Arrggh! A Video Game Podcast from The Waffling Taylors

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

A Little Explanation

So before we begin I wanted to explain why we've been off the air for a while.

We'd originally planned to release an episode with new friend of the show Morgan Riston, and a look back at what Pokemon means to us (what with it being 25 years old this year). However a family event got in the way, and that lead to us having to go into mourning.

Those episodes are indeed completed, but we didn't want to release them whilst everything was going on, as it would have felt a little disrespectful.

Anyway, let's talk about what we did release:

Episode 121 - Getting to know MazGamingUk

This past month - July 2021 - we put out two brand new episodes. The first episode was an interview with MazGamingUk: Getting to Know MazGamingUK. Maz is one of the most positive people we know of in the UK video gaming scene. He releases tweets and videos with some of the most positive messages we've ever heard.

But not only that, he has recently taken some time to film some very ambitious videos for his YouTube channel - which you really should subscribe to, by the way. Maz had studied film making and has won a few awards for his films, so the new direction that his channel is heading in will be amazing.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this episode was the discussion on using the Sega Saturn Steering Wheel accessory to play Virtua Fighter 2 back in the day. We only had the one controller and the steering wheel, you see. So we would take it in turns to use the steering-wheel when fighting each other. It was a lot of fun.

But what was even more mind-blowing was when Maz told us that the official Dreamcast fishing rod accessory can be used to play Soul Calibre.

... I know, right?

Episode 122 - Outbreak: Endless Nightmares with Evan Wolbach

One week later, we had an interview with the developer behind the Outbreak series of games : Outbreak: Endless Nightmares with Evan Wolbach.

A lot of people think, "I’ll take a computer science degree, then I’ll go make games." But then they get out in the real world and realise that they need to pay the bills first.
- Jay

Evan, like Jay, is a full time developer. But unlike Jay, Evan has pivotted his work from business line applications to video games with the Outbreak series. This series of games combines rogue-like elements with survival horror to create something really rather unique - think Dark Souls meets the late 90s Resident Evil games.

This episode was the latest in a series where we interview developers about what makes them and their games tick. Check your podcatcher for a link to the entire series, by the way.

Evan was kind enough to let us drop him off at the Thunderplains, and even discuss some of the inspirations behind his outbreak series of games and how the series has evolved.

One of my favourite parts of this episode was the discussion around difficulty levels and different play styles in his games. There's a mode in the latest title (Endless Nightmares) which equips the player with enough guns to make several Rambo movies, and drops the difficulty through the floor.

Jay also discussed the Classic REbirth mods for the PC versions of the original Resident Evil trilogy. These mods, made by Apple of Eden, make the game work on modern versions of Windows, and include some quality of life fixes - and even a way to get the Director's Cut Dual Shock soundtrack working in the game for that dooty doot goodness.

Coming up This Month

We thought we'd give a little teaser on what's coming up this month (August, 2021); you heard it here first.

First off we have a conversation with Morgan Riston about what keeps him gaming. Morgan is a wonderfully funny gentleman, does Voice Over work, and is looking to get into podcasting (you'll be able to say, "I was there when he had his first appearance!"). We talk about the amazing Sekiro and Final Fantasy 14 (maybe we should get him on the show with Lulu?), with Sekiro allowing the player to take a huge part in the lives of the NPCs that surround them - something that not many games do.

We met Morgan after backing the first volume of Lock-On. There's a kickstarter backer discord (we're not sure whether this will be opened up to the public or not, as that's up to the folks at Lost in Cult).

After that, we have a bumper length episode - so get comfy - about how Pokemon turned 25 this year. We were joined by, friend of the show, The_B to talk about just what Miyamoto's attempt at making "butterfly catching the video game" means to us. We also have some community comments from some familiar (and some unfamiliar) names in this episode, about just what this series means to them.

MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE. FOR FREE. CHECK YOUR PODCATCHER FOR A LINK
- RUSSELL

Indeed, Russell.

We think you'll agree that this coming month's episodes are looking and sounding great. Keep an eye on the podcast feed, or our YouTube channel for the teasers as they drop.

