The Lincolncast Episode 20: Storytelling

Hey guys! For those who don't know, this is the Giant Bomb community's Guild Wars 2 podcast (made by our guild, Lincoln Force).

Oh god this episode is off the rails. We somehow pull it together to spoil lvl35-60 content and run through some more Dungeon stuff, including an in-depth analysis of the storytelling in Dungeons, Lincolncast style.

Also, subscribe to the show!

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Streaming Embed (audio only):

Show Notes

Intro music: "The Pentagon" by The Hamster Alliance

Featured Members:@selfconfessedcynic , @No0b0rAmA , @Dourin , @Chavtheworld , @aterangelus

Run time: 2:45:42

Topics for the week:

• Oh god, it's 45 mins of off-topic this time 'round talking about Microsoft text-to-speech antics and the DAAA.
• We talk about the second and third dungeons of GW2 and our experiences with Explorable Mode.
• Moving to spoiler-territory, we discuss the similarities between each order's personal story lines from lvl35-60 and the implementation of a diamond-style arc for characters.
• Following this we touch on the week's news (oops) and then go into Dungeon Storytelling and whether it's engaging (watch out though, there's a pun-bomb in there somewhere).
• Don't ask me how I derived the above shownotes from the obscenity the podcast turned out to be.
• "SPOILERS!".

Plugs!

• Check out the live show and Dourin's gaming channel at http://www.twitch.tv/Dourin
• Check out the Giant Bomb PC Gaming Hub including their mumble server which Noob pretty much lives on at http://www.giantbomb.com/pc/60-94/pc-gaming-hub-lets-play-games-together/35-554129/

Enjoy! Also, feel free to leave some criticism or feedback - TheLincolncast@gmail.com or @TheLincolncast on Twitter.

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WOO HOO

I don't know if it's just me, but downloading the podcast via RSS and iTunes is super slow for me. And by slow I mean slow. Estimated download time is usually over an hour. It's not my speed since I get ~30Mbit via wifi to my phone and all my other podcasts downloads just fine.

@Xyber: Hmm - I think it's usually on the day I put it up, after that I get normal speeds downloading the episode. It's probably something with Podbean.

Wait we were meant to talk about Guild Wars? Aw fuck why did no-one tell me this?!

@Chavtheworld said:

Wait we were meant to talk about Guild Wars? Aw fuck why did no-one tell me this?!

I hear the game just came out?!

@Bahloo said:

@Chavtheworld said:

Wait we were meant to talk about Guild Wars? Aw fuck why did no-one tell me this?!

I hear the game just came out?!

Guild Wars is a game? I thought it was just a forum for us to share racial slurs and terrible puns.

I had to look up Dwarf World games and saw "The largest sporting event in history exclusively for athletes with dwarfism". Best slogan.

Just finished listening, I can tell you now, if you thought the story in the other dungeons was bad, wait for Arah.

@Branwulf: Done and dusted!

But I don't want to talk about it here - maybe during the next show.

Oh, Arah.

Can I expect the same immaturity level from continued podcasts? I don't have the patience nor time to listen to a group of neckbeards rail on disabled people for 30 minutes.

@RIDEBIRD: It's really not that hard to skip that first part if you don't want to listen to it. That even saves you some time!

@Xyber: Those jokes still pop up intermittently and I really have no patience with manchildren with complete lack of empathy or understanding that more sound like they're avid posters on r/mensrights or 4chan then on Giant Bomb. It's not like it's the first time either, the nazi jokes last episode were pretty harsh, and sure he might have been okay with it, but the austrian guy was just mostly quiet and laughing awkwardly. Maybe he's fine with that kind of humor, but most germans and austrians are not, from my general experience of talking to some german students about it. Also, they still don't feel like they are responsible for their great grandfathers actions, as most americans probably don't feel to responsible for civilian casualties in Iraq or the systematic massacres of civilians in Vietnam.

I really expected more from this community, and I guess that the Lincoln Force manifesto doesn't apply to the podcast or to the disabled, as the latter are obviously prime targets for ridicule for a condition they cannot effect in any way. I see no difference between "joking" about disabled or for example gay or transgendered people. The manifesto explicitly forbids the latter. I quote:

• Sexist Comments
  - girls, boys and in-betweens are all accepted, and those who disagree can be damned. (I put this here to be very clear -I am personally very strict about this one)
• Other Discriminatory Language
  - Racism, Ageism,etc.

Apparently neither of this applies to the disabled or you can just simply say I DID IT FOR THE LULZ and it's totally fine. Fucking bullshit.

@RIDEBIRD:

Simply put? Yes, we will continue being childish and somewhat offensive. If you don't wish to listen to the podcast, you don't have to.

Till date we have not received a single complaint letter from any of the offended parties (oh, and @Bahloo is German, not Austrian) which to me means we're sitting rather comfortably in the "hey, it's a joke" part of the offensiveness venn diagram.

As for the guild rules, I purposefully put a decent bit of language in there hedging for humour's sake - and it is generally meant for a) people who are specifically targeted and b) things that happen in-game. This podcast is literally something that is forced upon noone in any circumstance and anyone is well within their power to tune out or turn it off. Heck, I even put in how much to skip to avoid the off-topic stuff in the shownotes, so you're quite capable of skipping that stuff entirely if you wanted to.

Remember, we're not getting paid to do this, and we're not official by any means. We're a group of guys who record our weekend conversation about a video game, and I'll be damned before I force makeshift, fake and unwarranted professionalism on the show.

@selfconfessedcynic: I actually thought you were serious and a decent human being in the guild rules (that's why the podcast came as surprise) as those mentioned things are usually a HUGE deal that pops up frequently from the likes of you and other "immature" players.

