Game designer and author Mathew Kumar joins a panel guest hosted by editor Esper Quinn to cover famous famiclones, the latest in Nintendo developments, and Tommy Tallarico’s unexpected ascent into backgammon legend. Hosted by Esper Quinn, with Frank Cifaldi, Brandon Sheffield, and Mathew Kumar. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman.
Battle City!
Here in Estonia we just called it “Tank” (what with the word having the same meaning in Estonian) and loved it as kids.
Fond memories of walking to the market with my grandma, getting groceries and occasionally a bootleg Famiclone cart, obviously gravitating towards a “99999 in 1” type of cart; ending up with dozens of variations of Mario, Tetris and Battle City - and this was in like… 1998 or so, we were a poor country in the 90s after regaining our independence.
I feel compelled to finish things and I’m pretty analytical of what I play and this lends to being stubborn and hoping things get better like with a new mechanic reveal when I’m disappointed a game. I very recently, maybe in august, was watching a Choops stream where he said “You have to meet games where they are” which I interpreted as “Being open to the experience, accepting its faults and relishing in what it does well.” Which I just can’t do personally. Sometimes you are sitting there thinking about how you would fix something because the aspect you are scrutinizing capsizes the whole experience.
I wish I could think like that, but I think that is just for the sake of me not feeling like I was dumb for being excited or sunken cost.
I found that quitting something and talking about why it doesn’t work helps a lot with moving away from it and saving yourself from wasting your time. I often do this with friends but I think that is probably the bulk of my contributions to forums to date too lol
was remembering the episodes he was previously in and realized he was a guest almost exactly 4 years ago! (came to this realizations after remembering he was on the episode right before the 2020 US election lol)
Listening to the responses to the first question makes me really, really want to listen to a full-length bootleg console ranking episode. Like, obviously Zdog is number one, but what about the rest of the list? Is dendy superior to pegasus? What plug n plays deserve to be on the list? Is the best bootleg console actually the Windows PC?
Great to hear Matthew Kumar back on the show. Always a fun guest.
RE marketing that told parents to buy a console because their children could use it ‘to learn’:
I don’t know how now-defunct UK retailer Tandy marketed the Master System, but my parents got me one because it would supposedly be educational, and was much cheaper than a proper computer.
I have no idea what educational purpose TransBot served.
Bonus Z-Dog fact! The product was called ‘Z-Dog’ because that’s german for ‘The Dog’.
I think my last-listened video game track was something from one of the Doom reboot games.
also, great questions this week! Question 4 is interesting; I consider myself very lucky that my weird-ass job schedule still has a lot of open space for video games.
On the emotion question, Matthew Kumar brought up obsession and whether it was an emotion. I was thinking along rather similar lines about flow. Let’s say that flow, in itself, isn’t an emotion but a mood or (more generally) a mental state that heightens emotion within that state. I still associate game flow with said emotions, like the ecstasy of the immediate relation of action and reaction, the joy of having a tactic work, or the frustration (within the flow state) of a setback. I’m not sure that flow creates the strongest emotions I’ve ever felt in the game, but it is a kind of feeling I don’t get from TV or film, and it’s not the same kind of flow I experience when reading.
“Flow” may jibe with the conversation in the question about play time and structure. When Brandon is talking about needing a couple of hours to get into a game like Metaphor, for me I’d put that in terms of flow. Some games can accommodate brief moments of play (what Demonschool is trying to do, what Dragon Quest XI does). But others invite a state of going with the action for longer spans of time, lest the trail of lore-joy and action-skill go cold.
My maximal flow genre is strategy games. I relate to the Meier-esque “one more turn” impulse in the good Civilization games (like V), and I can spend hours plugged into a game like Crusader Kings III, making decisions as I go. I wouldn’t call the mental state obsession per se, but it’s a union between knowing, doing, and feedback that keeps me looped in.
Great episode and Mathew Kumar is a fantastic guest as usual - and I’ve given myself an early Christmas present with his book.
When it comes to playing more games the biggest barrier that face is a cross between choice paralysis and the notion as Brandon alluded to, that I need at least a couple of hours to want to stick with a game. These days, if I’m browsing through my library for an unplayed game then I’m most likely to pick the one that will have what I perceive to be the most immediate action, the fewest tutorials, and / or otherwise the shortest game. And even then I’ll often find starting that is a chore if it’s not a one-sitting game.
