Call for WOFF! Dispatch Questions July 2024
Added 2024-07-09 14:00:06 +0000 UTCDo y'all know what time it is?! The purpose of this post is to call for your questions and prompts for WOFF! Dispatch. Please respond by Tuesday, July 16th by leaving a comment on this post.
We're looking for two kinds of things:
Suggestions for our long-form discussion prompt.
Q&A about the shows, behind the scenes details, and miscellaneous (including off-the-wall and off-topic questions). Ask us about games or other media, life in general... You name it.
One caveat we've given in the past: If the question is too personal or gross, we may dance around it and not give a direct answer.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Comments
It's the horrible Shadowrun future of the early 2020s! What metatype do you unexplainedly genetically express? Supplements and NPC-only metatypes are fair game - now's your chance to eat human flesh and live in the sewers.
KL
2024-07-16 04:06:28 +0000 UTCHi gents - favorite FMV sequences from games? While the natural pick is the OG Resident Evil opening, with Chris lighting up a cigarette, Jill's steely glare, and Wesker being too cool for school, I have to sprinkle some love onto the opening for Omega Boost. Basically, imagine the launch sequence in Pacific Rim - pilots and mechanics cutting it up while a giant robot gets assembled. All to the sweet sweet crunchy guitar strains of Fly by Loudmouth. Truly the finest post-grunge rock band this side of the Mississippi. Misbegotten nostalgia aside - what are your picks?
Gautam Jayanthi
2024-07-16 00:04:13 +0000 UTCI second this and offer up a developer prank that I haven’t heard mentioned in a BSC episode before. In Dark Souls, exiting the Undead Asylum, there is a developer message outside the final door stating “Go Straight Ahead.” That encourages players to go get picked up by the crow. No problem. Weeks after leaving the asylum, when I listened to the BSC episode about returning to the Asylum, I hadn’t known I could go back. Immediately upon hearing that I could go back, I paused the episode. So, I climbed into the nest and was carried back with no knowledge other than knowing I need to find the Peculiar Doll. I read the developer message in front of the door and either had never read it before or had forgotten. “Go Straight Ahead.” I thought it was there to help me on this return journey. I held down B, started sprinting through the building toward the bonfire, and the floor dropped out from underneath me. The Stray Demon incinerated what was left of my health after the fall damage. I had just beaten a boss beforehand, and on my second attempt I died before retrieving my souls. *Shakes fist* Darrrk Sooouuuullls!
Spencer Johnson
2024-07-15 02:45:25 +0000 UTCWhat are your thoughts on TV shows based on games? Do you generally look down upon them or do you think some have been well done? Most are geared toward kids, but even so, I still have fond memories and nostalgia because some of my favorite shows as a 90s kid were shows like Kirby and Yu-Gi-Oh . Pokémon probably would have hit the spot as well, but I only had 5 basic public broadcast channels, so options were very limited and I was thankful for whatever played from 7:00a.m.-11:00a.m. on Saturday mornings.
Spencer Johnson
2024-07-15 02:17:16 +0000 UTCNot sure if there is enough for a long form discussion, but Id love to hear your thoughts about sequels. What makes a good one, a not so good one. When is it needed vs a moneygrab. I tend to enjoy the wierd outlier sequels (ds2, zelda2, even metroid prime 2) and I think theres something to dig into there. Even an example like what would it take in Bloodborne 2 for you to not cringe while playing it. I hadnt found an in depth episode on the topic but may have missed it. Thanks for all the content either way!
Chris
2024-07-14 12:04:38 +0000 UTCZombie apocalypse and you can have one X-Men to help you survive, which one and why?
Ak1raTron
2024-07-12 23:21:10 +0000 UTCGary and Kole, I have a very important question for you both: What are your thoughts on the recent evolution of the word "glizzy" into a new slang word for a hot dog?
Andrew (andyk250) Koch
2024-07-12 21:33:59 +0000 UTCHey! A few months ago, Gary mentioned the nemesis system in shadow of mordor, and lamented how no other games use it. Here comes a downer, Warner Brothers patented it, so nobody else can imitate it without risking legal issues. This practice is more common than you would think, sadly. Namco had one for loading screen minigames until 2014, and Sega had one for that awful floating arrow direction system in crazy taxi. Nintendo got in some hot water in the gamedev community for trying to patent the building system in tears of the kingdom. It's one of the most frustrating decisions a company can make, as it mainly just salts the earth for any creative reuses by anyone else. Have either of you had a similar "learning how the sausage is made" experience, where learning a game development fact made a game feel a little worse? Thanks again for all the great shows!
