[S2 E6] Episode 027 - Palword

The speakers are discussing a game called Powerworld and its similarities to other popular games like Pokemon and Breath of the Wild. They express their enjoyment of the game but also highlight its flaws and predict that it may not have a long lifespan. They also discuss the possibility of adding PvP elements to enhance the gameplay experience. They mention their disappointment with recent Pokemon games and express their hopes for the future of both Powerworld and the Pokemon franchise. Dude, we are in about 60 about two months. We're gonna be at a year from our first published recording It's pretty great. I don't think I've done anything consistently for a year besides work Be married. Yeah Marriages work. There you go. No, but I You know, yeah, no, it's like there's another thing. Isn't that a quote? Yep, and I hate work Three Welcome back to three to one backlog the podcast where we sit down and talk about games that we played From our backlog. I should probably streamline that and make it the same at some point Nah, dude, I like it being all over the place. Not perfect Perfect. My name is Alec and I am joined by I hello by James Caffeinated James caffeinated James. That's what we want. We we decided let's not wait till the end of the day. Let's get into it Yeah, I feel you know what man? I feel like generally by the end of the day. I'm kind of stupid anyway, so it you know It's good. I can I can go all day buddy all day and that's what we're gonna do No, so we are we are breaking into our Regularly scheduled releases where we actually announce what we've taught what we plan on playing and what we have played and all that good stuff To talk about a game that has just kind of been Weaving through the nation looming dude We Are going to talk about our world today and My goodness what a game yeah, so we might not be as structured as usual but we definitely wanted to just Talk about what we played so far and maybe talk about You know why we don't like it why why we do or why we don't like it So because it's it's very divisive. I feel like from from the stuff. I've seen online so yes this is this might actually be the Newest game we've ever done I think we've done some like within a couple months, and we've said this a few times before But I think this is officially the newest game like closest to release that we've ever discussed something Definitely, it's at time of recording it has been out for less than a month by one day Yeah, well Jesus Christ It has been out for just under a month By the time we've recorded this but tomorrow. It'll be as man one month anniversary. That's right So I definitely when I first saw this it was like okay. They're taking What they like this was what they had in their board meetings like what if we take? like arc survival and Fortnight and What were some of the other ones what it would have some breath of the wild and raft and then also throw Pokemon in the mix yeah, and then that's your game here you go. Yep My it does have a very breath of the wild it just feels like it ripped off every Nintendo franchise that you can think of You know and see that that's that's something else. I they were and again not structured by any means, but I Had never heard of pocket pair before so let me go see what else they made and I feel like this is kind of their formula like they're gonna they're gonna Look at already established games and see if they can pick Some of the things out of those games that people really like and start mashing them together yeah, and I Hopefully that's not too big of an assumption or a way of describing it But they've done an AI art. It's called art imposter, which has like in among us Kind of feel they've done craft opia which has more so than power world a breath of the wild aesthetic You like heavily heavily and then they have another one that they've done called over dungeon Which looks like art stone like a like a like a hard type game. Yeah a card game Yeah that they've mixed with other aspects. But again Aesthetically, it looks a lot like hearthstone. So they're Definitely Wow, it looks I could have showed me a picture of over dungeon and been like it You see the new hearthstone expansion right has been like no, it looks it looks just like over dungeon Yeah, so they're definitely like skirting that line of like Similar to but legally distinct from XYZ and it's it's where I mean, it's working for him One thing I haven't checked and I'm gonna check it right now as we record are these other things still in early access or have? Yeah, so Yeah Yeah, 2020 end of 2020. It's still in early access. So I have a theory kind of about these these games They're not gonna they're they're done. Oh, yeah They've sold their copies of the game and that's enough of it and they're not they might come out and if they do it's not Really gonna be very big. Yeah, but the hype of the game is gonna die faster than the game can come out and That's I think that's just this whole structure of it. That's the whole yeah, I mean let's see as as reported by The first comm Powerworld at the time of whatever they wrote this which was the end of January They had sold 12 million copies on Steam it's insane I mean 12 million times 30 say I'd say what times 25 just to for anybody that had sales and stuff or discount codes like They