Podcast Topic Suggestions?

Maybe a bit late to the party here! Here's my topic: How engaged are you with the lore of a world when you enjoy a game / movie? Do you think getting too deep into the lore ends up ruining the enjoyment? Are you able to willingly change your level of engagement with the lore based on how well fleshed out you judge the world to be? I ask this question because I find it very interesting how much one's desire to "explore every nook and cranny" of a game world can either make a game much better, or a lot worse (depending on how many / how big the plot holes are). I've played some games where I wish I was more engaged in the lore, but couldn't bring myself to care about the world. On the other hand, I've played some games where I wish I cared less about inconsistencies that were, on the whole, quite insignificant, and enjoy the game like many others.

Gestalt

I am also curious about your opinions on FFXIV. I just started it last week and I'm having an ok time, but not super great. Everyone talks about how this is a great game and I want to feel that way about it too. It just isn't clicking a ton for me. Maybe I'm just not an MMO person, but I'd like to see some perspectives from someone who is also not an MMO person, and maybe I can find something in that to help me enjoy the game a bit more.

- How NOT to do an in medias res opening (looking at you, FFXIII). - Voice acting/directing in Square Enix games - Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy (when a story is so cynical and depressing that the audience completely loses interest in it because the outcome is going to be horrible no matter who wins. I may ruffle some feathers here but this is precisely the reason why I did not like the movie Akira. Yes, THAT Akira). - How less is often more when it comes to depicting romance or intimacy in fiction (I got more out of Ico's connection with Yorda, or seeing Cloud and Tifa tearfully hugging each other in Chapter 14 of Remake than I do out of most sex scenes in fiction). - Things that do NOT make for a compelling character (as explained here: https://youtu.be/Wb3nnRT7DnY?t=255 ). - When stories become too famous for their own good (e.g. Star Wars has been reduced to a mere product now, the Alien, Predator, and Terminator franchises have been milked to death, and FFVII Remake is now being turned into Avengers: Endgame with a particularly distracting case of meta-commentary which only serves to break one's immersion). - Franchise Original Sin (it's explained here, with a long list of examples: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FranchiseOriginalSin ).

This question partly stems from a video I saw with Amy Hennig, writer of the first 3 Uncharted games, who said something along the lines of, that they were toying with the idea of killing off a certain major character in the second game (who I won’t name to avoid spoilers) but decided against it, as it would have created a tonal shift so large that you couldn’t go back to the fun adventure vibe established before, after a story beat like that takes place.  So my question is, do you think it is possible that after a dramatic moment in a stand-alone narrative that, for example is more lighthearted from the outset, but after, for example, a major character death, or a change in focus, like a story with multiple POV characters, with later POV character stories being darker or more mature in tone than earlier ones, that you can shift the tonal pendulum too far in the other direction of the previously established tone, and potentially in retrospect make it harder to look at the earlier story in the same light because the later story colours the way you look at what came before, that it becomes impossible to return to the tone established before the dramatic moment took place?

Topic ideas! • Mike, you've said you don't enjoy MMOs very much. I'm in the same camp, as I don't love the endless fetch quests, skill grinding, waiting for things to spawn, etc. But, like Edú, I'm curious about your experience with FFXIV so far. Is it worth it to you? • This one might be too niche, but I started reading The Magus, per your suggestion, and find it fascinating. Since it's so open to interpretation (I'm only on chapter 32 at the moment), the philosophy within and behind that book seems like a really interesting topic. My observation so far is that Fowles is expressing how a search for answers can really be a search for death itself. That relishing in mystery is really the fullest form of life. I’m not sure how to make this topic less niche, but maybe there’s a way? Have you seen this philosophy expressed in other stories? Do you have a different interpretation of the book? • I would really enjoy hearing more about yours and Casen's recommendations for stories outside of JRPGs. What are some movies/books/games you always find yourself gravitating back to? Which ones hold up over the years? • Like Casen, I am a product/UI/UX designer. I would LOVE to hear more about his experiences in that field, and also his perspective of game interfaces. I know you guys discussed Chrono Cross’s UI (that video is actually how I found your channel back in 2018). So a list of UIs you guys love/hate would be fun to dive into. Excited for this Patreon podcast!

I've been trying to get into FFXIV for the story elements but I just can't seem to get into it. I know Mike is playing so I'd like to hear your thoughts about it or MMOs and storytelling in general

Weird Mammal

What makes a game a good piece of literature or art? What is it about games like Hyper Light Drifter, Final Fantasy 9, or Journey that cause the people who like them to be more passionate about them than the most other fans are about their preferred video game?

Do games focus too much on style as opposed to other elements of storytelling?

illynilly

I'm more of a turn-based fan, myself.

Turn based vs action rpg. In light of the ffxvi trailer I see more arguments about the transition away from turn based combat but personally I don’t think it’s a bad thing

NirvashTypeMQ

Blockbuster effect. We’ve talked about how films released in theaters have moved more and more to large scale action blockbusters, for a slew of reasons, both economic and business-wise. But the mid-budget movie has been able to transition to the Netflix/hbo/amazon 8ep miniseries. (And in many ways I think has benefited, you can tell more sophisticated stories with 8 hours than 2). Games have followed similar suit, going big blockbusters, but I don’t see the equivalent of the mini-series treatment for video games. The home that medium budget and innovate and weird games can have to get produced. Do you see this changing? Would the inevitable video game steaming service allow this kind of game to find a way to get produced?

I put this one up a while back but: Death of the Innovator. I started thinking about how almost every great modern storyteller that changed their respective medium has, at some point, seemed to lose “it.” To lose the creative spark that made them special and in many cases to seem to misunderstand the very things their audience loved. Lucas, JK Rowling, D&D on Game of Thrones, you could even make the case that Sakaguchi doesn’t seem to have the same touch anymore. Are creatives doomed to lose their prowess in the same way athletes age out of their profession? Or is this a case of the line between genius and madness being so thin? Maybe also an issue of how the innovations of these creators lead to the form changing beyond them? All of the above? Who knows, but I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What rpg tropes get on your nerves and what tropes you enjoy or don’t bother you too much