Wrapping Up

So that's what we put out in July. Keep an eye open for more of these retrospective episodes each month, that way you'll know about the episodes that you may have missed.

Music Credits

All music included in this episode is fully licensed and remains copyright of their creators/publishers. The music used was (in order of appearance):

• Abstract Vision #6 by Muz Station Productions
• Casual Arcade Track #3 Muz Station Productions
• Among The Stars by Muz Station Productions
• Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)

Did you catch all of our episodes in June? Which was your favourite? Do you have any favourite moments? Have YOU played any of the Classic REbirth mods for the classic 90's Resident Evil Games? Have you tried any of the Outbreak series of games? Did you stick aro...

In case you missed it: for this week's episode, we had Evan Wolbach (of Dead Drop Studios) on the show to discuss his Outbreak series, and some of the classic survival horror games and rogue-likes that inspired them.

Check out the full show notes for an embedded player at: https://wafflingtaylors.rocks/2021/07/16/outbreak-endless-nightmares-with-evan-wolbach/

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Evan Wolbach (of Dead Drop Studios) stopped by Waffling Taylors HQ to discuss his Outbreak series of games. This series of survival horror games take inspiration from the greats of the genre, but also look to rogue-likes for some inspiration, too.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

As the topic of this episode is a survival horror game, we ask that you please listen responsibly and consider anyone who may unintentionally be listening, too.

Show Notes

We were joined by Evan Wolbach for this episode. He is the developer behind the Outbreak series of survival horror - something both Jay and Squidge are into - rogue-like games - more Jay's genre of choice.

No pants means no rules
- Squidge

And Squidge couldn't have been more correct.

We wasted no time in getting to know Evan, and leapt straight in with a discussion about how he got into making video games, why he chose survival horror, and just how many possible camera systems his games have.

Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Alone in the Dark (series)... this is a loving homage to all of them
- Evan

It seems that Evan is a big fan of the early survival horror games - particularly the classics of the 90s, and the multiplayer titles of the early 2000s - and it was mainly due to the fact that Capcom (et al.) weren't producing survival horror games in 2015 which drove Evan to try his hand at it with the first Outbreak game - quite simply titled: Outbreak.

A lot of people think, "I'll take a computer science degree, then I'll go make games." But then they get out in the real world and realise that they need to pay the bills first.
- Jay

But not all of the titles are about dispatching wave after wave of the undead, as is the case with Outbreak: Lost Hope

You're just kind of alone on a giant map, and you're trying to explore and find your way around, and find resources. You can't really kill every enemy, so you have to get really clever, and run away and hide
- Evan

Recent Games

The Recent Games segment will not be new to listeners, but in case you're new to the show here's how it goes: we go round the table and discuss one or more games that we've been playing recently, and whether we think it's worth the listeners checking it out. We continue to do this until we've run out of games to discuss.

I love to hear what everyone's been playing, and whether they would recommend it.
- Jay

And, of course, we shared ours too. Would we recommend the games that we've all been playing? Or course!

Evan's Recent Games

As is tradition, we asked our guest to go first.

Evan, being a full-time dev, doesn't have a huge amount of time to play games these days. Although he had managed to put in a few hours with

• Resident Evil Village
• Final Fantasy VII Remake

I look at games like [Final Fantasy VII Remake) as a triumph of engineering and a sign of things to come
- Evan

And of course, Jay brings up the "Dino Crisis remake in the RE Engine" point again - it's not as if Capcom are going to make it simply because he shouts up about it so much.

And Evan agreed, going so far as to point to the design and look of Resident Evil 3's remake as a basis for what it could look and play like.

Squidge's Recent Games

• Streets of Rage 4
• Resident Evil

As mentioned in the previous episode of the podcast - Getting to know MazGamingUK - Jay had discovered a series of mods for the original PC releases of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3 - the so called Classic REbirth mod from Apple of Eden. These mods allows you to play the original PC release of Resident Evil (as in the 1996 game) on windows 10, with a number of bug fixes and quality improvements.

