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[NumberThree]

Some great stuff in Danswers. The questions were a bit better, maybe because they got the silly questions about losing virginity and whatever out of the way.

About the joint bank account, I've always thought the smart thing to do is having three accounts: a personal account for both and a shared account to buy common stuff with. Figure out an amount both will be depositing to the shared account based on expenses and incomes, and use the personal accounts however you want.

 

[Hellers]

I'm not enjoying Danswers much. It's all questions about relationships, friends, going out. All stuff I've been lacking for a long time. Just makes me a bit depressed.

I'm massively understimulated at the moment. I don't go out. I don't drink. Hell there's nowhere really to go where I live if you don't drink. All my friends are online. I spend my evenings sitting in front of my Mac trying to think of something that interests me enough to do. I don't think it helps that I'm heavily introverted with social anxiety either

So yeah. Danswers not doing much for me at the moment. It's something to listen to on the drive to work though I suppose.

 

[Renpatsu]

I'm not enjoying Danswers much. It's all questions about relationships, friends, going out. All stuff I've been lacking for a long time. Just makes me a bit depressed.

I'm massively understimulated at the moment. I don't go out. I don't drink. Hell there's nowhere really to go where I live if you don't drink. All my friends are online. I spend my evenings sitting in front of my Mac trying to think of something that interests me enough to do. I don't think it helps that I'm heavily introverted with social anxiety either

So yeah. Danswers not doing much for me at the moment. It's something to listen to on the drive to work though I suppose.

Surely all of the above could be crafted into an email perfectly suited for Danswers. That being said there are plenty of things to do on your own that should be just as stimulating for an introvert - not everyone needs to go out and socialise (although a dabble now and again couldn't hurt).

 

[Antiwhippy]

Yeah, don't let danswers make you think that you're living your life wrong. Introversion is just another way to live your life.

 

[Hellers]

Surely all of the above could be crafted into an email perfectly suited for Danswers. That being said there are plenty of things to do on your own that should be just as stimulating for an introvert - not everyone needs to go out and socialise (although a dabble now and again couldn't hurt).

I'm not sure either Danny or Dan is at all suited to answering questions from a total shut in I'm at my best when I have a project to focus on. Unfortunately outside of IT I'm pretty rubbish at everything. I was bored at work yesterday and spent some time mucking around with domains and webhosting. Ended up with a blog and then remembered I don't do anything worth putting in one

I live in a small town in the north east of England. There's pretty much nothing to do if you don't like drinking. The nearest cinema worth visiting is nearly an hour away and it's no fun by yourself. I'm not outdoorsy. My hobbies are reading, listening to music and the internet. I love gaming but it's rare for any game to hold my interest for long these days.

Can you tell I'm really bored at the moment? I tend to spend most of my weekends asleep due to lack of things to do. So Danswers is a little frustrating to listen to sometimes These guys (And the rest of GB) seem very social. Always out and doing things. Like I say. I don't think they have the needed (lack of) life experience to answer questions like mine.

 

[Hellers]

Yeah, don't let danswers make you think that you're living your life wrong. Introversion is just another way to live your life.

I don't actually have a problem with being introverted. My problem with it at the moment is I'm bored as fuck. I go crazy when I have nothing I want to stimulate my brain with. I have a massive pile of shame with games and books but not a single one of them at the moment is screaming "YOU HAVE TO DO ME NEXT". Sometimes I figure it would be a bit easier if I was more social. Maybe. At least I'd probably have more options.

I might send this in actually. It'd be interesting to see what they'd say. What's the email address again?

 

[Misterinenja]

Weekly acknowledgment that Metal Gear Scanlon is still MIA.

 

[Fantastapotamus]

I'm also not the biggest fan of Danswers. Too serious for me.

Weekly acknowledgment that Metal Gear Scanlon is still MIA.

You people realise that the constant "WHERE'S THE NEXT ER?!?!?!" is what turned them off of doing ERs, right?

 

[CambriaRising]

Weekly acknowledgment that Metal Gear Scanlon is still MIA.

Day 104. Running low on popcorn. I long to see my beloved cutscenes again. I'm hearing alert sounds in my head, but does the sound even resemble the originator? None would know in this forsaken place.

