Rum Doings Episode 37
by John Walker on Jul.29, 2010, under Rum Doings, The Rest
We’re not really here. We’re in the past. In Episode 37 of Rum Doings we’re speaking to you from history. We’re not discussing whether organic produce is worth the premium for hard-working families.
Can you still lie in? Should God save the Queen? Then something I can’t bring myself to even type. But we can all see who really has the problem, Nick.
Once Nick stops upsetting John with horrible comments (surely this time he’ll garner complaints – come on people, complain), he then criticises John’s job. Then criticises his washing machine.
Why are John and Nick still friends, despite everything? What’s the secret to our parody of success?
Nick needs some suggestions for stopping the nasty boys in his neighbourhood on their noisy bikes. John tries to defend GPs. We then argue for more traffic wardens, and Traffic Politeness Officers. And the taint of BMWs.
Then we ponder the great debate of our time: how do you deal with a fly in your cake cabinet in Starbucks? And when should you sue a Starbucks?
Pencils, handwriting, typing, we cover all the big issues.
Then the tale of when Chris Eubank crushed John’s hand, and his ensuing madness.
Make us more famous than the moon. Tweet it, Facebook it, do whatever it is you young people do. And writing a review on iTunes helps us a great deal.
If you want to email us, you can do that here. If you want to be a “fan” of ours on Facebook, sigh, you can do that here.
To get this episode directly, right click and save here. To subscribe to Rum Doings click here, or you can find it in iTunes here.
July 29th, 2010 on 12:33
I like this show, it’s Radio 4 with ATTITUDE.
July 29th, 2010 on 15:34
People seem to not understand something fairly basic about coffee: it tastes impossibly bitter. Coffee, like chocolate, needs to be combined with sugar and cream before it becomes palatable. This is why the best thing to get at Starbucks is a Frappuccino with three shots of espresso.
July 29th, 2010 on 18:42
The word “gameplay” seems a generalization. When people discuss “gameplay” they’re usually talking very broadly about issues which can be broken down to very specific mechanics — how well does the UI function, how does your avatar interact with the game world, how well is the point / direction / narrative of the game communicated, etc. These things are important to discuss in a review, but I’d rather they were discussed informally rather than systematically or “scientifically”.
I can type 70 WPM comfortably and 80-90 if I’m completely absorbed in the work. It’s been a few years since I measured the speed but I doubt I’ve slowed considerably. I used Dvorak in school and tried it again a year or so ago; I was surprised that I picked it up rather quickly without having to think about it (it is indeed a muscle memory thing rather like riding a bike).
Also, my lady friend and I ADORE THE PODCAST and often recommend it to friends, though we don’t use Twitter or Facebook much and neither of us use iTunes. I just deleted my Facebook account a while back, actually; just couldn’t handle the frustrating addictiveness anymore. I do Tweet/Buzz about the show and mention it on some forums, though.
July 30th, 2010 on 10:15
I always think Quinns was dead-on when he said that, in almost all cases, the word “gameplay” can be replaced by the word “game”.
July 30th, 2010 on 19:36
I was interested by Nick bringing up “friction” when referring to gameplay. Another writer on subjects relating to videogames, Tim Rogers, recently read a (long) article about something he calls “Sticky Friction”.
If you can stomach all the writing about videogames, Nick (and maybe the huge detours from the point that are part of Tim’s house style), then you might find something good in there.
July 30th, 2010 on 19:37
And you might be interested in the actual article.
http://kotaku.com/5558166/in-praise-of-sticky-friction
July 30th, 2010 on 22:57
I always thought that “gameplay” meant the actual mechanics of the interactions of the player with the game and its rules. As opposed to the aesthetic qualities of the graphics and sound. The part that would remain the same if you replaced all the graphics and sounds with utilitarian placeholders.
July 31st, 2010 on 03:32
I blame the quality of GPs on the exploding salaries for medical specialists.
July 31st, 2010 on 04:32
I used Bic #2 Mechanical Pencils ( http://www.amazon.com/Bic-0-7mm-Mechanical-Pencil-60ct-12/dp/B001J9ZX0I ) for a decade and a half, and the erasers on them work wonderfully, with one caveat: they only ‘rub’ the first time you use them; they must have some coating or something that has to be rubbed off. Once you have rubbed off that coating, they erase wonderfully, on regular notebook/composition paper, at least.
Then I started carrying a notebook in my pocket, and discovered that pencil, unlike pen, will pretty much just completely rub away due to the constant friction; pages that had been written on a few months ago would be entirely illegible grey smudges. So I’ve switched to pens, and pencils ARE useless, but not because erasers don’t work. At least ONE eraser does.
July 31st, 2010 on 10:36
I don’t know, its probably a psychological thing but i definitly prefer drawing with a pencil then a pen even if its hard to rub out things with an rubber. But with Pen my drawings become a bit more scruffy because i’m afraid of making those mistakes that will be in there forever.
August 1st, 2010 on 22:51
Jambe: You and your lady friend, eh?
You wouldn’t happen to be the couple who regularly engage in rumpy pumpy while listening to the podcast, would you?
:P
August 2nd, 2010 on 02:19
No, no. We once shared a lazy evening sketching and cuddling with John & Nick chatting it up over the HTPC (followed by the folks from Radiolab, Skeptoid and Futures in Biotech). But no rumpy pumpy came of it.
Perhaps in the future.
… I hope.
August 2nd, 2010 on 09:54
The Rumpy Pumpy People were Australian.
August 2nd, 2010 on 11:32
God know what else happens down there…
August 2nd, 2010 on 15:08
I have also always understood the term gameplay to mean how you interact with the game in a mechanical fashion. It specifically doesn’t include other aspects of the game that may make it an enjoyable experience, most notably the plot/story. What it specifically means will alter depending on the game/genre.
For example, if I say that Call of Duty 4 has better gameplay than Far Cry 2, I mean that I find that the smoothness of aiming my gun at enemies, coupled with the way the enemies behave etc. makes me find shooting them more compelling.
For an RTS it might have to do with how much micromanagement is required, or whether actually selecting your units on the screen is a trial unto itself.
Yes, it’s fairly relative, and as a term on it’s own, it is no more descriptive than “graphics” or “sound”, and I would be disappointed if a review contained the sentence “the gameplay is good” with no actual detail to follow (but that is no more or less useless if the sentence has the word graphics or sound instead).