Squidge would definitely recommend them.

So that's all I've been doing: beating people up, and raging out on zombies
- Squidge

Jay's Recent Games

In his excitement to talk more about the Outbreak series, and to see what Evan would take with him to the Thunder Plains - see: below - Jay completely forgot to talk about what he'd been playing. But rest assured that he hadn't played a great deal.

The Thunder Plain Games

For those who are new to the pod, we have a section called "Thunder Plain Games" which might be vaguely reminiscent of a certain programme on BBC Radio 4 - but for copyright reasons, it is completely different.

Imagine that you are in Final Fantasy X, and the Thunder Plains) is a place that you get banished to. And what we're going to do is we're going to open a portal to the Thunder Plains and, very nicely and politely, boot you through it. You will get help, maybe it will be tomorrow, maybe it will be in a week, maybe it will be in an hour.

To stop you from getting bored, we've said that we'll keep the portal open and we'll throw through up to three video games and everything you need to play them - including an Internet connection. The only rules are that you can't ask for help, because help is on the way, and you can't tell anyone that you're in the Thunder Plains.

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, and some links to related things.

Have you played the Outbreak series of games? Are you a fan of survival horror games? What about rogue-likes? Will you be checking out the Outbreak games after this episode? Did you have a question we didn't cover?

Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, leave a comment on the show notes or try our brand new contact page.

Links

Here are some links to some of the things we discussed in this episode:

• Jay & Jay Media
• Jay & Jay on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Outbreak Collection Limited Run

Evan Wolbach stopped by Waffling Taylors HQ to discuss his Outbreak series this week. Evan is an enterprise application developer turned game developer. His inspiration for creating games was to make titles similar to the classic 90s survival horror games, but with a twist. Join us this coming Friday (July 16th, 2021) for this great episode.

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

MazGamingUK (aka Maz from the DreamCast Junkyard Podcast, and of YouTube and Twitch fame) stopped by the virtual Waffling Taylors HQ to chat about his YouTube channel, what he's been playing recently, what he'd take with him to the Thunder Plains, drops a horror story (followed by Jay doing the same), and we talk about controller designs.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Show Notes

We had the amazing Maz Gaming UK on the show because he is amazing. If you are a fan of the DreamCast Junkyard Podcast, or have seen any of his YouTube videos then you'll know exactly who he is. But if you have heard the DC Junkyard pod, or watched any of his videos, then I'd recommend going and taking a look.

We'll wait.

... We can wait almost all-day

Done? Good!

And of course, we started the podcast as we meant to go on: with some silliness and stupidity - and a shout out to our friend Unaffiliated JZ - because we couldn't start the podcast any other way.

And Jay starts us off with a story from the (at the time) recently released Friend's Reunion episode - which, if you're a fan, he'd recommend watching.

Getting to Know Maz

Maz first lets us know about his YouTube channel - seriously, have you subscribed yet? - which has some amazing content already, but is going to be having a bit of a shake up soon.

you'll see on our channel that our last video was December [2020], and that's because we're going in a completely different direction at the moment... which is an initial series of six incredibly different videos, all with a different topic
- Maz

One thing which is a really nice piece of serendipity - as Jay points out - is that almost everyone we've met through the podcast was at EGX 2019 - in the before times - we just didn't get a chance to meet many of them in person. To be fair that's not a huge surprise though, as EGX is the biggest video gaming expo in the UK.

Squidge mentions the tattoo that he got at EGX, and you can see that tattoo in the full show notes here.

He got this tattoo on our third day at EGX, - when we met Beckski, Stoo Cambridge, the folks from Arcade Attack, and the folks from Adventure in Aellion you can see the original tweet about it here.

Maz compares the difference between fully planned out interviews to those which are organised on the fly. It really isn't as easy to run on-the-fly interviews which have been arranged with a moment's notice, so our collective hats are off to those who can run them.

Recent Games

The Recent Games segment will not be new to listeners, but in case you're new to the show here's how it goes: we go round the table and discuss one or more game that we've been playing recently, and whether we think it's worth the listeners checking it out. We continue to do this until we've run out of games to discuss.

