Good Morning, Good Night

Will and Matt talk about League Worlds, survival/crafting games like Factorio, and how games incentivize the idea of making things more efficient. How deep is too deep? How complicated is too complicated? How far can you really push in-game logistics in the pursuit of being lazy? In the final episode of Good Morning, Good Night, we probably won't give you a conclusive answer.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

Matt and Will hit Episode 25 in this little project! We talk a bit about Spelunky, a roguelike that's getting a sequel soon, and the idea of overcoming challenges for the sake of it. This also crosses over into talking about our tastes in general, and how we both recommend games to other people. Some people like difficulty for the sake of difficulty, and some people don't; there's nothing wrong with that difference.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

Valve have postponed TI, and suddenly the Dota community is learning how much its dependence may or may not hinge on it happening. T1 isn't going to LoL worlds, either, and that's a bit of a surprise, considering their storied franchise history. This is an esports-heavy episode, as we continue to talk about the post-COVID nature of LAN competition and how the esports ecosystem may suffer for it.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

Say you're a longtime fan of a series that stretches multiple entries, and someone asks you how to get into it. Do you recommend them release order, or maybe something that's better suited to newbies? Matt and Will talk about this "making the experience better" problem through the lens of two series that means a lot to them: Kingdom Hearts, and Yakuza.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

It's late August, and that means it's The International season - or wait, no it isn't this year. Matt and Will talk about the lack of offline gaming events this summer, and whether they'd want to even go if they weren't working them. Both Matt and Will have also found themselves sucked back into MMORPGs, with Matt playing Final Fantasy 14, and Will playing Lost Ark Online.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

Will's finished The Last of Us 2, and we arrive to our discussion as "Games As Art" — but really, that's probably too deep a topic for just an hour. We also discuss the balance of playing games for streaming vs for fun, and how it can be difficult to deflect those nagging feelings that "you should be doing something with this."

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

How hard have you worked to get someone away from a product that's bad for them? Have you ever given up trying to leave somewhere (like Facebook, WhatsApp, Reddit, Twitter) because "that's where all my friends are"? We talk a little bit about the network effect of social media, business, and how data privacy is increasingly becoming a thing to care about (or not care about) in our digital world.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

What makes a Riot Games battle pass feel different than one for another game? Why does it feel natural for Riot to add aspects of a visual novel to an otherwise different genre? How do Riot engage their audience in an effective way? We talk about these questions as Matt also shares what going through a sleep study is like.

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

Some pieces of media are divisive to the point where you're unsure of whether you can explain what they are. Matt's been knee-deep in Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding, and he talks to Will about how a unique experience just happens to hit all the things that he likes in a video game. But the question remains: can you actually tell someone they'd like it, based on your own experience?

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe

A game developer makes a game — that doesn't seem out of the ordinary. But making a game that makes people happy to watch trailers? That perks our ears up. Matt and Will talk about Devolver Digital's Devolverland game, why it was effective, and what it takes to be special in the space of marketing. Lots of companies will try, and some will try too hard. 

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Intro music: "Sleepyfish - Velocities" - https://chillhop.ffm.to/velocities.owe