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C-Euro posted:This Starbucks PSL hotline bit at the start of 525 is unlistenable lmao OK wow you were not kidding.
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Sep 4, 2020 06:43
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sexpig by night posted:yea it's pretty clear they just didn't feel they needed to drill into their publisher's contracting policies and all. You can say that's lazy and/or naive of them and all if you want but it's pretty impossible to get some kind of malice from it when they almost instantly went 'oh drat, okay let's make this right then'. It's not lazy or naive either; it's literally how the entertainment industry works. There's no reason you would ever see your producer's contracts with anyone else involved in the project unless you're self-producing or you're in the financial department. Like with their TV show, it doesn't matter that they were the stars, they wouldn't even have access to, say, the camera crew's contracts with Seeso.
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Sep 4, 2020 08:43
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Breaking news: Travis did not pay for his sex-pert degree!
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Sep 4, 2020 14:33
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Zero One posted:Breaking news: Travis did not pay for his sex-pert degree! Good, college should be free
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Sep 4, 2020 14:34
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kidcoelacanth posted:Good, college should be free  this is praxis imo
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Sep 4, 2020 15:11
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I am finding myself enjoying the latest episodes of Graduation quite a bit. Wish it didn't take so long to find its footing, but seems to be on a good stride now.
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Sep 4, 2020 18:48
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I'm enjoying Graduation recently, yeah, but there's something that's been nagging at me a bit. Is that twice now that Travis has just said 'nah that didn't work' when the dice said it did? Griffin's nat 20 resistance and the Commodore just sorta ignoring Hold Person to summon Gray anyway .
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Sep 4, 2020 18:55
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Given that they seem intent on keeping this to a certain length he may have just railroaded a touch to bring in the next element of the plot moving along. Makes for better radio too.
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Sep 4, 2020 18:58
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i mean, in my experience with rpgs a natural 20 isn't necessarily an automatic success, so the first part of that doesn't seem super egregious
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Sep 4, 2020 19:02
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Correct, iirc that’s a house rule that’s pretty ubiquitous. I think some systems do have that rule officially though.
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Sep 4, 2020 19:05
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C-Euro posted:This Starbucks PSL hotline bit at the start of 525 is unlistenable lmao Bip Roberts posted:Jfc that was the ultimate in engaging "viral" ad comedy material on exactly the level it was written to. No subversion whatsoever, just what the Starbucks ad agency thought was a good way to sell coffee.
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Sep 4, 2020 22:46
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I did not enjoy the latest episode of graduation at all. The conversation with Gray seemed really plodding and pointless, but then they went into a hell dimension and I thought it would get a lot better. But it didn’t, and they end up by passing what could have been a fun fight to have an NPC rescue them so they can talk to some other important NPC. It’s frustrating, because graduation shows these glimmers of fun like Justin throwing the ice knife at the commodore, but then turns into more boring monologues.
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Sep 5, 2020 00:37
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VaultAggie posted:I did not enjoy the latest episode of graduation at all. The conversation with Gray seemed really plodding and pointless, but then they went into a hell dimension and I thought it would get a lot better. But it didn’t, and they end up by passing what could have been a fun fight to have an NPC rescue them so they can talk to some other important NPC. It’s frustrating, because graduation shows these glimmers of fun like Justin throwing the ice knife at the commodore, but then turns into more boring monologues. Yeah, Graduation is getting better but that episode didn't do it for me. The conversation felt really strange considering that you had this bunch of presumably competent NPCs who didn't do or say a single thing while a demon prince was right in front of them. That's better than Travis roleplaying with himself, of course, but it felt as if they weren't even in the room at all. I'm also still annoyed by Travis' fixation on casually putting Pit Fiends everywhere. A single one of these guys is supposed to be a challenge for a max-level party! It's like if Travis were running a Star Wars game and every three sessions went "Suddenly, twelve super jacked Darth Vaders appear!" because he can't think of a better way to convey danger to his players who spent 20 minutes sassing the Emperor, who left in a huff after poisoning a few of them.
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Sep 5, 2020 01:09
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Munch Squad doesn't have to be laugh a minute for me to enjoy it. Sometimes it's less comedy about gross food mistakes, and more morbid fascination from the ad copy itself being off the wall bonkers, like that retro one from the 90s where they randomly wedged in Bill Clinton and AIDS references. By the time the Starbucks call got past 4 weird-rear end options off the main menu and still kept going for double that amount, I was absolutely baffled over how and why a marketing executive for the largest coffee chain in the world thought this was a good way to connect to customers, not to mention the effort they had to put into it. They had to hire voice actors, audio mixers, promotional staff, and test audiences for this piece of poo poo hotline that nobody in their right mind would connect with or be directly influenced to buy their products. It's insane that it exists at all, and I was pretty much  the whole time while listening to it.
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Sep 5, 2020 04:26
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I think the frustration is that Justin interacted with the advertising in the way it was designed to be interacted with. By not subverting anything, he just amplified the advertising campaign for an international business known for their tax avoidance. The segment was just an unpaid advert. Where's the humour in just reading ad copy without adding anything, or in this case, just playing their telephone advert straight onto your podcast.
