Brazil, where hearts were entertaining June
We stood beneath an amber moon
And softly murmured “Someday soon”
Nice, I’m looking forward to hearing this one @rhamorim. I’m kinda shocked you didn’t make Tom talk JRPGs though!
An excellent podcast. I loved hearing about Brazil.
So @rhamorim, when your dad was in the States for his graduate degree, did you come up here at all? Because Urbana-Champagne is pretty close to me. In fact I have cousins who went there (but far later than your father of course).
And the bit about schooling and offering French and English in the official curriculum was also somewhat of an interesting shock. English, makes sense, I could see Spanish due to proximity, but French? Sure you border French Guiana, but that struck me as exceedingly odd. But your good English makes more sense now! Aside from the programming side, which requires reading it but not necessarily speaking, the fact your father teaches English? It all makes sense!
Well, I feel somewhat “unqualified” to talk about JRPGs, since I only got to play them very recently (and I only finished a few). I thought about talking about the Witcher series, but I felt like that would be better left for @Paul_cze . :)
In the end, I went for the games I played the most, and since Tom has played and enjoyed Guild Wars 2, I think it was the best choice. Who knows, I might talk about JRPGs at a later opportunity. :)
I went to the US by that time, but I stayed in San Francisco and my father met me there. I haven’t been in Chicago, sadly, but if I ever go there, you can bet I’ll let you know. :)
Well, in the early 1900s, France was very influential, and French was somewhat popular in the “enlightened” fields. It wasn’t until the 1940’s that English became the universal language it is today, and until the 60’s, the default “foreign language” taught in Brazil wasn’t English or French, but Latin. But English and French (and Spanish to a lesser extent) were options in many schools here, out of tradition more than anything. It is kind of odd, yes, but there are a lot of odd things about Brazil. ;)
I mean your explanation made sense, but of all the things you talked about Brazil, that one struck me the most. The rainforest bit, the criminals leaving ‘tourist’ areas alone, the development and history? All things that I nodded and made sense as I either broadly knew them, or fit with the mental conception of Brazil I had. But that one struck a dissonant cord.
To use a music analogy, as I know you are one, it’s like hearing someone play the chord of A Major, but then throwing in a B♭ in the middle. It was mentally jarring ;)
Yeah, I get that. :)
Noooo I would have loved hearing you talk about it :D
But thanks for the reminder, now I am going to listen to this podcast :)
I really enjoyed this podcast. @rhamorim was a very interesting and well-spoken guest, and Tom is a consummate interviewer.
Thank you, especially the “well-spoken” part. I often second-guess myself when speaking in English - I always feel like I’m not expressing myself or communicating ideas clearly, so I never think of myself as “well-spoken”. It’s good to know people feel differently. :)
And I’m absolutely sure that Tom makes the whole thing a lot more interesting and fluid than it would otherwise be. He’s a pro, no doubt about that. I feel honored to have had the chance to do this podcast with him.
As much as a mess as GTA Online is, playing it and Watch Dogs multiplayer has convinced me all MMOs have been obsoleted, Guild Wars 2 included. We’re just seeing a lag before reality catches up with developers /players.
In every case, you have an engine built to accommodate hundreds of players in a phase/instance. And the level of interaction is much weaker because of the technical limitations. Then you play Watch Dogs in multiplayer and go “wait, do I ever interact with those 100 other players in that MMO I was playing?”. And you don’t, you just play a single player game in a weaker engine, and then play PVE/PVP in an instance with 16-32 players.
And how many people do the GTA and Watch Dogs engines accommodate? About 16-32. With much better gameplay. I.E. better combat than “lock on and play piano with the number keys”. Better game design than “do this boss fight perfectly, or everyone dies and you start all over”.
Add me to the group of people who played GW1 as their first MMO. And… GW2 is, IMO, a better MMO, but a worse game, at least from what I remember about later GW1 games.
GW2 is a MMO, and not a SP game disguising as one, but GW1 gameplay of hunting for skills for your perfect build, of more flexibility in your build, while probably worse in regards to simplicity, functioned as a bit of a CCG to me, building the perfect “deck”.
Also, later GW1 games allowed you to create your own party, so you actually could make that “perfect” build for around 4 characters if memory serves, adding to that a bunch of “mercenaries” you had less control over.
And I can’t really say I prefer a proper MMO over a SP player disguised as one.
E parabéns Roberto, é preciso coragem para aceitar fazer um podcast noutra língua… :D
Hey, another Portuguese speaker! Are you from Brazil as well?
From Portugal. Sorry. :)
No need to be sorry! I’m just glad to see another Portuguese speaker here. It’s a nice surprise. I hope you’ll do a podcast with Tom someday! It would be nice to hear of Portugal and whatever game you choose to talk about.
And going back to the subject - GW1 has a special place in my heart. I loved the freedom you had with skills and builds in it, and it was an interesting world to be in. I think about going back every once in a while, but it isn’t as time-friendly as GW2 is, which is about the only reason I don’t play them both regularly. Also, my guild in GW1 is long gone from there, which is kind of sad. :)
Amen to those mesmer comments towards the end of the podcast. Let the other classes tend to their swords and shields, flame and death magic. Mesmers command the very ether of space and time. All others will be humbled.