made a pretty penny off of this Yeah, definitely and I I don't see I don't think I would love for them to Expand on it a little bit. I think it's a really really good early access first draft Like not even a first draft like definitely an early access game for sure I would love for them to continue but I don't think I'm going to I don't think they will I really don't I? Feel like for the most part the game kills itself. Anyway, as all crafting games in my experience do yeah, you Get to a point where everything's automated and then you've you haven't beaten the game because there's not really an end in sight But there isn't anything left to do and the game becomes Self-playing and there's no point right? There's nothing to gate you and slow you down the way animal crossing I mean, there's only so much you can do in a day and then you have to wait 24 hours or you know Whatever to be able to do the next set of things and that's a very craft heavy type of game to They gate it so that way you can't just progress through the whole game and in two weeks and put out everything I definitely I think an easy fix For like the longevity of the game and again people to come back in to put that that barrier to Not making your base or your playthrough become fully automated would just be adding a PvP aspect You're you're going through and building yourself a base and these reinforcements and these Defenses for like some in-world things that will come through but they end up being more of a joke over time I definitely think if they add some PvP in there that this I don't think this would end near as soon as I Think it's going to yeah. Yeah, maybe it wouldn't but I also could see it Just it's such a the way the AI and stuff is in the game. I feel like it's just so Unpredictable that it wouldn't be difficult to do. Yeah You know find a way to cheese the AI and when I yeah Speaking of which this game kind of feels like it was created by an AI to me in so many ways Yeah, I mean nothing like I'm bashing the shit out of it. It's I've had fun like I want to keep playing it but It has such a like Non-human touch feel to it. It's weird It's very strange. I I really I this is this is a game in Think about Pokemon because I think that's the biggest Comparison a lot of people have what is to Pokemon right? That's it's such a big mechanic of both of these games That's I feel like that's why it's getting so much attention because Pokemon is so beloved by so many age groups and gamers Right across the globe. I really hope it doesn't just fizzle out. I would love for them to either continue it and Give us more that Nintendo won't give us for these types of games or I would love for Nintendo to get you know out of their ass and maybe Maybe give us I want to give us and by us I mean their original player base give us something to show that we've grown up a little bit because you and I played the What was the 1990? Eight the blue and red right? Yeah, so that first set of games here in America that that was that was us I spent countless hours Rerunning through that cartridge. Yeah that I've tried and I tried to keep up with it But by the time we got into I think it was like the gemstone one So like the early rubies and stuff I kind of started growing out of it a little bit So just lost access to those games. Yeah, I mean I still enjoy them But for there's a definite time period where I just lost access to playing handheld games because I didn't have handheld consoles You know for sure there. There's one there and there that But I grown-up shit, you know when Arceus came out Arceus has some problems But it was such like I I was so excited. I was like, oh, this is like the new generation moving forward This is what we're gonna see now away from that like that old Pokemon formula of Go to the town that they got the little sprites and many version things we're gonna like see full-fledged animations of all of these characters Pokemon and these Like fighting moves and stuff. This is what we're gonna see from now on and It was like whoops a quick flash in the pan and now we're back to the original Formula of having it on a handheld and being that same slightly top-down maybe isometric tangent play style so and I The newest Pokemon game with Scarlet Violet. Mm-hmm. Is that what you're referring to? Okay, so so that kind of had it was deceptive like you look at it and you're like you think it's gonna play the way Arceus did with just new stuff and and Everything but it it was very much a return to traditional just with the Almost like a skin that made it look new It still was very dry based, but it had the open-world thing. You could see the Pokemon out in the wild, right? Okay Yeah, I'm necking a fire on release. Yeah, so I mean I guess they're slowly moving towards it But I feel like Arceus was like where for me that's where I want. Yeah, that's where I've been more. Yeah for a while So to kind of get back on topic, hey, we're we're fast and loose. We decided to record this Moments ago, it's okay. Yeah, I just got done Yeah, folding laundry, but so I do What I hope comes of this is that I I would like to see game freak the makers of Pokemon Kind of step it up a lot. I don't want I don't care about lawsuits or whatever I don't really feel I really don't I know a lot of the stuff is similar, but it's not a one-to-one