Giant Bombcast 547: Smash Bros. Tournament Hygiene

@midnightgreen20: If that is your response, I can guarantee they are more well-informed on this issue than you apparently are.

Jan’s description of the current state of Pokémon Go reminds me exactly of what Ingress was like years ago when I was playing. Those fucking psychos playing near me scared me off the game.

Hey, Whats up with all the driving while high ads lately? Is this the terms of someone's probation or something?

@tikicobra:Really? Dang. This was the first time I actually invested time into watching TI8 and I'm now kind of into DotA. I've hopped into a few matches, looked up some of the finer nuances and strategies of the game, and can totally see how/why people invest thousands of hours into the game.

It's a fun game...weird...but fun.

Green Cardamom is the best spice IN THE WORLD. (Black Cardamom is a close second, but can be pretty intense.)

But I agree with Jan. A Glazed Donut should be only glaze...and donut.

EDIT: Also, I'll 100% back up Jeff on hybrid donut shops -- the hands down best croque monsieur in Southern California can be found in a tiny Vietnamese/Donut shop in East Los Angeles.

Ideally there would be a simple solution to the gun debate, but at this point that solution doesn't exist. You can say ban all guns and after the last 50 years of violence you wouldn't be out of line, but no amount of voting is going to accomplish that. Neither of the two dominate parties will ever ban guns outright in the US.

Jacksonville was a sad reminder that even with strict laws on the books those laws are only as good as their practice, that young man should have never been allowed to own a firearm, let alone two. Unfortunately with the firearms/military, pharmaceutical, tobacco, alcohol, and fossil fuel industries providing so much money to politicians on both sides of the aisle things in this country won't be changing any time soon.

Why? That just desensitizes us even more. Makes them all run together.

@none_braver: In the age of people feeling more and more invisible and disconnected, someone willing to do something like this could say "Well at least by doing this horrible atrocity, I'll get the notoriety or attention 'I deserve'" -- By not naming or picturing them, it removes their power. What does the name do for the news, in your opinion, none_braver? To me, the name gives even more power to the shooter or killer, which is the last thing I want to do personally. Don't give them a megaphone with which to spout their hate, one last time.

If you're concerned about them "running together" mayhaps look at that attitude, and say, what can we do to STOP these in the future. Look at the common parts of each of these stories, and which of the common denominators can we affect?

@adamalc: Then you vote to restrict the amount of money that those entities can donate to candidates, therefore reducing the impact. Support grass roots candidates that have no interest in those sorts of donations, there is plenty that can still be done. A defeatist attitude isn't going to get us anywhere however. I'm not saying all guns need banned, but we need to take a good hard look at our government from the top down and be more forthcoming about campaign donations, so that those very industries don't have as loud a voice.

@tarmae: There is a "defeatist attitude" an then there is reality. Columbine happened while I was in high school almost 20 years ago and absolutely nothing has changed despite complete power changing hands multiple times. I do support grass root candidates, I do vote with my head and not for a political dynasty, but until those candidates start actually winning and when they win not falling into the same behaviors I have absolutely no faith for meaningful change in my life time. Call me a defeatist or whatever, that's your opinion, but being blindly optimistic isn't going to get us anywhere either.

I lived in San Jose for 3 years and went to Psycho Donuts once. My experience matched Jeff's to a T.

I’m pretty uninformed with regards to esports as in I don’t give a shit, but I would be interested to know how hard a company like EA pushes sportsmanship vs. rivalry/drama with regards to their Madden events.

I just remember their horrid E3 press conference about chasing money and glorifying bad behavior like not shaking hands. Again, I’m pretty ignorant on this front. But I wish there was less emphasis on dollars and more on respect/honor. Even mixed martial artists will hug after knocking each other out.

Let me know if my concerns aren’t warranted.

I would disagree: say "Columbine High School Shooting" and everyone knows what you're talking about. Mention "Colorado Theater Shooting" or "Sandy Hook School Shooting" and everyone knows what you're talking about. Sometimes, the perpetrators of these horrific crimes commit those acts because they crave a twisted sense of noteriety or infamy. Scrubbing their names from any mention denies that satisfaction and also has a larger message of "because of your selfish and cowardly act, you don't deserve to be remembered as anybody worth mentioning".

It's a logical side effect of legalizing certain drugs, such as marijuana.

I can't believe the title of this ep isn't "Bro-ohs before Ho-ohs".

I too don't really know much of anything about eSports, but I will say that I think most of the sportsmanship and honor stuff on the pro, and perhaps even the college, level in traditional sports seems manufactured on the best of days (and largely by fans). Perhaps even fake sportsmanship and honor would be better than outright honesty for the long running popularity of the sport, but it feels like that's not going to happen until eSports are on a larger scale of general popularity.

Because Jeff, at the end of the day, no matter how many laws that could get set up, wont stop anybody from doing what they want to do if they are motivated.

Jeffs stances on Streets of Rage 4 are interesting and I think ask for some introspection. Its a very different song that was sung when other people felt similar things about such upcoming games like say Fallout 3 or Syndicate for example. "Why even name them that at that point?" am I right. When something hits closer to home especially when it comes to our younger days we often have a different perspective on things, as it turns out.

For the record I did actually really like the new Syndicate, maybe even more then Jeff since imo it managed to also capture the spirit of the classic in many ways despite being a totally different geanre.

But I also think it is important to recognise where other people are coming from especially when having simillar reservations about another thing yourself.