I love to hear what everyone's been playing, and whether they would recommend it
- Jay

And, of course, we shared ours too. Would we recommend the games that we've all been playing? Or course!

Maz's Recent Games

As is tradition, we asked Maz to go first.

• Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown

You can't go wrong with a Virtua fighter game... and they've rebuilt it in the Dragon Engine, so you can imagine how sexy it looks
- Maz

• Two Point Hospital

Maz returned to Two Point Hospital shortly after the announcement of Two Point Campus, and has been playing it since then.

I'm not sure how Two Point Campus is going to work, because I'm not used to a hospital which doesn't have ten or 12 ghosts in it
- Maz

Squidge's Recent Games

• Resident Evil

A few days before we recorded, Jay had found out about the Classic REbirth mod from Apple of Eden. It allows you to play the original PC release of Resident Evil (as in the 1996 game) on windows 10, with a number of bug fixes and quality improvements.

After five failed attempts, I was able to completed it in under three hours [without saving once]
- Squidge

Jay drops some knowledge from Alex Aniel's book "Itchy Tasty: An Unofficial History of Resident Evil" about the dialogue used in the original game. A lot of people make fun of the original game for its very bad dialogue, which was delivered rather badly. But the dialogue was perfectly written for the Japanese audience - we interviewed Alex not so long back about his book, and you can listen to it here.

Maz drops similar knowledge about Corey Marshall - voice actor of Ryo from Shenmue. Apparently, he was specifically asked to give a more wooden delivery for the Japanese market.

Jay's Recent Games

It had been a super light load for Jay recently, as he doesn't get to play many games these days - so why's he on a video game podcast then?

• Shadow Man Remastered

Jay has been playing this since it came out and has completed the remaster several times. In fact, each time Nightdive release an update (roughly every two to six weeks), he has started playing it again from scratch. This is because each update unlocks new restored content, or changes the game in subtle ways.

It's a very big favourite of Jays, and he has written about the first game across two blog posts.

The Thunder Plain Games

For those who are new to the pod, we have a section called "Thunder Plain Games" which might be vaguely reminiscent of a certain programme on BBC Radio 4 - but for copyright reasons, it is completely different.

Imagine that you are in Final Fantasy X, and the Thunder Plains) is a place that you get banished to. And what we're going to do is we're going to open a portal to the Thunder Plains and, very nice...

This week's podcast episode is a wonderful conversation with the amazing MazGamingUK. We talked about what we've all been playing recently, Maz's YouTube channel, being an award-winning filmmaker, we swap horror stories, and stop off at the Thunder Plains. Join us this coming Friday (July 9th, 2021) for this great episode.

This is a new type of shorter episode that we'll be putting out each month, called "THE LOOK BACK!". In these, we'll be looking back at the previous month's episodes and giving you a rundown of them. That way, if you somehow missed one, you can get the low down on what you missed. Pretty handy eh?

We'd still recommend that you check out the podcast proper. And if you haven't already, then look for us on your podcatcher of choice and subscribe. It's 100% free to do so, you know.

Episode 118 - The Cupboard of Shame: Iron Man

This past month - June 2021 - we put out four brand new episodes. The first episode was the first in a series by Squidge: The Cupboard of Shame: Iron Man. This will be a series of episodes looking at a demon of his own creating: The Cupboard of Shame.

We know that time and effort are needed to make any game, and he is in no way saying each game is bad or indeed shameful. Just out of the ordinary for him to have purchased them. He'll be aiming to cover one game in each episode, giving the reasons for not only buying it but also how much playtime he gave the game in question.

And what a way to start it off: by looking at the movie tie-in Iron Man The Video Game of the Movie of the Marvel Universe of the Comic Books of the Game of the Movie.

... or something like that.