Tears In A Vial fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Sep 5, 2020 |
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Sep 5, 2020 11:44
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Yeah a big problem with a lot of Munch Squads is that Justin hasn't realized yet that companies will often make promotional material stupid on purpose so people will go "Wow this is stupid" and share it around to show their friends how stupid it is.
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Sep 5, 2020 12:12
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I was just baffled they didn't say a word about the off-brand Sam Elliot on the phone.
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Sep 5, 2020 15:12
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Tears In A Vial posted:I think the frustration is that Justin interacted with the advertising in the way it was designed to be interacted with. By not subverting anything, he just amplified the advertising campaign for an international business known for their tax avoidance. The segment was just an unpaid advert. Where's the humour in just reading ad copy without adding anything, or in this case, just playing their telephone advert straight onto your podcast. The humor is the child that got run over by the wheels of the hayride. In what way do you think they could have "subverted" it more than they did? Like yes, the function of ads is just to make you think of the product, and the only way to "win" against ads is to just ignore them. But they want to make comedy by making fun of them, so talking about the ad is inevitable. I'm as socialist as the next young Millenial, but people on this forum react to the existence of ads like vampires being burned by communion wafers sometimes. Ads exist. It's okay to make humor but making fun of them. Does that technically do the work of the ad for them? Yes, but so does having eyes and happening to see a billboard or something.
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Sep 5, 2020 18:16
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I'm not sure that having eyes and seeing a billboard is the same as a comedy podcast playing a companies advertising campaign into my headphones under the guise of entertainment
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Sep 5, 2020 18:35
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You're right, the comedy comes from making it into a bit where a kid died on a hayride. If you don't like it, that's fine. I'm not saying you have to. I'm just getting tired of people acting like they're trying to play unadulterated unpaid ads every episode, rather than trying to make comedy, even if it didn't land for you.
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Sep 5, 2020 18:47
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It's good because they made a single joke in a 7 minute segment. It's good.
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Sep 5, 2020 19:02
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they should do the thing they did on the Seeso show and make the brothers bleep out all brand names
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Sep 5, 2020 19:32
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Fred is on posted:they should do the thing they did on the Seeso show and make the brothers bleep out all brand names You’re forgetting the part where they named themselves after brand name sodas I’M SPRITE PEPSI
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Sep 5, 2020 20:01
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every time they talk about how taco bell gives them diarrhea, taco bell gives them a check for a cool thousand dollars
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Sep 5, 2020 20:18
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engaging with Brands and Capitalism uncritically is a shame, but failing to be particularly funny about it makes it a sin
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Sep 5, 2020 20:43
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The one thing that was very positive about the latest Graduation is that I think it's the first episode in over twenty hours' worth of content where the PCs spent the entire time in the same room. Overall, I think TAZ's problem since Balance is that the boys all want to tell four different stories, and they desperately try to help one another do that. Like, imagine if in Balance, a third of each episode was dedicated to Merle/Magnus/Taako all being in solo situations with NPCs like in Amnesty/Graduation, and in the end Balance being even remotely as popular as it ended up. Sawbones was really good. I adore Syd and Justin's awareness over the past half-year, but it was nice to return to weird medical history for a minor break.
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Sep 6, 2020 02:55
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the only thing worse than them getting secretly paid for munch squad is if they aren't getting paid for it
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Sep 6, 2020 03:05
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I thought it was funny how the options just kept going, but everything after that was a whiff.
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Sep 6, 2020 03:06
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Plan Z posted:The one thing that was very positive about the latest Graduation is that I think it's the first episode in over twenty hours' worth of content where the PCs spent the entire time in the same room. Overall, I think TAZ's problem since Balance is that the boys all want to tell four different stories, and they desperately try to help one another do that. Like, imagine if in Balance, a third of each episode was dedicated to Merle/Magnus/Taako all being in solo situations with NPCs like in Amnesty/Graduation, and in the end Balance being even remotely as popular as it ended up. Yeah, I don't think Balance would have been half as good without the party members bouncing off of one another in weird situations. In a live environment solo scenes are best done sparingly because they often mean the rest of the table is checking their phones the entire time, but podcasters have the luxury of doing them more often thanks to more flexible scheduling. Some popular shows use them to great effect, but ever since the Amnesty intro arc had them all split up (which was cool in theory but went on way too long), the brothers have been using solo scenes as a blunt instrument that they constantly hit players with to make character development come out. So yeah, it's good that Travis seems to be losing that bad habit.
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Sep 6, 2020 16:31
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inferis posted:the only thing worse than them getting secretly paid for munch squad is if they aren't getting paid for it 
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Sep 6, 2020 23:43
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Ariong posted:I thought it was funny how the options just kept going, but everything after that was a whiff. That is the joke that the Starbucks dudes thought was funny too.
