Cheyenne joins Ben this week to talk about a word that gets a lot of bad press, but in reality, it is a necessity in most activities involving progress and self-improvement. After conversing about what games they are playing (and discovering Ben’s Hogwarts House), they dive right in to deep end and commence with the festivities. Topics explored: the “Epic Fail” meme, Tom Platz, CrossFit acronyms, the invention of Post-It Notes, John Cleese’s speeches and educational videos, corporate culture, points of failure in engineering, stories about successes and failures in the academic settings, the roguelike and roguelite labels, and looping game mechanics. Games discussed this week are as follows—Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Infinity Nikki, Hogwarts Legacy, Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, Papers Please, Plate Up, Baldur’s Gate 3, Hades, Kenshi, Deathloop, Disco Elysium, Indigo Prophecy, Super Meat Boy, and Seaman. Finally, Ben and Cheyenne “tie a bow on it” with some words of wisdom and a couple of Spock references—the Star Trek character, not the pediatrician.
***
00:00:20 - A city of roses, serving up smiles, parking lot beatdown, Dragon Age: The Veilguard 00:02:35 - Mass Effect opinions, Ben likes the synthesis ending, Liara T’Soni, and Infiniti Nikki 00:06:40 - A cozy fashion battling platformer, getting homework at PAX, and impatient much? 00:08:48 - Thoughts on Hogwarts Legacy, mediocre story, and Cheyenne guesses Ben’s house 00:11:11 - The new Indiana Jones game trailer, the nitty and the gritty, and a previous customer 00:13:01 - Ox Ford has a comma, Cheyenne’s failure, person versus thing, and positive views 00:15:13 - The Google Ngram Viewer (no exceptions), the EPIC FAIL, and planking nostalgia 00:18:02 - The Tom Platz weightlifting philosophy, muscle building, and success through failure 00:20:53 - A tale of 3M’s Post-It Notes, the John Cleese speech, and the Video Arts sales story 00:24:31 - The perception of mistakes in corporate culture, and the measure of an employee 00:28:17 - “In a world…,” Mr. Perfect’s Plex, SPOFs and SPORs, and in failures in academia 00:32:20 - A bell curve, thoughts on grading, the architecture shoe, and teams on instruments 00:41:43 - Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop summary, 5 endings (not 4), and “not for all ages” humor 00:47:12 - Ben’s least favorite descriptors, the rogue prefix, no barrels, and looping mechanics 00:52:00 - “Leveling” characters, weakness before strength, and broadening your knowledge 00:55:52 - Fireworks tampering, the thematics of failure, and “failure is preferred” scenarios 01:03:11 - Excessively difficult games, back to the rocket shop, wrapping up, and Star Trek
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References, Links, and Tags
For more information on Infinity Nikki, check out the official website! https://infinitynikki.infoldgames.com/en
For more information about Uncle Chop’s Rocket Shop, developer Beard Env
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