A Transfusion of Podcast Resolutions

Santa gave me a PS4 for Christmas. As a result, I’m finally playing Bloodborne! The game is a masterpiece. However, quirky performance and frame rate issues get in the way of perfection. I’m talking about my experiences as a console gamer so far in addition to sharing some podcast resolutions for the new year.

Show Segments

* Talking Bloodborne and the new PS4. Spoiler; it’s not a Pro. (01:17)

* Improvements and ambitions for the show in 2017 (13:40)

* A major shift in the YouTube channel, though not an official announcement (26:20)

* Opening it up for feedback (32:55)

Starting Off 2017 … with a Whimper

In the next — official — episode of the podcast we’ll play the New Year’s resolution game. We’ll take a look back and what went well in 2016 with the podcast, where we can improve and talk about some changes coming with the new season. That’s not this episode, though; the first episode of 2017 is officially late.

Here’s a quick status update.

Food in Games

The holidays are a time for family bonding, reflection and eating too much food. This has me thinking about the different implementations of food in games.

The Good

In Pillars of Eternity, food is a buff. It provides stat bonuses or resistances to party members. It’s also a completely optional mechanic for most difficulty settings. I dig food in games when it used like this and explore other examples.

The Ugly

When Snake popped a ration, he’d regain health. When Simon ate a plate of chicken he’d regenerate HP, as well. A number of games use food as a health-restoring mechanic; this always struck me as odd. There’s something unrealistic about it, though it doesn’t detract from a game’s enjoyment.

The Bad

Realism can go too far. Ultima: Exodus for the NES required your characters to eat unless they die. This became an unnecessarily painful maintenance mechanic, like repairing your weapons.

Friendly Neighborhood Mailman

We’ve covered stranger things, buying a new GPU and echo chambers since our last feedback session. In this episode, I’m covering comments on those episodes. I also do some fireside chatting around improvements to the podcast.

On Buying a New GPU

I talked about mental baggage and decision paralysis when buying a new GPU in Episode 018. Turns out I’m not the only one! Big thanks to Jax45 and xTheVisionary for sharing feedback about this topic.

Stranger Things Happened

Episodes 019, 020 and 021 covered Netflix’s Stranger Things. We didn’t receive a ton of feedback on this topic, but it did lead to some interesting side conversations. No more music clips! Also, negativity can be a good thing.

Echo Chambers

Listener Tom left a great comment about the Dune audiobook and my sincerity in talking about “listening to the opposition” in Episode 022 on echo chambers. I make a clarification and further elaborate on how I (personally!) try to consume dissenting opinions.

Fireside Chatting

Plenty of randomness, to boot. I’m thinking of non-intrusive ways to monetize the show, as well as exploring some improvements to the comment system.

Bridge Mix (Nuts)

The Holidays are always crazy for scheduling. Here’s a quick update on what to expect between now and 2017; I’m committed to keeping the weekly’ish cadence, though we may miss a Friday here and there and release early or late.

Hitting Some Things, Missing Others

Thanksgiving is next week. Between family incoming, work chaos from truncated weeks and the general churn of the Holidays the Friday releases might be tough to maintain. However, I’m committed to making sure we keep up with the weekly cadence. We might slide here and there, but there will be one episode a week’ish throughout the Holiday season.

I’ll keep everybody updated via Twitter.

Rant! Rave! Respond!

The next episode (coming Monday, 2016/11/21) is a mailbag episode. If you’ve got anything to air, hit me up before then. I’m on Twitter at @Polygoing and on Facebook here. You can also text over comments or leave a voicemail via the feedback line at (415) 697-0679.

Big Social

I’m contemplating switching over to Facebook comments for the site. Do you hate that idea? Like it? Let me know.

The current comment system was built to be as anonymous as possible. An email address isn’t required, nor is a “real” name. The downside of that is missing out on replies. You have to keep checking back to the site to see what’s transpired. With Facebook (or Disqus, or whatever) it’d be a much tighter integration for fostering conversation. That would sacrifice anonymity, though.

El Presidente

We just held a presidential election in the United States. We’re not talking politics. However, I’m thinking about echo chambers in the aftermath of the circus. These things are dangerous. They can be stunting as a content creator; they can also distort reality.

Echo-echo-echo Chambers-chambers-chambers …

From Wikipedia, an echo chamber is “a metaphorical description of a situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by transmission and repetition inside an ‘enclosed’ system, where different or competing views are censored, disallowed, or otherwise underrepresented.”

We see echo chambers in game communities. We also see them in the arts, or in political discourse or in movie reviews.

