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Waypoint Thread: Vice City Stories

patapuf

Member
Have to say I haven't tuned into waypoint radio since last year when almost every episode was political (post election). I understand that WP was trying to mix IRL with games, but the way it came across on the podcast was more like hijacking the soap box to personally vent instead of having an intellectual conversation.

Also, beyond the election talk, the approach to almost all topics was seemingly exclusively far left, which is fine, but came across approaching circle jerk territory. I would have liked to think that Austin of all people in the games space would value and seek out a balanced alternative view on topics to avoid the echo chamber and foster meaningful conversation or at least attempt to peel the onion back and discuss why certain tropes continue to exist. The media in general has got us covered on the echo chamber mentality on both sides of the field.

Have they balanced things out and found a unique voice?

Addind a 4th member helped discussion a lot. There's more back and forth and discussion.

They still hold a primarily "left wing" POV on their analysis though. I wouldn't expect that to change.
 

Jeffrey

Member
Now I wonder if there are rightish gaming podcasts.

Mainstream Games seems to be moving more and more progressive. That's just how creatives tend to lean. Also progressive folks typically have deeper pockets so businesses have incentive.

I assume some people are turned off.
 

Najaf

Member
Now I wonder if there are rightish gaming podcasts.

Mainstream Games seems to be moving more and more progressive. That's just how creatives tend to lean. Also progressive folks typically have deeper pockets so businesses have incentive.

I assume some people are turned off.

I could care less that the personal views are left leaning, and candidly expect them to be so throughout the industry. What I don't want is to be subject to the equivalent of a leftist subreddit echo chamber.

If they want to discuss the election results or other political issues, that's great, but dive into the issue and provide commentary on what that says regarding the US' status as a democracy, why certain profiles likely voted the way they did/do, and how this popularity contest is reflected in the medium (games).

I don't need a games podcast dedicating large front loaded air time on their podcasts to the political climate or news of the week if its not going to be backdropped with either an insightful commentary and/or through the lens of game development and trends. Especially when the commentary is so heavily weighted on one side of the political scale.

I'd have the same thoughts if it was only right weighted commentary. I don't visit Drudge because of this exact issue. I don't have the time to wade through partisan crap, and I actively seek out balanced sources for both news, current events and my hobbies. Most of the later choose to steer clear of politics, and to an extent, I give credit to Waypoint for trying to blend games and IRL issues; but to have it be so decidedly one sided is off putting. There are plenty of politics focused podcasts that cater to each isle if I wanted to subject myself to those circle jerks.

I think it does an immense disservice to the listenership/viewership by taking the soap box approach. If the issues were discussed in depth while highlighting aspects of an opposing view, it would invite a more diverse audience; and subsequently would foster an environment for educated discourse. As it sits, they are only going to be preaching to the choir as it were.
 

Hasney

Member
They haven't really explicitly gone in on politics for quite a while. Made nods and jokes around the political climate when things come up, but there hasn't really been anything long or with any effort of depth since the election aftermath really.
 

valeo

Member
They haven't really explicitly gone in on politics for quite a while. Made nods and jokes around the political climate when things come up, but there hasn't really been anything long or with any effort of depth since the election aftermath really.

I don't think the above poster cares about that. Ironically, getting on a bit of a soapbox himself..
 

Brakke

Banned
Now I wonder if there are rightish gaming podcasts.

Plenty of "rightish" pundits and YouTubers in games.

I could care less that the personal views are left leaning, and candidly expect them to be so throughout the industry. What I don't want is to be subject to the equivalent of a leftist subreddit echo chamber.

[...]

We are all very impressed by how above the fray you are. A true champion of The Educated Discourse.
 

kvothe

Member
Now I wonder if there are rightish gaming podcasts.

Mainstream Games seems to be moving more and more progressive. That's just how creatives tend to lean. Also progressive folks typically have deeper pockets so businesses have incentive.

I assume some people are turned off.

Although he no longer is involved with gaming, Colin Moriarty comes to mind.
 

