Call and Response: WOFF! Dispatch Questions July 2023
Added 2023-07-14 01:59:33 +0000 UTCHello! The purpose of this post is to call for your questions and prompts for WOFF! Dispatch. Please respond by end of day, Monday, July 17th by leaving a comment on this post.We're looking for two kinds of things:
1. Suggestions for our long-form discussion prompt.
2. 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
Hey there! As someone who didn't grow up with them, CRPGs like baluders gate and fallout 1 & 2 have both tempted and intimidated me. They seem endlessly fascinating and able to tell interesting stories but are a big hole in my understanding games. The unique jank of those types of games that have been putting me off for a while now. I'm going to play Disco Elysium to try to gateway myself into those types of games and I was wondering it you could give some general tips and habits that I should keep in mind while attempting these games? Mitigate the worse to experience the best, hopefully. Thanks for all the laughs and hope y'alls summer has been good :)
Fang
2023-07-18 00:30:40 +0000 UTCHey guys! Last year, a good friend of mine got me into On Cinema, and I just recently finished the Trial of Timothy Heidecker. Quick question: is it funnier when Tim gets his objections immediately overruled, or is it funnier when objections against Tim are immediately sustained? I think a case can be made for both being the correct answer, but curious to hear your thoughts.
vapingwithdad
2023-07-17 22:35:57 +0000 UTCI recently went to a concert in the park played by an 80s cover band. Pretty fun, but they were apparently preceded by a 90s/00s cover band called “Sega Genecide”. Not crazy about the band, but I thought that was an amazing name. If you were to form a band with a video game-related name, what would it be, and what kind of music would you play? I’d go with NeoGeo Speedwagon, but that’s just me.
Doug Lief
2023-07-17 19:27:18 +0000 UTCFavorite sammich?
Oldmanvarney
2023-07-16 18:57:44 +0000 UTCThis might have been asked before: but what are some games that are undoubtedly influential yet not very fun to play?-Jill
Forced into Femininity
2023-07-16 18:45:09 +0000 UTCAn alien comes to you specifically and asks you to take them to your leader. Who do you take them to? Who on this pale blue dot do you think best displays your most valued leadership characteristics to a degree that you would be comfortable entrusting them with the fate of the planet? Assume as a thought exercise that in this scenario Earth has a bright future ahead and you would like it to continue.
Alex Shaw
2023-07-15 02:50:33 +0000 UTCI struggled to get into the earlier Castlevania games, but when I picked up Castlevania Requiem to play Symphony of the Night, I was surprised to find myself completely hooked on Rondo of Blood. Something about the play and presentation just grabbed me in a way the NES titles never did. Is there an entry in any prolific gaming series that you enjoy despite not caring for the rest of the series?
trent allen
2023-07-15 00:51:08 +0000 UTCOne of the network mantras is "Recommendations are poison." What thing that you love would you recommend to your cohost if you wanted to finally do them in, Agatha Christie-style?
KL
2023-07-15 00:24:50 +0000 UTCI have very find memories of the Jak and Daxter games (which I haven't played in over a decade), but y'all's episode on Jak 2 is some of the funniest shit I've heard in a while. The phrase "Intention has left my body" is now in my lexicon.
Jonathan Scratch
2023-07-14 22:21:59 +0000 UTCLong-form discussion prompt: What makes something a Soulslike, and does adopting those elements elevate otherwise-middling works or invite awkward comparisons with FromSoft's library?
Christian S
2023-07-14 21:55:56 +0000 UTCIt's been really fun and sweet hearing all Gary's wedding stories over the past several months, but there's one thing he hasn't addressed that I think the entire Duckfeed listener-ship wants to know: Did Gary get married by an Elvis impersonator, or is that just a rumor I'm about to start?
MrReciprocity
2023-07-14 21:32:26 +0000 UTCGot a recommendation for Gary - The other day I was thinking about your praise for Prague in Mankind Divided and I suddenly made a connection. I don't know what you think of Thief: The Dark Project or if you have ever even peeked at fan-created content for it, but there's a trilogy of levels by a user named skacky - Shadow Politics, Between These Dark Walls, and Endless Rain. All three focus on exploring a chunk of a city as you creep into apartments and offices to read letters and steal stuff. They are absolutely massive, each taking 4-6 hours to fully explore. I don't know how much time you have for non-WOFF games, but those are out there if you ever want to try them.
MisterMundus
2023-07-14 16:13:41 +0000 UTCI’m playing Final Fantasy XVI currently, and one thing that has me charmed by it are the shortcuts the developers use to avoid creating bespoke animations. Stuff like camera pans to hide object handoffs or kisses, fade to blacks as the characters do some activity, or simply having characters stand in place and speak their dialog instead of emoting. These are all common tricks in older and lower budget games, but there’s something neat to see them in such a lavish modern production. Where do you guys fall on developers avoiding bespoke animations? Do you find it to be an immersion killer, and is Naughty Dog and Rockstar’s approach to never cutting away a better approach?
Naveen Sivakumar
2023-07-14 13:17:55 +0000 UTCDo either of you have any, “this sucks. I love it.” games?
The BabaDuck
2023-07-14 13:00:28 +0000 UTCHey y'all! I recently re-listened to the Tides of Numenera episode, and you both mentioned that the game is bolstered by explicitly not comparing it to Planescape - citing that gamers often let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and that the concensus about that game might be due to that unbalanced comparison. I agree with the sentiment, but it got me thinking: when does adjusting your expectations become dampening your expectations? Or rather, do you find it difficult to navigate the line between irrationally expecting a game to be something it can't be vs. letting internal flaws in a game off the hook because it doesn't have to be best in class? I tend to come down hard on media because I enjoy thinking about why something doesn't work as much as why something does, but I'm a sicko freak! Thanks!
