The Giant Beastcast: Episode 114

First time I've ever decided to turn off a giant bomb podcast because I felt like I didn't want to hear any more. I have had enough Dan for today.

It is still a good beastcast overall if only for when Jeff gets super salty about everyone crapping on his love of dice and probabilities.

"Med vennlig hilsen" is Norwegian (or another scandi language) for "with best regards" or something similar. It is not a name.

I think the cast was fairly strong in there sentiment that there's no problem with people shopping there, everyone understands the need to stretch a dollar.

You are stretching that dollar by supporting a company who uses pretty heinous working conditions, wage manipulation and business practices to stretch that dollar. Everyone understands the need to do that, but just blindly stating "Walmarts the best!' while not realizing how bad they actually are for local business and their own employees kind of sucks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Walmart

@ilkanta: I feel like it has to do with any person expressing an opinion, faces pushback and feels forced to defend their stance. I try to see this in Dan's shoes with how he loves certain things like Wal-Mart and the world constantly "ah yes, but..."s him, or any other instance where people try to "expand his horizons".

E=mcᵇᵃᵏᵃˡᵃʳ

I feel like this is the episode that definitively establishes Dan as the antithesis to everything I believe re: gaming.

Salty Jeff Bakalar is a god's gift that we don't deserve. Thank you for making my stomach hurt from laughing so much. You are right, math is amazing and you should always bring it up in conversations from now on.

Working for Wal-Mart isn't fun, I can say that much.

@danryckert Oh it wasn't about you not being into the game! It's just how you were saying "I play games to play games" as if games that don't have traditional game mechanics in your eyes aren't as valid or "real games". I know this isn't what you meant at all, but I just wish it didn't feel like you were bashing stuff that isn't your personal preference so much, just because you don't like it. I really appreciate you listening to a non-traditional (23, female, story-focused game lover) regardless!

Woof. I thought the addition of Abby would bring me back to the Beastcast since it dilutes Dan but when I give it a shot it starts off with some classic Dan-ass Dan. Great stuff. Goooooood stuff.

@alex : Films and 40's for the Battle Royale. 1 and 2. I know 2 is so much worse, but eh....

To be fair for those that saw the movie, you should really try to atleast read the manga, in my opinion its a masterpiece

I'm still waiting for another episode of GB unplugged with more D&D.

@chilibean_3 said:

Dan continues to be America personified.

Another great podcast, thanks guys!

I'm a bit torn on the Dan thing... I was also really irritated by how he articulated both his dislike of Pyre and love of Walmart, and he could probably stand to learn a thing or two from just about anyone else on staff who express themselves with a bit more thought...

I was even more upset with his apparent "it's good for me [the consumer] so who cares" sentiment - hopefully that was just poor "in the moment" phrasing or bad interpretation on my part.

On the other hand, if everyone expresses themselves the same way then I guess conversation then turns into modular and interchangeable parts which kind of makes for a boring listen. Opposing personalities makes for fun, interesting conversations!!

Hopefully there'll be a good middle ground some day that's not boring but also doesn't cause blood pressure spikes.

Either way, I'm really happy for all the hard work you do Dan!! Keep it up man, thanks a lot.

It's odd. I don't really care whenever Jeff calls some games I like, Crash Bandicoot for example, garbage, but somehow I get at least a bit irked by Dan's "active dislikement" of Pyre. First time for everything!

I still like you, Dan!

Walmart going into regions, destroying local retailers with anti-competitive practices, establishing a monopolistic hegemony, and then being the only employer around isn't capitalism so much as it is corporate feudalism.

Jeff's dice math bit is killing me.

Darkwing Duck is absolutely the best duck.

PUBG is up to 6 mill now.

Both my kids and my wife have a pair of Roos. They wanted me to get a matching pair and I refused. Instead I got a pair of Chucks like the rest of the family.

More nerd math:

Any number where the sum of the individual digits is divisible by three, the whole number is also divisible by 3.

102,030

1+0+2+0+3+0= 6 so 102030 is also divisible by 3.

Whenever this show becomes a place to explain stuff to Dan and him shouting brand names I want to tune out. I'm fine with his opinions of games even if I disagree, it's more his opinions on culture and science that I can barely stomach. Other than that it's another great episode. Gawd Bakalar is so amazing. I can't stress how lucky the Beastcast is to have access to him. Pretty much everyone but Dan has pitch perfect comedic energy. I'm honestly not saying that to be mean, I just think he doesn't quite measure up to this troupe of goofs in terms of cleverness.

Quick cooooooooooorection. Plucky Duck is not the son of Daffy Duck, he is in fact the son of an off brand mallard rarely seen in the cartoon. If anything Plucky can be called Daffy's protege since they are student and professor at Acme University.

That thumbnail makes me want to buy another 50 dollars of dice.

Oh boy, I am in for a ride.

Been a rough time for me with this site lately, I don't care at all about PUBG, Pyre, or Splatoon. I wish there was someone there playing/talking about/pushing Titanfall 2's Frontier Defense mode, it's so good! Would be a great 4 player stream for them.

