sometimes be a bit abrasive and over the top though.
I get what you're saying, Rassmusseum, but I wasn't really trying to make the point that she was professionally responsible for Mass Effect 3 in any way... what I was more trying to convey was that the reaction she had in the podcast is really bad for video games and the gaming community. It promotes hostility and confrontationalism, alienates listeners from her podcast and gamers from their game developers, and it was clearly trying to pander to the game developer side of the market.

As someone whose simple mind is trying to ape the trappings of journalism, Susan should try to realise that her loyalties should always lie with the consumer, not the producer, no matter how desperately she wants "insider" access. So she should make a bit more effort trying to empathise with the concerns of gamers rather than telling them to "shut up or get out". I don't think I've ever heard Susan Arendt side with consumer concerns on any issue that wasn't outrageously black and white already.

It's a worrying trend in the gaming community that those in ostensible positions of authority, be it journalists or members of the industry, regularly show sneering condescension and even open contempt for their audience, bandying around terms like "trolls", "fanboys", etc. They seem to be forgetting that gamers, even the loud, obnoxious ones, are what pay all their bills and ultimately feed their ravenous egos. For god's sake, you wouldn't see professionals in any other industry talk to their constituency in the same way that games journalists and game developers do. It's like they're all ashamed of being in the games industry and are desperately afraid that someone will associate them with those mom-hating basement-dwellers.

It's good to know that someone else shares my opinion of Susan, even in part. I am genuinely baffled as to why she has been made senior editor. She's a mediocre writer with no good ideas (really, you're going to write an article about how Skyrim was good, Dragon Age was good, wouldn't it be great IFYOUPUTTHEMTOGETHER??! Please.) and her spoken manner would aggravate the Buddha. Maybe she's a hard worker and she puts time in behind the scenes, and that's fine, but for heaven's sake keep her out of the public eye.
I'm Managing Editor, actually. Might want to update your hatred accordingly.