Jonah is in LA, TJ is at EVO, and who knows where Scott is.
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Episode 377: Bronies, Welcome!Episode 377: Bronies, Welcome!
This week’s podcast begins on a sorrowful note, as since in the past week guest host Andrew Yoon (who co-hosted episode #374) passed away after drowning during a trip to Texas, while Jonah and Paul eulogize him.
No Gaming Flashback this week, but plenty of news items:
- League of Legends tourney places limit on LGBT players
- SOE acquired, becomes Daybreak Game Company
- Nintendo wants to make a comeback with cheaper software
- EA exec: “Our games are actually still too hard to learn”
This week’s Question of the Week: “What videogame do you still get emotional about?”
Gaming Podcast 139: Pirate or Privateer?Gaming Podcast 139: Pirate or Privateer?
Welcome to the early edition of the gaming podcast, because I’m going to be in Germany this week we had to record a bit early and post the podcast for listening. Hopefully this won’t screw up too many people’s schedules with a day-early release! This week we’re flashing back to Sid Meier’s Pirates and learning about women’s rights (or lack of) in the life of a privateer. We’ll talk a bit about the history of the Amstrad CPC 464 and cover some news:
Nintendo Wii Rumor: Price Rollback- Wii Sales Down 50 Percent
- Bethesda Sues Interplay Over Fallout License
- Bungie Says Natal Won’t Be Implemented To Be Gimmicky
The community questions were great, gave us lots of nice ideas for a future gaming cave! This week we’re riding on the community listener, Onyersix who wrote a good question of the week: “What was the scariest moment you ever experienced playing video games? We’re talking the type of shock that makes you need to go and put on a new pair of pants!”
Hey, did you notice our new microphone quality, Jennifer and I have upgraded our studio setup (by about $1,000!), hopefully you’ll notice the more dynamic vocal qualities.
Bethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn MultiplayerBethesda’s Hines: Don’t Shoehorn Multiplayer
Bethesda Softworks vice president of marketing Pete Hines is critzing publishers and developers who shoehorn multiplayer into their games that doing such a thing is “a waste of time” and advises, “Just drop it, don’t bother…it’ll make for a worse game.”
In an interview with Next Gen BIZ, Hines states that using online multiplayer as a tool to prevent used game trade-ins and rental simply doesn’t work, and robs developers of valuable man-hours.
Hines stated:
“(People ask us) for a game like Skyrim or Prey 2, why doesn’t it have multiplayer? Well, our question is always the opposite when we talk to a developer. If you’re doing multiplayer, why are you doing multiplayer? What are you trying to accomplish?
“If you’re doing it just to check a box or because every other publisher says you’ve got to have multiplayer, then just drop it, don’t bother, it’s a waste of time, a giant distraction and it’ll make for a worse overall game.
“We want the best game possible. If that’s a singleplayer game that’s 15 to 20 hours, then make that! Don’t waste your time on features that don’t make the game better.”
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Prey 2 are two Bethesda properties that will lack multiplayer, but one of the tools to encourage games to keep both games will be downlodable content and, even more important, good communications with the game communities and nurturing the fandom for both games.