One of Swords Podcast 027: A Decepticon Apologist

by Dan on July 28, 2010

You asked the tough questions — and Matt Tieger, game director of Transformers: War for Cybertron at High Moon Studios, answered them. Why aren’t there any bright white Autobots? Will we ever get to play as Zeta Prime? How is host migration like a three-wheeled car? Why isn’t Grimlock in the game? These and more are answered as we discuss the freshly released DLC. Hugh joins in to talk about San Diego Comic-Con, Five Finger Death Punch, unfair preorders, Tony Hawk, what happened to his daughter two weeks ago, and some really, really bad jokes on Xbox Live.

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Co-host: Hugh Sterbakov, screenwriter, comic creator, and Emmy-nominated writer/toy wrangler for Robot Chicken

Special Guest: High Moon Studios‘s Matt Tieger, game director, Transformers: the War for Cybertron

Soundtrack: Yameen – available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and all online music stores

Relevant show links:

  • Transformers: War for Cybertron DLC
  • All my coverage of the San Diego Comic-Con including the alternate Spider-Man outfits, the voice actors, and Matt Tieger’s creepy stare
  • Hugh’s gamertag:

    • Rockox

      Dan, you might want to work on your “bleep button” skills. :)

    • bdavid81

      Unfortunate news regarding host migration, but at least it's not a game-breaking issue provided you play with friends as opposed to randoms.

    • Joe

      Thank you Hugh (and Dan) for voicing your disdain the preorder bonus situation. It's never fun as a fan to try feel like you are missing out on content because you didn't by it at X

    • Rockox

      I stopped caring about preorder bonuses when I realized it was a waste of my time to hunt around and see what different deals all the retailers were offering. Most of the preorder specials I see are cosmetic changes or minor game-enhancing features that won't sway me enough to buy my games from somewhere else.

    • Joe

      I have given up on hunting down “teh best preorders evar!!” too and just settle for the best deal I can get.

      It seems like we are on the same page, but I want to add; sadly not all preorders are cosmetic changes. Some preorders have been stat-bumping items, maps/locations, early gear unlocks, or even Day-1 MP advantages. I know it's a small thing to cry over, but there is no reason for a publisher to hang fans out to dry like that or even people who just didn't preorder from store X.

    • Rockox

      You're right, the really good bonuses offered are pretty stinky for those not willing (or not ABLE) to buy from the retailer who's offering it. Honestly, when there's so many different preorder bonuses available for the same game, it actually makes me care LESS about picking up the game on Day 1, or bothering with a preorder. I'd just rather avoid the circus.

    • mvbooth

      Ok, so I am going to risk walking a fine line between political and social commentary, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out why people get so !@$ hurt about fairness and equal opportunity with EVERYTHING.

      Just reading about this same issue regarding game pre-orders makes me mad enough to go Hugh on people. Seriously. People need to quit being victims and acting like the whole world is set up to take advantage of them (even though a majority of things are).

      I don't care if you are a “casual” or “hardcore” gamer, you make decisions regarding all of your choices that are no one else's fault or responsibility. Does it really matter than some preorders are better than others? Not really. Yeah it sucks that you xp or initial game play might suffer, but unless you lose money for poorer performance it doesn't really matter. It's just a video game.

      The more I follow video game blogs and the video game culture in general, to more pissed and enraged I become at people who act like gaming is actually a huge deal. You are either into games because you profit off of them or because you are a gamer (with a few exceptions of people being both).

      Grow some male dangling organs and for the love of Pete, just shut up already.

    • mvbooth

      sorry, that wasn't meant for anyone specifically (Hugh and Dan included). You just have to understand that it's that time of month, and I've been fighting with my mother and Vons was out of dark Chocolate Hagen Daaz.

    • Joe

      I get your point, but there is a difference between voicing a complaint about the way the industry is doing things and crying on every board/forum/soapbox you can find about the issue. I wouldn't pay more than $5 (or less, even then only if I REALLY, REALLY wanted whatever it is) to get a preorder bonus, but I understand there are collector/completionists who eat this stuff up. Some of those T:WFC preorders were hitting $50 on eBay and that's just sad.

      Protip from a dude: Buy your favorite bar of chocolate and hide it in the freezer for such emergencies.

    • mvbooth

      Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree with you on what goes one being sad and/or ridiculous.

      I'm all about the fight for regulating or capping the pricing of games. I was more upset about some people's foundations for their arguments. To me, any argument regarding consumerism that is based on fairness or justice is really, really stupid.

      It's on par with suing McDonalds for selling unhealthy food.