copy It's similar Right, but right this just goes to show that there is a lot more that can be done with monster training and monster catching games Then what game freak is letting us do? Yeah, so that's what I'd like to see or 100% 100% All right. So back to power world that there is a more than Back to wait Pokemon. There's more than just the catcher capturing monsters and stuff They do have crafting which I do I like crafting in a lot of these games But I think what you alluded to earlier is eventually because of how they structured it with your pals being able to assist It all becomes automated. So you don't really have to do anything anymore. Once you get to a certain point Yeah, and and then there's no progression and then again, yeah So the credit the crap taking the crafting at face value for the character doing it, I think it's alright I mean, it's it's similar to a lot of other games that do crafting like Arc and and some of those other ones that are like survival based Crafting games, but I feel like the addition of letting your pals jump in there while cool at first Definitely Once you once they completely take over. It's like well, what am I doing here? And you just keep going out to do Pokemon stuff and I I just feel like there's a weird disconnect there Yeah, because you're not actively playing anymore. You're not you don't have I'm thinking so We've put a lot of time into another game that is similar raft Yes, and it was so much fun when everybody was playing it But then at some point you don't have to think about anything anymore because you're you're all you need to do is and this Game has even more automation in it But in raft specifically you don't like it when you start out like you have to think about food and water Like it's it's a true survival and then at some point and I guess that's how it is But you know in real life too, but at some point you don't have to think about that because you're just acquiring it all Automatically everything that you need you just what there's no Incentive to leave the boat and go out and collect things because you have bees living on your boat to make honey, and you've got trees that produce lumber and Install that shit and that's kind of the way this game goes to I think maybe even a little more You know aggressive that's kind of something. I thought about raft when we were playing it is like I Wanted a little bit more, you know, and Imagine if there was PvP player versus player player versus player or just another activity to do they they have a story in it Which was okay It wasn't the main thing But I think if they expanded that out a little bit or just give you more activities more things if they could combined some of the mechanics from raft and like Sea of thieves, I think that'd be kind of cool maybe getting to where you have more Piratey kind of things that are that are in your wheelhouse Maybe pocket bear should get on that next just massive should absolutely should introduce PvP. Yeah, I was saying if Raft was still early access because I think we got it when it was early access, but it looks like it's Full on now it was early access when we got it and I think it came out as a full game while we were still Playing. Okay. I've got a hundred and twenty two hours into that game. You really I played a lot crafting type of game I can tell like you really do enjoy getting things set up to be automated and that's in real life as well Yes, my fleet of 3d printers is behind me. Yeah, so yeah, I can you print a pal back there You know, I found a multicolored print of the power world logo Yeah, well, you know just a black background with white lettering and I it's on my list of things but Yeah, anyhow, so yeah crafting I think I think I'll see I think I'll make this exact comment on Every aspect of all the parts that how world has Where it's a good start but then as you progress that particular aspect of the game like crafting it just kind of fizzles out and It loses some of its luster the more you're able to do right, right? So catching the power Yeah, it's really cool at first, but then it slowly becomes less fun and just not tedious But just it loses some of that luster. Yeah. Well, you're not Expanding anything with it. I guess it's not like they're yeah the bad the fighting that fighting aspect of it is pretty minimal I feel like Pokemon we have to compare it. Obviously. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah The reason that that kind of stuff stays fun is because you're like there's stats for each one of them So yeah, every you might have one that's the same level, but it has slightly better like hidden stats So it is better. So there's a reason to try and seek out there's the shiny ones which are in this game They're called lucky I guess yeah, but that's like they're you know that's another aspect that adds longevity and fun to Pokemon and then Just in general I hate to say it but the combat in a Pokemon game Even at the worst like the turn-based that's slow is still better. Oh, yeah combat in this game Yes, because I think Something they to me if they were to expand this game and keep keep at it The combat in this game is more like your fortnight where it's a shooter game because you can end up crafting Firearms and doing that so I feel like they were they were trying to set themselves up to make