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Easy Allies |OT3| "That sounds like the GameTrailers guy!"

mcw

Member
Pretty much. Might as well just auto-add all the universally praised classic games so we get the boring stuff out of the way.

Boring? I guess I don't understand that one. From week to week these guys talk about new games; for me, it's been great to have this quarterly opportunity to hear them discuss the classics.
 
I hear all the people wanting the obvious shoo-ins to all be put in at once but...

That would mean we don't get to hear them talk about Chrono Trigger for 10 minutes some day, and I do not accept that future.
That's an insane assumption, not everyone has played these obvious shoo ins and I like hearing the Allies talk about it.

Once they're 10 games in the HoG, I'm most likely going to pick up every one I've never played (SoTN, SF2) and give them a go.
 

Auctopus

Member
This is an interesting thing to think about, though. When I think to the Western games that I'd want to put into the Hall of Greats, there's a bunch of Blizzard games-

When it comes to HoG (and Kill Your Darlings for that matter), the discussion does often come down to whether the game was a progenitor, highly influential, successful or critically good.

Whilst WoW wasn't stricty the first MMO, I think it ticks pretty much every box for HoG. It's a no-brainer to me. However, I played from BC to Cata which is arguably the Golden Age. When Jones brought it up in the first HoG, I remember Allies giving him a hard time for the game's current state which makes it a difficult nomination. It's also a difficult game to describe why it's so special to someone who hasn't put significant time in to it.

I haven't played it since the first few weeks of Legion and don't have any intention to return to the game but it's definitely a game that deserves to be in there for every reason.
 

Budi

Member
Different strokes, etc. I played Deus Ex on release and I wouldn't put it into the Hall of Greats. If anything I think Huber and Blood are higher on that game than most.

This is an interesting thing to think about, though. When I think to the Western games that I'd want to put into the Hall of Greats, there's a bunch of Blizzard games, there's HL, there's Doom and Quake (both should be in there), and in terms of pure legacy I'd probably go Wizardry even though that game scared the shit out of me as a kid.
To be clear, are you talking about Human Revolution or the original? Since I don't remember Blood talking about the original really, Huber has for sure.
Personally I could include both
. And the thing is, it's supposed to be Hall of Greats and not Easy Allies Hall of Fame. The point of the arguments/discussion is to persuade people who have no personal attachment to the games, ofcourse it hasn't maybe worked so well right now. So it isn't supposed to come down to just what they as a group enjoy the most, but what are the "greatest games." Which is ofcourse quite hard to define. But original Deus Ex is one of those highly regarded and innovative games that very much impressed people when it came out and still holds up among the modern immersive sims and rpg:s.
 
God I just watched the new Super Mario Odyssey footage of the Luncheon Kingdom and it so damn beautiful. Give me that game!!!! The art style of that kingdom makes it my favorite for sure, like damn just the shrimp and the mussels looked so cool.

Seeing the stream though made me wish I had the self discipline for a media blackout. It's gonna be a long two month wait.
We're almost there! Try to avoid it for the next 2 months.

I'm trying to avoid anything related to Odyssey after watching a few minutes of the Nintendo Treehouse E3 coverage, but it's rather difficult to say the least.
 

mcw

Member
To be clear, are you talking about Human Revolution or the original? Since I don't remember Blood talking about the original really, Huber has for sure.
Personally I could include both
. And the thing is, it's supposed to be Hall of Greats and not Easy Allies Hall of Fame. The point of the arguments/discussion is to persuade people who have no personal attachment to the games, ofcourse it hasn't maybe worked so well right now. So it isn't supposed to come down to just what they as a group enjoy the most, but what are the "greatest games." Which is ofcourse quite hard to define. But original Deus Ex is one of those highly regarded and innovative games that very much impressed people when it came out and still holds up among the modern immersive sims and rpg:s.

I'm about to disagree with a lot of this, but I want to make it clear beforehand that I respect your perspective; thanks for the thoughtful response to my post.

