gdp's Comments

Arcadian Rhythms : Applicant Wanted (tolerance of crunch & job insecurity required)

Mon, 16 Mar 2015 12:24:46 +0000

"The Obama administration, like previous administrations, allows rich parents in effect to buy résumé-enhancing jobs in the public sector for their upper-class offspring." "Unpaid internships have the effect, if not the intent, of providing the children of the super-rich with major advantages over the children of the lower 99 percent in the job market after college. Imagine what a benefit a White House internship is on a résumé. Too bad that benefit is not available to poor, working-class, middle-class or even upper-middle-class Americans, unless they are lucky enough to find an outside sponsor to pay the wages that the Obama administration refuses to pay." Pretty much exactly what I expected. Ugh. I completely agree that unpaid internships are a terrible thing, and the increasing number of these positions over the last few years has been disgraceful. They very much trade on the optimism and naivete, or desperation, of the young - work for free or pay to work now, because it might mean a great job later - and on top of that they exploit disparity in economic status.

Arcadian Rhythms : Applicant Wanted (tolerance of crunch & job insecurity required)

Tue, 10 Mar 2015 10:35:32 +0000

Even if you don't experience the insecurity yourself, yeah, you definitely notice the volume of other people coming and going. And the panicked recruiting that happens whenever scaling up needs to happen... yeah, it's hilarious to me. Total schadenfreude, because I've been on the receiving end of that sort of thing, but I still find it really funny seeing people panic because their system of logistics is short-sighted. I completely agree that this is not unique to the games industry - there are problems comparable to this all over the place - but the games industry is somewhat unique in that it's an entertainment industry, so a lot of people want to work in it, and there's a lot of money in it too. You could say that about the film industry, but that's probably it (arguably the music industry too but I think that the money that's really in that is so concentrated into a few hands as to utterly skew things). But as for publishing, theatre etc? Lol. No money. My mum's a teacher and has been pretty much all her working life, and a lot of my UK friends have taken PGCEs (teacher training college, basically), so I've got a fair idea of how tough teachers find it over here. It's different to Canada I'm sure - and I'm sorry that your other half has had to relocate, though I'm glad she found work! Working as an intern in politics is an edge case I think. I'll look it up later, and will be wary of blasting coffee everywhere, but I'm guessing that to intern in the White House there's all sorts of security checks and requirements, that money being paid for the privilege of working for free is likely, and that there's a lot of competition to secure one of these spots? But the thing about doing such work is that you build up political experience and connections of a kind you literally could not get elsewhere, so it would be entirely unsurprising to me if White House interns were largely from wealthy, connected US families who are already steeped in the world of politics. US politics strikes me as being tremendously dynastic (and I say that living in a country that is still nominally run by a monarch). Anyway, thanks for reading this, glad you found it an interesting read, and thanks for the great comment!

Arcadian Rhythms : GTA V, stop talking so loud I can hear what you're saying

Fri, 6 Mar 2015 15:51:31 +0000

Ohh, my bad. :/ Reading comprehension fail.

Arcadian Rhythms : GTA V, stop talking so loud I can hear what you're saying

Thu, 5 Mar 2015 16:59:45 +0000

I'm not the only person who felt that way about JC2, but fair enough! Re. Suburbia, I was about to sound off about how the film plays on 1980s media-inculcated fears about hardcore punk in the US and produces an unconvincing representation of punk rock, but then I refreshed my memory on when it was released and was reminded that it was directed by Penelope Spheeris, who shot The Decline of Western Civilization and therefore knows the 80s Cali hardcore scene a damn sight better than I do, and therefore I should perhaps shut up. I still remember thinking it was a shitty movie though. Not as shitty as SLC punk, mind. I can't remember if I ever did find a film about punks that wasn't a documentary and actually resonated with me. Too much scaremongering or piss-taking horseshit coming from outside punk. Gosh I do go off topic don't I.

Arcadian Rhythms : GTA V, stop talking so loud I can hear what you're saying

Thu, 5 Mar 2015 14:57:53 +0000

I really like this and I think it's pretty much covered all the bases in terms of why GTA V is a weak game. I also doubt that it'll convince anyone who loves it that they're wrong, but that's the joy of play and subjectivity! So, a few assorted comments on individual points: (1) The brilliance of the first GTA could be enjoyed fully in the game's demo, which I believe was either time-limited and / or cut off after a few missions. Given that my sister and I only ever wanted to drive around the city and Do Stuff that was fine. (2) Congratulations on that beautiful death in the video clip. Couldn't have been planned better. (3) Although I don't think it undermines your argument I partly disagree about Just Cause 2 allowing greater player freedom outside of missions. Inside missions, absolutely! They were so much more open, as far as I can remember, and that was great. But outside missions pretty much everything you did invited a disproportionate police & military response almost instantly. I almost invariably died or fled in under five minutes. Worse, the heavy-handedness of the AI was such that it severely impacted your ability to use JC2's ridiculous toolkit. You were under such pressure that running and gunning was usually the only realistic option. Contrasting JC2's escalations against my memories of a successful GTA "flee the cops" scenarios, GTA kicks JC2 in the can. And I say that as someone who'd rather play JC2 than a GTA 5 days out of 7 - and as someone who agrees with your assertion that in this day and age, GTA games are clearly not about enjoying the sandbox rather than the missions. GTA's sandbox is astonishing as a technical achievement - complexity, scope, animation, incidental dialogue, representation of architecture and environments, etc. But how do you interact with that? Well... you largely don't. Drive, walk, shoot, punch, etc. JC2 and SRIII put more options concerning play in front of their audience: for all that GTA introduces tonnes of minigames and sideshows in every game, it essentially has not changed the gameplay verbs at its core. So yeah... I agree with you there. But I'm not with you re. JC2 as a standout example of this done right. (3b) Obviously everyone enjoys things in different ways; I know people who love simply wandering around in modern GTA games and soaking in the sights and sounds of the city. Sounds boring as fuck to me, mind. (4) Re. the way you describe Trevor's characterisation - based on what you've written I could counter that Trevor sounds like a reasonable representation of a hypocritical counter-cultural character. A self-contradicting parody, basically: "Trevor will rant about the state of America or the decaying of the American dream and it just feels utterly trite" sounds like the point. Not having played the game, though, I'm solely going by what you've said! The second half of your bit on Trevor, after the image, I'm with you on. (5) SLC Punk - seriously?! I watched that and thought it was one of the fucking stupidest and most patronising takes on punk rock ever committed to screen, and I've watched Suburbia. Spent ages tracking down a copy too so it wasn't like I went in there expecting to hate it.

