Idle Thumbs 98: Happy Dishonored Return of Nick Breckon

[Nicomallo]

The childhood story was brilliant. I lost it completely at "just long enough to obscure myself behind a pine". It made me really glad he's back. Nick's storys are the best (Goldblum ect.).

[Nappi]

Fuck, Nick is back! Congrats!

[Twig]

The childhood story was brilliant. I lost it completely at "just long enough to obscure myself behind a pine". It made me really glad he's back. Nick's storys are the best (Goldblum ect.).

It was definitely the best.

 

All of my vivid childhood memories are of utterly embarrassing shit that I will never share with anyone ever. Most of my good memories are very vague, and also not interesting. I'm jealous!

[osmosisch]

You guys should celebrate F Nick's return by posting some new googlable headshots of the crew for use in various forum pho'shops like this gem by tegan.

Agreed. This would also make my project of head-binding my newborn into his shape more practical.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Excellent podcast. Hilarious, mostly. Can anyone find that picture of Chris' ridiculous suspension bridge? I cannot locate it.

[Reyturner]

re: The Castle Doctrine 

 

I think it's appropriate to force you to be a male character, precisely because it is about the paranoid macho rugged individual dog eat dog mentality that leads to laws like The Castle Doctrine or Stand Your Ground laws. 

 

Male-ness and protecting "what's yours" (including your family) and conversely, striding into the world and taking what you will by your own strength and resourcefulness are inherently linked in modern society (and in America especially). The Castle Doctrine (the law, not the game) exists to satisfy an ideology, that a MAN should have the right to use deadly force on an invader of HIS property (because a man should fight is shown battles and so on and so forth) , not because there is an epidemic of home invasions that is only held at bay by heavily armed home owners with a licence to kill. 

 

That it also puts you in the roll of the marauder further highlights the absurdity of that macho worldview. On one hand, if you're not prepared to turn your home into battlefield then anyone can and will walk in the front door, kill your family and take your property. On the other, any sign of weakness in your fellow man can and should be exploited, because it was his weakness that allowed you that opportunity. 

 

These are rolls that society projects onto all males and the game itself is born from the creators own feelings of fear and paranoia, so The Castle Doctrine featuring exclusively male avatars is perfectly valid in my mind, even if it isn't a narrative about a specific man (in fact, if it was, I think it would lessen the impact of the game). 

[TychoCelchuuu]

That's sort of different from Rohrer's own defense of the male-only protagonists, which is that it's a very personal game for him about his experience.

[Chris]

You should email that post to questions@idlethumbs.net!

[Argobot]

re: The Castle Doctrine 

 

I think it's appropriate to force you to be a male character, precisely because it is about the paranoid macho rugged individual dog eat dog mentality that leads to laws like The Castle Doctrine or Stand Your Ground laws. 

 

Male-ness and protecting "what's yours" (including your family) and conversely, striding into the world and taking what you will by your own strength and resourcefulness are inherently linked in modern society (and in America especially). The Castle Doctrine (the law, not the game) exists to satisfy an ideology, that a MAN should have the right to use deadly force on an invader of HIS property (because a man should fight is shown battles and so on and so forth) , not because there is an epidemic of home invasions that is only held at bay by heavily armed home owners with a licence to kill. 

 

That it also puts you in the roll of the marauder further highlights the absurdity of that macho worldview. On one hand, if you're not prepared to turn your home into battlefield then anyone can and will walk in the front door, kill your family and take your property. On the other, any sign of weakness in your fellow man can and should be exploited, because it was his weakness that allowed you that opportunity. 

 

These are rolls that society projects onto all males and the game itself is born from the creators own feelings of fear and paranoia, so The Castle Doctrine featuring exclusively male avatars is perfectly valid in my mind, even if it isn't a narrative about a specific man (in fact, if it was, I think it would lessen the impact of the game).

This makes me appreciate the game infinitely more than anything the actual creator has said about it.

