Event Hack Chat Page 2

Started by Logan March 14th, 2016 10:42 AM
  • 8120 views
  • 55 replies

Logan

Age 28
Male
Salisbury, England
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted November 12th, 2021
10,414 posts
14.5 Years
Why did you cut out the most interesting part of the podcast? :c
You're confusing me slightly, we didn't cut anything?
Male
If I'm online, it's a safe bet I'm at a computer.
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted March 3rd, 2023
984 posts
17.3 Years
I watched it, was pretty solid. Only suggestion I'd have is to trim the length of those awkward pauses.
I haven't listened to it yet, but this is a major pet peeve of mine that leads me to not watch youtubers, listen to most podcasts, or really any amateur content. The pauses, umms, ahhs, and other useless fillers drive me crazy and can waste a significant amount of time. If I'm going to sit and give my attention to something for half an hour, there better be at least 29 minutes of actual, meaningful content in it. I can also read much faster than people talk, so I try to go for transcripts instead of videos/audio most of the time.

You should strive to maximize the amount of "stuff" you're getting across to the listener while minimizing the amount of time it takes to do so. Especially because longer-than-standard pauses don't really give you anything in podcast form. At least with video, you could pack the "information void" with gestures or facial expressions to give a long pause a point.

Either way, I'mma fire up the podcast and give it a listen. I'll report back with actual feedback once I've formulated some.
Male
If I'm online, it's a safe bet I'm at a computer.
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted March 3rd, 2023
984 posts
17.3 Years
Okay, just finished it. Let me start off by just saying what every other non-Brit is thinking. Dat accent, *swoon*. Now that that's over with...

I really enjoyed the podcast overall. I appreciated about 80% of the meandering that was happening. It was interesting and along the lines of what I wanted to hear in the Hack Chat. I think that the DCs and asking what happened should've been cut out, and I appreciate that Hashtag made no effort to rehash when they happened. I also appreciated FBI's insight into various things, as well as Lostelle and Hastag's insight into the community at large, sort of putting the pulse on it. Again, you have to shorten those long pauses though, and edit out the really long umms and ahhs (I noticed FBI doing this a lot) if it can be done without the listener noticing. They're infuriating. The shorter ones that flow quickly and directly into the next words are fine. Lostelle, I thought, was kind of quiet and a bit overpowered by everyone else. Like, I feel like maybe Lost had some lag and didn't get to jump in everytime he wanted to, because the listener gets the impression that he interrupts FBI/Hashtag to say his piece (which may have been lag).

This is the first Hack Chat, so I know that there's going to be some growing and squirming to get into the right size and spot for the topics and such. What I would like to hear are more in-depth analyses about why you think the hacking community is smaller. Why the overall quality of hacks has gone down. What can be done for the community in the long run? I feel like you brushed the surface of the topics that I was interesting in hearing about and then it just kind of stopped. I'd like to hear opinions and analyses about the general game design things that we have to consider while hacking, which I think would be more helpful for newbies than the general tips section. Sort of the theory behind a quality story, a quality map, quality content. Pacing, flow, etc. I have a ton to say about these game design-y particular things and how they could be applied in a hack; and would love to hear more from others or see a discussion sparked.

I'm probably in the minority, but I don't want to spend ten to fifteen minutes hearing about the hacks that the hosts like, unless it's in reference to a particular quirk or mechanic or example of something that they did right as a reference for the current topic. We all know what the popular hacks are. There's less than half a page of actual content in each hack release subforum. If I was interested in a hack, I'd look at its thread and save myself the listening time. The bit about Eclipse's sidequests would've been better served within a broader topic about the "thickness" of a hack's content, for example. That sort of thing. For all the time spent gushing about Gaia, there was surprising little that was actually said. You all didn't get into the meat of why you thought Gaia was good, just the superficial things. The hacks that you wanted revived was an interesting topic, but I wish some links to the hack threads and archived screenshots were included in the description. I remembered all of the hacks that were mentioned, but there are people here that will not. I'd also like to hear some of the things that you would've done differently in your favorite hacks. Like, maybe the hosts of the next Hack Chat could have some homework: they need to play through or replay a popular hack that's available, and then talk about the things that they might've done differently.

I think that refocusing the discussion to opinions and analyses of what is working and what isn't in our community, the theory behind game design that is pertinent to hackers, and less "I like this hack" and more of "Here are three things that made me like this hack and why, here are the things I would've done differently," would lead to a much more interesting and more passionate discussion from the hosts. I'd love to get involved if you want some ideas about what format these suggestions (if you want to run with them!) could take, or if you want a guest that has thought a lot about these concepts.

