Open Betas

A discussion about why it's important that games don't always tell you exactly how everything works, starting with Individual Values (IVs) in Pokémon, branching to other games from other times, and exploring how different hidden game mechanics are sneakily working behind the scenes.

0:00:00 Obfuscation in game systems

0:09:50 The very first Open Betas Patch Notes

0:26:05 Why do IVs exist?

0:43:50 Examples in other games

1:22:34 Gacha games

1:49:20 Hidden mechanics in older games

2:20:30 Security by obscurity

Youtube.com/@openbetas

Outro music by That One Lil' Nitro Man

Swimfan has sobered up and joins Regal to talk religion in games: depictions of real world faiths, completely made-up fantasy doctrines, and the role of god(s). Let us play...

0:00:00 Why religion, and where do we stand?

0:31:00 What is religion?

0:57:50 Religion as a plot device

1:24:40 Back to games

1:53:20 Swimfan's insatiable desire for sexy games

2:03:00 Gods in games

2:31:06 Games as religion

Outro music by I am Jemboy

YouTube.com/@OpenBetas

Regal experiments with solo content, which turns out to be harder than expected. A complaint pod about the EO Soulfist rework in Lost Ark.

00:02:06 What is Soulfist's identity?

00:09:10 How do Soulfist's skills make it unique?

00:21:59 What is changing?

00:33:18 Niche classes

00:37:40 What were the "real" problems with Soulfist?

00:50:06 Cost of reworks for players

We finish our talk about player feedback, and go down the rabbit hole on hate, internet and otherwise.

0:01:15 Feedback's necessity in the workplace

0:09:00 Social media feedback

0:32:30 Hate

0:40:28 Is dehumanization ever justified?

0:56:50 Managing your own hate

1:04:20 What do you do with hate?

1:18:19 The importance of knowing the person

1:43:00 Objective and subjective feedback

1:55:55 Why not have public dialogue?

Outro music by DatManOvaDer

YouTube.com/@openbetas

Regal n' Swimfan talk about how game developers collect feedback from players. What's useful and what isn't? Why put yourself through that?

0:01:25 Why talk about feedback?

0:05:22 The "creative visionary"

0:12:10 Random movies tangent

0:26:30 The difference in interactions between online and real life

0:37:35 It's actually pretty hard to get feedback

0:56:30 Feedback and open-mindedness

1:16:23 Feedback is usually useless

1:35:50 Hateful comments do damage

1:55:20 Is it worth trying to wrangle social media feedback?

Also, Regal was wrong, the amount of caffeine in Coca-Cola and tea is pretty comparable.

YouTube.com/@openbetas

Good news: today (some of) you will become legendary! Don't worry too much about percentages; as long as you keep a positive attitude, you'll be fine (ya frickin' loser)!

0:02:40 What is Legion, what is a legendary, and why did it matter?

0:16:40 How did you get them and why was that problematic?

0:24:50 Why does a 5% damage increase matter?

0:38:00 Blizzard's official statement

0:55:10 Is it wrong to pick up raid members based on dps? (and a long tangent about different mentalities about spending money)

1:24:50 What was the original intention with legendaries?

1:42:40 How do players pick between options?

2:14:50 Why does performance-based selection happen?

2:25:48 Is a perfectly balanced situation where players can pick whatever they want actually ideal?

2:44:05 Player retention

Blizzard's WoW:Legion patch discussion

Outro music by WindyCityBanter

YouTube.com/@openbetas

Can ChatGPT learn to press X on Nintendo controllers but Y on Xbox controllers? How is grandma going to learn to score headshots?

0:00:00 Intro

0:04:10 Playing games for a non-gamer

0:17:54 Being a new player as a kid vs as an adult

0:38:11 Games targeted toward various skill levels

1:04:20 Learning on different control schemes

1:17:50 Learning from other people

1:27:00 Realism

1:48:15 The value of parasocial relationships

2:00:00 Improving tutorials

2:33:00 Elements of positive tutorial experiences

Outro music by Tatami DAZE

YouTube.com/@openbetas

Fighting games, round 2! Regal and Swimfan become armchair designers, and they fix all the problems of fighting games so more people will play them. Directional inputs got you down? Fixed. Single player sucks? Not anymore!

0:03:30 Did fighting games come from beat-em-ups?

0:10:55 Arcade and grassroots culture

0:37:58 Single player content in fighting games

0:59:20 What kind of single player can we put in a fighting game if we build it from the ground up?

1:17:25 Laying out the goals, basic framework, and roguelike inspirations

1:37:35 The Magicka-style control layout

2:09:30 Example characters

Outro music by BotanicSage

YouTube.com/@openbetas

Hadouken!!

0:00:00 Pillars of fighting games

0:22:21 Fighting games we've played

0:28:41 History of the genre

0:45:11 Player barriers to entry

0:51:55 Practice mode

1:02:09 Skill gap

1:11:54 Small communities, friends

1:18:06 Online play, netcode

1:30:15 Too few new players

1:32:06 Directional inputs and spreading out tutorials

YouTube.com/@openbetas

Regla & Fwimsan have an award-winning conversation about Nintendo PR & Pokémon, devs talking about games early in development, and live service games. As if that weren't exciting enough, the 2nd half of this episode discussing randomizers and procedurally-generated content is included FREE for all listeners! 

0:04:40 Speedrunning revisited

0:10:54 Nintendo & Pokémon Scarlet & Violet update

0:13:50 Uhh...long-term product revenue curve? Marketing?

0:20:18 Back to Pokémon, Nintendo PR

0:34:25 Smash tournaments, Nintendo's Competitive team

0:49:40 Talking about games early in development

1:02:20 Live service games, balance, & content release schedules

1:09:12 Randomizers

1:24:49 Nintendo & randomizers

1:28:12 Procedurally-generated content

1:34:43 Problems with randomizers, replayability

1:42:37 Meow

1:46:14 Should pro game devs release randomizers?

1:52:10 Game sales data

YouTube.com/@openbetas