It is the Easy Allies Hall of Greats. There's no way to separate those two things. Entries are nominated by and voted on by the Allies alone. The choices they make and the arguments they provide are going to be fueled by their individual perspectives. If it were me, I could not make a compelling case for the original Deus Ex being in HoG, even though I recognize what was innovative and impactful about it at the time, because none of that stuff worked for me personally. The same would be true if Ben went up there and tried to argue that Joe Montana Football should be in the Hall of Greats based on its importance to the genre and its pivotal role in the success of the Genesis in the West.
 

sora87

Member
FF9 got screwed!
tumblr_n0amg4GMRs1rhxfs4o1_400.jpg
 

Budi

Member
I'm about to disagree with a lot of this, but I want to make it clear beforehand that I respect your perspective; thanks for the thoughtful response to my post.

It is the Easy Allies Hall of Greats. There's no way to separate those two things. Entries are nominated by and voted on by the Allies alone. The choices they make and the arguments they provide are going to be fueled by their individual perspectives. If it were me, I could not make a compelling case for the original Deus Ex being in HoG, even though I recognize what was innovative and impactful about it at the time, because none of that stuff worked for me personally. The same would be true if Ben went up there and tried to argue that Joe Montana Football should be in the Hall of Greats based on its importance to the genre and its pivotal role in the success of the Genesis in the West.
We can definitely agree to disagree! That's the beauty of video games, there's something for everyone. And absolutely their personal past with games plays a big part. Let's say that I'm merely hoping that they could detach themselves bit more from their personal nostalgia and listen to arguments when well made and compelling. I'm pretty sure Ben (if he believed in it) could convince me about Joe Montana Football even though I've never played it! And I do feel that sports games are very much unfairly overlooked by many "enthusiastic" gamers. Even Pyre got bit flack for it's gameplay before release for resembling sports too much, like that would automatically be a bad thing. If EZA will go purely by "nostalgia", many genres will get overlooked completely. And that would make Hall of Greats a sham!
 
Pretty much. Might as well just auto-add all the universally praised classic games so we get the boring stuff out of the way.

I'm with this, 100%. Debating if OOT is a "Great" is the least interesting part of these things. Also, nostalgia (of course it should be) is absolutely crucial in these votes as hilariously the most recently released game inducted so far is OOT.

If it were up to me, the next one of these would be each person bringing in a game to induct, that prior to the ceremony, at least 2 other Allies have signed off on that game being a "Great." That way each one of these games get their "time" and we don't waste 3 months at a time debating if Super Mario World is a "Great" or not. The "shoo-ins" really detract from the personality of the debate as no one really needs to be persuaded about Metal Gear being a "Great."

Whatever, I'm being nitpicky as hell as these are my favorite group streams they do by far. Guess I'm mostly just salty watching more recently released games get demolished in these votes and wish they were happening more frequently because who the hell knows where this World will be 3 months from now and I crucially need to know if Mass Effect 2 is a "Great" or not in their eyes.
 

Hasney

Member
We're not wasting 3 months. I want to hear whoever wants to speak about Super Mario World for 10 minutes. Don't worry, you other guys will get what you want in a few years.

In a few months, we'll have the exact same debate split pretty close 50/50 once more with nothing changed. You couldn't make everyone happy anyway, because I'd be annoyed if they just sipped "dead certs".
 

UrbanRats

Member
I'm with this, 100%. Debating if OOT is a "Great" is the least interesting part of these things. Also, nostalgia (of course it should be) is absolutely crucial in these votes as hilariously the most recently released game inducted so far is OOT.

If it were up to me, the next one of these would be each person bringing in a game to induct, that prior to the ceremony, at least 2 other Allies have signed off on that game being a "Great." That way each one of these games get their "time" and we don't waste 3 months at a time debating if Super Mario World is a "Great" or not. The "shoo-ins" really detract from the personality of the debate as no one really needs to be persuaded about Metal Gear being a "Great."