    • Squadfather

      Love the old Activision commercials in between segments. Great idea to incorporate those. Great show as always.

    • D Marten

      I got butt hurt. But I don't have a fairness argument. I was just annoyed I got played because of my childhood nostilga. They got me by the male dangling organs.

      Oh well, what can you do? It kinda builds some ill will like Hugh says, but like Dan said, I'm only annoyed because I care.

    • D Marten

      Thanks for the great show guys. I thought Hugh was really fun this episode. He had me laughing hard. Got to love the dynamic of two long time friends.

      I almost feel like everytime post, it is as a complainer. I don't mean to come off as that. So, some postive comments this time.

      So yeah. I don't know how I really feel about the DLC and preorder bonuses. Intelligilicly I shouldn't care about preorder bonuses, but emotionally I want to have all the characters and/or costumes. Ugh. I can't tell if ill will has been built up for me or not. I normally don't care about preorder stuff, unless it is a property I care or have nostilga for. As Brett Elston would say “Oh, well.”

      Anyway, thanks for the show!

    • smoth

      That is BS on the colors. You go by the GLOW because most of the time the level ambient mutes out the colors.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      Yeah, I apologize for that — it was spot on and then I apparently moved the underlying file and not the overlaid bleeps. Enjoy the vulgarity of Hugh in all its glory and I'll try not to make that mistake again.

      I'm not going to bother to pull or change the show because it's messy and let's face it, you've all heard those words by now already. But I do try to run a family friendly show, and I'll double-check the file next time.

    • Rockox

      I almost thought you were doing it intentionally, and bleeping out everything BUT the curse words, which is pure comedy gold.

    • CubicleZombie

      I completely agree.

      Dan, if I recall correctly you have been doing this now for 4 or 5 episodes and it is my favorite recent enhancement/change. Very neat and clever touch.

    • Pingback: Playing With Swords: TF:WfC PS3 7/30 — One Of Swords

    • CubicleZombie

      Dan-
      I have an answer for the “keep the show to about an hour” issue.
      So simple it is genius… Two shows a week!
      I realize a show is a whole lot of work and much easier said than done as you clearly put a lot of time, energy and heart into it. But… Yeah… That would be cool! And on the weeks that you just can't put out a second show just let Hugh run amok for an hour or two on the oneofswords airwaves.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      Thanks. I found them a few weeks ago when I had some free time (which itself was a surprise) and I started dropping them in with show 25. Glad you enjoy, it was supposed to be a little nostalgic surprise.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      This has been discussed — like, one show that is news and a dev interview, one that is reader mail and goofing off. And we talked about doing 10 minutes every day, a daily show — but to be honest, it takes a lot of time to schedule the players, line up the interviews, get the editing done and do everything else on my job. The production time is an issue, since that would double my editing duties.

      I love the fact that people like the show enough to want to hear it more often or longer, but right now a second show is not feasible.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      Nope, but I guess that makes it funnier — legitimate failure. :)

    • http://twitter.com/bjwanlund BJ Wanlund

      Let me say this right now: I actually agree with Hugh, but I want to spotlight someone who did the EXACT OPPOSITE of the WFC DLC b.s. and basically tell ANYONE in the entertainment industry, whether you're the record labels, the movie and/or TV studios, or video game developers and publishers to take copious notes and follow their example, because this kind of goodwill will go a long, long way with many jaded gamers like myself.

      Sony (yes, I said SONY, the same folks who've effed things up more often than they've done things right), along with Media Molecule, actually have the right idea with regards to preorder bonuses for Little Big Planet 2.

      Yes, they have the preorder bonuses, BUT for those of us who don't want to choose between a Gonzo outfit and an alien from the Toy Story movies, they unveiled a Special Edition where you get ALL of the Sackboy costume preorder bonuses from the word go, including the aforementioned Gonzo the Great Sackboy outfit. This, more than anything Sony's done this generation, up to and including Kevin Butler, has engendered incredible goodwill with me, and actually is making me seriously consider buying a PS3.

      Activision, et al, TAKE NOTES HERE. It's not right to deny a portion of a person's gaming experience just to satiate your buddy-buddy relationship with Retailer XYZ (not wishing to call out anyone here). As Steve Jobs told the music industry, your customers are the people at said retailers actually buying your content, NOT the retailers.

      Sorry for going lengthy Dan, but I feel way too strongly about this issue, and compelling reasons to buy anything that has nothing to do with which retailer got the best preorder bonus are a major plus in my book.

      BJ

    • Tim

      I agree but sometimes places offer even better incentives to get you to buy there. For instance, Amazon is giving you cash back if you preorder Halo: Reach from them. And Walmart gives you a c$20 eCard that you can use on their site.

