Everybody's Talking At Once

The Heist is a really good album. good kid, m.A.A.d. city is a really good album. How did we get to the point where those two statements sound contradictory?

In these next two episodes, Lucio and I will dig deep into the current, Internet-wide backlash against Macklemore, by which we're more than a little baffled. It seems to come down to one core question (the first half of which we'll cover this week, and the second half of which we'll cover next week). The question is, who the hell is this straight white guy to be winning hip-hop Grammys and staging massive spectacles in support of gay rights?

Well, he's an independent artist out of Seattle, in a fairly classic M.C. role, who's having huge success without the participation of any label, and using his soapbox to talk about some important issues. His story seems like a rare case of unequivocal pop-cultural good news, so how did so many people decide that Macklemore is history's greatest monster?

———

• Yes, that is a Chicago L train you can hear in the background now and then. D'oh.

• The Heist has had a total of six singles.

• good kid, m.A.A.d city has had a total of four singles.

• Here's where I heard that thing Macklemore said about race and the Grammys.

• I must have been thinking about Eric Clapton's collaboration with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

• Here's everything that ever needs to be said on the topic of reverse racism.

———

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/etao-podcast-08-20140204.ogg

In these next two episodes, Lucio and I will dig deep into the current, Internet-wide backlash against Macklemore, by which we’re more than a little baffled. It seems to come down to one core question (the first half of which we’ll cover this week, and the second half of which we’ll cover next week). The question is, who the hell is this straight white guy to be winning hip-hop Grammys and staging massive spectacles in support of gay rights?

———

• Yes, that is a Chicago L train you can hear in the background now and then. D’oh.

• The Heist has had a total of six singles.

• good kid, m.A.A.d city has had a total of four singles.

• Here’s where I heard that thing Macklemore said about race and the Grammys.

• I must have been thinking about Eric Clapton’s collaboration with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.

• Here’s everything that ever needs to be said on the topic of reverse racism.

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Richard Terrell of Critical-Gaming stops by to discuss something I wrote in response to something he wrote in response to something Ed Key wrote about whether Proteus is a game. (Still with me?)

Just how much work should we be doing to decide what is and isn't a game, and why? Where does an attempt at clear, precise language become an unproductive terminological sword-measuring contest? Where does an attempt at broad inclusion become a mushy lack of useful definitions?

We spend some time mapping out the middle ground between those extremes, and coming to understand one another's positions a little better.

Plus, a few words on what Richard is up to next (a close reading of Droqen's Starseed Pilgrim), and just how cold it's been in Chicago (very damn cold).

———

• If you want to know where Richard is coming from, his Trigon Theory and his "Defense of Gameplay" are good places to start, as is his personal glossary.

• Skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyype!! (Said like "Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!!")

———

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/etao-podcast-07-20140114.ogg

Just how much work should we be doing to decide what is and isn’t a game, and why? Where does an attempt at clear, precise language become an unproductive terminological sword-measuring contest? Where does an attempt at broad inclusion become a mushy lack of useful definitions?

Plus, a few words on what Richard is up to next (a close reading of Droqen’s Starseed Pilgrim), and just how cold it’s been in Chicago (very damn cold).

———

• If you want to know where Richard is coming from, his Trigon Theory and his “Defense of Gameplay” are good places to start, as is his personal glossary.

• Skyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyype!! (Said like “Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn!!”)

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

Alx Preston, Lead Designer of Hyper Light Drifter, stops by to discuss how limitations foster and enable creativity, how videogames could learn a thing or two from Ernest Hemingway, and how growing up with a treatable-but-undiagnosable illness has left him with zero patience for glib, oversimplified views of life, the universe, and everything.

("The stars don't care about your love life" is about as succinct a philosophical position as I've ever heard from anybody, about anything, ever).

We talk videogame violence (and how it's different in God of War III than it is in the new Tomb Raider). We talk minimalism (and how it's not necessarily the same thing as simply working within constraints). We talk games-as-art-or-whatever (and why Alx is still genuinely angry at Roger Ebert). And we talk Kickstarter, and the joys and perils thereof.

Also, Alx explains why he adores A Link Between Worlds but cannot abide Skyward Sword, and then he flat-out tells me to go buy a 3DS.

I still haven't bought a 3DS, but I've thought about it a whole lot.

———

• Here's that video that got posted the morning that Alx and I talked.

• Colombia's pretty fucking cool, in case you're wondering.

———

"All The People Say" (and other assorted silliness) by Carpe Demon.

So this time around, we dig deep into the topic of DRM. We both hate DRM, yet we both kind of love Steam. Does that mean we love DRM? The horror. Now we are become Death, destroyer of fair use.

Steam does a lot right. Maybe that's worth giving up some freedom, especially with greater evils roaming the world of videogame publishing. (We're looking at you, pre-orders and season passes and overabundant cash-in DLC). Is a world where every book is on Kindle really that different from a world where every game is on Steam? (It probably is, yeah).

