43 Comments

Thank you so much for calling out Russ on Mario/Wario hipocrosy! My wife (mis)pronounces the two of them the same way as Russ and it’s oh so confusing.

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Hi besties,

As I get older, my time for playing games has decreased from hours per day to hours per week. Do you have any game recommendations or ways to approach gaming that might help me make the most of my time?

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I’m very much in a similar boat—I’ve been intentionally seeking out games with a set expectation of time to get a good fix until my next session. Vampire Survivors has been a mainstay with its 30 minute session max.

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Plante, you're thinking the Nacirema story. I'm 33, and we were told that one in middle school as a way to call out Ethnocentrism. Things that are foreign sounding are weird, so we automatically "other" them.

And yeah, it's just "American" backwards.

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I was just coming here to comment about the Nacirema story! We read it in a couple of intro to archaeology classes in college: https://www.sfu.ca/~palys/Miner-1956-BodyRitualAmongTheNacirema.pdf

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Thank you both!

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Same. I remember reading it in a freshman cultural anthropology class.

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My favorite UI game would have to be Kingsway from a while back. https://store.steampowered.com/app/588950/Kingsway/ a fun, short, silly implementation of playing an RPG using a fake computer's UI borderline clicker.

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I came here to say the same thing! Kingsway is a gem that so many have missed

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It would be incredible to see Sea of Thieves on the McElroy Family Clubhouse "again" now that Griffin's really into it and there's a cool seasonal mechanic!

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On the subject of how we got/discovered new PC games back in the day, my dad used to take us to the dollar store at the mall, where ALL of the games were of the bargain bin variety. I especially remember a Christmas-themed sidescrolling 2D platformer I got called The Lost Reindeer. I managed to struggle my way through the whole game after a few days, and then when my little brother was playing it soon after, we discovered a whole fucking mechanic I'd missed: pressing the spacebar fired a booger projectile out of the reindeer's nose to kill enemies. I'd finished the ENTIRE GAME on a completely unplanned pacifist run because of the lack of a proper manual or tutorials. What a weird time.

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I've always told people that my favorite type of game are the ones where you see and interact with the world solely through UI, like the extremely niche Mu Cartographer or the slightly more well-known In Other Waters. Would these also count as UI RPGs? It's a great name and much less clunky than the way I phrase it lol. (Sorry if this has been answered already in the episode, I havent had the chance to listen yet <3)

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Yeah, I think these are UI RPGs!

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Wayne Gretzky's 3D hockey on the 64 ruled from what i remember. one of the few hockey games I actually liked.

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I actually think UIRPG is great, and might catch on, but a thought I had: these games are also inherently puzzle games, if that isn't in the name the genre eventually gets, will that influence how people think of the genre?

The same goes for the RPG tag too, ofc. The games ARE RPG's, as you take the role of the user, but as they rarely are RPG's in a computer games sense, I hadn't really thought of them as such until this episode.

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Seeing how both let’s play videos and Harold Halibut was up for discussion, I’m going to do some shameless self promotion seeing how my channel had a silent playthrough of Harold scheduled for today. So check out https://youtube.com/@indiegamestories for some nice indie gems :)

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Hey Russ, speaking of Hotshots Golf for PSP, the latest game from the developer ClapHandz is on Switch and Apple Arcade too. I looked the series up after you mentioned it, and have been playing Easy Come Easy Golf on my phone and computer the past few days. Since it uses Apple Game Center, saves and progress is synced between them so I can easily pick up and play wherever I am. Thanks for the recommendation!

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UIRPG definitely makes me think of Let's Game It Out's hilarious playthrough of Tech Support: Error Unknown. You play as a tech support person and get embroiled in a deeper plot about the shady tech company you work for

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The best UIRPG I’ve ever played is one called Secret Little Haven. You play as a teenager who starts to realize she’s a trans woman, and the story mainly takes place in an IM window. It’s set around the same era as Hypnospace Outlaw and has an incredible story, I even used it to help my mom understand how I felt being trans. Incredible game that will hit you right in the heart, and it’s only $5 on itch.io!

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I like the UIRPG genre name, but by the sounds of it, The Operator might also be a "search inaction game"? There's probably more to it, but it did sound like looking things up (and not being able to do much else) was the core mechanic. 😆

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Hi Besties, the other day I picked up this game on PSN called Deadlink. I had a quick look at the archive and I don't think you've ever mentioned it but I think you'll love it.

It's a "roguelite" FPS that feels sorta like Hades and the recent Doom games had a weird Cyberpunk baby and I can't stop playing it. I had a look on Reddit and the Steam version seems to work pretty well on Steam Deck and I know you guys are all about that. Here's the store link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1676130/Deadlink/

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You guys gotta check out “Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers”.

It’s like if Balatro was Blackjack instead of poker.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2400510/Dungeons__Degenerate_Gamblers/

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