The Podge Cast

If you’ve listened to the show at all, it’s no secret that Luke has pulled me into the mystical cube-world of Minecraft. Lately, I’ve been trying to look at my life more objectively and deconstruct the elements of things and understand the relationships between them and me. I’ve also been wanting to write more blog posts, which this seems to be a quaint intersection of all three of these things.

The elevator pitch of Minecraft didn’t (and still doesn’t) hook me. I can clearly remember an excited, lispy Luke telling me about it after he’d been sucked in. “You can build anything. And destroy everything. It’s like a giant playground.”

That description still doesn’t hook me, honestly. But, to jump on the bandwagon (and to satisfy that nagging curiosity) I bought and started playing. It didn’t take long for it to happen – the game clicked for me. It had sunk its roots into me and wasn’t letting go.

The mechanic of its attraction eluded me for the longest time, though. At first glance, the obvious culprit to finger for attraction is the ability to infinitely customize your space. That’s a cool element to the game, but not an attractor for me.

I have a utilitarian disdain for art and personalization. My desktop at work and home is the default Windows 7 theme. My car/desk/office is mostly unadorned with knick-knacks and other symbols of a living room. Even the structures I build inside the game are utilitarian: rough stone, no color with doors.

Ruling out that as a motivator eliminated my primary suspect. It forced me to dig deeper. What is it about this game that other games don’t offer? Something that I get in smaller doses that this game provides in spades?

Construction. In many games, you construct things: a narrative, a character, an item or something along those lines. Construction by itself isn’t the reward mechanic that these games rely on. Progress indicators are a clear indication that yes you are creating something and look at what progress you’ve made on it.

Some common indicators of progress:

• The experience progress bar in most MMOs (World of Warcraft’s is probably the most iconic)
• The construction of a rare item, usually from some equally rare materials
• A percentage complete when on the save menu (Symphony of the Night, I’m looking at you)

But, there are also some other common, less obvious indicators of progress on these things:

• Your character sheet, with skills/abilities that advance (with experience or without)
• The plot – do a little work, get a little story as a progress reward
• Scale – As the scale of what you do increases (from street gang conflict to saving the world) you can see a visible progress in the power level of your game

In Minecraft none of these things exist. You could make the argument that item creation exists. As any Minecraft player will tell you, creating most items in the game doesn’t instill a sense of progress, but one of loss of resources.

No, the progress reward cycle produced by Minecraft comes from the construction itself. Buildings, monuments and the like. With every block placed in their construction, you have an instant, visible indicator of your progress and you get an incredible sense of just what else needs to be done to finish the job.

Even mining through the earth is a subtle indicator of progress – the run back through mineshafts that continually grow longer forces you to recognize the ‘accomplishment’ of having dug that far through the earth.

So what lesson is learned from this? Simple: progress is a motivator.

On July 2nd, 1776, the second continental congress voted to declare the independence of the American colonies from the kingdom of Great Britain. Two days later, the congress approved the declaration of independence. A few years after that, David, Joe, Luke, and Matt started the PodgeCast, an exercise in our liberties.

Happy Independence Day to all our American listeners.

Welcome to Episode 1 of a new cross-show cast we’re trying.   The plan is to get a few different hosts from a few different shows on each month to kick around a topic and see what they come up with.  No host can host back-to-back episodes, so you wont’ see Scott, Rob, Rib or David back at least for two months.

Enjoy!

Hosts:

David – The Podge Cast
Scott – Story Shtrick
Rob – Bear Swarm
Rib – The Downuder Gamer Show

You can find the show here.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the tubes
Not a poster was posting, not even the noobs;

Subscriptions were made on iTunes with care,
In hopes that Uncle Jimbone soon would be there;

The listeners were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of beer nipples danced in their heads;
And Adam on stripper pole, Luke in wide stance
Had just settled down for a long bromance
When up on the intarwebs arose such a clatter
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the laptop I flew like a flash,
Opened Firefox and went to the PodgeCast.
The glow of the screen on my angry eyebrows
Made me look happy, lord knows how
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a bottle of moonshine and a hoedown right here,
With a lively ol’ jig and a skip in his walk,
Uncle Jimbone arrived and began to talk.
More rapid than eagles the forum posters came,
He clambered and clattered and called them by name
“Now Havick! now Dunphy! now Mr. Keith Curtis!
On Becca! on Gaerma! on Tim White!” he blurted.
“To the top of the nets! To the Outhouse Wall!
Now Podge away! Podge away! Podge away all!”
Quicker than flamers trolling the forums,
The listeners gathered and began to swarm;
So off to a wing night the fans they flew,
With beer and weck and barbecue too.

And then, with a clacking, I heard through the haze
Dice shucking and rolling as Uncle Jimbone plays.
Burning Wheel in my hand, I knew it would be,
The Uncle would sit in on this week’s KTNG.
Dressed in overalls, from his feet to his skull,
Recording with Jimbone would never be dull;
A bottle of whiskey he had flung on his back,
So much to drink that we never would lack.
Velociraptor, David, and Table Saw too,
But Matt Cushman got lost when he went to the loo!
Luke wooed and he hollered and he talked with a lisp;
He smiled and said, “I’ve been Pocalapalypsed!”
With his bottle of hobowine, a modern McGyver,
He drank like a host of Accidental Survivors;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a jolly eyeballologist,
And I laughed at his impression by the Brilliant Gameologists;
With Walker and Meg and Dave along too
Adam still couldn’t segue, there’s nothing to do;
Uncle Jimbone spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the aggregators then turned with a jerk,
There were only so many of our jokes he could stand,
And after an hour it was too much to demand;

He sprang to the chat room and gave the listeners a wink,
Then he logged off and timed out and disappeared in a blink.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he shot out of sight,
“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

Musical solo by Jennifer J. Notch.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It’s Christmas here at the PodgeCast and that means we have presents for all. Be sure to check back on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week for all your holiday Podge!