The Giant Beastcast: Episode 125

@kevin_cogneto: It doesn't have anything to do with overprotective parents. In many parts of the country, it is just straight up illegal to set off fireworks and sparklers are the only thing you can even buy in the store.

@bisonhero: As someone who used to play Warhammer 40k (still have an army sitting in dusty boxes) and now plays--and is currently DMing--Pathfinder...I definitely chuckled at that last line. :-)

Fireworks are boring. Every display should be one rocket, then everyone goes home because they're exactly the same.

Dan's capacity to smile and nod along with every single wrestling example he's given as a metaphor for any other subject he's not familiar with and then not be able to extrapolate any of that information and apply it to this new topic he's trying to learn about is astonishingly impressive.

It's almost as impressive as his ability to play more Soul Calibur than any other game, turn every single game he plays into a competitive experience with the sole purpose of him winning, and not see what people like about watching esports/competitive videogames.

The man's actual, literal job title at Giant Bomb is "Senior Content Producer," he engineered a series of videos that was based around him and Vinny playing a fighting game until Vinny learned how to outplay him enough to win, and he thinks any sort of competitive game playing isn't entertaining to watch? What?

Correction of a correction email: Ash vs Evil Dead is on Starz, not Showtime.

@isawachuck: Speaking as someone who adores D&D as well as Critical Role, I can almost guarantee that Dan would hate watching it. I feel like he'd be immediately turned off by how seriously they take the role playing since they're all actors.

The whole e-sports talk seemed misguided to say the least.

"They take themselves too seriously."

Of course they do, it's their job. They're the very best at what they do, and it's their livelihood. Why wouldn't they take it seriously? Not to mention, I'm sure they're getting a lot of pressure from their team owners, coaches, and sponsors to conduct themselves in a somewhat professional manner. Would you find it odd that a professional ______ take their sport, craft, or hobby seriously?

I mean, I love professional sports, but even I'll admit that if you take a step back, the amount of money and time spent on them is a bit silly. After all, they're just sports. Therefore, the whole "it's just a video game!" rationale doesn't fly with me. I don't know about other games, but in League, the average career isn't very long. They have to get while the gettin' is good.

As for the draw and appeal of e-sports, it's pretty simple, no? Humans enjoy watching competitive play of just about anything (especially of those that possess top-tier skill). People love competition.

@nights: That's a problem every time GB talks about Let's Plays or streaming in general, and to a lesser extent with their talk about e-sports. They sometimes acknowledge that they exist in the same sphere as these other entities, but I think they tend to present themselves like they're more different. In fact, they're more similar than different.

It gets even weirder when the site now has dozens of hours of the staff playing a competitive game like PUBG.

For that couple that want to play PC games together, one of the best I have ever played that might run on low-fi machines (But might not) is Monaco.

It's a realtime co-op pacman/stealth action/heist game and it's superb with strangers, friends or mixed. Like Payday, I find heist games actually benefit from hilarious failures and mishaps as it's kind of part of the genre in film. Though Monaco is pretty forgiving.

Lots of content, and I would imagine lag-tolerant and low-spec (it's a 360 game).

I hope it gets a switch port. It belongs there with Towerfall and Duck game. Overcooked is holding the fort for now but it's getting mighty lonely!

Also if consoles are an option or PC upgrades in the works, my Destiny 2 clan is on every continent and though lag does cause a few fail states in the Raid, the rest of the content is very lag tolerant (Unlike prison of Elders, that was a nightmare!)

I wonder if you could swap Doorkickers save files as well. That game runs like a dream on my 10 year old office dell with onboard GFX.

Oh! I almost forgot. Pit People by the behemoth is turn based. My daughter and I love it co-op. Maybe it will run? I've seen Battleblock Theater run on crappy macs crappily, but performance not such an issue when not real time. Has full online co-op though it's not content complete, there is hours of campaign and dozens of hours of fun grindery/kidnapping to be had.

P.P.P.P.P.P.S Minecraft? not so lag tolerant but still could work.

Yep. It's 2d Mass effect. Spacewar and Monkey Island's baby. Even the resource gathering on planets is a more fun version of the Mako. Kind of.

Super Triple post: Dan DM'ing a wrestling RPG would be the BEST.

I think it's one of those things he would love if he overcame his exaggerated preconceptions.

Vinny, you did a great job of explaining D&D through wrestling terms.

Just saying if Amazon didn't fulfill pre-orders but carried stock of the item on their treasure trucks that literally means they did the thing that Jeff was hemming and hawing about

Fourth of July doesn't even rank among best holidays for me. It'd be on the list purely because there aren't a whole lot of noteworthy holidays. Even back when I was a kid and did actual "Fourth of July stuff," I didn't think it was all too great. Such a Dan answer. A Danswer, if you will.

GB talking about esports always bums me a bit. They just don't understand it at all. Which is fine; it's not for everyone. They do acknowledge that they don't get it, but it still comes off a bit like "how could anyone like that?".

Some people, even if they're really into gaming, just aren't... compatible with tabletop games. I was part of a D&D group my friends started. One member only lasted one session before they dropped out. They just didn't get it. They need the visual and tangible engagement that video games offers. Dan's in the same camp, it seems.

I've never understood the stigma behind wearing a band shirt or whatever that Alex brought up. Why does it matter? I don't know. I guess I'm not cool. (I know I'm not.)

It is impossible for someone such as Dan to be so fully understanding of how games more or less work and not be able to understand D&D works. It's the exact same concepts as a roguelike turnbased rpg only the DM can throw in flavor text and add random elements as he sees fit. This is just Dan being obstinate for obstinate's sake.

Funny enough, I actually cut out a scene (I'm not talented enough to animate it) of Penny Arcade's The "C" Team, a D&D show in which they play fairly loose with the rules, featuring a character that cuts a wrestling promo when he uses a special ability. I swear, I rewound this scene maybe 20 times and it was still hilarious, so I cut it out for my own later perusal.

"I just don't see how people have the time for it," said the guy who puts in 8 hours of Destiny 2 on the daily.

Sorry, but whatever. In the early 90's, most people probably didn't have cable bill, a home internet bill, a Netflix subscription, Xbox Live/PS+, [insert other ala cart subscription], a $500-$1000 device in their pocket (also with it's own internet bill), something like a PC, mac, or tablet that costs $500-$2500, and a whole host of other technilogical devices and subscriptions that somehow nearly everyone seems to be able to afford, and somehow still find the time to cry poor. All these things, while very cool and part of everyday life, are not essential to buy to continue to live. So, I tend to let compaints of "wages haven't risen" go by the wayside as people complain that life is too expensive and somehow they are living worse than they used to on their magical, yet optional internet connected devices that they seem to scrape together the cash to buy. Wages haven't risen, but somehow everyone seems be able to own a bunch more crap.

I thought explaining DnD to Dan would have been easier if they just used Super Mario Maker as the example. DMs have to abide by rules just as people who create levels for Mario Maker have to create rules. Maybe not a 1 to 1 comparison, but it seemed simpler.