 

[Renpatsu]

I'm not sure either Danny or Dan is at all suited to answering questions from a total shut in I'm at my best when I have a project to focus on. Unfortunately outside of IT I'm pretty rubbish at everything. I was bored at work yesterday and spent some time mucking around with domains and webhosting. Ended up with a blog and then remembered I don't do anything worth putting in one

I live in a small town in the north east of England. There's pretty much nothing to do if you don't like drinking. The nearest cinema worth visiting is nearly an hour away and it's no fun by yourself. I'm not outdoorsy. My hobbies are reading, listening to music and the internet. I love gaming but it's rare for any game to hold my interest for long these days.

Can you tell I'm really bored at the moment? I tend to spend most of my weekends asleep due to lack of things to do. So Danswers is a little frustrating to listen to sometimes These guys (And the rest of GB) seem very social. Always out and doing things. Like I say. I don't think they have the needed (lack of) life experience to answer questions like mine.

You'd never know if you don't send something in. It's not like being introverted precludes sociability, and I don't think the guys have said one way or the other just how introverted or extroverted they may be. Rather than assuming their sociability probably doesn't give them the necessary experience to answer whatever questions you may have just bite the bullet and see what crops up.

All that being said I can empathise. I started doing the Bombcast threads with Daydream in part because I needed something creatively productive to focus my attention on when I wasn't working or going through a creative slump and the regularity keeps me on my toes and whilst I may not have anxiety I'm pretty introverted, not that people would know it based on how I act when I'm out. At a certain point it's just as necessary to force yourself out into social scenarios because human contact is so valuable and the lack thereof can be quite debilitating.

 

[Misterinenja]

You people realise that the constant "WHERE'S THE NEXT ER?!?!?!" is what turned them off of doing ERs, right?

What do you mean you people?

 

[Fantastapotamus]

What do you mean you people?

The people constantly talking about that MGS3 isn' happening right now.
It wasn't meant to sound that mean though, rereading my post it sounded way more aggressive then it was meant to be.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

About the joint bank account, I've always thought the smart thing to do is having three accounts: a personal account for both and a shared account to buy common stuff with. Figure out an amount both will be depositing to the shared account based on expenses and incomes, and use the personal accounts however you want.

I'm getting married this year and we've been talking about how best to transition into a joint banking situation. What we've been talking about is having a joint savings, which handles both our emergency fund as well as short-term savings goals like vacations, a joint checking for bills and everyday expenses, and any individual accounts we want/need. The idea we're working on is basically allowing ourselves an allowance of money every month. What we do with that money is up to the individual.

 

[Misterinenja]

The people constantly talking about that MGS3 isn' happening right now.
It wasn't meant to sound that mean though, rereading my post it sounded way more aggressive then it was meant to be.

I was just playing it's all good m8.

 

[Basileus777]

You people realise that the constant "WHERE'S THE NEXT ER?!?!?!" is what turned them off of doing ERs, right?

That was just the excuse. Besides, Dan&Drew are above that. You think Dan's going to lose his enthusiasm for Metal Gear over internet complaints?

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Danswers is just nothing I want to listen to, I kinda have a lot of shit going on right now so when I listen to stuff I prefer to keep it happy and fun. I really don't need a podcast talking about seperate bank accounts, I hear that a lot "IRL" as of late.

That was just the excuse. Besides, Dan&Drew are above that. You think Dan's going to lose his enthusiasm for Metal Gear over internet complaints?

No, but I will

 

[Brashnir]

I don't actually have a problem with being introverted. My problem with it at the moment is I'm bored as fuck. I go crazy when I have nothing I want to stimulate my brain with. I have a massive pile of shame with games and books but not a single one of them at the moment is screaming "YOU HAVE TO DO ME NEXT". Sometimes I figure it would be a bit easier if I was more social. Maybe. At least I'd probably have more options.

I might send this in actually. It'd be interesting to see what they'd say. What's the email address again?

Pick up a hobby you never tried before, or maybe only briefly dabbled in. Learn a musical instrument, or do something crazy like my brother and I did recently - we decided to resurrect our Dad's old model train setup.

Back when I was a kid, we had a big O-gauge train layout in the basement, but it was all one flat level with 3 train circuits/loops on it. When my brother and I decided to build a new one in his basement, we had to take it to another level entirely, and have taken on the task of building a 7-circuit, three-level monstrosity. And let me tell you, doing so has given me more odd problem-solving tasks than you can imagine. I've had to solve problems that I not only didn't know existed, but I didn't even know they had the capacity to exist, and we've only been working on it a little over a month now.