Along the way, Squidge talked about the awards that it won (not many), the controls

Ever wondered what battling a bag full of badgers while dangling off a cliff in a high wind was like? Well, now you do.
- Head Squidge

Which pretty much sums that up. It's not all bad though, as Head Squidge asks this question:

You gonna go back and complete it someday then? Or are you going to leave it in the cupboard of shame not completed Mr I-love-retro-games-man?
- Head Squidge

You'll have to give the episode a listen if you want to find out whether he will or not. Check your podcatcher for a link.

Episode 119 - Raw With Jay: Entitlement

One week later, Jay put out another one of his ranty episodes: Raw With Jay: Entitlement. You can think of the Raw with Jay episodes as either a series of rants or things that he wants to cover outside of the rest of the show. There's nothing stopping us from coming back to them, but he wants to take a whack at them first.

This episode was one that he's wanted to do for a while. He'd hinted at this in his previous rant on Graphics vs Gameplay, but this time it was all about the entitlement that some gamers seem to have. Some gamers seem to think that they can make demands of games developers - or indeed the hardware manufacturers, and in some cases, the retailers - because they play games.

Pro tip: you can't.

Jay spent a little time talking through basic economic theory (supply and demand), the fact that some game markets have different priorities and gaps, went back to an old blog post on the Game Gear Micro, and even dropped some knowledge on how much it costs to license the players for a FIFA game.

Pro tip: it's a lot - like a stupid amount of money.

The lesson in this episode is a particularly hard pill to swallow, and it was actually written and recorded weeks before a Twitter exchange that Jay had about this very topic with Twitter user Top Loader Check your podcatcher for a link.

Episode 120 - Tomb Raider Turns 25: Raiding Tombs With the B

This year saw Lara Croft's Tomb Raiding adventures turn 25. To celebrate, we asked The B to join us in doing a little cavernous exploration, on the hunt for a GameBoy Printer - we also talked about the Tomb Raider series... like a lot.

We talked about our first Tomb Raider games (not all of us picked the first game, you know), our favourites, least favourites, and just how important Lara was for 90's pop culture.

pro tip: a lot - so much so that we decided to leave a swear by The B in the show, as it was warranted.

I really enjoyed our conversation about the Tomb Raider games, and you will too, I just know it.

Coming up This Month

We thought we'd give a little teaser on what's coming up this next month (July, 2021); you heard it here first.

First off we have a conversation with MAZGaming about his YouTube channel, staying positive, his games collection, and something he deeply regrets doing as an early teen (an exclusive story, too). If you haven't seen the stuff that MAZ puts out then you're doing yourself a disservice. He's also re-launching his YouTube channel very soon with a series that will allow him to flex his filmmaking skills, so go subscribe now.

After that we have an exclusive interview with Evan Wolbach, the developer of the Outbreak series of games. Evan joined us to talk about the latest entry in the series: Outbreak: Endless Nightmares. This latest entry is a 3D, survival horror, dungeon crawler, roguelike... with **three** different camera systems to choose from. Evan also dropped some _very_ interesting insider knowledge about the game and its development. You'll definitely want to give this one a listen, folks.

MAKE SURE TO SUBSCRIBE. FOR FREE. CHECK YOUR PODCATCHER FOR A LINK
- RUSSELL

Indeed, Russell.

After that, we have an incredibly fun conversation with Morgan coming up. Morgan is a wonderfully funny gentleman, does Voice Over work, and is looking to get into podcasting (you'll be able to say, "I was there when he had his first appearance!"). We talk about the amazing Sekiro and Final Fantasy 14 (maybe we should get him on the show with Lulu?), with Sekiro allowing the player to take a huge part in the lives of the NPCs that surround them - something that not many games do.

And we have one last episode for July, but we're keeping the subject under wraps for now - we wouldn't want anyone to steal our idea.

We think you'll agree that this coming month's episodes are looking and sounding great. Keep an eye on the podcast feed, or our YouTube channel for the trailers when they drop.

Wrapping Up

So that's what we put out in June. Keep an eye open for more of these retrospective episodes each month, that way you'll know about the episodes that you may have missed.