Admittedly, I had my doubts about how this was going to pan out initially, but I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the result. I genuinely hope this keeps up and has the time to mature into its full potential, because there is a ton of potential here.

Blah

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Male
Unknown Island
Seen 1 Hour Ago
Posted February 28th, 2023
1,924 posts
10.3 Years
Okay, just finished it. Let me start off by just saying what every other non-Brit is thinking. Dat accent, *swoon*. Now that that's over with...

I really enjoyed the podcast overall. I appreciated about 80% of the meandering that was happening. It was interesting and along the lines of what I wanted to hear in the Hack Chat. I think that the DCs and asking what happened should've been cut out, and I appreciate that Hashtag made no effort to rehash when they happened. I also appreciated FBI's insight into various things, as well as Lostelle and Hastag's insight into the community at large, sort of putting the pulse on it. Again, you have to shorten those long pauses though, and edit out the really long umms and ahhs (I noticed FBI doing this a lot) if it can be done without the listener noticing. They're infuriating. The shorter ones that flow quickly and directly into the next words are fine. Lostelle, I thought, was kind of quiet and a bit overpowered by everyone else. Like, I feel like maybe Lost had some lag and didn't get to jump in everytime he wanted to, because the listener gets the impression that he interrupts FBI/Hashtag to say his piece (which may have been lag).

This is the first Hack Chat, so I know that there's going to be some growing and squirming to get into the right size and spot for the topics and such. What I would like to hear are more in-depth analyses about why you think the hacking community is smaller. Why the overall quality of hacks has gone down. What can be done for the community in the long run? I feel like you brushed the surface of the topics that I was interesting in hearing about and then it just kind of stopped. I'd like to hear opinions and analyses about the general game design things that we have to consider while hacking, which I think would be more helpful for newbies than the general tips section. Sort of the theory behind a quality story, a quality map, quality content. Pacing, flow, etc. I have a ton to say about these game design-y particular things and how they could be applied in a hack; and would love to hear more from others or see a discussion sparked.

I'm probably in the minority, but I don't want to spend ten to fifteen minutes hearing about the hacks that the hosts like, unless it's in reference to a particular quirk or mechanic or example of something that they did right as a reference for the current topic. We all know what the popular hacks are. There's less than half a page of actual content in each hack release subforum. If I was interested in a hack, I'd look at its thread and save myself the listening time. The bit about Eclipse's sidequests would've been better served within a broader topic about the "thickness" of a hack's content, for example. That sort of thing. For all the time spent gushing about Gaia, there was surprising little that was actually said. You all didn't get into the meat of why you thought Gaia was good, just the superficial things. The hacks that you wanted revived was an interesting topic, but I wish some links to the hack threads and archived screenshots were included in the description. I remembered all of the hacks that were mentioned, but there are people here that will not. I'd also like to hear some of the things that you would've done differently in your favorite hacks. Like, maybe the hosts of the next Hack Chat could have some homework: they need to play through or replay a popular hack that's available, and then talk about the things that they might've done differently.

I think that refocusing the discussion to opinions and analyses of what is working and what isn't in our community, the theory behind game design that is pertinent to hackers, and less "I like this hack" and more of "Here are three things that made me like this hack and why, here are the things I would've done differently," would lead to a much more interesting and more passionate discussion from the hosts. I'd love to get involved if you want some ideas about what format these suggestions (if you want to run with them!) could take, or if you want a guest that has thought a lot about these concepts.

Admittedly, I had my doubts about how this was going to pan out initially, but I was pleasantly surprised and happy with the result. I genuinely hope this keeps up and has the time to mature into its full potential, because there is a ton of potential here.
There's quite a bit of insightful criticism here, which I can appreciate so thanks for that. I dc'd about 9 times the entire podcast because I kept kicking my ethernet cable, sadly... It was very much like a young school girl learning to handle the swings in a park for the first time. I'll be sure to not do that next time. As for the pauses and the "uhh" and "ahhs", I'll try to organise my thoughts before speaking!