@sammo21: It definitely reminds me a lot of the Original Deus Ex, the menus in particular give me a very old school pc game vibe.

For someone outside of the USA looking in, it's like looking at Bizarro world when it comes to gun control discussions. "There is no easy solution" both sides proclaim, while surely the obvious solution staring everyone in the face is to do like all other modern, civilised countries and ban guns. "It's complicated" the one side says, while for outsiders looking in it's surely as simple and straightforward as: no guns. Beyond the obvious financial interests of gun manufacturers and the like, I simply can't understand it. Stay strong everyone.

Jeff said exactly what I thought when watching the SoR4 trailer. Yuzo or nothing please!!

The only controller or game thing I’ve ever broken was this: When I got my N64 as a kid, I decided to decorate my controllers by painting them with nail polish. I painted on hearts and made the buttons shiny and glittery. It was peak Girl Gaming, and it was great. I (foolishly) allowed myself to be embarrassed about it when some dude commented on my controllers when I was in high school and decided to remove my beautiful decorations with nail polish remover, which of course got inside and broke my controllers.

Ladies, always follow your Girl Gaming dreams and don’t let dudes make you feel bad about it. *nail polish emoji*

Took me too long to realize his shirt was designed blurry...

@poppa_large: Even if you ignore changing the constitution, campaign finance laws, and voting in enough non partisan politicians to ban guns there are at least 265 million legally owned firearms in America, not to mention the countless illegal ones. It is easy to say well just get rid of all the guns, the how is where it falls apart. I also didn't realize that countries like Finland, Norway, Switzerland,Canada, Italy, and so on weren't modern or civilized.

@poppa_large: we aren't even smart enough at this to find a way to get to "less" or "harder to get" guns.

Any even small adjustment to a gun law anywhere gets fought over endlessly. You would think this keep happening would change something but it never seems to

@none_braver: people have answered adequately already, but I'll add that in my opinion it's just like serial killers in that we should be remembering the victims and not the perpetrator.

"There's so many things you can do... If you got a really nice toilet"

-Ben Pack

Huh I didn't know you play Street of Rage for the music.

Last time I played it. It was beat em up game not Rhythm game

I'm sorry, you guys, but I do not agree with you on the issue with guns. I do not believe restricting people in any fashion will change anything, and I do not think it is right for the government to impose restrictions on guns in any way.

In my stupid opinion the people selling the guns should be held accountable, but I realize the problems with this.

There are no simple answers and people are just trying to point fingers at why they think these things happen. The issue is not people's freedoms. This has been proven time and time again. Our ability to know this happens has increased, and the venues which it is happening now are venues that used to be much more niche. The world is different now so the things we hear about are much broader than ever before. There is no definitive evidence that restricting people their rights as "responsible adults" will ever change anything nor is this problem "increasing".

To be clear, my problem is the idea that government should impose restrictions. I do not believe the government should be involved in this. At all.

Streets of Rage without Yuzo Koshiro is Star Wars without John Williams.

The Donut County soundtrack is on Spotify and its dope!

The link to said Ranking of Fighters' List's discussion on ResetEra

I'm one of the crazy Monster Hunter purists Jason talked about.

I was somewhat disappointed with World (only got some 40-50 hours out of it), but I'm more than ready to jump back into Generations Ultimate. I'm even starting a new save (kind of - it has this interesting new game plus-ish mode where you start over but keep a lot of the non-monster mats you've already gathered)!

World made some gameplay changes that I wasn't a fan of, so I'm excited to get back to classic MH.

The gang once upon a time Quick Looked Streets of Fury, the XBLIG Guard Crush Games (one of the studios behind Streets of Rage 4) produced in its presumable early days. Go to 30:56.

@chyler1397: while it seems like a good theory, I don't think it holds given many other countries have similar access to the same games, literature etc that features guns prominently - but do not have the same level of frequency in random acts of gun violence. The differentiating factor I see is that those other countries seemingly have stricter laws on access to firearms.

@cornbredx:

"No Way to Prevent This" says Only Country Where This Regularly Happens.

You don't dunk donuts, soggy donuts are gross. Krispy Kreme sucks ass. Shipley Donuts is the best.

I came here specifically for this, thank you!

@ultrasupermario said:

And that's why murder is legal.

Really appreciate the guys coverage on the tragedy at the Madden tournament.

@adamalc: funny thing about the 2nd amendment is that it states only that an individual who is part of a militia (run by the state) can have arms. Technically the 2nd amendment wouldn’t have to be changed as it’s been misinterpreted.

@poppa_large: It’s complicated because there’s such a strong gun culture in America and there’s a history and context that makes this conversation difficult. Don’t get me wrong, I would fully support confiscating all guns in the US, but politically that’s just not going to work. Waypoint has a great discussion on this over on their podcast.

@shorap: actually it says, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." So yes, it would have to be changed.

@swisslion: Great, I'm glad you can regurgitate an Onion headline rather than looking at the actual underlying issue.

@adamalc: Which means it gives states the right to maintain and arm militias. If it was intended to be for personal possession then the amendment wouldn't need the first part, which attaches the inclusion of state run militias.

@shorap: Those pesky constitutional scholars just getting it wrong all these centuries.

@adamalc: It's a debated topic so it would depend on the constitutional scholars.

To be fair too, it's only become an issue to be debated within the last 40 or 50 years too as the NRA shifted its focus and became a huge factor in the rhetoric.