As an example, the three-level design necessitates the use of a lot of bridges. This sounds dumb and obvious, but it presents dozens of problems. We bought a bunch of wood to make some old-style wooden trestle bridges, and decided to put one on a section of track, only to be perplexed on how to go about building a bridge under a curved piece of track with a bunch of straight pieces of wood. Diagonally cutting the straight sections into trapezoidal pieces is one way to do it, but that leaves you with lots of little pieces and a bridge that isn't as strong as one straight piece. The better answer, as it turns out, is to steam-bend the wood to varying-radius bends based on the inside/outside edges or middle of the curve (and they've got to be exactly right) and place it in as one section.

And that leaves you with something like this, which took me something like a week to create. Pardon the fact that it looks like a construction site - it will all look pretty eventually, but shit takes time.

 

[Antiwhippy]

If you're creatively minded you sometimes just have to force yourself to be creative also. I've wanted to do leathercrafting for the longest time but never got around to it, but one day just thought "enough is enough" and I've had a lot of fun making bags and wallets and other stuff since.

 

[Hellers]

I emailed Danswers. The Dans will save me.

 

[Renpatsu]

And that leaves you with something like this, which took me something like a week to create. Pardon the fact that it looks like a construction site - it will all look pretty eventually, but shit takes time.

I wouldn't mind seeing more of this.

I emailed Danswers. The Dans will save me.

They're basically experts so you made the right choice.

 

[Brashnir]

I wouldn't mind seeing more of this.

Maybe in a couple days when I have some time I'll take some pictures and/or a video and start a thread in the OT. I'll let you know when I do.

 

[NumberThree]

Pick up a hobby you never tried before, or maybe only briefly dabbled in. Learn a musical instrument, or do something crazy like my brother and I did recently - we decided to resurrect our Dad's old model train setup.

...

And that leaves you with something like this, which took me something like a week to create. Pardon the fact that it looks like a construction site - it will all look pretty eventually, but shit takes time.

That's some cool shit! Having a separate space for your hobby is probably nice. I have a bunch of synths I absolutely love to play with but they're in my small two room apartment, so it's so easy to get up for some reason and find myself sitting down on the sofa and checking NeoGAF again.

 

[tryagainlater]

I was thinking about emailing Danswers about how to be less of a cheap bastard but apparently Dan is one too.

 

[Antiwhippy]

Does this mean that Dan will be interested in cricket now?

 

[Brashnir]

Does this mean that Dan will be interested in cricket now?

looking forward to next year's Don Bradman Quick Look with Cricket expert Dan Ryckert.

 

[Xater]

That Chinese COD is weird. The robot zombies especially. I need to show this my girlfriend once she is back so she can translate some of this.

 

[Antiwhippy]

The COD quick look is reaffirming that I'm now barely fluent in chinese.

 

[Ken]

That Chinese COD is weird. The robot zombies especially. I need to show this my girlfriend once she is back so she can translate some of this.

The Western depiction of zombies and walking skeleton stuff in China are a no-no so the robot things was kind of creative.

The COD quick look is reaffirming that I'm now barely fluent in chinese.

Vasquez! Ortiz!

 

[Antiwhippy]

It's kind of weird actually. I know enough of the words to infer the others which I'm not too sure about to understand most of it.

 

[Ventilaator]

Half the danswers don't apply to me in any way, and the other half I would give complete opposite answers to. Still really enjoyed the podcast.

Giant Bomb is truly the Top Gear of video games.

 

[Xater]

The Western depiction of zombies and walking skeleton stuff in China are a no-no so the robot things was kind of creative.

I know that but zombie robots are still really weird. Almost as weird as the German Soldier of Fortune 2. Also I still have no good answer why this is a thing in China. My Chinese girlfriend has no clue.

 

[Jimmyfenix]

Eurogamer has dropped review scores

I think it is time for gb and gs to do the same.

 

[blainethemono]

they should try to get Dan Carlin from Hardcore History on Danswers

throw Drew in for that episode too

 

[Antiwhippy]

I feel like they've dropped reviewing games altogether.

 

[Ken]

I feel like they've dropped reviewing games altogether.

