Giant Bombcast 09-03-2013

@drewbert

I won't start a whole thread, but my understanding is as follows:

The Pauli exclusion principle states that identical fermions (right now, we care about one kind of fermion: electrons) cannot occupy the same quantum state. For electrons orbiting a nucleus, this basically means they can't occupy the same spot in the electron shell. If you don't remember how those work, atoms have different orbitals that correspond to different energy levels. If you start adding electrons, they go into higher energy levels. (I'm brutalizing this theory, but it's easy enough to Google if you want more details.)

When two atoms get close together, the electrons will be the first things to start occupying the same neighborhood, and so the Pauli exclusion principle will take hold: one of the electrons will have to occupy a higher energy level. As the name implies, this requires energy. Since most of the lower-energy shells are already occupied, this actually requires a lot of energy (examples of times when there's enough energy for this: black holes, neutron stars).

Because of this, many molecular models treat atoms as solid spheres with a radius based on the element. It's a decent approximation for when you don't care about quantum mechanics.

Drew also mentioned the idea of trying this a few billion times until someone gets it right. I'm guessing the idea here is that eventually, the quantum state of all your bits will be just right and you'll quantum tunnel your way right through the door. This is something I'm not fully clear on myself, but it's essentially the question of "why doesn't quantum mechanics apply to the macroscopic world?" Unfortunately, all I know about this is that it's caused by a process called "quantum decoherence" and causes quantum states to revert to an ordinary classical state in a really short amount of time (by macroscopic standards). Actual scientists seem to see quantum decoherence as the bridge between quantum and classical mechanics, but I'm not an actual scientist, so I have no real opinion.

In short, quantum mechanics is weird.

My wife and I were trying to figure out what to do in SF a week ago and rather than go to a proper tourist attraction, we decided to walk to the Full House house. Totally worth it.

Man, Drew knows both Kevin James AND Will Smith.

@ghostytrickster: Interesting read.. also, DAMMIT, I'm included in it *facepalm*

I think it's kind of a bummer hearing Jeff and Brad say they preferred Microsoft's approach to first party development and game promotion, when Sony is at least trying to bring a more varied lineup of games to keep things fresh, while Microsoft seems only interested in "blockbusters" and "AAA" sure-hits; the very same kind of approach that many will point to every time someone bitches and moans about how the industry is stagnating and they really want something new.

It was nice hearing a more emails focused bombcast, though. I miss emails being a bigger portion of these podcasts.

The talk about xbox having bigger First Party titles felt odd, I always thought it was a given that PS3 had more and higher quality First Party Titles. Only First Party I care about on Xbox 360 is Halo. Which is huge don't get me wrong, but I feel there are many that are behind me on that. only other ones I can think of are Forza and Gears. I prefer Forza over GT, but I don't really play driving games so the more Arcade feel is more enjoyable to me. As for me, Gears is like Resistance on PS3 , it's interesting but I lost interest pretty quick. Past that I can think of a handful more on PS3, and none on Xbox. Of course that me be more of a reflection on my knowlage, but I have always felt there were far better exclusives on PS3. My opinion of course, but curious how the community feels, or was it just me.

Btw just a small addition to the news about Microsoft buying Nokia. Microsoft didnt actually buy all of the Nokia but just the part responsible for making mobile phones.

Nokia still retains the part of the company that provides the network for mobile phones in different countries. That part is still profitable and made last year about 330 million euros in pure profit.

@micahsmith: I bought my 360 because Gears 3 seemed awesome, and it was (also, Bastion is pretty terrific, and Trials). It's weird how everyone is always on about how they only use the PS3 for exclusives and play everything else on 360, whereas for me it's the opposite. My friends are more on their PS3s and there seems to be more exclusives (of course, the turning point for me was Valkyria Chronicles and Disgaea, although Naughty Dog and Media Molecule make some AMAZING games).

So yeah, I agree with you, the PS3 seem to have the "better" exclusives, although I do like Gears and Halo, and Forza always seemed neat.

The discussion of Microsoft vs Sony's first party output was odd to me as Sony has always been the clear winner in terms of quantity of quality titles. Sales data may favor Microsoft but they really only have a handful of noteworthy IPs and studios. To each their own I guess.

@msavo: I guess they still really like Fable.

Butt Tumblrs Fuel the World!

BUTT TUMBLRS FUEL THE WORLD!

We've all been there. Those of us in the emails club anyway. ;) One of mine read was on a day when Ryan lamented the overall poor quality of emails coming in lately, and how few were worth airing. Likely talking about punch-line and lazy in-joke and easily researchable stuff. I've certainly sent my share of those too, but it was a boost to not be in Ryan's trash folder that day!

