Welcome back y’all! We had a supergroup episode planned for this week, where Eri and myself would not only be joined by Doone, but also Tacktix. Unfortunately Eri’s Internet has been out for a while, so she was unable to join us. As a result we changed the topic up a bit because the show we had planned was her brainchild. Still, we settled on talking about consequences in gaming, relating it to both in-game communities but also real life. There were some recent news stories that coincided well with the topic as well, so they were peppered among the discussion. We also had some issues with the recording software, which is nothing new for podcasters, so we ended up splicing a couple different takes together into one cohesive package. We tried out the Zencastr software which was rather reliable and may be what we use in the future, provided it continues to impress. Anyway, take a listen and as always thanks for your support!
Couch Podtatoes Epsiode 86: Consequences (runtime: 1:27:26)
What are we playing? (starts at 1:53)
Discussion: Consequences (starts at 13:29)
Host Contact information:
Izlain
Blog: Me vs. Myself and I
Twitter: @mevsmyselfandi
Doone
Blog: XP Chronicles
Twitter: @doone_buggy
Tacktix
Blog: Tough Love Critic
Twitter: @TaCktiX
Music Credits:
“Bit Rush” by Riot Games
“Starseed” by Mimosa (from the album Sancturary)
“Enchanted Rose” by Bury Your Dead (from the album Beauty and the Breakdown)
Couch Podtatoes is a podcast about gaming, though we might stray into other forms of media. Sometimes we use strong language, but we try to keep that to a minimum. All opinions expressed by us or our guests are our own and are in no way to be interpreted as official commentary from any companies we discuss. You can visit our official podcast page at Libsyn.com. Be sure to follow us on iTunes, and/or Stitcher Radio.
You can also find the show in video format at The Gaming And Entertainment Network YouTube page. Or, view it here:
Questions, comments and feedback are welcomed and encouraged!
Me Vs. Myself and I 
Doone makes a really good point about Dark Souls consequences are just consequences, while a lot of western games that I played do seem to give you positive or negative results for decisions.
I don’t feel games have the obligation of leaving you feeling good after playing, they only try to let you live experiences that you normally wouldn’t have. In my opinion, it’ll be impossible for a game to leave you feeling good no matter what they do because everyone’s experience is subjective. Getting a lot of reward may leave one person felling powerful, while another will think the game is hand holding you.
As for consequences, I feel those that are naturally made work best vs supernatural ones. An example of natural consequence is robbing someone along the road and a guard catching you, or the merchant defending themselves with mercenaries. An example of supernatural consequences are stat penalties for killing a non-flagged player. The problem with supernatural consequences is basically the devs saying “sure, you can do that, but we don’t like you doing that.”
LikeLiked by 1 person