Episode 026 What We Learned From Syndicate, Death Rally and being Robots

In which we see the world recognize Gaming Disorder, Stu plays a deadly racing game, Chase runs an evil coproration of cyborgs, and we all love robots even if they don’t really understand organics at all.

 

Games discussed this Episode:

DOTA2 for PC

Syndicate (1993) for DOS/PC and a bunch of old consoles

UFO for DOS/PC

XCOM for DOS/PC

Wasteland 2 for PC

Death Rally for DOC/PC

Monster Hunter World for contemporary systems

Street Fighter 30^th Anniversary Edition for contemporary systems

Master of Eternity for mobile

Habitica for mobile

Stellaris for PC

Salt and Sanctuary for PC

Risk of Rain for PC

Hexcells for PC

SMITE for PC

Tabletop Simulator for PC

Space Quest Series for DOS/PC

 

Items discussed in What we Learned this Month:

 

World Health Organization recognizes “Gaming Disorder” as a condition even before APA finishes pilot diagnosis for new edition of Diagnostic Manual, and the news hits mainstream: https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/health/video-game-disorder-who/index.html

Stu brings up the story of a person who spent years attempting to achieve the rank of “master” for Starcraft 2 and many year journey it took to get there, most of which is documented on Reddit.  https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/8qdg65/f_yeah_7_years_of_blood_sweat_and_tears/Two gamers plead not guilty in Swatting Death: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/06/14/two-rival-gamers-allegedly-involved-in-kansas-swatting-death-plead-not-guilty-in-federal-court/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.83256fc520faOpen AI creates Neural Networks that can compete against DOTA2 players: https://blog.openai.com/openai-five/

 

What we Learned from You Discussion:

Nothing this time, email us folks!

 

Shoutouts:

Rest in peace Syd Bolton: https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/syd-bolton-computer-and-video-game-collector-dies-at-age-46-1.3970732

Stellaris Youtuber War Season 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcIHRlguHYg&list=PLcq9DHjo3g0YKIoxkIjJs4VJaIuwoGwRw

Thanks to Joe Gottli for doing our art!

Thanks to Dmitry for doing our intro/outro music!