This was pretty close to improvised, so I didn't have time to think about answers to some of these questions. Ultimately, my lack of practice with professional speaking started to show. It led to pauses and sounds while constructing an insightful answer, it's a personal flaw which I'd have to work on for future endeavors. I think the podcast, as many has mentioned previously, would do well with an overview of topics we'd cover & potential questions we'd answer. As for your suggestion regarding game design, I don't think any of us are professionally qualified to talk about that objectively. It's a very hard topic, and I feel like one person's ideal design may be flawed for a different person. In the end, we'd be able to give advice on things we think would make a good hack, based off of our own experiences, but I think an in-depth analysis about the topic (which sounds like what you're looking for) is hard to do. If that's OK with people, and the rest of the cast is up for the task, I don't see any issues :)

The first Hack Chat definitely had some rumbling around, and seemingly forced topic hopping. I believe these things will improve as it continues onward. Similarly, a lot of the host opinions on favourite hacks and such would be reserved only for the first episode. We wouldn't be talking about something like that every episode, as you'd be able to imagine. Part of the reason the Hack Chat episodes came out so brief was because we reckoned that the series wouldn't have any longevity if we covered too many bases at once. I think that idea would still stand true, but people seem to prefer we talked about certain things in more depth and for longer than we did. Doing that in conjunction with timestamps, we'd be able to keep relatively detailed discussions about topics and allow listeners to be able to tune into sections they're interested in hearing the most, while skipping sections which don't interest them.

Overall, a lot of good advice from everyone. All taken to heart, and I'll personally try to address the criticisms aimed at me in the coming episodes. Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad many people have a lot of things to say about it!
...
Male
If I'm online, it's a safe bet I'm at a computer.
Seen 5 Hours Ago
Posted March 3rd, 2023
984 posts
17.3 Years
There's quite a bit of insightful criticism here, which I can appreciate so thanks for that. I dc'd about 9 times the entire podcast because I kept kicking my ethernet cable, sadly... It was very much like a young school girl learning to handle the swings in a park for the first time. I'll be sure to not do that next time. As for the pauses and the "uhh" and "ahhs", I'll try to organise my thoughts before speaking!

This was pretty close to improvised, so I didn't have time to think about answers to some of these questions. Ultimately, my lack of practice with professional speaking started to show. It led to pauses and sounds while constructing an insightful answer, it's a personal flaw which I'd have to work on for future endeavors.
That's what the magic of editing is for! I umm and ahh a ton while speaking in unfamiliar situations. I don't think that it's a host problem, as sometimes it's necessary to do a long umm to let your thoughts catch up. Those moments just have to be edited out, and a ton of podcasters and youtubers will do just that for unscripted content.
I think the podcast, as many has mentioned previously, would do well with an overview of topics we'd cover & potential questions we'd answer. As for your suggestion regarding game design, I don't think any of us are professionally qualified to talk about that objectively. It's a very hard topic, and I feel like one person's ideal design may be flawed for a different person. In the end, we'd be able to give advice on things we think would make a good hack, based off of our own experiences, but I think an in-depth analysis about the topic (which sounds like what you're looking for) is hard to do. If that's OK with people, and the rest of the cast is up for the task, I don't see any issues :)
I would venture to guess that no one here is professionally qualified to talk about game design, which is why I suggested a sort of bridge to indirectly talk about it, with the "what I'd do differently" and "what's not working with the community" topic suggestions. I think that gamers (and by extension hackers) have a base-level intuitive knowledge about what is good design and what isn't. I don't expect a professional-level examination of these topics. I mean, we're hobbyists, but we should each have our own perspective and understanding at some level already when it comes to this. You don't need to be an actual game dev to share your insight, and the opinionated nature of how this will end up coming across from the hosts will probably spark interesting discussion within the podcast as well as hopefully cascade into discussions on the forums.
Similarly, a lot of the host opinions on favourite hacks and such would be reserved only for the first episode. We wouldn't be talking about something like that every episode, as you'd be able to imagine. Part of the reason the Hack Chat episodes came out so brief was because we reckoned that the series wouldn't have any longevity if we covered too many bases at once. I think that idea would still stand true, but people seem to prefer we talked about certain things in more depth and for longer than we did. Doing that in conjunction with timestamps, we'd be able to keep relatively detailed discussions about topics and allow listeners to be able to tune into sections they're interested in hearing the most, while skipping sections which don't interest them.
Good to hear. I think that there's a lot of longevity here, but I think the key to that is not to skim over several topics per episode. Pick one or two topics that may spark an interesting discussion with the hosts and milk them for half and hour.
Overall, a lot of good advice from everyone. All taken to heart, and I'll personally try to address the criticisms aimed at me in the coming episodes. Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad many people have a lot of things to say about it!
I'm one of the people that likes your no-holds-barred criticisms of everything as well as your confidence in what you're saying. The only real problem I had with your sections were things that should've been edited out. I also would like an episode going more in depth about the hardware things you brushed over, but I know that that will have to come much later once you're all more comfortable with how this works.