BiggNife

Member
I don't think WPR has had much politics talk in months and I think they are much better at avoiding being an echo chamber than they were originally . I definitely think people that were sour on WPR should give it another shot, it's come into its own recently.

Speaking of which I cannot believe Pat Baer hates P5 and has played P4 five times
 

Jeffrey

Member
I don't think WPR has had much politics talk in months and I think they are much better at avoiding being an echo chamber than they were originally . I definitely think people that were sour on WPR should give it another shot, it's come into its own recently.

Speaking of which I cannot believe Pat Baer hates P5 and has played P4 five times

could be due to tone? mechanically and visually there is improvements over 4, but I can imagine the story turning folks off. It really does go a bit hammy on how adults are all evil shit heads.
 
Lmao Pat Baer explaining the intricacies of Kobayashi dragon Twister to Dani and Patrick. Amazing

It's times like these that I really wish Danika was on the podcast more.

Though given her gofundme a while back, I'd imagine she's got more important things on her mind currently
 

Jintor

Member
Not strictly waypoint related but man, Friends at the Table's episode descriptions are so goddamn story focused I have no idea what any of the episodes are actually about
 

Hasney

Member
No Austin, lots of anime talk and a 3.5 hour Frame Trap podcast released on the same day? Yeah, think I'll give that a miss.
 
Is Waypoint doing okay? I feel like there's a real lack of content from them, and it's been ages since I've seen any big news bombs from Klepek (previously a very regular occurrence).
 

Hasney

Member
Is Waypoint doing okay? I feel like there's a real lack of content from them, and it's been ages since I've seen any big news bombs from Klepek (previously a very regular occurrence).

Seems to be. They just had a pilot week for video content and are doing regular streams. Might just be not much to break from Patrick at the moment or he's pulled back from that a little.
 

Brakke

Banned
Wouldn't worry. They just launched the forums and did the pilots stuff. Austin is at E3 judges' week and presumably the rest of the team is organizing interviews & appointments / prepping for whatever they'll do.
 
This bunny article is blowing my mind. I had no idea Second Life had its own player-driven ecosystem of monetisation, let alone one so insidious. (Kind of surprised it isn't something mainstream, to be honest.)

What a strange game.
The website is nearly impossible to read now cause it's so sluggish. What is happening?

Oh wow, I thought that was just my browser.

Kinda makes me not want to browse articles, because everything chugs whenever I'm scrolling... for some reason. I'm assuming it has to do with other articles preloading below, but man I dunno. It's really not worth the performance hit.
 
Alright I caught up to the "birds and Stellaris" talk on the Woopcast. Austin really knows how to turn a game of Stellaris into an epic story. It always sounds better than my stories of making a magnificent empire and getting crushed in a war of aggression... I really need to figure out militarism in Stellaris.

I also want to applaud Patrick for fighting the good fight re: Dinosaurs. It is absolute truthiness.
 

spiritfox

Member
I like the Civ VI article. It perfectly summarises the problems I have with the tone of the game, compared to the previous game. The snarkiness turns what should be a grand achievement into a pointless venture, especially when you get those quotes for wonders you've been building for 20+ turns.
 

Jintor

Member
they managed to loop the austin/tim barnes goof from initially funny to kinda tired all the way back around to funny again.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Oh man this is Austin's first time through BD?

He's about to see some shit.

Also yes, cain is so good.
I should replay it and aim for the ending where cain save you.
 

Tapejara

Member
Patrick mentions NieR: Automata in the Binary Domain article, anyone know if there are any spoilers for it in the BD podcast? Haven't got around to playing Automata yet because my PS4 is having a weird problem with discs.
 

Joeku

Member
Oh man this is Austin's first time through BD?

He's about to see some shit.

Also yes, cain is so good.
I should replay it and aim for the ending where cain save you.

I haven't looked at a guide, but I think I am on my way to an optimal ending.
I'm assuming having high friendship with Faye and Cain are necessary.

