RPGCast - Episode 171: "We Don't Cover RPGs"

[sabin1001]

RPGCast - Episode 171: "We Don't Cover RPGs"

It's a very special RPGCast today. First off, we've got a report from the latest Insomniac community day. Manny helps us decipher In-n-Out's secret menu. Finally, Anna teaches us about a charity Pokémon Patchwork Gym effort to raise money for Japan.

You can find the links to all our stories on delicious: http://delicious.com/rpgamer/171

RPGCast streams live, sometimes on Friday at 10 PM Eastern / 7 PM Pacific, usually on Saturday at Noon Eastern / 9 AM Pacific.

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[LordKaiser]

Did you guys where very hungry during the cast? ^_^ All that talk about food and BTW Wendy's Spicy Chicken Combo FTW but I can't believe Paws put fried fries in the frosty XD. Well I glad you address my comment of the developers passion for games and yes their passion should show in the game in everything they do. I was not only talking about megalodrama but engaging stories that will keep you playing and won't let you fall to sleep. I'm talking about games like Xenogears and Shadow Hearts 2 and the main voice of the rpgamer cast understood mostly what I was trying to say. (Was it you Sabin?)

[gdawgtuk]

Yeah Sabin is the host. Thanks for the iPad game tips as well! To answer your confusion, Zenonia is the Zelda clone. I have it on my Android phone but it's....meh...

[Strawberry Eggs]

Yeah, it sounds awesome that both Yoko Shimomura and Yasunori Mitsuda worked on Xenoblade's OST, but they didn't do as much music for it as Manami Kiyota or ACE+. Mitsuda did a grand total of one track, and Shimomura around twelve or so (though she did several important pieces, like the Main Theme). Most of the music was done by the other two. Still, they're music is just excellent. The Xenoblade OST overall is just wonderful.

I can't really find much information on Kiyota or ACE+ By the looks of it, Xenoblade is the only OST they've done, but I could very well be wrong.

[gdawgtuk]

Oh here is the admiral Hacket model that was spoken of. It really is VERY detailed compared to the other models.

[Just Doug]

I can back up the fries in the frosty being delicious. My first part-time job years ago was actually at a Wendy's (where I worked alongside a guy whose name happened to be Dave Thomas). I actually preferred my Wendy's over most other burger places because I saw first-hand how well the place was run. My rule for ANY fast food joint, however, is that individual stores vary widely, so find good locations and stick with them. Of course, even then it's a once-in-a-while thing. I can tell you that as a starving college student, that Wendy's was a godsend, especially with an employee discount.

To people who wish to learn Japanese, or any foreign language for that matter, it may be intimidating but all you need is exposure and practice. That's the heart of it, and the more of it you have, the better you'll get. Some languages are "harder" than others from our perspective as native English speakers due to being more distantly related from English than something "easier," but objectively, no language is easier or harder, simpler or more complex overall than any other language. All languages are equally expressive and all languages are learned by children with natural ease, it's just a matter of deconstructing your English bias and constructing a new understanding in the target language. Some biases can be dreadfully stubborn but that's what the exposure and practice unravels.

So if you've never tried to take Japanese--or something else--because you figure it's too hard, do not let that be your hurdle. Find a class with a native speaker instructor, buy a couple books, give it a shot. It does take time and dedication (and the opportunity to actually listen and speak and write the language), but anyone can do it. IDEALLY, the best way to learn would involve total immersion--study abroad and such--but that is not an option for many people, and certainly not an option at any arbitrary point in their life!

It also can help to have a more general understanding of languages and how they work--even taking some small measure of time to read up on what precisely English grammar is said to be can help lay groundwork to understanding things in a foreign language. Personally, I found that I realized a lot of things about English grammar when I took German in high school, and the understanding I gained there married with the introduction to linguistics I got in my first year at college gave me a fine foundation to approach a language like Japanese.

That said, there is an extra kick in the nuts that comes with Japanese...the writing system. THAT's the real hurdle. Hiragana and Katakana can be gotten used to in a matter of weeks, Kanji is the gradual product of years of study. To learn Japanese, as opposed to something "easier" that uses our same ol' alphabet, you need to be prepared to spend about as much time practicing the writing in addition to the time spent on speaking/listening comprehension, perhaps more later on. In my final Japanese class in college (I think it was graduate level by that point, I'd taken so many...), half the class time was spent on the writing/reading, the other half on listening to television programs and discussing them (in Japanese). By that point all the grammar had been covered but we were still a good portion shy of basic literacy (at least I certainly was). For reference, basic literacy in Japanese (based on being able to read all the kanji in newspapers that aren't required to have furigana--a sort of superscript that tells you how kanji is read) requires knowing just shy of 1950 kanji.

Really, if you want to learn a language, just get to it however you can and keep it up. The time investment is a primary ingredient, the other being a native speaker resource to learn from and practice with but if you have nothing else (no classes you can take, no money to shell out for Rosetta Stone no friend to practice with or what have you), if it's just to play imported games, get a dictionary or two, get some books that can introduce you to the grammar, and get crackin'.

Lastly, on a completely different and shockingly thread-relevant subject, I'm crossing my fingers for Xenoblade. One thing though... I'd have to buy a Wii to be able to play it! I've bought entire systems on the merits of one game in the past but it'd be too much to hope for Xenoblade to be THAT good.

[7thCircle]

I actually preferred my Wendy's over most other burger places because I saw first-hand how well the place was run. My rule for ANY fast food joint, however, is that individual stores vary widely, so find good locations and stick with them.