it PvP but then we're just not going to so I Definitely think when it comes to a combat system. They were eventually going to be leaning more in that direction then With the pals fight it now I say that also with the caveat of like there are items in the game in power world that you can like Turn your pals into weapons whether it be with guns or there's like a Flame one where you can turn it into a handheld flamethrower that kind of thing So there is a combat with pals, but not Not what you would really expect of like oh, I'm gonna set my fire guy down and he's gonna do all of his You know different fire stuff, but we're not gonna see vine whips and and bubble blasts and all that kind of stuff We're just gonna see a different colored Energy blast and that's kind of it. Yeah, they're all they all kind of act the same I just think the attacks end up being a different color but it seems like they were wanting in how I'm interpreting as they were wanting to lean more into the Shooter aspect for late-game. Yeah, which is cool but what I feel like if they were gonna try and reinvent that in a way that was more enticing or Exciting you should make it so that you control the pals rather than a yes Yeah, and then every pal would have a different move set or way of playing, you know The flying ones take flight, you know The ones on the ground you have to run around and dodge stuff and then you have ranged attacks or melee attacks Depending on what it is. That would be cool It'd be a lot more think about the combination of like different fights and things you could have That would you know seeing how Arceus progressed Pokemon from something Kind of like breaking that mold one thing. I wanted to see that. I've been wanting to see with Pokemon for a long long time is Controlling the Pokemon themselves Yeah, and I I definitely think power since they were you know, putting twists on everything They really could have done that very well. I feel yeah, and it would have Felt I don't know if would have felt maybe more original than having guns in the game, but yeah, yeah, it's weird It's clearly parallels Pokemon, but it's not it's not the same. There's a lot. There's enough difference Yeah, I think different enough to say it's not an exact copy, which it's not an exact copy. I just you can see Inspirations on a lot of the stuff and and all that so I think they're just skirting the line for sure so yeah, you end up having a lot of like you you make guns and armor and all this so there is a Shooter aspect to this game and pass that I think that's kind of it I mean, we didn't get too far off the first island. So there are boss fights that are like their Gym leader equivalent, I guess you could say We only did one of them, but there are a ton more apparently I've done a lot of the boss Pals with yes, and I played a fair amount with with our other friend Jason Because he has a server and that's shown me a little bit more of like what the endgame can be like He's still putting plenty of time into the game. Yeah, he is one of the 450,000 players that still play They lost over 75% I think, you know, that's that's already I was before we hit record today I was looking for a quote. I saw something. Yeah, so I didn't I didn't find this but I Wanted to reference it and it was from the developer when they were asking about The player drop and I said, I think we've mentioned why I think is dropping is that there definitely is an end cap to what? You can do there is not There isn't anything fun to keep you engaged. They made their sales They've from a business standpoint they've made they've done what they set out to do, but anyway for a player I don't think there's enough to keep you engaged Now for months and months and months definitely not years and years in its current state, but one of the quotes That somebody by the name of Bucky, which I believe is one of the developers He said quote this emerging how world has lost X percent of its player base discourse is lazy But it's probably also a good time to step in and reassure those Reassure those of you capable of reading past the headline that it's fine to take breaks from games So he was coming at it with like yeah, I mean kind of a realistic take of like yeah We're we're not trying to make it so you play and play and play forever Like these trying to say like, you know You can play power work for a little bit then you can go play something else like it's okay to switch between games Yeah, you can go from power world to craftopia, which is four years Publisher take a break. Yeah he said Past that you don't need to feel bad about that power world like many games before it isn't in a position to pump out Massive amounts of new content on a weekly basis new content will come and it's going to be awesome But these things take a little bit of time so At face value. I mean, hopefully that's that's true and they are going to do stuff past like past Fixing bugs that are already present that that I think should be a baseline But I would love to them actually put the work in and maybe reinvest some of that 12 million sales 20 well, there was 22 points. Yeah 12 at the time of that article I'm writing but I definitely think I'm hoping that they'll actually Continue it. I don't know. I don't know what the numbers are on their other games But I feel like they really