I hope it isn't forever til the next one. I wanna finish this replay.
 

Jintor

Member
when dani says be good or be good at it, is the logical conclusion therefore that if we are not good, we should therefore excel at being evil?
 
when dani says be good or be good at it, is the logical conclusion therefore that if we are not good, we should therefore excel at being evil?
We can see them excel at being evil in how there hasn't been a Permadeath in a few weeks. Has anything been said about it?
 
Patrick's 'What MS need to do at E3' article was a bit disappointing, felt vague and uninspiring without following that feeling to an interesting conclusion.
 

Roussow

Member
Oh man this is Austin's first time through BD?

He's about to see some shit.

Also yes, cain is so good.
I should replay it and aim for the ending where cain save you.

I just finished BD for the first time myself, some tediously long boss fights and one-off gimmicks aside, that game's pretty fucking great, it's a shockingly compentent game.

I didn't even know the tagged thing was possible, (Binary Domain spoilers follow)
Is there a good breakdown / video with all the variables? I kept Faye alive, and that felt like the only noticable verging point in the story. I was expecting Cain to show up at some point during that, and I guess my s-link was too low. Shindo goes out pretty rough, I was half expecting him to make an appearence at the end, but I'm glad that he doesn't, thats a great end for that character.

I don't know if Austin's finished the game yet, but given how he feels about ME3's synthesis ending, plus his comments about the tactile nature of being a hollow child,
how physically being a robot changes your perspective on his deeming an robot to be equal to a human, I think he's going to love the shit out of a hybrid stuff.

I just finished Mankind Divided, too. So this has been a good week for robotic ethics material.
 

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
I can't remember all the variables honestly, like a wikia is a good starting point, but I do remember the big changes are
cain coming back to save you (hardest one to get iirc) and also whether or not big bo betrays you.
 

goblin

Member
I just finished BD for the first time myself, some tediously long boss fights and one-off gimmicks aside, that game's pretty fucking great, it's a shockingly compentent game.

I didn't even know the tagged thing was possible, (Binary Domain spoilers follow)
Is there a good breakdown / video with all the variables? I kept Faye alive, and that felt like the only noticable verging point in the story. I was expecting Cain to show up at some point during that, and I guess my s-link was too low. Shindo goes out pretty rough, I was half expecting him to make an appearence at the end, but I'm glad that he doesn't, thats a great end for that character.

I don't know if Austin's finished the game yet, but given how he feels about ME3's synthesis ending, plus his comments about the tactile nature of being a hollow child,
how physically being a robot changes your perspective on his deeming an robot to be equal to a human, I think he's going to love the shit out of a hybrid stuff.

I just finished Mankind Divided, too. So this has been a good week for robotic ethics material.

Binary Domain ending spoilers follow:
There are really only three different endings, and which one you see depends on your trust levels with all the members of your squad. You need to have high trust with every member of the team to get the best ending where Cain comes back, otherwise it's mostly just whether or not you have high trust with Bo which determines if he betrays you or not. If he does, Rachel's dead.

Here's a video with all the endings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wVOUIEQjNQ

I finished listening to Waypoint's 101 podcast on Binary Domain, and I love the idea of going back and taking a deep dive through something while putting out multiple impressions podcasts instead of just the one big spoiler dump at the end. It's a fun way to hear their opinions change and solidify over time. I really missed hearing Austin and Patrick spend a long time really chewing over their thoughts on a game; old Bombcast and Beastcast game discussion segments could go super long and, while I enjoy Waypoint Radio, it's more reigned in, timewise.

Also weird and cool to hear Rob Zacny speak in depth about something that's not a strategy game.

Looking forward to their discussions about the second half. I hope they get around to Vanquish in the future, too.
 
they managed to loop the austin/tim barnes goof from initially funny to kinda tired all the way back around to funny again.

Chiming in way late on this but...

They totally failed to stick the landing on this! At the end, when giving out Twitter handles, Tim should have nonchalantly said "Austin Underscore Walker".
 
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