Crizzle

Legend

Age 28
Male
USA
Seen February 3rd, 2023
Posted April 11th, 2020
943 posts
8.1 Years
That was an interesting listen. Happy I gave it a shot.
That FBI guy doesn't come off as a very likeable person, but it's good to have a guy like him on the podcast. It's always interesting to hear different viewpoints on podcasts like this one.
Also, I'd recommend perhaps telling the hosts/guests(whatever you call the people talking on the podcast) about what topics will be discussed or questions asked beforehand. Just so they can be more prepared to respond.
I'm looking forward to hearing a variety of topics being discussed. Keep it up.
Pokemon Savage Silver
Check out the crappy hacks that I made:

Credit to Corazon(or whatever he calls himself now) for banner.
Pokemon CAWPS
Pokemon Outlaw

Logan

Age 28
Male
Salisbury, England
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted November 12th, 2021
10,414 posts
14.5 Years
You should probably update your first post, hashtag.
Done :)

Okay, just finished it. Let me start off by just saying what every other non-Brit is thinking. Dat accent, *swoon*. Now that that's over with...
My accent is awful, proper farmer hahaha

I watched it, was pretty solid. Only suggestion I'd have is to trim the length of those awkward pauses.
Appreciate it.

Thanks for all the fantastic feedback so far, hopefully we can only improve from here. I shan't go too in depth with my replies as I feel all bases have been touched already for me. I really do appreciate it all and would love to see it keep coming, even one person having listened to us ramble and enjoy it is enough for me to keep going.

Definitely want to get someone in to interview for the next episode. Is there any in particular you guys would like to have a listen to? Really would appreciate some suggestions.

Crizzle

Legend

Age 28
Male
USA
Seen February 3rd, 2023
Posted April 11th, 2020
943 posts
8.1 Years
Just wondering, will there be a schedule for future episodes or will you guys just make them whenever you find the time?
Pokemon Savage Silver
Check out the crappy hacks that I made:

Credit to Corazon(or whatever he calls himself now) for banner.
Pokemon CAWPS
Pokemon Outlaw

Logan

Age 28
Male
Salisbury, England
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted November 12th, 2021
10,414 posts
14.5 Years
Episode #2 recording date is now confirmed as 10/04/16. If there is anything, or anyone, you'd definitely like to see in #2 now is the time for final submissions! I've been toying with the idea of possibly also livestreaming it as we're recording, obviously it wouldn't be as polished as the finished article but it's an idea I'd like to throw out there.

Spherical Ice

Age 25
Leicester, UK
Seen 34 Minutes Ago
Posted February 20th, 2022
5,251 posts
15.5 Years
Watching livestreams back tends to be annoying too, even if the chat is included on screen, because it essentially necessitates watching the video as well as just listening, whereas with prerecorded things there is no comment interaction which can be less confusing.

DizzyEgg

Age 25
Male
Poland
Seen March 23rd, 2023
Posted April 23rd, 2020
794 posts
9.3 Years
Episode #2 recording date is now confirmed as 10/04/16. If there is anything, or anyone, you'd definitely like to see in #2 now is the time for final submissions! I've been toying with the idea of possibly also livestreaming it as we're recording, obviously it wouldn't be as polished as the finished article but it's an idea I'd like to throw out there.
My candidates are:
- FBI
- Touched of blessed memory
- Spherical Ice
- Deokishisu
What I'd like to see:
- more talk about hacking itself than romhacks
- more advanced ASM/C/graphic related topics

Logan

Age 28
Male
Salisbury, England
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted November 12th, 2021
10,414 posts
14.5 Years
We've recorded episode 2! I decided to hold back on using an interviewee this time around but it will definitely be happening for episode 3. Achromatic was unable to join us again due to our weird recording schedule but he will definitely be around for episode 3 as well.

We decided to talk about how to start out with ROM Hacking; tools you need, advice etc. and that took up a long time but we also briefly talked about Pokémon Vega (which will be covered in more detail for episode 3), Pokémon A New Dawn and Hack of the Month for April. I hope you all enjoy it when it's uploaded :)
Male
Seen April 19th, 2019
Posted January 28th, 2017
147 posts
8 Years
It's funny how you guys went into ledges, because the route I'm working on right now uses ledges as terraces. You say ledges should only really be used for a certain purpose and don't really work on an aesthetic level. So I took a screen of my WIP map and wondered if this is like a bad use of ledges, and if it is, should one instead endeavor to use the mountain tiles for ledges?
Spoiler:

Great listen this time guys, much cleaner and engaging than last time and the mapping talk was as informative as it was enjoyable. I look forward to the next one.
Edit: I didn't know my hack was up for HOTM, the demo version up right now isn't really accurate anymore in regards to anything but story and is still very much in its infancy. Thanks, though.
Seen November 20th, 2016
Posted November 20th, 2016
417 posts
8.2 Years
It's funny how you guys went into ledges, because the route I'm working on right now uses ledges as terraces. You say ledges should only really be used for a certain purpose and don't really work on an aesthetic level. So I took a screen of my WIP map and wondered if this is like a bad use of ledges, and if it is, should one instead endeavor to use the mountain tiles for ledges?
Spoiler:

