Spam Spam Spam Humbug 147 – Genshin Origin Wars
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Podcast Topic(s)
This episode begins with WtF Dragon and Golem Dragon discussing the former’s vehicle troubles; in fact, WtF Dragon was joining in this week from out in front of the repair shop his vehicle had been towed to, as he attempted some late-night, last-minute circumventions of what appeared to be an issue with the Chevrolet Traverse’s anti-theft immobilizer system.
However, after a few minutes, the topic shifts to the recently-released Genshin Impact — the latest title from Chinese developer miHoYo — which has surged to become, unexpectedly, one of the most talked-about games of 2020. A casual glance at the cross-platform title — it’s available on mobile, PC, and console (and supports cross-play in most cases) — invites comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and indeed the gameplay is somewhat similar to that title. But Genshin Impact evidently manages to stand out in its own right, and for a free-to-play title is, apparently, remarkably unobjectionable with its “gacha” features. Golem Dragon has been streaming it, and following other streams about it, and speaks highly of it.
Harmony Dragon, Chlorthos Dragon, and Helgraf Dragon join the conversation at various points during the discussion of Genshin Impact, and contribute their thoughts thereto. The discussion then ranges over a few other games — a bit of shade is thrown in the direction of Shroud of the Avatar — before the upcoming Shadowlands expansion for World of Warcraft captures the interest of the group for a bit. Evidently in beta, the expansion has some…issues.
Another game — yes, this episode is actually quite focused on games of various types — that becomes a point of discussion is the physical game Mafia, also sometimes known as Werewolf. WtF Dragon’s Scouts know it as the latter, and have enjoyed playing it a few times; Helgraf has some experience with it as well, which he relates. Chlorthos also gives us a short recap of his thoughts in Outward, mainly for Golem’s benefit.
Toward the end of the episode, the discussion turns to EA and Origin Systems, and the way our understandings and perceptions of what happened between those two companies have shifted over time; WtF Dragon mentions Escapist Magazine’s excellent piece The Conquest of Origin (albeit it is referred to, incorrectly, as The Downfall of Origin in the episode), and expounds at some length over the way in which the narrative about what happened to Origin has shifted away from the trite and simplistic notion that EA bought it and summarily drove it into the ground. This, in turn, leads to a larger discussion about financial mismanagement at a number of gaming companies, including the way in which the later Wing Commander games were characterized by what were, at the time, unreasonably massive budgets.
Of course, you can’t talk about Wing Commander without talking about Mark Hamill, which in turn leads to a discussion about Star Wars…from the early films, to the Holiday Special, to Disney’s current offerings and the ways in which Dave Filoni is doing well by the mythology of the series. That battery of topics carries through to the very end of the episode.
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, and Pascal.
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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
It’s nice to see a game come along that actually deserves to be the smash success it suddenly becomes.