AggroChat Podcast

AggroChat #310 – Precision is Power

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Tonight we talk GenCon Online, Horizon Zero Dawn on PC, Gundam EX vs Maxiboost ON, Death Stranding and Companion Apps for Tabletop Gaming
Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

Due to improper planning and the fact that last week was Belghast’s wedding anniversary so we called it for the evening.  Tonight we are back and with a proper show chock full of goodness.  Actually just prior to the show Tam carpet bombed the trello with like two dozen topics, so we will probably be in business for several weeks.  Kodra participated in the very first GenCon Online and has lots of things to talk about regarding it.  During the middle of this discussion we break into a side tangent about how we feel like Shadowrun would work well using the World of Darkness Storyteller system.  Grace and Bel revisit Horizon Zero Dawn on the PC and talk about how much better the game feels with a mouse and keyboard.  Ash talks about playing Gundam EX vs Maxiboost ON and this leads to a side discussion about Gundam Breaker.  Bel talks about finishing Death Stranding and how emotionally connected he was to the characters in the game.  Finally we dive into a discussion about games and companion apps and how a lot of tabletop gaming and the company fear of the internet shoots them in the foot.

Topics Discussed

  • GenCon Online
    • Shadowrun should be a Storyteller Game
  • Horizon Zero Dawn on PC
    • So much better with mouse
  • Gundam EX vs Maxiboost ON
    • Gundam Breaker
  • Death Stranding
    • Emotional Feels
  • Rise of the Companion App
    • Fear of the Internet

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AggroChat #309 – Gamers and Toxic Expectations

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Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Featuring:  Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

Bel starts the show off with a discussion about the challenges of playing classic games on modern televisions and how his journey has led him down a rabbit hole that ended up with the Retro Freak.  From there we talk about what happens when the expectations of gamers leads to toxic expectations.  Namely this came into scope over the last few weeks with the reaction to two recent Nintendo Directs.  From there we drive into a discussion about making your own goals in a game and how Tam has found that effective in Guild Wars 2.  This leads to a discussion about when games bribe you to behave a certain way.  Finally we close the show out with Kodra talking about making meta events happen, and oftentimes folks are willing to flock to a zone if you manage to do all the early phases.

Topics Discussed

  • Retro Games on a Modern Television
    • The Retro Freak
  • When Expectations Turn Toxic
    • Nintendo Fans Are Extreme
    • Gamer Identity
  • Guild Wars 2
    • Making Your Own Goals
    • Games Bribing You
    • Making Metas Happen

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AggroChat #308 – Dance Battle Time

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Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Featuring: Ammosart, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

This evening we record an entire show where we basically talk about three games.  The first of these is Ooblets which came out this week in early access and how it is a blending of Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Pokemon and a Card Battler.  From there we talk about Ghosts of Tsushima and how it presents Samurai gameplay in a new high fidelity light.  Additionally we talk a bit about Kurosawa mode which offers you a unique black and white/film grain way of playing the game.  Finally Bel talks about his adventures being a post apocalyptic fedex driver in a world seemingly run on twitter likes…  aka Death Stranding.  He talks a bit about the odd social aspect of the game where other players can only have a possible positive impact without ever causing any negatives.

Topics Discussed

  • Ooblets
    • Early Access
    • Dance Battles
  • Ghosts of Tsushima
    • Ghost Mode
    • Samurai Mode
    • Kurosawa Immersion Mode
  • Death Stranding
    • Beautiful World
    • Interesting Social Mechanics

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AggroChat #307 – Connection Based Madness

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Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Featuring:  Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen

Tonight Belghast completely botches the intro to the show and has to record a second one, and it is absolutely not like the rest of the crew let this slide calmly.  We start the show talking about Cross Code and how it is now available on consoles, and was quite possibly the best roleplaying game of 2018.  Bel dives into a discussion about how connection based matchmaking is destroying any joy that can be found in crucible. This leads into a whole discussion about the best sorts of matchmaking we have played under and also a long discussion about how peer to peer connections are problematic.  We talk about the concept of what if we could choose the length of a game before starting it.  This also leads to a discussion of how more games need clearly identified difficulty settings and allow players to understand the ramifications of that choice.  From there we dive into a discussion about how it is oftentimes hard to find information that is more or less considered to be common knowledge in a given community.

Topics Discussed

  • CrossCode on Consoles
  • Skill Based Matchmaking vs Connection Based Matchmaking
    • How to Ruin and Iron Banner
  • Peer to Peer Connections are Problematic
  • Variable Length Games
  • Why We Need to Stop Caring about how others play games
  • The challenge of finding gaming ancestral knowledge

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