We also discuss the ambiguity and complexity of voting with our wallets—who or what are we voting for, exactly?—and we ask whether it's simply too late to put DRM on music. (It probably is, yeah).

———

Fact-checking ahoy:

• All of the Mass Effects and Dragon Ages were developed, or at least released, after Electronic Arts acquired BioWare.

• Valve released Half-Life on November 19, 1998.

• "0.9% of the Global Population Have Steam Accounts".

• At time of posting, the Xbox 360 version of Angry Birds Star Wars is forty freakin' dollars. Fruit Ninja Kinnect costs $10, but has jillions of piecemeal DLCs.

———

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

So this time around, we dig deep into the topic of DRM. We both hate DRM, yet we both kind of love Steam. Does that mean we love DRM? The horror. Now we are become Death, destroyer of fair use.

Steam does a lot right. Maybe that’s worth giving up some freedom, especially with greater evils roaming the world of videogame publishing. (We’re looking at you, pre-orders and season passes and overabundant cash-in DLC). Is a world where every book is on Kindle really that different from a world where every game is on Steam? (It probably is, yeah).

We also discuss the ambiguity and complexity of voting with our wallets—who or what are we voting for, exactly?—and we ask whether it’s simply too late to put DRM on music. (It probably is, yeah).

———

Fact-checking ahoy:

• All of the Mass Effects and Dragon Ages were developed, or at least released, after Electronic Arts acquired BioWare.

• Valve released Half-Life on November 19, 1998.

• “0.9% of the Global Population Have Steam Accounts”.

• At time of posting, the Xbox 360 version of Angry Birds Star Wars is forty freakin’ dollars. Fruit Ninja Kinnect costs $10, but has jillions of piecemeal DLCs.

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.

In this moment between big announcements (and big Steam Sales), Lucio and I take some time to discuss what's in it for Valve, what's in it for developers and publishers, and what's in it for, you know, us.

More to the point, we start to seriously wonder whether the Windows machines we're currently using will be our last Windows machines, and why we would bother buying a Sony or Microsoft console in a world where every damn thing comes out on Steam. (We're assuming that Nintendo will hold out as long as possible, and then some. Mario and Zelda on PC, in oficially sanctioned, non-emulator form? DEATH FIRST!)

It's all good news, more or less, as long as we're comfortable with Valve having a hand in simply everything. How comfortable are we with that?

———

Quick post-recording fact checks:

• Valve did in fact port pretty much all of their games to Sony and Microsoft consoles, going back to a 2001 version of Half-Life for the PlayStation 2 and a 2005 version of Half-Life 2 for the Xbox, respectively.

• Sony Online Entertainment is very much still making games. Planetside 2, EverQuest Next. Those.

• The Killzone series is published by Sony, but developed by Guerrilla Games.

• The first Mac OS release (1984) predates the first Windows release by one year, and the first Linux release by nine. Though it's a bit more complicated than that, since Unix—the common ancestor of the Mac OSes and of Linux, not to mention Android—dates back to 1982.

• Windows 8.1 is called "Blue," not "Azure." Azure is something else.

———

"All The People Say" by Carpe Demon.

https://etao.blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/etao-podcast-04-20131203.mp3

In this moment between big announcements (and big Steam Sales), Lucio and I take some time to discuss what’s in it for Valve, what’s in it for developers and publishers, and what’s in it for, you know, us.

More to the point, we start to seriously wonder whether the Windows machines we’re currently using will be our last Windows machines, and why we would bother buying a Sony or Microsoft console in a world where every damn thing comes out on Steam. (We’re assuming that Nintendo will hold out as long as possible, and then some. Mario and Zelda on PC, in oficially sanctioned, non-emulator form? DEATH FIRST!)

It’s all good news, more or less, as long as we’re comfortable with Valve having a hand in simply everything. How comfortable are we with that?

———

Quick post-recording fact checks:

• Valve did in fact port pretty much all of their games to Sony and Microsoft consoles, going back to a 2001 version of Half-Life for the PlayStation 2 and a 2005 version of Half-Life 2 for the Xbox, respectively.

• Sony Online Entertainment is very much still making games. Planetside 2, EverQuest Next. Those.

• The Killzone series is published by Sony, but developed by Guerrilla Games.

• The first Mac OS release (1984) predates the first Windows release by one year, and the first Linux release by nine. Though it’s a bit more complicated than that, since Unix—the common ancestor of the Mac OSes and of Linux, not to mention Android—dates back to 1982.

• Windows 8.1 is called “Blue,” not “Azure.” Azure is something else.

———

“All The People Say” by Carpe Demon.

We’re on iTunes. We’re also on Stitcher. And let’s not forget Podbay.