AggroChat Podcast

AggroChat #289 – Dungeon Master School

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

Tonight we are down a bunch of people and Bel is sick so we have a bit of a chill show with a handful of topics.  First up Bel talks a bit about his recent experience with the various Everquest Emulator server options. First he explores Project 1999 or the most old school and legit of projects allowing you to see just how brutal the game used to be.  Realizing that was not for him he however explores EZ Everquest a server that takes a complete opposite approach and in theory turns the game into a Raiding RTS. From there we talk a bit about the impending localized release of Phantasy Star Online 2.  Kodra experiences Sayonara Wild Hearts which we have talked a bit about before in the past. We get into a length discussion about the Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide which is effectively Dungeon Master School, teaching you the elements other than what it is like to follow a predescribed module.  Bel gets into a discussion of the various streaming options and how GeForce Now differs from them, and the frustrations about Bethesda and Blizzard pulling out. This leads into a discussion about who is going to be the next Bioware, Bethesda or Blizzard… and we talk a bit about Larian and CD Project Red.

Topics Discussed

  • Everquest Emulator Servers
    • Project 1999
    • EZ Everquest
  • Phantasy Star Online 2
  • Sayonara Wild Hearts
  • Pathfinder Game Mastery Guide
    • Dungeon Master School
  • GeForce Now and other game streaming
    • Bethesda and Bioware Pulling Out
  • Who is the next Blizzard or Bioware?
    • Larian Studios
    • CD Project Red

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Bel Folks Stuff – Episode 6

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The last few weeks have been real strange and I’ve had a run of “stuff happening” on Saturday the day that I would normally release this show on. Instead of letting it go yet another week without releasing another back episode, I opted to let this take the place of my normal Monday morning post. Mondays are always rough mornings and maybe just maybe this will let me start the new week with some piece of mind that I don’t have to wrack my brain trying to sort out something to write about.

This show was recorded originally on April 8th of 2015. I sat down to have a conversation with my good friend Liore who at the time of recording was behind the Cat Context podcast as well as some of the podcasts for MMORPG.com. Since then a bunch of things have changed in her life and for the most part I believe she is no longer releasing gaming content, and has instead entered the exciting landscape of cloud computing. I still love to see when Liore comments on something because I will always appreciate her unique opinion on whatever happens to be the question of the moment. I’m also still subscribed to Cat Context in the hope that maybe someday new episodes will start showing up. I mean I am reviving Bel Folks Stuff some five years after the fact so stranger things have happened right?

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AggroChat #288 – Unlikely Alliances

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

First off big thanks to @devoradordeflan for letting me use their artwork to illustrate the first topic on today’s show card.  We kick off with a discussion about something that is bringing me life, aka the Doom Eternal community and the Animal Crossing community creating artwork highlighting the apparent friendship between Doom Guy and Isabelle.  From there we go into a topic about Learning vs Memorization in games and we discuss Rogue-Likes, Bullet Hell Shooters and Platformers as some examples. We talk a bit about the pacing of Fire Emblem and how Kodra keeps comparing it to Persona 5.  Kodra also has played a lot of Bloodstained and doesn’t really get the hype and as such we talk about the bad port that is the Switch version and how maybe he just likes Hollow Knight better. Ash starts a topic about 504 the Board Game Generator and Kodra talks about how it is effectively a career worth of ideas left on the cutting room floor.  Finally we talk a bit about how great the server emulator communities are with Bel talking about his recent journey back into City of Heroes and talk with his similar sojourn into Star Wars Galaxies.

Topics Discussed

  • Isabelle and Doomguy Friendship
    • Unity Between Two Fanbases
  • Learning vs Memorization
    • Rogue-Likes
    • Bullet Hell Shooters
    • Platformers
  • Pacing in Fire Emblem
    • Comparisons with Persona 5
  • Bloodstained
    • The Bad Switch Port
    • Comparisons to Hollow Knight
    • Talking about past Casltevania
  • 504
    • Board Game Generator
  • Emulator Server Communities
    • City of Heroes Homecoming
    • Star Wars Galaxies Legends
    • Everquest 1999

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AggroChat #287 – Server Room Is Lava

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

The release of this show was delayed a bit this morning because I tried really hard to apparently release the show from two weeks ago all over again due to my gross incompetence. However now that I have righted that particular ship… please enjoy the show!

After having to miss last week we had more topics than realistically could fit into a show and only actually made it through three of them.  The first is the launch of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem and how maybe early access isn’t actually a game launch in certain circumstances. We talk about the myriad problems with the online components of the game and the struggles with an indie trying to buy server capacity for high volume bursty connections.  Thankfully there is an offline mode which allows us to talk a bit about why the game is worth the struggle. From there we talk about the impending Final Fantasy XIV 5.2 patch and the most recent live letter previewing features coming up for the game. Lastly we talk about returning to an alternate future where the NGE didn’t kill Star Wars Galaxies as Tam convinces Belghast to play Star Wars Legends.

Topics Discussed:

  • Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem
    • High Capacity Launches are Hard for Indies
    • Going from 1000 to 65,000 concurrent users in a day
    • The solid underlying single player experience
  • Final Fantasy XIV Live Letter
    • 5.2 Patch
    • Catching up
    • Free Company Leveling Up
  • Star Wars Galaxies
    • Star Wars Legends Server
    • Piloting Rebel Starships
    • Tam talks Bel into Playing
    • NGE and Combat Update

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