J. Mattinson
2024-07-12 16:58:51 +0000 UTCHey guys! I've never really been a music person, but I recently discovered File Under Water, your podcast about REM. I've always liked what I heard from the band, so I decided to listen through their discography in tandem with your podcast. It's been wonderful! I've listened to each album a couple times, soaking it in, before moving on to your episode about it, which has helped me sort through all the songs and my feelings about them. Thank you so much for helping me explore this incredible band! Once I'm done, I'd like to do another deep dive into another band with a lengthy discography. Do either of you have any recommendations for someone who's new to actually listening to music and really, really loves REM?
MisterMundus
2024-07-12 00:04:07 +0000 UTC(No offense to Kole on the Ohio stuff. :D A friend who's a teacher said a kid came up to him and said something had "skibidi Ohio rizz," where Ohio means "sub-mid." It blew my gourd.)
Joseph
2024-07-11 23:51:39 +0000 UTCIn your opinion, which words that have entered the lexicon recently are bussin' GOAT cromulent, and which have skibidi Ohio rizz?
Joseph
2024-07-11 20:47:40 +0000 UTCHello fellas! Y2K. Did you believe in it? Were there people around you that thought it was real?
Steven Riddle
2024-07-11 02:32:23 +0000 UTCHello G and K, what are some of your favourite games from genres you don’t usually truck with ? For me I was never really into RTS games but when Halo Wars came out I found it surprisingly fun and not too complicated.
Steven Reichenbach
2024-07-10 15:52:19 +0000 UTCNot a question, just a note. I'm about to mow my lawn after a very long few days and when I got my phone out to put some music on I got really excited to see the Patreon notification that there's a new Adaptation Decay. I figure that kind of emotional pop warrants letting everyone know that you just made my week a whole lot better. Thanks for all your shows, they help a lot.
Matt Bixler! Hello!
2024-07-10 14:53:42 +0000 UTCHey Guys! On paper "Stellar blade" Sounds like a game I should be really into: fast melee combat with a Focus on parrying. But I will never play this thing, because I refuse to stare at a jigglying cyborgass for about 20 hours. Same thing with Nier Automata (please feel free to take this as a suggestion to move it up one more year, for this mention alone). I dont want to sound like a prude, but this needless hornyness feels so goddamn condescending to me. What is your most infuriating case of blatand fan-service? Best wishes!
Marius Magaard
2024-07-10 14:19:36 +0000 UTCWhat advice would you give yourselves at the beginning of your career that you probably wouldn’t have expected back in the day?
Deanna Kerry
2024-07-10 12:58:35 +0000 UTCI would give my life for bmo
Chapel Collins
2024-07-10 11:58:11 +0000 UTCI always get a kick out of the ones that lay down on a torture rack or guillotine or some other uncomfortable surface a say something like “ah brief respite”
Coty Davis
2024-07-10 07:32:40 +0000 UTCI effing love BoF3, is it not considered the best in the series? Regardless, count me in as the baker’s addition in this BoF3-loving dozen. (To add: I also never finished 1 or 2 as well)
Douglas
2024-07-10 04:03:36 +0000 UTCAhoy! What are your favorite Adventure Time side characters?
Soulful Bison
2024-07-10 04:02:12 +0000 UTCHi Gary and Kole, I’m a neurologist with two young kids and love that I can explore video games with you guys that I don’t have time to play myself. Here’s my question: when you work in medicine long enough you can sometimes tell when someone else has worked in a medical field by the ease with which they use a large variety of medical terms. I feel like both of you - Kole in particular - pretty easily drop into medical lingo. Do either of you have a background in medicine, biology or related fields? Also while I’m on the medical kick - I love how open and frank you both are about your physical and mental health challenges. They are clearly important issues in your lives but nothing to be ashamed of. I think that’s great! Stigma helps no one. Keep up the great work guys!
Phil G
2024-07-10 02:57:27 +0000 UTCHowdy! Outside of the obvious (Magic the Gathering), I was wondering what, if any, relationship you both have to modern board games? I think I remember the Arkham Horror LCG being mentioned by Gary, though maybe I am misremembering. (if relevant) Are there particular things that you look for in board games that video games don't scratch? Personally, I love how board games require that you understand all of the systems at play. I have tried many times to love Civilization, but after a few dozen turns I just check out because I can't bring myself to delve into the specifics of the mechanics which the computer handles it for me. It becomes an "end turn" simulator. For a direct comparison, the Slay the Spire board game is basically just a (way more expensive) analog version of the video game, but there is something extremely satisfying about moving the pieces around myself. Even though the video game makes what is happening very clear, I still often check out and play on autopilot, which is more difficult to do when I have to personally move all of the bits and bobbins around the board. Thanks for the great network! Many hundreds of hours in lab have been made way more enjoyable while listening to y'all talk.
Benjamin
2024-07-10 02:36:57 +0000 UTCIf you could will it into existence, what would be your most desired franchise or type of game from fromsoft? Love you both, Thanks!