Remember, remember, the fifth of november

the Russian Revolution and Riot

The only good Fable game is 2 in my opinion. Every other entry or spinoff has been mediocre.

@thepickle: Never. I'll start a kickstarter to help pay for Rorie to stay off the bombcast, that way, everybody wins.

I don't win.

I don't know, it sounded like inner turmoil to me (I'm an expert). Brad can only distract him with USDA2M jokes for so long.

Re: the DLC question, the only DLC I've ever bought was the Borderlands Armory of General Knoxx, the Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare, and a PSN Pomeranian avatar from Tokyo Jungle.

Both the borderlands and red dead DLC were pretty damn good, felt like I was getting my money's worth of content. Though if we're picking favorites you gotta go with the Pomeranian avatar, comon that thing is sweet.

For some reason I almost believe everyone that says their an expert when commenting on something or talking on a forum because I don't know how someone could be stupid enough to think anyone would believe their actually an expert.

Of course a standing butt is cooler than a sitting butt. The sitting butt has been stewing in its own warmth. The obvious experiment is to have two butts sit in similar chairs for half an hour, and then immediately switch seats. I suspect neither butt owner will notice a temperature difference.

Science!

Agreed. Case and point.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but was Brad really complaining about having to write ONE review in a three month period about a game he said he loved / one of the best games of the year.

I hope the GB guys know how privileged they are, I wish I got to choose whether to do my job or not...

Maybe hilarious wasn't the best choice of wording and I owe an apology to everyone reading, because in some way it could be taken personally. (It was though, since I said "in the right context"). Or, maybe comedy is hard to understand and you need to eat a dickwolf.

ANYTHING can be funny. An artist doesn't need to apologize just because their perspective makes you uncomfortable. Not even if when you complain and demand an apology, the artist refuses to apologize and takes the joke even further, and you then take further offense. It's probably just another concept flying over your head.

I do know that if you don't approve of some ones content, you can just change the channel. The art in question is obviously not for you.

Comedy is all about intent and context. Certain agendas consistently ignore this fact and focus on a bad word they disagree with, or a reference that they've taken out of context. It's trend that needs to stop, lest we all live in a police state that censors any form of expression considered taboo.

The dickwolves joke was first and foremost A JOKE about how the genre in question (MMO "Role Playing" Game) continually destroys submersion in favor of gameplay. It was a simple joke about the irony of the situation... YOU'RE a hero/heroine, a defender, an exemplar that's on a mission all about rescuing people, but just enough to finish YOUR quest, the remainder being left to further torture...but whatever, right?. YOU have to go turn in YOUR quest for YOUR "character progression". I can't help but wonder how many players that have taken up the "anti-Mike/PA" cause would have actually stuck around and fought the dickwolves until the end of time. (none) Where's the hate for Activision/Blizzard (MMOs in general), for forcing their characters into such a position?

So anyway, a comic strip was drawn, depicting a ridiculous scenario about a fictional situation. People overreacted, apply it to tragic real life situations and demand a direct apology. The artist refused to pander (rightfully so), and the shit hits the fan.

Why is it that that that when it comes to art (say...vidya games), that assault, battery, murder (dat open world gangsta shit) and even genocide (oh hai nazis) all get a pass because of intent and context, but rape doesn't? Definitly not that aforementioned agenda, that's for sure. Right?

I mean, we're talking about "dickwolves" here. People are suggesting boycotting a significant part of the industry because the artist in their crosshairs is associated somehow? Its PAX? Seriously?

Well, whatever, I'm just gonna go play WoW, Saints Row, Sleepy Dogs, (etc.) while I wait for GTAV to come out.

tl;dr- Don't EVER apologize for your art, comedy included. Also, don't be a rapist. (Which of these actually needed to be said?)

The best part about the Penny Arcade dickwolf controversy is that Mike and Jerry could have, quite literally, put anything else into that text bubble and the punchline would have been identical and none of this bitching would have ever taken place. The joke has nothing to do with rape; it's a joke about MMO quests being stupid. Why aren't surviving victims of violent crimes offended whenever a gruesome act of violence is depicted in the strip? Do people who have been in car accidents flip out at this sight of this strip:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/15

I don't know. I guess that you can't really help it if something offends you, but the mere mention of the word "rape" pushes your buttons? That seems crazy.

Wow, I didn't think there was even room for debate as to who has the better first party: Sony clearly. Seriously, guys... cars and Halo are all it takes for you, eh?

@ultimaxe: How do you know they aren't?