And I can both skip and not listen (I've choosen the latter for obvious reasons), but that doesn't mean that I'll shut the fuck up about it and just carry on. Especially not when Giant Bombs good name is associated with this 4channery.

@RIDEBIRD: As a German, calling us Austrians is more offense than anything I've heard in the podcast.

@ZoomyRamen: I honestly thought you said he was austrian, I got lost in the holocaust jokes, sorry

Alright then, here we go.

Dear @RIDEBIRD , I appreciate your concern for the German people and I understand your problems with the Lincolncast. First and foremost, I respect that. It is okay to come in here and voice your concern, heck especially when you stand up and speak for people who most certainly do not deserve to be treated the way we treat them on the Lincolncast from time to time. What is not okay, however, is to come in here and behave disrespectfully while attacking not only one but many of the guys on the Lincolncast personally. I'm not saying you have to like what we do. I'm not saying you have to agree with what we say. What you do need to do - and this may help you in the real life world as well - is to respect other people and treat them in a commonsensical fashion. Spewing fire just for the fun of it is not what you want to be doing if you want to be taken seriously. It's alright to adress things you dislike, but in order for other people to appreciate and perhaps even improve on those things you should try the less aggressive way first.

That being said I would like to state that I am not Austrian. As a German I feel the need to clarify a couple of things.

By saying

they still don't feel like they are responsible for their great grandfathers actions

you basically solve the problem. You are right. My generation does not feel responsible at all. Should we? I don't think so. Should we be reminded of what happend? Yes, absolutely. Is it okay to talk about what happend? I think so. Is it okay to joke about it? Definitely, yes. I fully understand people who have a problem with making fun of things like the Holocaust, people with disabilities, gay poeple etc. ad infitum, but there are many people out there who find relieve in being able to talk about these kinds of things without having an imminent veil of discomfort surrounding them when talking about stuff like that. This is a legitimate way for people to deal with things like that. It is also a legitimate way to make fun on a podcast. Personally, I feel like combining the two after explicitly warning people about what to expect is reasonable enough.

Too bad you didn't enjoy it. Fortunately there are many more great shows out there. I wish you luck finding a podcast that appeals more to your standards.

@Bahloo: Granted, I see why me being mad and sinking to the same level is a surefire way to not be taken seriously - point taken - but it still my complete right to get angry and bitch about it on the Internet. No, you don't have to listen, and I knew before I posted that I wouldn't effect anyone or change anyone's mind.

What you're saying is basically that it's totally okay to make fun of everything but it's never okay to be offended of said jokes and get mad. This is the exact 4chan mentality of doing it for the lulz I was talking about earlier. It's still bullshit and stuck in a bubble of immaturity. It's not me who needs to be taught on how to act in real life, thank you very much, I've dealt with people like you in real life several times. I didn't act any different, except I did get the point across.

Y'all obviously have no problem being huge assholes to people who struggle everyday and insinuate that they're not actually disabled (when cynic compared dwarfism, a hereditary condition, to his own weight), so why the fuck would I not attack you? I don't give a shit if you're joking, you're being incredibly insensitive and rude, and you will be treated as such. No, I'm not being much better, and that's not the point.

Of course I'll attack whatever seems to be the weakest target to get my point across in an attempt to actually make them able to relate, but then again, it's kind of pointless seeing as cynic and all the other dudes probably are immune to all such insults. Otherwise I doubt they'd stick to this kind of humor. That's why I still can accept their answers above, seeing as they obviously didn't fall for my bait and get mad. You however did.

@RIDEBIRD : Good sentiment? Terrible delivery.

The Lincolncast very much mirrors the mumble. I enjoy talking and hanging out until the humor goes into the gutter. Then it stays in the gutter for an hour. I think its a shame because gutter humor isn't my thing. I can understand the desire for something that can be traced back to GB in about 2 steps to be less offensive. I can get behind that sentiment and I'd like the same because I feel the offensive stuff is just so dumb that it stops being funny to most people who aren't already invested in the insular mentality that's already been formed since beta. So, from a place of constructive criticism I would say that I think the offensive stuff only holds you back because I know I eat up everything else in these podcasts and everything else comes across so professionally just due to your knowledge of the game and systems. There's not a ton of places where you can go for good GW discussion just because its so new and so poorly documented. Will it change anything, I'm sure it won't. But from my perspective it would only help the lincolncast to keep the humor more universal (That pun stuff had me rolling) and less gutter.

@RIDEBIRD:

Hmm. My only point here other than "well, I've stated my intentions for this show and you are entitled to your opinions" is I didn't compare dwarfism to my weight, I compared the term "Vertically Challenged" which is totally stupid to my weight.

Anyway.

@jesterroyal - I just wanted to note that yes, the lincolncast mirrors the mumble, and specifically so.

Whether someone like ridebird derives who I am and how I act by some of my posts or not, I consider myself capable of being serious when I want to and stupid/inane when I want to. Hence the podcast and the mumble - "gutter" humour is a type of humour I enjoy, though not the only one.

The reason I say this is that I like letting the podcast play out naturally, and specifically put in an off-topic segment at the start as going right into GW2 stuff would be boring - and I don't mean for the listener, I mean for myself and my guests. From there on, it just goes where it goes and that is how I like it. As you point out though, we tend to be knowledgeable about the game, and that's where the balance comes in (and that's how I view it, "balance", you may do otherwise).

I do take criticism seriously, however, and at least read it all (until it becomes as back and forth as the others are doing), so your points are in fact noted, and I thank you for giving them.