Idle Thumbs Megathread | Indepth discussion inbetween horsebags and birdsounds

L

Lijik

Member
Brought to you by BAFTA winners

Idle Thumbs is a podcast - about video games! Running since 2008, Idle Thumbs is currently a weekly podcast in which three friends who work in the industry talk about games, things tangentially related to games, and things not at all related to games. Readers can expect in-depth enthusiastic discussions, equally enthusiastic riffs on tangential silliness, and anything in between.
Recently Idle Thumbs has expanded into a network which includes 3 Moves Ahead and the Idle Book Club. Additionally the Thumbs ocassionally stream themselves playing games Saturdays on their TwitchTV account.


Regular Cast Members
  • Chris Remo is a writer, producer, and musician who has worked in game development and journalism at Irrational Games, Gamasutra, and Shacknews. He currently works at Double Fine and has recently composed music for Thirty Flights of Loving.
  • Jake Rodkin had a long history in fake game journalism before migrating into a preposterously many-hatted development role at Telltale Games. While he may or may not actually be Big Bird, Jake is definitely responsible for the visual design of the Idle Thumbs website.
  • Sean Vanaman is a game designer and writer. He has worked for Telltale Games and The Walt Disney Company. Sean recently wrote episodes of The Walking Dead game and was one of the original people working on the Epic Mickey concept.



Episode 97: " The Dash Radar Synergy"
fUo6UKU.png

  • Jake and Sean are joined by Olly Moss and the rest of the population of England during their merry jaunt to the Baftas. Chris was left behind in San Francisco, where he's probably still playing Zuma.
  • Games Discussed: Kentucky Route Zero, SimCity, Thomas Was Alone, The Silent Age, Shadows of the Empire, Assassin's Creed, Pandemic, Twilight Imperium, Risk: Legacy
Listen on Idlethumbs.net
Direct MP3 download
Mediafire Mirror

Idle Book Club
ydb4e.png

Each month the Idle Book Club selects a piece of modern literature for listeners to read. Books are discussed by the Idle Thumbs crew in podcast form the first friday of every month, but listeners can discuss them in this thread or on the Idle Forums any time. Please use spoiler tags.
The book for Janurary is: Thomas Pynchon's THE CRYING OF LOT 49
Upcoming books for the Idle Book Club:



WErty.png

Important Links
Idle Thumbs on iTunes
RSS Feed
The Idle Thumbs Website
Full Podcast Archive
Fully Annotated Podcast Archive on Youtube
TwitchTV Stream Archive
Official Idle Thumbs forums
3 Moves Ahead
3 Moves Ahead Gaf Thread
Idle Book Club
Idle Thumbs on Twitch TV
goty.cx
 
no idea what this is, but I like it

Rejected lines from P.T. Anderson's The Master

Chris: The Master is screening in 70mm
Chris: Every single thing I've seen from or about this movie is amazing
Chris: Just individually, every piece of information they have chosen to release is tantalizing to the fucking max
Sean: what if it's 4.5 hours and just horrible
Sean: just a wreck
Sean: lines samples from The Master:
Sean: THE MASTER: I've got a bad feeling about this.
Chris: THE MASTER: We've got company.
Chris: THE MASTER: Now I am the master.
Sean: THE MASTER'S FRIEND: But Master --
Sean: THE MASTER: DONT BUT MASTER ME
Chris: THE MASTER'S STUDENT: Master, that was... masterful.
Chris: THE MASTER: I know.
Sean: THE MASTER: Don't you see! There IS no master!
Chris: NARRATOR: It turned out that, all along, the true master was...the human heart.
Sean: THE MASTERS LOVE INTEREST: What type of dog is that?
Sean: THE MASTER: A mastiff. This is the master's mastiff.
Chris: THE MASTER: AM I JUST A SLAVE???
Sean: THE MASTER'S ANTAGONIST: Looks like the master has become the student and also the slave. You are a slave student, master.
Chris: THE MASTER'S VISITOR: Oh, sorry, I'm in the wrong place. I was looking for the pastor.
Sean: THE MASTER sits in the sand, the incoming tide lapping at his feet.
Sean: THE MASTER: They say war has no master.
Sean: THE MASTER: [cont] I'm not so sure I agree.
Jake: You guys just wasted your chance to trend on twitter.
Sean: Oh well
Click to expand...
 
Love the new place we got here! Just checking in. Also, I would love for Chris to expand a bit on why he hates virtual reality. This last episode when they talked about the Oculus Rift thing he seemed very unenthusiastic. Just curious.
 
Chuck said:
Are the podcast posts going to be separate like Giant Bomb's?
Click to expand...

As in a seperate thread for each episode? No. Last week everyone felt it was best for a catch all thread for everything since the standalone episode threads dont get a lot of posts.

I do plan on posting in the thread whenever a new episode goes up if someone hasn't already done so and updating the op with that ep though.
 
Whoa, a megathread!

I will happily provide art or whatever to help clean up that OP, if you guys'd like it. I have many Thumbs art assets, for obvious reasons.
 
Space Engine sounds insane. Bananas indeed!

Edit: Speaking of insane - EA going into business with arms manufacturers, as discussed on the cast, is also crazy: http://gameological.com/2012/08/partners-in-arms/

The portrayal of modern war in shooters like MoH and CoD has been bothering me since I played CoD4. It's far too flippant and gung ho. It implicitly supports Anglo-US military adventuristic intervention and global policing, which seems disrespectful to the real people, both civilians and military, caught up in combat in places like Iraq and Afghanistan - conflicts that these games are clearly taking 'inspiration' from.

Now games companies are promoting real life weapons?!
 