Béa(u)
2023-07-14 11:23:46 +0000 UTCHi guys, few questions about crypto and NFT -- how do you feel about this stuff? Do you or would you buy any crypto and/or NFT? And if a game was really good but the game itself was buyable only in crypto or in game purchases or DLC was only buyable in crypto, would you play it?
Greg Polander
2023-07-14 08:26:59 +0000 UTCYa'll watch any Jacob Geller video essays on youtube?? He's pretty good
Randall
2023-07-14 07:46:50 +0000 UTCAt any of your previous jobs, do you have any “let me speak to your manager” stories? I deliver packages and had a customer try to have me pick up an item that wasn’t in an enclosed box. It’s against policy for us to take it and he got very upset with me. He proceeded to demand for my manager’s number and told us to expect a call from his wife, who is a lawyer. Nothing came out of it and I never had to pick the item up.
Steven Riddle
2023-07-14 04:56:41 +0000 UTC(Pronounced “nikolai”). Can I find enjoyment in Elden Ring? I’m not fond of spending my limited gaming time when the kids are asleep bashing my head against tough bosses, and I bounced of Dark Souls for that reason.But I do really love exploring weird spaces. Regular combat against “normal” enemies is also just fine as long as I’m not dying in one hit, same with grinding (withim reason). I have no illusions about actually completing Elden Ring, but is there joy to be found with those restrictions?
Nikolaj Thorborg
2023-07-14 02:46:53 +0000 UTCFor Kole, but Gary feel free: World of Warcraft Hardcore Classic servers. You see this? You hear about this? In short, a hardcore community has developed among WoW Classic players that has taken over certain servers. There is a list of rules that the community has for playing on those servers that I won't get in to, but the biggest rules is DEATH=DELETE. If your character dies, you must delete it (or leave it as a ghost). No resurrections. I've dipped my toe into this world, and these rules make the game feel like MMOs used to! There is a sense of danger and excitement that I haven't felt in an MMO sense running from a train of Crushbone Orcs to the zone line! This community server has brought me back into the genre. My question for Kole is: "What if anything can bring you back into the MMO genre?
Tywilliger
2023-07-14 02:41:24 +0000 UTCA question to both of you about marijuana use: how do you take it? How many milligrams of THC? Do either of you get high and when you play video games? if so, what do you look for in a game to play while high?
Mike G
2023-07-14 02:37:58 +0000 UTCBehind the scene question: how long did it take for both of you learn of your own subjective tastes for certain video games. I got into gaming when I was ten and I'd play almost anything I could get on the NES, but nowadays, I have to be really picky about what I purchase as about half my library are games I've barely touched.
Mike G
2023-07-14 02:32:55 +0000 UTCHi Gary & Kole! I've recently found what ended up being a perfect running soundtrack for me: the Paradise Killer OST. The combination of city pop jams and exercise endorphins hits just right sometimes and can make it feel like I'm running around Paradise Island, ready to intercept a cadre of horny idiots at any moment. What's your relationship to video game music when you're not playing video games? Do you have a soundtrack you like to throw on for specific tasks?
Luke C
2023-07-14 02:30:38 +0000 UTC1. Art Direction 2. Growing up I was only able to get maybe one console each generation. I mainly would choose Nintendo consoles for the quality of games and IP that I grew up with, but I had such an urge to play games outside of that Nintendo bubble. My friend and I arranged an agreement to temporarily swap consoles. I received his his Xbox 360 and he received my Wii. It felt like I was opening a door into a world I could only read about in magazines. I played Bioshock, Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Fallout 3, Alan wake, Halo Wars, RE5. My question is what games growing up did you see and say "I have to play that someday" and did you ever play it or is it still on your back log? Thanks guys!!
Eric LaGrange
2023-07-14 02:30:10 +0000 UTCHey guys! I was recently reading an analysis piece on Kotaku about why the new Final Fantasy game (FFXVI) was so divisive among fans of the series. I'm not a huge FF fan and don't have any intention of playing FFXVI, but something that really interested me in the piece was when the author mentioned the "Golden Era" of Final Fantasy, referring to when VII, VIII, and IX were released in the early 2000's. She argues that because the "golden era" games are put on such a high pedestal by fans, it makes them unfairly judgmental of newer releases, since those new games will never reach the peak from over two decades ago due to a combination of cultural trends, gaming trends, and nostalgia. I don't know enough about Final Fantasy to say if this opinion holds any water, but it made me consider how perceived "golden eras" can affect fans' mindsets as a series inevitably evolves as time goes on and trends change. Have you experienced discussions like this about other long-running series that you're fans of? And do you think that any series is in a "golden era" right now? To answer the latter question, I think that in several years time, we'll probably agree that Resident Evil is in a golden era now with the release of the VIII and the 2 and 4 remakes.
Elizabeth
2023-07-14 02:27:36 +0000 UTCWould you rather ponder the orb, or ponder the cube?
Matt DiTomaso
2023-07-14 02:09:21 +0000 UTCWhen using emulators, do you try to use original controllers with adapters? If not, do you have a favorite emulation controller? I found a lot of success with the Bluetooth diy kits from 8bitdo to turn my original controllers into Bluetooth ones.
Popofoshosho
2023-07-14 02:08:29 +0000 UTCBarbecue side dish smackdown. What are we laying on that plate next to the ribs, chicken, steak, and burgers?
Jack Corrigan
2023-07-14 02:05:27 +0000 UTC