Music Credits

All music included in this episode is fully licensed and remains copyright of their creators/publishers. The music used was (in order of appearance):

• Abstract Vision #6 by Muz Station Productions

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page. Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

Lara Croft's adventure series Tomb Raider turned 25 this year - feeling old yet? - and we wanted to discuss the series with the help of The B. We also asked, friend of the show, Mad C to create some killer artwork for this one and we all agree that it's amazing. Make sure to click through to the full show notes to see the full image.

Speaking of the full show notes, these show notes are a little shorter than the full ones (as they would take forever to download), so make sure you do checkout out the website for the full show notes - here's a link directly too them.

Content Warning

We discuss Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider series in this episode, and naturally we had to talk about Lara being used by advertisers and the publishers of the Tomb Raider series for her sex appeal. Thankfully, this was a very short lived period of time - although, it should never have happened at all.

As such, when we discuss Lara Croft in the cultural zeitgeist, we discussed her placement as a sex icon, and the sex appeal that the advertisers leant on her for. As such, this might spark uncomfortable conversations with any little ones who also might listen.

Please listen responsibly.

At 33:30, B had something to say and we felt that it leaving unedited was warranted. He said:

We still have one hell of a long fucking way to go
- The B

Note from Jay:

In this instance, B was talking about how, as a society, all people are still not seen as equal and given equal rights. And as producer and overseer of this production, I took the decision that we would leave that cuss in there. Not to politicise the show notes of a podcast about video games, but B has a point. And that's why I chose to leave the swear in.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to us via our Contact Page, Twitter (DMs are open), or on Facebook if you think that I was in error with this decision.

Show Notes

Remember when Tomb Raider came out? We do, and it turned 25 this year. Twenty-five years old! imagine that.

To celebrate this occasion, we brought The B back on to the show. This was largely because The B and Squidge have an encyclopedic knowledge of video games and when you pair them up, they become a force to be reckoned with.

But in order to do this, we needed suitable Tomb Raider-y names. Our names were chosen for our favourite canon/series of Tomb Raider games - it's a whole thing. We're all big fans of these games, and Jay had taken to streaming Tomb Raider: Anniversary on our Twitch channel - plug, plug - shortly before recording this episode.

Don't make me face my own mortality again!
- The B

But before we could talk about the series, we needed to talk about the intro to the first game and the first level, and just where they take place. Apparently, we had no idea whether it was:

• Nepal
• Tibet
• Holland
• Venezuela
• Africa
• Beirut
• The Hanging Gardens of Babylon - Eddie Izzard references are cool, right?
• or New Mexico

And we all agree that Lara Croft seems to be getting younger, whilst we all get older.

Apparently, this is because the newer games are set before the first (chronologically) released game. Which lead Jay to attempt to tell a joke:

I wanted to be a reboot, but they I took an arrow to the knee
- Jay

Which, we can all agree, was a pants attempt at a joke. And not even related to the topic of discussion.

Jay's First Tomb Raider Game

Jay was the first to answer - probably because he's the oldest, or some other nonsense reason - with the first Tomb Raider game on the PS1. Even though his memories of the second game are a little stronger because he liked to use the cheat which made Lara explode when playing the first area of Tomb Raider 2.

Full Show Notes

Make sure to check out the full show notes for more discussion on the points we raise, some extra meta-analysis, and some links to related things.

Which games do YOU think Nightdive should have a crack at next? Is Cate Archer a Disney Princess? Are the three of us old fogies for being upset about how old the PS2 is? What about the Pikachu FujiFilm printer case?

Let us know on Twitter, Facebook, leave a comment on the show notes or try our brand new contact page.

Links

Here are some links to some of the things we discussed in this episode:

• The_B on Twitter
• The B’s current (at the time of the episode’s release) writing gigs
  • VideoGamer.com
  • PlayStation Trophies
  • Xbox Achievements
• Prince of Persia Apple II source code
  • Write up of the game by the original developer
• NO ONE LIVES FOREVER - Trademark Details
• Tweet from Monolith about NOLF and Nightdive
• Official Nightdive Studios discord server
• A story on the FujiFilm Printer for the Switch

And have you left us a rating or review? We really like to hear back from listeners about our show, so check out https://wafflingtaylors.rocks/our-podcast/ for links to services where you can leave us some wonderful feedback.