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Sep 7, 2020 00:47
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Fred is on posted:Yeah, I don't think Balance would have been half as good without the party members bouncing off of one another in weird situations. In a live environment solo scenes are best done sparingly because they often mean the rest of the table is checking their phones the entire time, but podcasters have the luxury of doing them more often thanks to more flexible scheduling. Some popular shows use them to great effect, but ever since the Amnesty intro arc had them all split up (which was cool in theory but went on way too long), the brothers have been using solo scenes as a blunt instrument that they constantly hit players with to make character development come out. Meanwhile, reading the Reddit, even the people who have been holding out and defending Graduation have seem to given up. Travis' hyped-up secret society is shown as useless, a player tried to affect his story without his permission and was denied, and a trip through a searing, agonizing hell lasted half as long as the average banal Graduation conversation.
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Sep 7, 2020 05:09
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I'm still enjoying it and if anything Reddit hating it makes me feel a little better about doing so. I think the initial misstep with the setting aside, they've gotten better about their banter and having fun in a scene, which it felt like something they were hesitant to do earlier on.
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Sep 7, 2020 06:42
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Plan Z posted:Meanwhile, reading the Reddit, even the people who have been holding out and defending Graduation have seem to given up. Travis' hyped-up secret society is shown as useless, a player tried to affect his story without his permission and was denied, and a trip through a searing, agonizing hell lasted half as long as the average banal Graduation conversation. Yeah, the secret society stuff is pretty egregious. I already didn't care much about that plot thread, but the last episode made them feel like just five useless people hanging out in a basement that they lost the keys to. In another game this could be an intentional storytelling choice, but here I doubt it. Shinjobi posted:I think the initial misstep with the setting aside, they've gotten better about their banter and having fun in a scene, which it felt like something they were hesitant to do earlier on. This, however, is also true!
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Sep 7, 2020 15:36
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I can tell Travis is trying a lot harder to yes-and stuff, too. You can say a player tried to affect his story and was denied, but I'm pretty sure he's going to try to make the shoulder injury relevant later on instead of just glossing over it. It's baby steps but it still helps a surprising amount for my enjoyment.
PetraCore fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Sep 7, 2020 |
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Sep 7, 2020 15:47
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Plan Z posted:Meanwhile, reading the Reddit, even the people who have been holding out and defending Graduation have seem to given up. Travis' hyped-up secret society is shown as useless, a player tried to affect his story without his permission and was denied, and a trip through a searing, agonizing hell lasted half as long as the average banal Graduation conversation.
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Sep 7, 2020 17:46
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Mr Phillby posted:allowing Justin to anticlimatically murder Clint's nemesis. I haven't kept up at all, did this really happen? Did it like... Create some serious animosity between their characters? I'm not knowledgeable about D&D etiquette, but that seems like a lovely thing for Justin to do, and Travis to facilitate?
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Sep 7, 2020 18:05
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Sudden Loud Noise posted:I haven't kept up at all, did this really happen? Did it like... Create some serious animosity between their characters?
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Sep 7, 2020 18:23
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Sudden Loud Noise posted:I haven't kept up at all, did this really happen? Did it like... Create some serious animosity between their characters? That's a bit of an odd framing - they accused Clint's nemesis, he was on trial at the secret society, he cracked and basically confessed, was going to escape, was paralyzed by Griffin, was rescued by big bad, at which point Justin stabbed him. I expected the others to jump in and try to kill him before the big bad could stop them, and maybe for the secret society to do something, but it didn't come off as lovely at all. Edit: also, by d&d rules-as-written that almost certainly wouldn't have been a kill anyway, so I don't think Travis fudged that specific part. Trapick fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Sep 7, 2020 |
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Sep 7, 2020 18:24
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Mr Phillby posted:Travis ruining an encounter with the big bad with his overpowered secret society npcs I think there's a middle ground between NPCs being overpowered and impotent. They can be established as unable to stop a specific threat without seeming completely powerless against it! The scene could have been used to both raise the stakes and show the secret society as a force to be reckoned with. Instead, Travis could have had Gray come in super pissed and menacing, so mad that he probably doesn't care about the truce in that particular moment. Someone like Jackal tries to sneak up on him and gets his rear end handed to him as a result, the Unbroken Chain people do a cool team maneuver to save their ally, maybe the Fir Bolg still decides to attack the Commodore in the confusion but only succeeds in injuring him (yeah, a single spell in D&D is rarely an instant kill anyway, at least at that level), the adults tell the Thundermen to escape while they try to push Gray back into his portal, Gray somehow corrupts the Unbroken Chain's secret entrance so that they now need to go through a hell dimension to escape. Maybe one or two of the NPCs lives or dies depending on the Thundermen's actions before they leave. If they sass Gray about breaking the truce, he can just give a half-baked reason why that didn't count, or outright shrug and go "Yeah, well, I'm the one who set the rules, what are you gonna do about it?" and solidify his status as a heel who's still holding most of the cards. ...I'm script doctoring an actual play podcast, what is even wrong with me?
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Sep 7, 2020 18:37
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