Whatever, I'm being nitpicky as hell as these are my favorite group streams they do by far. Guess I'm mostly just salty watching more recently released games get demolished in these votes and wish they were happening more frequently because who the hell knows where this World will be 3 months from now and I crucially need to know if Mass Effect 2 is a "Great" or not in their eyes.
I feel you.

In a way, it'd be more interesting to bring less games, and less obvious choices (less obvious choice: Last of Us, Portal, etc) and have them debate on them for longer, maybe having teams for each game.

That said, i still enjoy the current format, even if you already know some entries will never win, as long as they haven't gone through those 10 or so obvious titles, like OoT, MGS etc.
 
We're not wasting 3 months. I want to hear whoever wants to speak about Super Mario World for 10 minutes. Don't worry, you other guys will get what you want in a few years.

In a few months, we'll have the exact same debate split pretty close 50/50 once more with nothing changed. You couldn't make everyone happy anyway, because I'd be annoyed if they just sipped "dead certs".

I think I wasn't clear. The "shoo-ins" would still get their 10 minutes of time like the other nominees. Whichever person nominated it, would still speak for 5 mins and then the other 5 minutes would be the other Allies praising/shitting on that choice. Just instead of voting at the end, we'd have 9 games that were already pre-approved as no doubt "Greats." Meaning that we'd have more interesting (obviously, that's my opinion) debates going forward as we aren't arguing if Mario Bros 3 is a "Great" or not when only 2 games are inducted every 3 months.
 

ShadyK54

Member
We're not wasting 3 months. I want to hear whoever wants to speak about Super Mario World for 10 minutes. Don't worry, you other guys will get what you want in a few years.

In a few months, we'll have the exact same debate split pretty close 50/50 once more with nothing changed. You couldn't make everyone happy anyway, because I'd be annoyed if they just sipped "dead certs".

8oXBdLG.gif


At least this is turning out better than the discussion in the discord.
 

MetatronM

Unconfirmed Member
If I were to adjust the Hall of Greats, I would keep things basically as they are but slightly tweak the criteria for how games get in. Rather than saying "top 2 get in," which explicitly limits the number of entrants, I would set a point threshold, say 10 points or something like that. If it's only one game that gets there, so be it. If it's 3 or even 4 games that make it, then so be it. This prevents having to re-litigate things like Street Fighter II or Symphony of the Night that just barely miss the cut but still clearly have the general overall support to get in eventually and opens up a spot for something new to be discussed in its stead.
 

ShadyK54

Member
If I were to adjust the Hall of Greats, I would keep things basically as they are but slightly tweak the criteria for how games get in. Rather than saying "top 2 get in," which explicitly limits the number of entrants, I would set a point threshold, say 10 points or something like that. If it's only one game that gets there, so be it. If it's 3 or even 4 games that make it, then so be it. This prevents having to re-litigate things like Street Fighter II or Symphony of the Night that just barely miss the cut but still clearly have the general overall support to get in eventually and opens up a spot for something new to be discussed in its stead.

Ooh, I like this idea.
 

sora87

Member
If I were to adjust the Hall of Greats, I would keep things basically as they are but slightly tweak the criteria for how games get in. Rather than saying "top 2 get in," which explicitly limits the number of entrants, I would set a point threshold, say 10 points or something like that. If it's only one game that gets there, so be it. If it's 3 or even 4 games that make it, then so be it. This prevents having to re-litigate things like Street Fighter II or Symphony of the Night that just barely miss the cut but still clearly have the general overall support to get in eventually and opens up a spot for something new to be discussed in its stead.

9 point threshold and i'm in on this idea :p
 

ToonLink

Member
If I were to adjust the Hall of Greats, I would keep things basically as they are but slightly tweak the criteria for how games get in. Rather than saying "top 2 get in," which explicitly limits the number of entrants, I would set a point threshold, say 10 points or something like that. If it's only one game that gets there, so be it. If it's 3 or even 4 games that make it, then so be it. This prevents having to re-litigate things like Street Fighter II or Symphony of the Night that just barely miss the cut but still clearly have the general overall support to get in eventually and opens up a spot for something new to be discussed in its stead.