The Waffling Taylors is a proud member of Jay and Jay Media. If you like this episode, please consider supporting our Podcasting Network. One $3 donation provides a week of hosting for all of our shows. You can support this show, and the others like it, at https://ko-fi.com/jayandjaymedia

This week's podcast episode is all about the 25th anniversary of the Tomb Raider series. Join us this coming Friday (June 25th, 2021) as we discuss this seminal series with The_B

Remember that you can always get in touch with us on our Facebook page, on Twitter, or with our Contact page.

Don't forget to check the chapters tab in your podcatcher. This is a thing we're doing now, so keep an eye open for those.

---

Remember when I talked about how we should ditch the gatekeepers back in April - check your podcatcher for a link - Well, it's now time to talk about the other aspect of gatekeeping: entitlement - specifically about how some gamers feel entitled to something _because_ they play games. As with gatekeepers, it's all nonsense.

Series Intro

This is The Waffling Taylors Raw with Jay, a series of shorter episodes of indefinite length. These episodes will cover shorter topics which don't really fit will within the scope of the show, or topics that I want to cover in my own way. That's not to say that we won't cover these topics in the main show, but I'd like to take a whack at them here, first.

I can't guarantee that all of these shorter episodes will be as deep or technical as this one. But I wanted to start big.

Anyway, let's get to it.

Entitlement in Gaming

There are lots of definitions of entitlement, but this is the one that I'm going to use for this episode:

the feeling that you have the right to do or have what you want without having to work for it or deserve it, just because of who you are
- Cambridge Dictionary

I'm sure that we all know someone who behaves as though they are entitled to something that they might not actually be entitled to. But this episode is all about the folks who have that sense of entitlement specifically because they are gamers.

I'm sure you've seen something like this in the past:

I've bought and played every entry in this series, and they need to make another one because I want them to
- some twitter user

If you remember the fall out from the ending of the Mass Effect trilogy, you'll have seen this when the fans rallied around and forced EA to create a different ending to the game because they didn't like the original.

This is an example of entitlement by gamers - although there's more to it than just that - I take the stance that games have the ability to be art (especially story-driven ones) after all, someone - or a team of someones - has to write the story, and stories are art.

There's an argument here about whether the creator has the final say in the art that they create, or whether it should be down to the consumers of that art. But that's for smarter people than me to talk about.

The point that I'm attempting to drive towards - and remember, all of this is my opinion - is that you aren't entitled to anything simply because you play video games. To explain why let's talk about how games development companies work.

Games Development Companies Are Businesses First

So, the first thing that you need to know about games development companies is that they are businesses first and foremost.

This means that they have someone - or a group of someones - overlooking almost every decision that the company makes, to ensure that they make the most profit possible.

And that's another thing that I feel most gamers forget: almost every company on the planet aims to make as much profit for as little investment as possible. To quote my good friend Steve Worthy:

Focus on WIN: What's Important Now?
- Steve Worthy

As a side note: if you're interested in business and how to be better at leadership, you should listen to his podcast: Retail Leadership with Steve Worthy - check your podcatcher for a link.

This means that a company should always be looking at what is important now, and for the majority of games development companies it isn't the developers, designers, and artists who decide what "important" means. That decision is made by the shareholders, whose main goal is for the company to make money. Whilst the employees of the development company might want to create the

Greatest game evar!
- some game developer

the shareholders might want to release something as soon as possible in order to get that important injection of cash.

I hate to bring up Cyberpunk 2077, but I just did. To be fair, that particular title had a _lot_ of problems, the least of which was the rush to release it for Christmas 2020.

Full Show Notes

A full transcript of this "raw with Jay" episode is available over in the full show notes - because there are loads of books you can read, and web resources.

How do you feel about gamer entitlement? Am I just having an "old man shouts at the clouds moment"?  Did you catch the completely coincidental Twitter exchange that I had with TopLoader over on Twitter about this very subject? Would you like to hear more rants... I mean Raw with Jays?

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