[TychoCelchuuu]

Ugh. I hadn't read the interviews, but I went and read them and now it's pretty clear to me that Reyturner's analysis is the furthest thing from Jason Rohrer's mind - it looks like he unironically believes most of the stuff Reyturner is saying the game could be criticizing as absurd, with the possible exception of the hypermasculinity stuff, which is what started this conversation in the first place. So ironically he can defend everything except the lack of women avatars, and the way he defends it is by saying "yep, sounds about right to me."

(Interview part one and part 2)

[Hermie]

admittedly I would be photoshopping Nick's head onto shit every week if there were more than three photos of him on the internet.

 

I'm confused, why would you ever need more photos of Nick Breckon than this one?

 

Congrats Nick!

[Nappi]

I liked the one where Nick was sleeping the best. It was just the right amount of creepy.

[Professor Video Games]

Excellent podcast. Hilarious, mostly. Can anyone find that picture of Chris' ridiculous suspension bridge? I cannot locate it.

 

I got ya: http://t.co/egP2dP1hqX

 

I love the idea of this super eco-friendly city that wastes incredible amounts of resources on over-engineered public works (clearly a desperate attempt to show up Cooltown...or is it Cool Town?)

[Sean]

Cool Town is two words, like video games.

[Professor Video Games]

Cool Town is two words, like video games.

 

I assumed as much. Video games are reserved for Lametown.

 

Edit: Ok so video games as one word is auto corrected to two words I guess? You know what I meant!

[subbes]

:eng101:  That's because video games is the correct spelling.

[Jake]

video games as one word is auto corrected to two words

Best forum.

[melmer]

Is auto corrected to Beast fromage. Weird

[melmer]

How young is Nick in that picture? It looks like he just stepped out of an incubator

[sclpls]

I enjoyed hearing about how Sean thinks he could beat Obama at golf. This reminds me of a time when some friends of mine got together to play Conquest of the Empire. That's a board game with rules that are sort of like a mix of Diplomacy, and Axis & Allies, but the setting is the Roman Empire. So it is a pretty contentious game, and of course a huge half hour long argument broke out at one point when one player captured another player's general, and was holding him for randsom. The delicate balance of power being what it was, of course everyone was involved in the argument, not just the two people directly affected by this action. After much heated discussion no settlement was reached, the general was executed, and a bloody war broke out. At some point we took a break to eat a late lunch, but during this time somehow the topic of Tiger Woods came up, and the player whose general was captured remarked that he thought he could beat Tiger Woods in a fight. The rest of us were incredulous... bear in mind that although this guy is in reasonably good shape, he's also in his mid-40s at this point and not someone you would look at and think he is some super tough dude. His entire line of reasoning was also that golf isn't a real sport, and therefore Tiger Woods can't be that fit. This prompted the player who captured that dude's general to get into an argument with him about that, and soon we found ourselves in another bizarre proxy argument of the previous argument. Fun times.

[TychoCelchuuu]

I got ya: http://t.co/egP2dP1hqX

Excellent, thank you.

[Urthman]

Yeah, Sean's fantasies about besting the president in sport were very amusing, as was Chris teasing him and egging him on.  With that, Nick's story, the maniquin story, the Castle Doctrine discussion, Cool Cool Town, and the Zafehouze Diariez, this was an exceptionally great episode.  Thanks, guys.

[Badfinger]

Cool Town is two words, like video games.

 

It could be Coolton. Welcome to Scenic Coolton, the Coolest Town Around. County seat, Hon. Judge Jakeville 2K presiding.

[Dewar]

That's just, like, your opinion, man.

(I thought it was kinda funny. Maybe the funniest.)

 

I honestly didn't think he was really there (because of the dishonored title) until the very end. Then I went back through the podcast a little bit and realized I was having a hard time telling the difference between his and Sean's voices, but there's a few times everyone talked at once and I should have realized there were 4 people present. Oh well, oppotunity for a second listen I guess.

[melmer]

I'm starting to think that idle thumbs is actually recorded by one man alone, a very talented and committed impressionist. Who has recently got a little sloppy, especially since Dr Nick with his free prescriptions moved in next door, and all the voices/characters are merging in to one

 

that or a demonic beast with many mouths