struck a chord with power world And it yeah, it's everywhere everybody even people that don't haven't played it. I can't shut up about it. Yeah Yeah, so here's a quote from me I Got nothing. I don't know. It's just I got nothing. I got I got nothing Oh, we gotta stop we have to stop buying People have to stop buying games that aren't done because this I agree any game. I agree with that Yeah Any game that isn't built they've made enough money that they can just pull the rug out and never finish this game And they have no incentive to finish the game just like we have no incentive to keep playing it There's your fucking quote, you know to that So I what I want to know is what are Steve because we do a lot of our transactions on our purchasing through? Steam and I don't know of any other platforms. I know it was on power was on game pass This might be a difference there. But what are the parameters of marking your game as early access? So are there any are there any really rules? Do you have to have a And I'm saying this without actually knowing so bear with me here But you know it I would hope as a consumer That if you're gonna put a game out and charge money for it 30 bucks wasn't the worst price point in the world However, I am buying a game for $30 that isn't finished I know it's not finished, but I'm buying it under the assumption that they're going to to Try to make it better So my quote my hope is is that when when a when a publisher comes out this says hey steam I'm gonna put this game on that's not quite done yet, but maybe I need some financial help. Okay, that's fine But they need to maybe put out or agree to like I don't know a timeline Maybe an update schedule like they need to say. Hey, I'm I'm gonna be accepting money for this. Maybe I need to put I don't know Stretch goals like on Kickstarter or something like oh if we get to this amount we can focus on this aspect, right? But just put something out there of like hey We're still working on it, and this is what our plan is that complicates things a lot though because it's a lot for one company To enforce you know that like the yeah theme is basically iTunes for video games That's a lot for them to enforce And then it would also There's so much I think like if they don't meet meet those demands than what you're entitled immediately to a refund because of that like that's a player I do think that steam does a pretty good job Refunding people if a game doesn't make it out of early access. I think for whatever reason I think As far as like saying they get refunds, but I want I want information. I want transparency That's what I want it a date Daisy ever come out Sake is that that one that recent one Daisy? Though when I come out 2018 it finally released that game When I don't know when it was announced for like alpha But that game was in yeah six years before it actually came out it was in in like Early access nobody gives a fuck about that game anymore and the thing is too with with Every with the way everything moves now We are going to see power world 2.0 made by another company another crafting game that has you know monsters in it That can help you we will see another company make that game before power world comes out officially So I did I did look up the steam Rules partner dot steam games comm this is their document on early access there are seven rules That they need to follow Okay first you must include steam early access branding and information on the current state of any game third-party sites where you're distributing steam keys early access, so basically It needs to be marked as early access cool. Do not make specific promises about future events So maybe because it's an early access. They don't want you to say oh, hey We're going to do this thing, but we might not we don't know if we're actually going to be able to so Basically, I think how that's going is don't promise stuff you can't do Early access titles need to be available to customers through steam. That's fine. Don't overcharge steam customers, so You know yeah in the case of power 30 bucks. I mean, it's they're clearly More expensive games, so okay make sure you set expectations properly everywhere you talk about your game Be transparent with your community is what they're saying here, and that's that is something I would love to see a little bit more there Right what is that? What what are your what have you what are your tentative plans? Like oh, we we went early access January of 2024 But within six months we would like to have you know X amount of updates not promising just updates So like every month we're going to give you What we're doing right just something Don't launch early access without a playable game that makes sense and don't launch an early access if you're finished You got to have something in between We haven't started yet, and we're done so somewhere in between those Where it's actually playable that's fair, so I get that I I don't know Anywho, I haven't I haven't jumped back into power world since we got out of it a couple weeks ago I know you and Jason have been playing a bit and not Calling me so and not what and not calling me Well we've I mean I've jumped on it's like very random, but yeah, it's another thing too is that we Here's another issue. I'm very random. I'll send you pictures of like on Just like random times