Great listen this time guys, much cleaner and engaging than last time and the mapping talk was as informative as it was enjoyable. I look forward to the next one.
Edit: I didn't know my hack was up for HOTM, the demo version up right now isn't really accurate anymore in regards to anything but story and is still very much in its infancy. Thanks, though.
I think the mountain tiles + stairs would look better for your maps. Take a look at a map like Sevault Canyon for how you could emulate elevation.

This episode was far easier to listen to thanks to the editing, so good job :) I'm not sure how much editing played into this, but you guys also seemed a lot more cohesive. Unfortunately, as I was listening to your discussion on basic tools like script editors and map editors, it became really apparent that what Dizzy suggested above on more advanced topics probably won't work out that well. I initially thought the idea sounded really good, but the podcast format forces you to talk about things in the more abstract level, and seeing how little detail you can reasonably put into basic things like overworld scripts, I can only imagine how murky discussion of things like graphical hacking will be. I'd love to be proven wrong, of course. Overall, nice podcast, but I was really disappointed by the lack of FBI elitism. Please bring it back, it made it more enjoyable.

One thing I'd ask - could this possibly be put somewhere besides youtube? The youtube format seems better for when you're on the computer/have it playing in a tab while doing something else, but I tend to listen to podcasts while in transit. You need to have the youtube video opened in a phone to listen to it which prevents you from doing anything else which is why podcasts on youtube aren't really a common thing. If it were on some pure audio host, it would be a lot more convenient.

Blah

Free supporter

Male
Unknown Island
Seen 1 Hour Ago
Posted February 28th, 2023
1,924 posts
10.3 Years
I sealed away my elitist remarks, some of it poured out, but most of it was sealed. It was torturous to not bash Advance map and calling bad things good, but I have endured. Last video's top voted comment was, "Fire FBI", so I thought I'd be nicer this time :D

So before recording we talked about how we'd try to incorporate advance topics. It became apparent that it wasn't going to be feasible to explain without the visual aids that would be present in videos. Also, Youmu, Hashtag and Achromatic are all excellent hackers, but I don't think they know enough about the technicalities required to speak about graphical programming for the GBA in C. It'd just end up being me rambling and that sort of takes away from this podcast's collaborative aspect.

If you want a graphics on the GBA tutorial using C, you'll have to beg me sufficiently enough :^)
...

Crizzle

Legend

Age 28
Male
USA
Seen February 3rd, 2023
Posted April 11th, 2020
943 posts
8.1 Years
This one was better than the last. The better editing made it much easier to listen to.
It'll be interesting to see who the guest will be.
Pokemon Savage Silver
Check out the crappy hacks that I made:

Credit to Corazon(or whatever he calls himself now) for banner.
Pokemon CAWPS
Pokemon Outlaw
Seen January 3rd, 2017
Posted January 3rd, 2017
270 posts
9.7 Years
I sealed away my elitist remarks, some of it poured out, but most of it was sealed. It was torturous to not bash Advance map and calling bad things good, but I have endured. Last video's top voted comment was, "Fire FBI", so I thought I'd be nicer this time :D

So before recording we talking about how we'd try and talk about advance topics it became apparent that it wasn't going to be feasibly explainable without the visual aids to be present in videos. Also, Youmu, Hashtag and Achromatic are all excellent hackers, but I don't think they know enough about the technicalities required to speak about graphical programming for the GBA in C. It'd just end up being me rambling and that sort of takes away from this podcast's collaborative aspect.

If you want a graphics on the GBA tutorial using C, you'll have to beg me sufficiently enough :^)
Heck yeah I'll beg for that!
へ(°°へ)

__(。__。__) *please*

へ(°°へ)

__(。__。__) *please*
MissingNo avatar created by Bajilla over at DeviantArt.

Logan

Age 28
Male
Salisbury, England
Seen July 19th, 2022
Posted November 12th, 2021
10,414 posts
14.5 Years
It's definitely not finished! We will do the Pokémon Vega episode at some point, do not worry about that. We've all just been caught up with other stuff but the next Hack Chat is definitely in the works, the current idea is to focus around the Community ROM Hack and have as many of the team involved as possible. It was meant to be last Sunday but a few things got in the way, I may try and do it this Sunday though. Beauty of this is that we don't have a set timeframe and can just do them whenever we see fit, although I must admit 6 months is a bit too long a break.