Yeah I'm surprised there's no Dying Light review yet.

 

[Basileus777]

Eurogamer has dropped review scores

I think it is time for gb and gs to do the same.

Terrible idea.

 

[strafer]

they should skip text reviews and only do video reviews

 

[Fantastapotamus]

Eurogamer has dropped review scores

I think it is time for gb and gs to do the same.

Eurogamer basically uses the 5 star system now. It even shows up on Google as 5 (Essential), 4 (Recommended), 3, 2/1 (Avoid) stars.

Review scores are fine.

 

[Quentyn]

The most depressing thing about CoD Online is that this is what Raven Software is doing now. They used to be one of my favorite game studios. The Jedi Knight and Elite Force games were great. Never played Ultimate Alliance, but I also only heard great things about that game. Now they doing cheap CoD games for China.

About review scores, I don't really care either way. I think it is fun to see how the press react to game and predict the score before hand, but I really would never base my purchasing decision on that alone. Player impressions are far more important to me. I also stopped buying games at launch a while ago that probably is also playing a big part.

 

[Zaph]

Eurogamer has dropped review scores

I think it is time for gb and gs to do the same.

Nope. Five star system is perfect, 10 point scale is okay. Anything above that is the problem.

My tastes are pretty solidified, so my main question before buying a game is "is it fundamentally broken?". I usually turn to metacritic for that and make sure it's not <40. I love adventure games, so I'm use to thoroughly enjoying the 50-70 area because most don't review that well.

Review scores in other mediums seem to be just fine, as usual it's the shitty games industry to be the outlier to fuck things up and then blame scoring.

 

[AuthenticM]

Review scores serve a purpose. They are only bad when there are too many points. A five-point system is perfect.

 

[stump sock]

Is this not proper mayo etiquette?

I think my dislike of mayo would be one of the biggest barriers to acclimating myself to Japan.

Pick up a hobby you never tried before, or maybe only briefly dabbled in. Learn a musical instrument, or do something crazy like my brother and I did recently - we decided to resurrect our Dad's old model train setup.

Speaking of Japan, this is exactly why I picked up trying to learn the language. The reason? I thought it would be interesting to fill in the gaps in my retro gaming past. Which is basically the dumbest reason ever, but it's turned into its own challenge in its own right at this point.

I decided to learn how to properly play bass last year. I've played guitar for most of my life, but I wanted to play bass like a bassist and not a guitarist.

I learn the basics of various programming languages and then never use them.

It's just, as much as I hate school, I can't handle not learning things at all times. I never read fiction because I'd rather read history books.

I don't know, the trickiest part is just pushing yourself over that first edge and just START doing something. Anything that appeals to you. And keep in mind that it's a hobby so it doesn't matter if you stumble or fail.

 

[repeater]

Eurogamer basically uses the 5 star system now. It even shows up on Google as 5 (Essential), 4 (Recommended), 3, 2/1 (Avoid) stars

That's not how they want you to use and understand the Google stars:

When searching for reviews in Google, however, you will still see star ratings attached to Eurogamer reviews: five stars for Essential, four for Recommended, one for Avoid, three for everything else. Google is a very important source of traffic for us, and it's vital that our reviews are made easy to find by being as featured as prominently as possible. The star ratings help a great deal with this, and we feel that the scheme I've just described is a pretty close match for our system that won't misrepresent our reviews. That said, it's important they are not misinterpreted as us sneaking a numerical score out there by stealth. If you see three stars against our review on Google, that means the game belongs to a broad middle band of quality - not that it secretly got 6/10.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-10-eurogamer-has-dropped-review-scores

They're basically pretty clear that the stars that show up in Google is a pragmatic concession to be able to stay as visible as possible on Google. The stars do not really properly represent their new Essential/Recommended/Avoid/Unmarked system.

This is all pretty off-topic though, I guess.

 

[Xater]

I also like the five point system, but no review scor at all is also totally fine. Thing is if you don#t have a score your writing needs to be very clear and sometimes I feel like a lot of writers in video games could not work without the scores. Eurogamer has pretty good writers though.

The most depressing thing about CoD Online is that this is what Raven Software is doing now. They used to be one of my favorite game studios. The Jedi Knight and Elite Force games were great. Never played Ultimate Alliance, but I also only heard great things about that game. Now they doing cheap CoD games for China.