That Walmart segment made me really hope that was just Dan doing a bit because Christ.

the walmart thing haha

@mezmero: I'm honestly curious what it would've been like to somehow have Austin and Dan on the same podcast/stream more than a few times, since they seem to have such opposite points of view/approaches to pretty much everything.

Vinny/Alex/Bakalar/Abby often kinda laugh off some of Dan's outrageous statements, where I feel like Austin would've been more willing to articulate his objections to Dan's claims in an attempt to inform Dan. Austin was a pretty solid duder.

Oh guys, c'mon! "I'll have an alcohol, beer flavor!" Dan got shit on, and appreciated for, his love of Wal-Mart by the staff and it was hilarious. The comments section for GB content can sometimes be as interesting as the content itself, such strong reactions to such innocuous conversation.

I feel the need to write in a correction about the syllabic r in Pyre but I'm not sure I'm ready to hear you guys yell PYRE over and over again.

it's super weird how dan hates everything he doesnt like

I wish the crates from microtransactions in PUBG would replace the regular air drops, then you would know when a plane flies over somebody has paid money for its contents. The pure rage that could be generated would be glorious.

@bisonhero: Might've been interesting, might've also been an extended train wreck. Keep in mind that Austin was actually a teacher, considering how much Dan has clearly retained from his past teachers I don't see how Austin would've had any better luck getting through to him simply by virtue of being a peer.

I suspect Dan likes Walmart because otherwise he might have ended up working at Ryckert's Market.

Oh dear. Among the bad looks Dan has had on this site, this cast is probably the worst. Mostly because it didn't seem to be as much of a bit. Wal-Mart is consistently the most depressing place to visit. I understand that some people don't make much money, but those that can afford it should REALLY think twice about where their dollar goes. Maybe try your local tacqueria over Taco Bell occasionally as well.

I genuinely wish I could be as oblivious to the world as Dan.

The issue isn't that some people need things at low prices.

The issue is that those low prices come at a tremendous and largely unseen cost.

• They go to great lengths to limit employees work hours to part-time levels so they're never eligible for overtime or full-time benefits. Reduced hours also means reduced overall income which means:

• Walmart pays its employees so little that many of them still require food stamps. Those low prices are subsidized by tax dollars. Yet Walmart is the word's largest company (by revenue).

• Walmart would rather hold a holiday food drive for its employees rather than pay them a living wage.

• Walmart goes to great lengths to prevent employees from unionizing.

• Walmart forces its suppliers to lower their wholesale cost every year. Every year. It doesn't matter if materials cost, labor cost, or freight cost increase globally, if a company wants to keep their contract, their wholesale costs must go down. To the detriment of the suppliers financial stability and the quality of the product.

This goes on and on: working conditions overseas, ruining local small businesses, tax evasion, locking employees indoors, firing employees simply to break their seniority. And this is just what I can come up with from memory. Don't even get me started on the Walton family itself.

So, yes some people need products at low prices. Walmart isn't the solution, it exacerbates the problem.

Abby's reaction to Dan's statements about Walmart made this for me. Check yoself 'fore you wreck yoself Daniel Ryckert.

With as many hours of Stardew Valley Dan played, you would think he would have maybe seen the parallels it draws between JojaMart and Walmart.

6 minutes in and Dan is already making whining sounds about someone else's opinion on something. Come on...

I love the Beastcast and Dan but that Walmart bit legitimately bummed me out. I don't know if it was just Dan doing a schtick or not, but when the crew told him that Walmart treats their employees like garbage and has horrible business practices...to have Dan just dismiss it and say he'll happily spend his money there is a bad look. It feels like it's ignoring/making light of people he was literally just told are exploited. The whole ignorant schtick is funny until it brushes up against people's actual lives IMO. Still think Dan's heart is in the right place but this went too far for me to feel comfortable.

I continue to like Alex's stories about the rural QVC fortified bunker as a post apocalyptic stronghold candidate.

Just hire JB already.

I'm only halfway through this episode and I can definitely confirm that Dan is at peak Dan-ness this week.

*comment about Dan*

Game stories are usually pretty weak and bad, barely surpassing genre-fiction fantasy/sci-fi books. Read literature if you want stories, play games for mechanics and interaction.

Oh god. I miss Austin in this podcast.

@vodsel: Game stories can't really afford to have extended exposition or dialogue in the same way that a book can, but games can still communicate stories in a meaningful way. The impact is probably more akin to a short story or a short film, in that games might have a story that creates a certain mood or exploration of an idea or character, but they have limited story time to work with to go in-depth on anything.

Dan is CLEARLY an evil man, and his opinions on Walmart warrant the dissolution of all good-will that might have been created in the years of listening to this ridiculous man. Yes, it is good, turn on Dan as quickly as he would change or adjust his own opinion on Walmart's ethics - but do it quick before Dan has any time to reveal to you his humanity! Because of his words, Dan must be made example of. We ALL feel strongly about this.

This comment section can get freaky.

@bisonhero: It's true! But I don't think it's good to head down the path of making a game narrative that can be done better in lit than to try and make a game story that can only be done in games. I'm not really an Undertale fan, but that game is unique in its methods and in the stuff (very video gamey stuff) that it celebrates. With this metric, I would argue that The Last of Us is a "worse/inferior" game story than Undertale, even though I really loved TLoU.