I worked at Taco Bell for years and that was my experience too. Don't know how true it was, but my manager at the time (1998) insisted Taco Bell had the most stringent internal cleanliness rules of the major fast food chains thanks to health violation stories that spread sometime in the 80s (maybe that was when the LOL - Rats!!!! and LOL - Dog Meat!!!! stuff started, or maybe it was something more legit, I don't remember). It was the only fast food chain I worked in, but I spent time in three different stores and all of them were spotless.

The only scary thing is Carryover Meat. At the end of the workday, all the leftover food is put in the refrigerator. The next morning it's taken out of the fridge and put back on the line. Healthwise, there's no problem with that. Tastewise... everything is fine except the meat. Carryover Meat was known to taste awful. On our nicer days, we'd mix the Carryover Meat with fresh meat to hide its grossness, and if any employee wanted to eat before the lunch rush, the line workers would tell us which container had the dreaded Carryover Meat and which ones were fresh, although you could usually tell by looking at it. I would never order food at Taco Bell with beef in it before noon, just to be safe.

[TheAnimeMan]

I worked at Taco Bell for years and that was my experience too. Don't know how true it was, but my manager at the time (1998) insisted Taco Bell had the most stringent internal cleanliness rules of the major fast food chains thanks to health violation stories that spread sometime in the 80s (maybe that was when the LOL - Rats!!!! and LOL - Dog Meat!!!! stuff started, or maybe it was something more legit, I don't remember). It was the only fast food chain I worked in, but I spent time in three different stores and all of them were spotless.

The only scary thing is Carryover Meat. At the end of the workday, all the leftover food is put in the refrigerator. The next morning it's taken out of the fridge and put back on the line. Healthwise, there's no problem with that. Tastewise... everything is fine except the meat. Carryover Meat was known to taste awful. On our nicer days, we'd mix the Carryover Meat with fresh meat to hide its grossness, and if any employee wanted to eat before the lunch rush, the line workers would tell us which container had the dreaded Carryover Meat and which ones were fresh, although you could usually tell by looking at it. I would never order food at Taco Bell with beef in it before noon, just to be safe.

I'm glad I make Taco Bell my night time staple for food and not my morning staple for food.

[LordKaiser]

I wonder if it's the same for Taco Maker... I mostly eat at Subway's anyway.

[Just Doug]

Similar to the Taco Bell carryover meat, I never ordered chili at Wendy's. Patties that were too well done to be served on burgers (one reason I came to prefer Wendy's--at least at my store there was little to no chance of getting an overcooked/burned patty on your burger, even in the slow times--one dark spot on the patty anywhere meant it was chili meat) were put into a special temperature-regulated tray for chili meat that was emptied every couple hours or when it was full. These trays of chili meat were bagged, sealed, and frozen. Then the next time chili was prepared, a bag was chopped up for chili meat and set to cook slowly along with the other ingredients for something like eight hours, I forget how many but it was a long long time.

I can't tell you how many people said to me expressly how much they loved Wendy's chili, or that the chili is why they ate there, and so on. I always just smiled and said something like "yeah we get that alot" or "yeah it's really popular" or whatever, but seeing the trays/bags of day-old burned meat (always stored in proper conditions, mind you) always put me off.

[LordKaiser]

Even chicken meat in TM?.... Yeah I heard the rumors of the meat used in Chili N' Cheese being made from leftover minced meat so I stop eating it and also salads as a friend found a caterpillar on one. (I was there.) But the only thing I order is the spicy chicken combo and a frosty but I will never put a salty fried potato on a sweet frosty that's for sure. It's like pouring Ketchup on Ice cream or something like that.

[Just Doug]

but I will never put a salty fried potato on a sweet frosty that's for sure

I would hazard a guess that you would also find chocolate-covered pretzels unappetizing. That's something else I like that I get flak for. There are combinations of sweet and salty that work, but obviously not for everyone. =)

[LordKaiser]

My family is fond of Ham with Pineapple and dried cloves that I truly hate. Chocolate covered pretzels? Well I had eaten Chocolate Pretzels but it's made from a soft dough that sometimes have cinnamon. Don't know if there's salty sesame pretzels covered in chocolate but the fact that I love chocolate to addiction...

[otakudensetsu]

another title for this episode could have been "would you like fries with that". no one brought up poutine. go to any new york fries in canada and you can get gourmet poutine. go to any fries stand in new york and get a funny look when you ask for poutine. oh and you can't get gourmet poutine at new york fries in the states.

[silktail]

Those Pokémon patches are only of 1st gen pokémon? But a trivial issue like that wouldn't hold back a enterprising Smugleaf.
It might be quite a way to travel, but they could have made the trip back to Kanto I'm sure.

Ah ha! Looks like Smugleaf did make it in there after all:


Yeah! Well... no? Umm....

...

...

It's your kids, Misty. Something has got to be done about your kids!

[Zaku77]

I think a good alternate title would have been "BUY A HUB" haha

[ThouThou]

An off-topic note, did you happen to catch any of the WI Film Festival Sabin?

[otakudensetsu]

i have heard about the last story and xenoblade from some one in japan who has played both games. xenoblade has nothing to do with xenosaga so bringing it out in europe makes sense since they didn't get the full story.
the last story isn't very long but had a great story, unfortunately according to the people wjo make the game, japanese rpg's don't do very well in NA so they won't be bringing it over. it's okay though since i know enough japanese to import the game. i hate reading games in japanese though because i always feel like i misread the text and later in the story i'm confused. moral is i must move to japan.

[sabin1001]

It's your kids, Misty. Something has got to be done about your kids!

+1

An off-topic note, did you happen to catch any of the WI Film Festival Sabin?

I did not.

Food talk

This week's thread is win.