Spam Spam Spam Humbug 143 – The Old and the New
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Podcast Crossover
This week, WtF Dragon is the guest interviewee over at the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast, which is a podcast about “fantasy & science fiction in books, movies, games, and comics, as well as related subjects such as science, history, and critical thinking.” They wanted to talk about the Ultima Dragons and how that fan club continues to survive and thrive today, more than twenty years after the last numbered Ultima game was published.
Podcast Topics
This episode begins with Harmony Dragon and Golem Dragon discussing the recent sexual harassment allegations that have resulted in several high-profile Ubisoft executives either quitting or being let go by the company,
Golem then pivots the discussion toward Devolver Digital and their enthusiastic support of the streaming community, especially as a means of promoting Mediatonic’s upcoming battle royale game, Fall Guys. Other games that boast robust online play — Command & Conquer, Grand Theft Auto 5 — also merit some discussion, and Harmony also discusses the PVP scene in World of Warcraft at some length.
From there, once WfF Dragon joins the discussion, the topic shifts toward a different form of media: animated shows, especially anime and Western cartoons from the 1980s and early 1990s. We discuss terrible English dubs, how a lot of the animation styles of these various shows have or haven’t held up over time, whether some of the shows were just really long toy commercials, and how cultural understandings have shifted over time…as have the sorts of content that find their way into kids’ shows these days.
That line of discussion gives way — or leads into — a lengthy chat about Star Wars, and the various people who have made their mark on the series. We discuss the heroines that have come to the fore in different Star Wars stories — Rey, Ashoka Tano, Princess Leia, and more — and we discuss the merits and pitfalls of various movies…and the The Clone Wars cartoon series as well. WtF Dragon makes the argument that Dave Filoni — more than J.J. Abrams — really has the best sense of what Star Wars is, and is making new Star Wars stories that are both innovative and yet also highly respectful of the original stories set out by George Lucas. We also discuss the use of practical effects versus the use of CGI, and the innovative game engine-based techniques that are being used to shoot episodes of The Mandalorian.
And we talk about the evolution of CGI, from The Last Starfighter to The Jungle Book. Unfortunately, to get to today — where CGI is ubiquitous and amazingly realistic — we had to live through some pretty glaringly bad examples of CGI as well.
Toward the end of the episode, the topic shifts to streaming again; Golem and Harmony discuss their own histories as streamers, and talk about some of the pitfalls that are affecting streamers right now…especially copyright claims against music, even music from the games being streamed. And to finish up the episode, the topic of PVP in World of Warcraft makes a return.
Community & Patronage
As always, this episode of Spam Spam Spam Humbug is brought to you by our Patreon backers; thank you to everyone who supports Spam Spam Spam Humbug and the Ultima Codex by that means. And, as always, a hearty thank you to our co-producers: Seth, Goldenflame, Chris, Dominik, Violation, Helgraf, Gronkh, Pascal, and Thorwan.
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Music
Ultima V – Stones 2001 Remix by DJ Lizard
Ultima VI Gates of Creation by OC ReMix
Ultima 6 Theme (from Punchfest) by Lorto Dragon
We get lost somewhere between nostalgia and novelty, and spend a lot of time talking about Star Wars, anime, and World of Warcraft.