    • Tim

      Was that podcast deemed “Explicit” on iTunes? I would expect it should be after what happened…

    • OmegaRedSix

      Another great show Dan! Hey Hugh, it would be great to add you to my friends list for Starcraft II.

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      No, because as discussed, it was a mistake. I can't mark it as explicit if I didn't realize it was explicit at the time of upload.

    • Hugh

      My character code is Girthy#970.

      I haven't played all that much. Got raped by the AI a couple times on medium difficulty, but found easy to be too, well, easy. Played the first couple campaign missions, and then I found myself longing to play Red Dead on 360. So that's how I spent my free time Saturday.

      By the way, if anyone shoots me a friend invite on 360 (Hugh the Dark), please let me know you're a friend of the podcast. I'm still getting a lot of noise from the game with fame thing, and I have to reject those requests, because they lead to constant party invites when I just wanna skin some armadillos.

    • Hugh

      I guess this is the lesser evil, but there's an argument to be made that you're having to pay more just to buy the complete game. I hope the LBP CE isn't much more. I guess I could stomach $10.

    • Hugh

      I hate entitlement as much as the next person, but I don't get this argument at all. “Losing money” isn't the only legitimate penalty for people to poop their diapers about. Nobody is being forced into a decision, what we're uncomfortable with is the need to make a decision in the first place.

      Your definition of gaming culture is way, way off. There's a huge majority of people between profiteers and gamers, and they're the ones who just want to have fun. The 12 and 13 year-olds who are on LIVE with their school friends, to whom any little shiny thing is very important because it means bragging rights. Now you might think these kids deserve to suffer because this translates as materialism, but economic politics don't matter to 13 year-olds. Only bragging rights do. Well, bragging rights and getting to see boobs. But these kids they only suffer so much before they turn to someone else and *really* make them suffer. And those someone elses are the parents. The parents, in today's climate, are more than likely pinching pennies to buy their kids these $60 games just to keep up with their friends. They're looking for any opportunity to make these things more affordable. Hell, we all are. If that means a $20 game card here or a 10% discount there, the last thing they need to hear is that X retailer has a special character available, but no discount.

      It'd be nice to see publishers working with parents, not punishing them. Instead, it feels like they pretend the parents don't exist, and they market directly to the kids with “gotta have” gotchas.

      Lastly, following video game blogs and entering the video game culture and then shouting that gaming isn't a big deal feels awfully contradictory. Seems like it invalidates Dan's job, my hobby and the favored pastime of everyone who might read this. Also sounds like you're wasting your own time. You'd do better with those swinging male organs to admit that gaming does matter to you.

      Just sayin'.

    • http://twitter.com/RK1R33D RK1 R33D

      For Party Chat, the only game I think it's suitable for is BF BC2, because you can get two squads together for communication instead of just 1. But other MP games, I would agree.

    • http://twitter.com/RK1R33D RK1 R33D

      Hugh If you want to do the Campaign on Co-op Medium or Hard give me a shout on XBL. Name is RK1 R33D with a space.

      Hard was really only difficult to me during the two boss battles.

      I also wonder if High Moon is aware of some nasty glitches in WFC? On the 2 new MP maps I have had random deaths via falling through the map, not off but literally through it.

      Also there is the hack / glitch where the Leader class gets the Shockwave ability.

    • spiralgray

      “The parents, in today's climate, are more than likely pinching pennies to buy their kids these $60 games just to keep up with their friends…”

      To me this is a big part of the problem with society right now. What right does any kid have to “keep up with their friends?” When I was growing up I got the toys my parents could afford, not the toys all my friends had so I could keep up with them. Perhaps if we instilled in our children that you should live within your means instead of “keep[ing] up with their friends” parents wouldn't have to pinch pennies “in today's climate.”

    • Rockox

      Unfortunately, instilling those values in one kid won't prevent all the other kids from being asshats and making fun of the one kid who doesn't have what everyone else has.

    • spiralgray

      That's been going on for decades, and there will always be differences between the classes. Don't you think it's a little ridiculous that people put their financial future at risk just to “keep up with the Joneses?”

    • Grajeda5000

      y cant they put the dlc for pc on steam?

    • http://oneofswords.com/ Dan (OneOfSwords)

      I am not sure. I’ll try to find out. Clearly other games can do it, but maybe there’s more to it than that in this case.

    • Anonymous

      Wow, so sorry I didn’t reply to this sooner Hugh, but I’m going to add you (finally) to my Starcraft II list. My character name should just be the same as my profile here on One Of Swords.

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