Arcadian Rhythms : Doom Warrior: first impressions

Tue, 24 Feb 2015 11:58:57 +0000

Sorry Jeff, I've absolutely no idea. The developers themselves are going to be the people to ask.

Arcadian Rhythms : Cast 23: 2014 Pop Quiz Hotshots (Pt. 2)

Wed, 18 Feb 2015 10:56:52 +0000

something something Lyle Fernandez

Arcadian Rhythms : Cast 23: 2014 Pop Quiz Hotshots (Pt.1)

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 11:00:09 +0000

Glad you liked it, Kenty!

Arcadian Rhythms : Cast 23: 2014 Pop Quiz Hotshots (Pt.1)

Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:59:53 +0000

You've just reminded me of a short story called 'Uxo, Bomb Dog'! http://futurismic.com/2008/03/03/uxo-bomb-dog-by-...

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 2

Mon, 2 Feb 2015 11:34:21 +0000

Oh god no, man! I've never caved on that stuff. I beat the boss at the end of the first chapter last night - on my first attempt! Yesss. I'm still good at games. \\m/

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 2

Thu, 29 Jan 2015 11:20:47 +0000

Heh, PAD still isn't available for Android in Europe. We were playing using directly installed apks of the North American version. :) It is an excellent game. I shudder to think how much time my girlfriend and I put into it over the year or more that we were playing it.

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 2

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 16:17:37 +0000

This is a pretty awesome breakdown of a balanced approach to / gaming an in-app economy. Thanks!

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 2

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 14:12:35 +0000

That's a fair point. All the same, chasing high scores is tied in with all the various game modes: offline leaderboard, friends leaderboard, plus of course competitive versus. :) I'm still a bit unclear about the gold rewards for multiplayer games. It usually seems to offer about 350-600 as a victory reward, which is 10-20% the cost of one of the cheapest finishers?

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 2

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 12:59:14 +0000

In retrospect, the heading near the top of the post probably makes no sense to anyone who doesn't have 'Supersize Me' by Toothpick stuck in their head.

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 1

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:54:08 +0000

I liked Sword & Sworcery rather a lot! I think I wrote about it on here in fact, some years back. Jim Guthrie's music was excellent! He also has a song in the mobile rhythm action game Pulse, which has its moments.

Arcadian Rhythms : The Palm of My Hand Pt. 1

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 12:39:19 +0000

That's reassuring! Maybe I'll get there before I'm hospital-bound, then... I'm a big fan of The Room, and of the other AR guys Dylan loves Rayman Jungle Run and AJ recently encouraged us all to play Monument Valley, so you've named some good titles we also like. Device 6 I really want to play - I simply haven't yet. Sounds really interesting; ditto Year Walk by the same team.

Arcadian Rhythms : Your Games of 2014: Give Us They

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 15:14:06 +0000

Aye, apologies Kenty and others but it's running a bit late. Editing has proven a more demanding process than for our usual smaller and shorter podcasts!

Arcadian Rhythms : Your Games of 2014: Give Us They

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:12:03 +0000

My favourite part of trying out Monument Valley was when I said: "What was that ga-" and you said "Echochrome." And were correct.

Arcadian Rhythms : Your Games of 2014: Give Us They

Fri, 9 Jan 2015 13:57:56 +0000

Funnily enough, 2014 was also the year of Dark Souls for me! It was utterly fantastic and I wish I could have the experience of playing it through for the first time back again. Bayonetta 2 and Alien: Isolation are both high up my personal lists of games I really want to play as soon as possible.

Arcadian Rhythms : Your Games of 2014: Give Us They

Fri, 9 Jan 2015 13:56:23 +0000

You and me both, Kenty! I've made okay progress against my backlog over the past year (although, see also most recent post about backlogs - I'm trying to ditch the psychological baggage around 'em). This has meant not buying or playing very many new games (although AJ and Potter were kind enough to buy me EDF 2025 at the start of the year so we could all play it together). Valiant Hearts I've heard mixed things about, but as a game about social history I think it is quite a unique creation. I enjoyed the demo. Grats for the Broken Age credits! I enjoyed it, and hope Double Fine release the second part before too much more time passes.