I have figured out a good name for the ARTS/MOBA sub-genre: Lords Assaulting Wrongdoers (in) Duomachy

I've only played a few LAWDs before, really just DotA, LoL for a single night, and Dota2 and I think I like Dota2 the most.
 
Jake said:
Whoa, a megathread!

I will happily provide art or whatever to help clean up that OP, if you guys'd like it. I have many Thumbs art assets, for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...

Do you have the old Vigi Vigi Vigi crest lying around somewhere?
 
Just finished listening to the 'Thumbs #70 and watching the giant FTL stream.

On the podcast someone mentioned that a game with a better aesthetic might appeal to more people and there's a game I've been waiting to come out for a while that might what they were talking about.
It's called Star Command and there was a kickstarter for it to come out on phones last fall. It's suppose to be coming out this summer, but I haven't heard any updates.
There was even ANOTHER kickstarter for it that just ended for it to come out on the PC.


It seems to be almost identical to FTL accept that it seems to have a larger emphasis on the micro side. It looks like the inside of your ship is an isometric grid that you can command your crew around.
I've been waiting for it for quite a while and had no idea that FTL was like this game (or vice versa, but I don't know enough about either to claim that there was any ripping-off going on).

I seriously love the pixel art Star Trek style it has:
tumblr_m7f7zqUr6V1qdl5cp.gif
.
tumblr_m7f7zvF64i1qdl5cp.gif
 
Jintor said:
I think Star Command might be a different style of game... more game dev story than FTL.
Click to expand...

I don't think so, from the videos on the Kickstarter page I linked too it definitely looks like an FTL style game. (Gameplay starts at about 1:20 in the PC Kickstarter video.)

I actually assumed that SC was a game dev story type game in space back when I first heard about it too, probably because the art style looked so similar. It's probably safe to assume that FTL has the greater depth and probably much harder difficulty, but from what I've seen it does seem to have a lot in common with FTL.
 
Rez said:
I'd prefer weekly threads, honestly.
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, we also prefer weekly threads--megathreads often feel like they end up being a bit exclusionary, even though I know that's not the intention. Hopefully it's not tacky for me to chime in on that though!
 
- You need to sub to new threads every time.
- Threads fall off the main page with regularity, and most Idle Thumbs threads only make about 2 pages to the Bombcast's standard 4-5.
- Searching for "Idle Thumbs" threads gives you thread overload.
- Video games.
 
Chris Remo said:
For what it's worth, we also prefer weekly threads--megathreads often feel like they end up being a bit exclusionary, even though I know that's not the intention. Hopefully it's not tacky for me to chime in on that though!
Click to expand...

Hey Chris, what brand headphones do you guys use at the Thumbs office? I saw them on the live streams and thought they looked slick.
 
colinp said:
Hey Chris, what brand headphones do you guys use at the Thumbs office? I saw them on the live streams and thought they looked slick.
Click to expand...

I can't remember! I ordered them, but it was on Jake's Amazon account because that's what was signed in at the office. He should be able to check his history and find out, but he is probably asleep right now.
 
A megathread already, that's a shame, thumbs deserve the visibility of weekly posts. Anyway, how about bringing back the original theme tune Remo, this reboot doesn't feel complete without it.
 
I still can't believe I'm getting new podcasts every week. Can't wait to listen.
 
Chris Remo said:
I can't remember! I ordered them, but it was on Jake's Amazon account because that's what was signed in at the office. He should be able to check his history and find out, but he is probably asleep right now.
Click to expand...

Haha, I've been trying to get him to answer for a good month now! Try to browbeat him into finally answering!
 
Chris Remo said:
For what it's worth, we also prefer weekly threads--megathreads often feel like they end up being a bit exclusionary, even though I know that's not the intention. Hopefully it's not tacky for me to chime in on that though!
Click to expand...

Plus unless there is a mod changing the thread title, some people wont know there is a new Thumbs up. I know I find out through gaf.
 
Holy shit, this week's break EA Guns discussion is AMAZING. One of the things I love about Idle Thumbs is the way they can richochet between in-depth social/moral obligations of a corporation and weird lawyerly fan-fiction in less than 3 minutes flat.

HK-47 said:
Plus unless there is a mod changing the thread title, some people wont know there is a new Thumbs up. I know I find out through gaf.
Click to expand...

Get an RSS feeder d00d
 
I'm okay with there being a megathread just so long as when a new episode is posted a new thread is created for that episode.

New news = New thread
 
Really enjoyed this weeks episode as usual.

Looking forward to the reaction to DayZ, it's the type of game that can easily become a similar story/anecdote generator as "The Game That Shall Not Be Named...2" did.
 
Fuckin Boost. I bought Hawx 2 before going to bed as the uplay deal went live and ever since I woke up I just can't get "Tom Clancy's Haw" out of my head.
 
Just got to the Space Engine talk of the newest podcast. How have I never heard of this thing, this sounds amazing!

Can't wait for the download to finish!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

April Fools Megathread - 2025 |OT|
|OT| Clickbait  2
87
5K
saintjules replied
Metaphor: ReFantazio Discussion and Spoilercast | Sacred Symbols+, Episode 426
Opinion 
0
156
Go_Ly_Dow replied
Metal Gear Advice, Playthrough Order, General Discussion (HUGE SPOILERS)
2
57
2K
Killer8 replied
Final Fantasy and Expedition 33 Creators Discuss Difference Between JRPG and WRPG
2
280
Punished Miku replied
Games that allow you to become overpowered(or offer OP equipment and abilities): thumbs up or thumbs down?
41
3K
graywolf323 replied
Top Bottom