About review scores, I don't really care either way. I think it is fun to see how the press react to game and predict the score before hand, but I really would never base my purchasing decision on that alone. Player impressions are far more important to me. I also stopped buying games at launch a while ago that probably is also playing a big part.

Raven is also still doing maps for COD games in general.

 

[William]

I really like Danswers so far. I enjoy listening to the guys from the gang talk about anything really, so relationship and life advice is a great way to get them chatting.

I think they should consider getting back to the book club podcast, that was a great idea. Got me into Michael Crichton books!

Also if it were me I would encourage them to make some or all of their podcast experiments available for free. They are really good and more people should be listening.
Although keeping them all in the premium feed gives them a lot more freedom to try out new ideas that might not work or ever come back again, so maybe not.

 

[Myggen]

So Eurogamer has moved to a "three star" system with Recommended, Essential or Avoid?

I don't really understand the arguments against review scores. Over 10 points makes the system a bit too arbitrary, but I think a 5 star system (10 at most) is a handy way of summarizing your review. If some people are too lazy to read the review, that's on them and I doubt they'd read the review if it didn't have a score (they would read the conclusion). That some publishers put too much empathis on Metacritic is also not something that should be on the publications to solve. Neither should some man babies getting pissed at scores that don't match their hype for a game.

I will never understand the hatred so many gamers have for review scores, when I rarely see any of that on the movie sites I visit.

 

[RepairmanJack]

I really like Danswers so far. I enjoy listening to the guys from the gang talk about anything really, so relationship and life advice is a great way to get them chatting.

I think they should consider getting back to the book club podcast, that was a great idea. Got me into Michael Crichton books!

Also if it were me I would encourage them to make some or all of their podcast experiments available for free. They are really good and more people should be listening.
Although keeping them all in the premium feed gives them a lot more freedom to try out new ideas that might not work or ever come back again, so maybe not.

I think the frequency/experimental'ness is part of the reason for keeping them premium. At least that's what I took from Jeff talking about making the Power Bombcast a regular podcast and making it more regular. I think the premium aspect makes the podcasts less of a requirement and probably less of a worry for them if they have to drop one for whatever reason or only want to do it occasionally.

I'm all for more experimental podcasts. I hope they get back to more Bomb After Readings, but I'm up for new stuff as well.

 

[Xater]

So Eurogamer has moved to a "three star" system with Recommended, Essential or Avoid?

I don't really understand the arguments against review scores. Over 10 points makes the system a bit too arbitrary, but I think a 5 star system (10 at most) is a handy way of summarizing your review. If some people are too lazy to read the review, that's on them and I doubt they'd read the review if it didn't have a score (they would read the conclusion). That some publishers put too much empathis on Metacritic is also not something that should be on the publications to solve. Neither should some man babies getting pissed at scores that don't match their hype for a game.

I will never understand the hatred so many gamers have for review scores, when I rarely see any of that on the movie sites I visit.

That's exactly the reason. Movies are different and have proven to be critics immune. Gamers feel Metacritic is too important in the publishers eyes and with a lot of people already suspecting foul play between publishers and publications no scores make a lot of sense.

 

[Basileus777]

So Eurogamer has moved to a "three star" system with Recommended, Essential or Avoid?

I don't really understand the arguments against review scores. Over 10 points makes the system a bit too arbitrary, but I think a 5 star system (10 at most) is a handy way of summarizing your review. If some people are too lazy to read the review, that's on them and I doubt they'd read the review if it didn't have a score (they would read the conclusion). That some publishers put too much empathis on Metacritic is also not something that should be on the publications to solve. Neither should some man babies getting pissed at scores that don't match their hype for a game.

I will never understand the hatred so many gamers have for review scores, when I rarely see any of that on the movie sites I visit.

I see it mostly as a sign of the immaturity of game critics and their audience. Metacritic or its impact should never enter the mind of a reviewer. And avoiding giving scores is usually a cop-out, a way to deflect responsibility.

 

[Myggen]

That's exactly the reason. Movies are different and have proven to be critics immune. Gamers feel Metacritic is too important in the publishers eyes and with a lot of people already suspecting foul play between publishers and publications no scores make a lot of sense.

But should it be up to publications to "solve" that some publishers apparently attach bonuses to Metacritic scores? Or that some gamers see collusion everywhere?