Again, though, the problem isn't REALLY the joke for, like, 90% of people. It's the repeated insistence that he's right and anyone who's offended is wrong and therefore he should make t-shirts that make everyone feel excluded and make patronizing comics and comments and should not immediately come out and say "i am not affiliated with @TeamDickwolf or @TeamRape or their horrifying rape threats and death threats" and years later should repeatedly dredge up this stupid thing so that he can say he was right all along and should repeatedly be a total doucher about it.

Okay, here's the pre-internet comparison point. You're at a restaurant with friends. You make a joke about, say, black people, and one of the black guys working there tells you it made him uncomfortable. Your response is not to say "no problem, dude, sorry about that" but instead to tell him why he shouldn't be offended over and over again for the next three years about that one specific joke. And the people you're at the restaurant with? Well, some of them start burning crosses in his front yard over it in protection of "free speech." And you don't make it clear the very first time that happens that you're not okay with that, like, at all.

Also Mike is a transphobic asshole and I'm not about to forgive that either. Plus there's the whole things where someone accused a PAX enforcer of sexual assault, and the other PAX enforcer who kept a list of all the women he'd touched over the course of the con, neither of whom have been fired...

Mike, and as a result maybe PAX itself, are kind of fucked up.

@subyman: Ah, yes. See quantum tunnelling.

Anyway, Brad underplayed how implausible people quantum tunnelling is. It's 1/10^7 chance of tunneling for a .5 nm thick barrier of moderate energy and with an energetic electron. It decreases exponentially with barrier thickness and energy, so it is functionally impossible in our world. It is underplaying it to say a universe of universes could pass without a single incident of macroscopic tunnelling.

I find your comment offensive. Please stop posting in this comment section, you're making me anxious and uncomfortable.

Oh wait, ridiculous analogies are allowed here. Keep on!

(Before you ask why it's ridiculous - the joke comic strip didn't diminish the horrible nature of rape. In fact, that was a key component of the joke - that rape is horrible. Also, they reacted in whatever way they wanted, because they were being attacked WRONGLY, by sanctimonious blowhards, which tends to bum one out quite a bit. The only problem anyone could have with Mike's statement on gender or sex is semantics, or possible statistics. Doesn't make him a "transphobe" or whatever).

Microsoft has better first party?

Forza, Halo, both disappointed me with their last games. and then what?... Fable?

Come on son.

I fixed that for you. Seriously, Giant Bomb is the Bombcast and nothing else anymore. And even the Podcast goes down the drain since Ryan left this planet... what a shame!

Opinion son.

This discussion has been had a bunch of times before. You can't ever say which has better games in an objective manner. It's always just for you and others can agree with you... or not.

I know a girl who loves the shit out of Fable. She is a PlayStation fanatic, but she said she almost bought a 360 for Fable II. She doesn't care about any of the other games. So yeah, that's possible.

For me, I loved Halo 4. Thought it was great. I don't care about Forza, but I like Fable. I loved Crackdown, I liked Gears, I liked Alan Wake and I'm really interested in Quantum Break, Dead Rising 3, Project Spark and Sunset Overdrive. That's 7 games we know will come out exclusively on Xbox One.

Sony has The Order 1886 which looks interesting and inFamous Second Son which seems cool. That's it for me. I'm not interested in anything else they currently have locked down as an exclusive, unless we assume The Last of Us is going to get a sequel. Still, 3 is less than 7, so yeah, I agree with Jeff. Microsoft has more games I'm interested in.

@zevvion said:

The problem with Jeff though, is he really thinks his opinion is objective, and constantly derides fans of games he doesn't like.

@shtinky: I haven't noticed that. Not saying you are lying, but I listen to him all the time and can't recall. Could you give a recent example?

Speaking as someone who has very few tastes in common with Gerstmann, I've never felt that way. Whenever he goes on a curmudgeonly tirade, it's so painfully self-aware that I can tell he's doing it for the slapstick. In more serious moments, it's very clear that he's cool with people liking what they like, and he definitely never treats his opinion as law. He makes light of his own opinions way too often for that.

Or maybe I'm the crazy one here, for respecting a guy even though he hates most of my favorite things?

s/has/had

it's at around 1:39 (h:m, not m:s), the guy's twitter name is @giocorsi.

it's at around 1:39, the guy's twitter name is @giocorsi.

@zevvion said:

Recent example of him insulting fans? Nights into dreams, calling the fans "hippy assholes".

@superkenon said:

I don't disrespect Jeff, I'm just stating the general consensus regarding his views. A lot of Jeff's views are probably the result of working at GameSpot - with their whole "shopping list, objective games review" nonsense - for over 10 ten years; that experience shaped him.