Hmm, yeah. I think this would be a good way to alleviate a lot of frustrations.

Personally I have no problem at all with the classic games getting their time to shine (and I think it's unfair to attribute it purely to nostalgia), but I can see why some people would be bored seeing the same game come up back to back, due to only two games being allowed in, when another game could be nominated instead. Especially since these streams are only once every three months.

But then again, only allowing two entries at a time adds a lot of tension and anticipation. So... I don't know.
 
hall of great is indeed a hall of greats but it's badly tainted by MGS1.

full list

Metal Gear Solid
Super Metroid
Super Mario 64
Street Fighter II
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Castlevania: Symphony of Nights


6/6 from japanese developers and most came out in the mid to late 90s.
 
Why, because it's the best game there and actually too good for the Hall of Greats?

I know it's the best game there, but that seems a little excessive!

all the games are 10/10 and MGS is just a mess. i don't understand how anyone can stomach the horrible writing.


while we're at it, the gameplay in TLOU most definitely sucks.
 

abrack08

Member
Dang, the Patron DnD campaign seems intense.

Per the summary in the new TTE episode description, they recently won a fight against 3 Nightengales and 3 red dragons. I feel like the current main party would stand no chance even against 1 legit dragon.
The patrons are the true heroes of Eos.

EDIT: Also is it just me or is there a weird echo-y kind of sound in the audio of episode? Doesn't really bother me, just sounds a lot different than normal.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
If I were to adjust the Hall of Greats, I would keep things basically as they are but slightly tweak the criteria for how games get in. Rather than saying "top 2 get in," which explicitly limits the number of entrants, I would set a point threshold, say 10 points or something like that. If it's only one game that gets there, so be it. If it's 3 or even 4 games that make it, then so be it. This prevents having to re-litigate things like Street Fighter II or Symphony of the Night that just barely miss the cut but still clearly have the general overall support to get in eventually and opens up a spot for something new to be discussed in its stead.

Ok, yeah, I could see them try this.

Can't comment on the point threshold. I have no idea.
 

_Ryo_

Member
So with the current DnD campaign seemingly drawing to a close, what does that mean for the future of Tabletop Escapades? Will there just not be any more new episodes or will they start a brand new adventure? If there's a new adventure would it be called Tabletop Escapades 2 or something?
 
all the games are 10/10 and MGS is just a mess. i don't understand how anyone can stomach the horrible writing.


while we're at it, the gameplay in TLOU most definitely sucks.

Hot takes for days. Is this Ian's secret GAF account?

Your opinion definitely sucks.
 

Philippo

Member
So with the current DnD campaign seemingly drawing to a close, what does that mean for the future of Tabletop Escapades? Will there just not be any more new episodes or will they start a brand new adventure? If there's a new adventure would it be called Tabletop Escapades 2 or something?

I want a new DM, i'd love to see Kyle crazy mastering it.
 

_Ryo_

Member
I want a new DM, i'd love to see Kyle crazy mastering it.

Would be interesting but I love Ben's DMing too much. He's so great at it. Nothing against Kyle, I think he's awesome, but I do think he'd be much more strict on the rules than Ben has been, which I feel might have the potential to be a bit less entertaining. I like rules but I also think it's okay if they're a little loose, as it allows for greater surprises and spontaneity.
 
Oh man, just got to the spiders part of Ben's RE3 playthrough. Hilarious. Sorry, Ben.

Started watching this recently. Ben's "nnnooooOOOO" screams are so genuine, it's hilarious.

Although I'm a bit disappointed with how Huber just tells him exactly what to do and where to go at all times.
 

ShadyK54

Member
So with the current DnD campaign seemingly drawing to a close, what does that mean for the future of Tabletop Escapades? Will there just not be any more new episodes or will they start a brand new adventure? If there's a new adventure would it be called Tabletop Escapades 2 or something?