Scrotes McGooch
2024-07-10 02:16:57 +0000 UTCWhat are some of the best "joke" messages you've seen in souls games? Obviously we are all sick of the finger but holes and amazing chests, but there's still some joy to be found there, I think. I recently came across one in front of a dead body that said "likely out of stamina" that made me laugh out loud.
Chapel Collins
2024-07-10 02:02:21 +0000 UTCI feel like you must have addressed this by now, but I don't know where if you have. How did you two meet and start this enterprise? You guys have incredible chemistry but I've always found it interesting that you started when you live in different parts of the country
Jake
2024-07-10 00:55:11 +0000 UTCGary mentioned in one your programs the Conan animated series from the early 90s, I went back and watched a couple episodes on YouTube, they are not great despite the banger theme song. I loved the X-Men animated series growing up, I am closer to Gary's age than Kole's (born in 82) but I thought you both liked it. Upon rewatch there are some solid episodes along with a lot of 'meh' episodes. However, X-Men 97 is excellent and got me thinking, is their a cartoon from the 90s either of you would like to see get the X-Men 97 treatment?
Jake O
2024-07-09 23:56:12 +0000 UTCI love you guys and your shows. Real Lich Hours is what I have now instead of appointment television. Big big fan🙂 I wanted to include a kind preamble to let you know I am not a monster. I am not trying to make anyone have the worst day of their life (ITYSL). I am actually a very sweet man. Ok, so, I hate Karlach. I think she’s awful. I heard her described as a fanfic self-insert character, and I think she feels out of place in that way. The in-game writing for and about her always sticks out as bad or disingenuous. All the companions have dialogue talking about how great she is, even Laezel and Minthara. The last time a bit of game writing stuck out to me so intensely was the ending of system shock 2, where I was so puzzled I thought I installed a mod that snuck in a troll ending. Please explain. I’m a kind person, really.
Clever Clogs
2024-07-09 22:43:33 +0000 UTClightning round question: Is RE2 remake: resident evil classic + resident evil 4 divided by 2?
Videogames dot Afghanistan
2024-07-09 21:02:52 +0000 UTCDo you ever get tilted at video games these days? I imagine with the volume of games you play and being big wheels at the Dark Souls factory makes you guys Good At Video Games (TM), but do you get to the point of legitimate anger?
Naveen Sivakumar
2024-07-09 20:52:52 +0000 UTCRecently Kole came out as a Breath of Fire 3 defender (there are dozens of us!) despite not having played the first two, which got me thinking: are there any other long running series where you've dipped in for one of them and decided that's good enough? Follow up question: how do you defeat the mind goblin that tells you that you have to play every game in a series even if they're not interconnected?
Fatt Mox
2024-07-09 19:39:10 +0000 UTCI just built my first ever PC. I wanted to ask for some suggestions of games to play on it. A vague question I know, but here is some context. I built it because I wanted to play certain types of games that really can only be played on a PC with mouse and keyboard. CRPGs, city builders, anything where I move a bunch of guys around a map like an RTS or a 4X game. I've already decided Frostpunk is first on my list. And a replay of BG3 will follow soon after, which will likely lead me to the Divinity games. While I have no problem with older games, I do sometimes find very old archaic PC games to be a bit frustrating. (looking at you Fallout 1). Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks!
Matt DiTomaso
2024-07-09 19:35:33 +0000 UTCHave you guys used, or would consider using, a modern game renting service like GameFly? I signed up for GameFly a few months ago and have been pretty happy with it. It allows me to rent a game for as long as I want, and I can decide if I want to them buy the game on Steam/Console or not With the Steam refund policy for only two hours and re-selling games on console a pain, this has allowed me to try out games I was on the fence about, easily and legally.
Greg Polander
2024-07-09 15:45:14 +0000 UTCHi there, long-time listener, medium-time patron, first-time questioner. You two were able to transition to full-time podcasting, and both of you have mentioned having bad jobs in the past, so you’re living the dream, arguably. But I was wondering if there were any things you missed from your previous working lives, whether things related to certain specific jobs or to working a day job in general, or those things indirectly related to the job (e.g., the break room, some aspect of the commute).
Joel Boyce
2024-07-09 15:02:36 +0000 UTCHello, gentlemen! I love the shows on your network, and Real Lich Hours has become appointment listening for me. Lately, Gary has mentioned that we are living through something a renaissance in Gary-attuned media with examples such as Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Elden Ring, Baldur’s Gate 3, and X-Men ‘97. Since everything has been been coming up Gary, might I trouble you to use your media-manifestation powers to call into existence a turn-based X-Men RPG along the lines of Baldur’s Gate 3 or Divinity: Original Sin? Baldur’s Gate 3 is probably a top 5 game for me, but while playing, I can’t help but imagine how perfectly suited this style of gameplay and story-telling would be for an X-Men game. My favorite X-Men (80s and early 90s) were typically a small-numbers-RPG style team with no omega-level mutant or virtual-immortality-through-healing-factor nonsense. Ideal X-Men squads were ersatz DnD parties. Stories could be melodramatic while also deeply human. Imagine the possibilities! The narration could even be over-written Chris Claremont prose. I might have to skip out on the Throne of Lilandra DLC, though. Hopefully this at least provides a some amusement. Thanks for all you do!
