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

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

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

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?

Tonight we have an assorted topic type show, but the main discussion ends up centering around games and game value.  What makes one game feel like a valuable experience and another game just seems like a waste of time.  We talk a bit about the Phantasy Star Online 2 America Day holiday and how they have a really strange impression of our country.  Kodra talks about his adventures in the deeply edge case Sudoku.  We also have a discussion about when the right time to group is in a game versus largely solo play.  In the middle of all of this there are several references to Guild Wars 2 and Destiny 2 for reasons.

Topics Discussed

• Phantasy Star Online 2 “America Day”
• When to play a game with friends
• • What point do you transition from solo to group play
• Kodra’s adventures in edgecase Sudoku.
• What makes up game value
• • Getting the most out of a game
  • The length of AAA Games
• Side Discussion about Guild Wars 2
• Side Discussion about Destiny 2

Tonight we start off with a discussion about Destiny and unintentionally the storyline a bit as Darkness has finally arrived.  Bel talks about the degenerate gameplay of the AFK Forge and how it more or less brought the game to a halt.  We also talk about the gear sunset as Bungie tries to do MTG Standard but for Destiny.  From there we talk about Guild Wars 2 and how Tam thinks it is the best mount system.  Bel and Grace disagree, but we continue from there about some general discussion about the game and more specifically the Dragon mount grind.  Lastly we wrap up with a quick discussion of the EA Play 2020 event, Star Wars Squadrons, Cross Play for All Platforms and that EA is probably still evil in spite of them really wanting us not to think that.

Topics Discussed

• Destiny 2
• • The Darkness is Here
  • Degenerate AFK Forge
  • Weapon Sunset
  • • MTG Standard for Destiny
• Guild Wars 2
• • Ideas about Flight
  • • Tam’s Soliloquy of Love
    • Bel and Grace’s disagreement
  • The Dragon Mount Grind
  • General Guild Wars 2 Discussion
• EA Play 2020
• • Sweet Star Wars Game
  • Cross Play For All
  • Probably Still Evil

This show has a wide variety of topics that don’t really connect up.  Bel starts with talking about how easy it was to reinstall steam after losing a hard drive, and how impossible it has been to install either Origin or Epic Game Store as they appear to be in a state of limbo, both installed and not uninstallable at the same time.  Grace talks about her recent adventures in figuring out what she wants to play on her brand new Switch without peer pressure of playing a specific title.  This goes into a side topic about Pinball games and also a side topic about a missing style of Arcade Racing games.  We dive into a topic of virtual tabletops and iTabletop specifically as well as a run down of the various options we have tried over the years.  Finally we land on some discussion of Not-E3 and the wide variety of shows surrounding it the biggest being the PS5 reveal.

Topics Discussed

• Why Steam is Best Storefront
• • Limbo of Origin and Epic Game Store when a hard drive dies
• Pressure Free Switch Exploration
• • Grace gets a Switch
• Talking about Pinball Games
• Talking about the missing style of Racing Games
• iTabletop and Virtual Tabletops
• Not-E3
• • Talking about some of the wide variety of shows happening this year without E3
• Sony PS5 Reveal Show

Tonight we start off with a discussion of Dungeon Defenders Awakened and how it is a less complete version of the original game.  We talk about whether or not this is going to be a good idea for the long run.  From there Bel talks about his experiences with Minecraft Dungeons and how it generally feels like an unfinished and unbalanced mess.  From there we talk about how PSO2 has a lot of interesting systems and some decent tutorials, but does not do a great job of leading players to them.  Lastly we have a discussion about a return to Guild Wars 2 and experiencing how much better they are at telling its story.

Topics Discussed

• The Death of a Hard Drive
• Dungeon Defenders Returns
• Minecraft Dungeons
• • Unfinished Feeling and Grindy
• PSO2 Bad Presentation of Good Tutorials
• Guild Wars 2
• • How they learned to tell a story

Tonight we welcome our good friend Nephsys along for this ride because she more or less got kidnapped into the podcasting channel.  We start the show with some discussion about being back in Final Fantasy XIV and the current event where they bribe us to do unpopular content.  One of those content types is Rival Wings, and Bel talks about how it is PVP that he actually enjoys.  From there we break into a discussion inspired by a conversation that happened while watching the cutscenes of Praetorium, which is what games would you like to forget so you could experience them fresh again for the very first time?  We talk for a bit about the afterglow of watching your friends get into something that you really liked.  Finally we nestle into the main topic of the week which is the somewhat awkward North American PC launch of Phantasy Star Online 2.

Topics Discussed

• Mogrocks for Mounts in FFXIV
• • Rival Wings is Fun
• Forgetting a Game to Play it Fresh again
• • The Afterglow of Friends Experiencing Games
• Phantasy Star Online 2 NA PC Launch
• • The systems within systems
  • Figuring things out

Tonight we sit down to record our three hundredth episode, and more or less are doing it the old fashioned way.  We had no notes and ownly a loose outline in Bel’s head and what ends up happening is one of the most enjoyable shows we have ever recorded.  We for the most part explain the long and contorted origins of AggroChat and how we wound up recording a podcast.  We’ve told bits and pieces of this tale before, but never in one entire sequence also talking about when various cast members joined the crew.  There are several points where we get derailed along the way, but I guess that is also par for the course.

Topics Discussed

• The Origins of AggroChat
• When Various Cast Members Joined
• Our Most Listened Episode
• A Bunch of Others Stuff
• None of us Took Good Notes