I think they'll all create new characters instead of stopping completely. New characters, new story, etc.
 

Servbot24

Banned
Pretty much. Might as well just auto-add all the universally praised classic games so we get the boring stuff out of the way.

If "the boring stuff" is discussion of video games then why do we even have EZA :p

Y'all really shouldn't take HoG that seriously, obviously everyone is just going to vote for their favorite game, but that doesn't really matter, the point is having fun
 
You guys actually care that much who is in their fake hall of fame? The fun is in each person just gushing over certain games and all the hilarity and fun times with the group together. Why does it matter if Zelda gets in instead of Bubsy 3D?

Still a more prestigious hall of fame than the WWE tho...
 

Mista Koo

Member
You guys actually care that much who is in their fake hall of fame? The fun is in each person just gushing over certain games and all the hilarity and fun times with the group together. Why does it matter if Zelda gets in instead of Bubsy 3D?

Still a more prestigious hall of fame than the WWE tho...
Fake hall of fame? Buddy they're all made up, doesn't matter how much budget and prestige you give it.

And frankly the "real" one would be even more boring than this, it would have Pac-Man and the original Super Mario Bros.
 

Mikey Jr.

Member
You guys actually care that much who is in their fake hall of fame? The fun is in each person just gushing over certain games and all the hilarity and fun times with the group together. Why does it matter if Zelda gets in instead of Bubsy 3D?

Still a more prestigious hall of fame than the WWE tho...

No, it makes the final voting boring and predictable.

Thats the problem I have with it.
 
Just started the latest Table Top and was curious about the song Kyle starts to sing right at the beginning.

Was that the threme to BBT? I've never watched the show. I might now but I feel like a lot of the show has been spoiled.
 
We're almost there! Try to avoid it for the next 2 months.

I'm trying to avoid anything related to Odyssey after watching a few minutes of the Nintendo Treehouse E3 coverage, but it's rather difficult to say the least.

Same, I'm completely sold and I saw enough at the treehouse, I want to see as many new worlds as possible on launch day.
 
If "the boring stuff" is discussion of video games then why do we even have EZA :p

Y'all really shouldn't take HoG that seriously, obviously everyone is just going to vote for their favorite game, but that doesn't really matter, the point is having fun

You guys actually care that much who is in their fake hall of fame? The fun is in each person just gushing over certain games and all the hilarity and fun times with the group together. Why does it matter if Zelda gets in instead of Bubsy 3D?

Still a more prestigious hall of fame than the WWE tho...

NOTHING IS MORE SACRED THAN THE HALL OF GREAAATTTSSSS.

Obviously, I think (hope!) the criticism of the HoG is more tongue-in-cheek to go along with the spectacle that they make out of it, but it could be more entertaining in my opinion, which is always the goal. Just a slight bummer hearing Ben or Blood and someone else speak passionately about their not "shoo-in" game and then Damiani (not a criticism at all because his games deserve to be in!) just put up a layup that kind of shuts down the intrigue of the debate/vote as it's an "obvious" choice. Rather hear them argue passionately about "their" games rather than what are consensus "Greats" already which will steamroll the votes for the likely foreseeable years of debates.
 
Dang, the Patron DnD campaign seems intense.

Per the summary in the new TTE episode description, they recently won a fight against 3 Nightengales and 3 red dragons. I feel like the current main party would stand no chance even against 1 legit dragon.
The patrons are the true heroes of Eos.

EDIT: Also is it just me or is there a weird echo-y kind of sound in the audio of episode? Doesn't really bother me, just sounds a lot different than normal.
Haha yea. I joined the campaign when that battle started. It's been a wild ride. I went with the dragons when the party split
 
like 90 of the best 100 games ever are Japanese games that came out in the '90s. so what

Its pretty interesting the divide between Japanese output and Western output in the 80's and 90's. It seems the West mainly dominated the PC world and most games on consoles were Japanese.

Damiani, Friend Code about the best Western developed Nintendo/console games during the 90's?
 
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