References

Explanation of Echo Chamber concepts

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_(media)

Chickens’ heads exploding near factories, an old urban legend

https://www.quora.com/Will-a-7Hz-tone-really-kill-chickens

All Good Things Must End

Luckily, Stranger Things season two is on the way! As good as the execution of this show was, even Stranger Things left us with unanswered questions. We’ll talk about Barb, the nature of “Eleven” and what might be coming in the second season.

This is part 3 in a series. If you missed part 1, find it here. Part 2 is here.

Even Stranger Things Couldn’t Make Barb Cool

People love Barb, but I don’t get it. I share a tongue-in-cheek theory on why this character garners such adulation. On a more serious note, I also talk about Barb as a literary device and why she was so important for the story.

11/999

Did you notice that El’s tattoo reads 011, not just 11? That means there could be 999 kids with similar ink. I explore what this marking might mean: are there a number of other kids with similar powers at the Hawkins lab, or rather that there are a number of other labs each with one psychokinetic kid?

The Thessalhydra in Season 2

Season 1 of Stranger Things opened with fear of the Demogorgon. It ends with fear of a creature called a Thessalhydra. I expect this is a clue about the antagonist in the next batch of episodes, set about a year later.

References

“Eleven is Hawkins Lab’s greatest achievement.”

https://twitter.com/Stranger_Things/status/758728197449973761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Imaginations Running Wild

Stranger Things was the sleeper hit of summer. It captured imaginations around the world. Naturally, a slew of Stranger Things theories are circulating the internet. In this episode I take a look at a few prominent ones; I also float an idea of my own.

What IS the Upside Down?

Sure, the Upside Down is a dark echo of our own world. I put forth a guess on its true nature: this “dark echo” is an alternate reality of the world destroyed by nuclear weapons. Stranger Things takes place in 1983 during the Cold War between the U.S.A. and Russia. Eleven spies on Communists. What if the Upside Down serves as a warning and that mysterious government agency is actually benevolent?

The Demogorgon

Aside from terrorizing Mike, Lucas, Will and Dustin in the series-opening game of Dungeons & Dragons, this monster plays the supernatural antagonist. Is it possible the Demogorgon and Eleven are the same entity? I explore this idea, which is one of my favorite Stranger Things theories.

References

Part 1 of this Discussion

https://polygoingoff.com/stranger-things-afoot-circle-k/

The Monster Created the Rift, Not Eleven (fan theory from Reddit)

https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/51agve/three_big_stranger_things_theories/

Aameul and Hethradiah – The Two Heads of the Demogorgon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demogorgon_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)

Clerical Lions: Character Building in Dark Souls III (on YouTube)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBzXLBryD5v5YgxeMRs6UrCW0Esr90SZQ

RIP, Will Byers

Or not … Stranger Things was this summer’s break-out hit. It was a mix of compelling characters, great acting and a cool story. It was simultaneously unique and familiar. I loved it. In this episode I take a look back at this little gem and gush profusely. This is part 1 of a multi-part series, covering details and buzz. In the next one, we’ll play the “what if” game around some of the unanswered questions from Season 1 and make a few guesses around what’s coming in Season 2.

References

Visit me on YouTube! Just posted a new video on Dark Souls III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ltUHduYz0g

Bigger. Better. Faster. Shinier. More Frames!

I recently purchased an NVidia GTX 1060 for my primary gaming rig. Prior to that, I was running an old Radeon HD 7850. This jump should have been a no-brainer, but I agonized for months about what new GPU to buy.

GTX 1060 or RX 480?

Based on my gaming history and behavior, I determined NVidia’s GTX 1060 and AMD’s RX 480 as my best options for a new card. After researching performance benchmarks across multiple titles, I landed in the NVidia camp. At that point, I started a new round of decision making between the 1060 and 1070 cards.

The 1070 wasn’t in the mix before, so where did it come from? I couldn’t escape the specter of “more!”

Decision Paralysis in Buying a New GPU

GPU technology moves fast. There’s constantly the shadow of a more powerful something looming. I hemmed and hawed for months, knowing that the GTX 1060 perfectly suited for my needs but unable to escape the “what ifs” of imagined behavior. What if I started playing more demanding games that the 1060 couldn’t handle? What if I suddenly picked up a hobby that was more GPU intensive?

In the end, I determined I could come up with stuff I might do forever; in reality I’m not doing any of it and the more powerful card wasn’t needed.

References

Latest GPU Benchmarks from PassMark

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

Radeon RX 480 VS. Nvidia GTX 1060 game performance

http://wccftech.com/rx-480-gtx-1060-dx12-vulkan-tested/

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-RX-480-vs-GeForce-GTX-1060