PolyCast Episode 213: "Beyond Release"

Forward thinking. The two-hundred-and-thirteenth episode of PolyCast, "Beyond Release", features regular co-hosts Daniel "DanQ" Quick, "Makahlua", Philip "TheMeInTeam" Bellew and "MadDjinn" are joined by five returning guest co-hosts Scott "AlphaShard Dirk", Daniel "dacole" Cole, "DarkestOnion", Andrew "fuzzyfractal42" and Michael "ixias" Kopp. Celebrating the release of Civilization: Beyond Earth, this episode is movie-length with a runtime of 90m16s -- 50% longer than episodes usually. The summary of topics is as follows:

- 00m49s | Introductions
Introducing initial thoughts, feelings and experiences with Civilization: Beyond Earth including availability of a turn-locked demo and an update on Linux and Mac availability (03m06s), critic and fan review summary (04m51s) and regular panelists' first takes (06m53s).
- 11m00s | Daniel "dacole" Cole
First on the rotating guest co-host rotational, Daniel "dacole" Cole.
- 19m50s | "DarkestOnion"
The second rotating guest co-host, "DarkestOnion", checks-in.
- 30m43s | Scott "AlphaShard" Dirk
Now tying as the most frequent guest co-host on the show, Scott "AlphaShard Dirk" says hello.
- 37m52s | Michael "ixias" Kopp
Finding himself as the fourth rotating guest co-host is Michael "ixias" Kopp.
- 43m22s | Andrew "fuzzyfractal42"
Fifth and last on the guest co-host rotational, Andrew "fuzzyfractal42", arrives.
- 52m59s | Points of Interest
The four regular and five guest panelists discuss Downloadable Content (DLC) and expansions for Civ: BE followed by preventing the Great Mistake (60m48s) and all on Affinities: blended victories, settlement and growth, and interpretations for humanity's evolution (64m26s).

Recording live before a listening audience every other Saturday, PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production in an ongoing effort to give the Civ community an interactive voice on game strategy; listeners are encouraged to follow the show on Twitter, and check out the YouTube channel for caption capability. Sibling show RevCast focuses on Civilization: Revolution, ModCast on Civ modding, SCivCast on Civ social gaming and TurnCast on Civ multiplay.

I love villains!

Magma_Dragoon said:

I love villains!

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Trust you enjoyed the show.

So you loved episode 212 so much that you released it as episode 213 again!!! Wow I can hardly wait for episode 214 or will that be the same as episode 211?

Can you get your act together or is it time to quit?

Yea I found the "podcast" on YouTube. Why are you bothering to put our audio if all you can do is screw it up?

Moderator Action: There is no call for the kind of rudeness you have displayed in this and your preceding post. You need to count to 10 before posting, and if you re going to post in this same manner, count to 100.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

pben said:

Yea I found the "podcast" on YouTube. Why are you bothering to put our audio if all you can do is screw it up?

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You should demand your money back.

You should also try being more courteous. I would be polite even if they were doing nothing for me, but as it is they provide interesting content regularly for free. They don't owe you anything.

pben said:

So you loved episode 212 so much that you released it as episode 213 again!!! Wow I can hardly wait for episode 214 or will that be the same as episode 211?

Can you get your act together or is it time to quit?

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When you read this , you understand the plausibility of the 'great mistake'. It's sad really.

More to the OP , keep up the great show it s always a pleaseant moment to hear you discuss about civ.

pben, you did not fully explain your criticism let alone the fact that it is not constructive. It took me a second read of what you wrote, and then checking the PolyCast website, for me to realize what you were referring to. On the site, the 'Stream Episode' and 'Dial-Up Version' links for Episode 213 were still pointing to Episode 212 as were the RSS feeds; the embedded player, and the 'Episode 213: Beyond Release' links, however, were and are correct. I have corrected the links.

Karmah said:

... keep up the great show it s always a pleaseant moment to hear you discuss about civ.

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Thank you kindly.

Back on topic....

I disagree on the point brought up about these dudes a not the bad guys. I think there should be some bad guys. Attila and the Aztec were obviously baddies in civ5. Yang was obviously bad in smac. Pravin Lal was obviously good. Now, obviously there are shades of grey, but sometimes I wanna be a bad guy. Arc could be considered bad but it could be considered good, it doesn't have to be the evil Omnicorps, it can be a benevolent profits sharing coop.

I don't see that there are any Obviously good or bad guys in cbe, and that makes me a bit sad. Even brazil is just Sparta which could be in the good.

All SMAC leaders were utterly ruthless and inhumane in their own way, if you dig a little more in the lore. Its one of the things that adds a bit more credibility to the game rather than the "black and white" version of reality.

Fabio1701 said:

Back on topic....

I disagree on the point brought up about these dudes a not the bad guys. I think there should be some bad guys. Attila and the Aztec were obviously baddies in civ5. Yang was obviously bad in smac. Pravin Lal was obviously good. Now, obviously there are shades of grey, but sometimes I wanna be a bad guy. Arc could be considered bad but it could be considered good, it doesn't have to be the evil Omnicorps, it can be a benevolent profits sharing coop.

I don't see that there are any Obviously good or bad guys in cbe, and that makes me a bit sad. Even brazil is just Sparta which could be in the good.

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Interestingly, prelaunch, there was a pretty long thread about some players (or one player, not sure) being upset that the Supremacy affinity were the "bad guys" when they felt most aligned with that philosophy. I don't necessarily agree with that interpretation, but clearly some people don't really want there to be "bad guys" in the game.

I also love grey on grey morality, as it typically requires anti-heroes and anti-villains and involves plots that are more complex than hyperbolic "save the world from badness".

In spite of Maddjinn's exceptionally salty sauce, I feel that this game would be much more engrossing if it had developed the character of each leaders like SMAC did. They claim the lore is intentionally vague to let us "create our own stories", but there is a huge difference between ambiguous backstory and lack of character development.

Some civilian workers got in among the research patients today and became so hysterical I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled. The consequence, of course, will be another public relations nightmare, but I was severely shaken by the extent of their revulsion towards a project so vital to our survival.

CEO Nwabudike Morgan, The Personal Diaries

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Imagine if Suzanne Fielding said something like this upon completing a clinic. Imagine if the leaders were more than off brand action figures with generic and sometimes conflicting log entries on the load screen.