Ben Cook
2024-07-09 15:02:18 +0000 UTCGiven the success of the George R.R Martin / FromSoft collaboration, who else, be it an author, director, musician, whoever, do you think would provide an interesting template for Miyazaki and his team to use?
Connor Cox
2024-07-09 14:58:31 +0000 UTCHi there Gary and Kole, for the first time in my life, I have developed a little community surrounding my output of individuals I DO NOT know 😯, this being my first time dealing with community moderation and parasocial interactions. Do you have any tips or observations on how best to handle these early stages of community building, as folks with one of the best communities of individuals out there (and *not* simply because I’m there 😎)
Jordan and Maya M.
2024-07-09 14:58:07 +0000 UTCI love Warhammer, but it's a community struggling with it's relationship to fascism. I'm done explaining media literacy to CHUD. Instead I find myself painting little guys and then playing with them alone. I am not sad about being run out of the hobby, but I feel guilty about having been run off my hill, ceding ground in the 'culture war.' Do you have the moral authority to absolve me my sins? uWu
Ross Karnes
2024-07-09 14:37:07 +0000 UTCIt's pretty common to see critics today apply the label of 'literary' to games that have some degree of thematic depth and cogent writing, whether those things actually be derived from literary technique or not. When applied, this label is almost always seen as a positive epaulette to the discussed game; however, when you hear other media being called 'gamey' or 'gameified', it's nearly always seen as a negative quality. What are some examples of games that you think a sense of literariness has detracted from said game's qaulity, and what are some ways you think gameification or being 'gamey' has benefitted other arts?
Béa(u)
2024-07-09 14:34:35 +0000 UTCWhen playing my SNES a few weeks ago, I got to thinking about how back then licensed games were usually considered the bottom of the shit-bucket, the soggy bread of the shit-sandwich. Nowadays, stuff like Spider-Man 2, KOTOR, and The Walking Dead have mostly dispelled that stigma. Do you have affection for any of the earlier eras of licensed games? I'll go to bat for the SNES Jurassic Park game. It's a shockingly in-depth top-down and open-world game before that was even a thing, and it even has some early first-person shooter sections pre-Doom. The vorpal flaw? You can't save! (This was actually my first-ever video game alongside Mario Kart, both given to me Christmas 1997!)
Dylan Kilby
2024-07-09 14:30:18 +0000 UTCDo you have any tips for breaking a gaming dry spell? I have the stereotypical steam library full of unplayed games, as well as a decent Switch backlog. I just can't seem to muster the energy or interest to get into anything, or I'll try a game and might get a few hours in and quickly lose interest. Do I need to set time aside and "force" myself to do it to build up a habit or just wait it out?
Eric
2024-07-09 14:23:18 +0000 UTCLife/Media Question: Recently, it came out that Alice Munro, Canada's best writer and only Nobel Laureate for literature, stayed married to and supported her husband after it came to light that he sexually abused her daughter when she was 9, and was generally a sex pest with other children in their neighbourhood. As a Canadian, and a former HUGE fan of her work, this hit hard. I don't really buy into fandom at all, nor do I look up to people the way some do, but Munro's work is about as close as it came for me. This rocked my sense of self way worse than any other situation involving cancelling people. Yes, Harvey Weinstein is a bigger monster; but I was never a fan of him (I didn't even know he existed until all that shit came out). Yes JK Rowling is a raging terf and has done more damage, but I don't care for or about any of the cultural items she put into the world. With Munro, I can't stomach to ever read her again and that makes me sad, but also sick at the thought of what she did (or what she forgave). Are there any cancelled people who have affected you in this way? Whose monsterous deeds overshadowed a previously held deep respect and admiration for their work?
Douglas
2024-07-09 14:19:45 +0000 UTCEveryone knows the old saw, "good poets borrow, great poets steal." With the glut of soulslikes in the past year or so, I've been wondering: where can one draw the line between homage and appropriation? Lies of P and the new Lords of the Fallen both had, for example, priest bosses that got big and powerful via cannibalism. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this topic (not necessarily about those two games in particular), given the many soulslikes you've covered over the years, in terms of theme, mechanics, level design, etc. Apologies if this has come up before, and thanks for the all the great work!
Christopher D Wait
2024-07-09 14:12:10 +0000 UTC