of the day. I'm awake. Yeah Sorry good. I want to say this is another thing that a point. I guess to make about this game It's that if you So if if I want to play with one of my other friends Or you want to play with one of your other friends you have to pick whose game you're playing in yeah Yeah, and then you're essentially starting from zero, so I've started from zero on your server And then I started from zero on his server So if you join his you're starting from zero and he's him and I both are already far ahead And then the same thing too, so that's another thing that makes these types of games very frustrating is it's not MMO Massive multiplayer online, it's it's very much tailored to the one-person game So you can never really just jump in with all the throws and play and catch up and do that the way you could with You know like Diablo and all that that kind of noise and that was an issue with raft as well everybody ended up having their own raft and You know we had to pick who who were we playing with today, and who are we gonna? Advance today right right that'll forever be an issue in these types of games And I feel like it somehow adds a little longevity to it, but I think I have it right now. It's Because there's no real Survival issue honestly in power right it's not a big issue right now if they introduce PvP It would become a massive issue or if the if you're What are they called in power raids like the random raids that happen if though Depending on how those scale to the player verse the if they heard That I think I think that could be an issue, but right now There's no level restriction on if I come in as a level one and you're level 50 or whatever the max is But you've made like all this crazy gear. I can use all of your gear I just might not like hit as hard So I don't believe so I I think right now. It's not as big of an issue in its current state Well, it won't but I can see how it can become an issue and the starting over from server to server really sucks It does suck because you want to play on the account that you've worked on you don't like Baldur's Gate has the same problem Yeah Yeah, yeah, so but then I don't know how they could because that's if you don't play it like that It's very easy to break a game like this because if you play on your account and you have you know your server Everything is crazy good right and someone just logs in and you just dump on them like a level 99 Pally wally right then you know you've broken their game instantly you know true of them a gun and unlimited ammo They don't have to think about anything. Yeah, it is hard to figure out how to do it without being game breaking but I think being able because what are some of those other like games for children like Maple Story or something where you can like visit their islands or something isn't that what? What's the one you were talking about earlier? Animal Crossing yeah, can't you like go visit other people's places? Yeah, but there's not like a competitive aspect to it right, but I think I didn't see it You know you know if if if I come visit you In power world does the player have levels or is it just your base your player does we also okay? So I think I think if you transfer over Just you I think it will be okay. I go. I'm gonna show up naked Yeah, show you know show up. Yeah show up naked I'm like oh I'm or like I don't know a basic set of like Transfer clothing where it's just like clothing with like one armor and everything right I think there's ways to do it That I don't think would be a huge stretch, but to where you're not starting fully over But also not bringing something across the server where it's like Going to have a weird influx. I think there's a I think of a middle ground that wouldn't be too terrible I wonder what the incentive of playing would be on somebody else's server other than just being with the boys then because yeah Yeah, you're not really advancing, but yeah I'm visiting I want to see what you built you can see what I built But I don't want to have to like Go through the animation of like waking up on a beach then like walking all the way the fuck over to wherever your base is I don't want to go through all that right So I'm sorry But no, I think I think there would not Be a relatively easy to program middle ground where you could bring over just a person With just basic like clothing. I don't think that was like I don't think that would be too terrible Well, but if they just so happen to start at level one. Yeah, that's yeah, I think that it does done done Yeah, I think I think there are tons of ways to do it. I don't think any of them are really Going to have you know any real impact, but it doesn't matter anyway because no one's gonna play this game three months from now So You can do whatever you like by the time by the time this recording comes out It will drop to like 90% of its player base or 10% rather. Yeah, I wonder how many people still play Diablo Apparently, I know that's a good change. I would love to get back maybe one season Maybe when they so Diablo 3 a lot of people thought it was like a very good game later on and not so much at launch So maybe one day it'll feel fresh and everybody will dig in maybe what are your thoughts on power world? I I think it's a really good first draft. That's that's that's all I really have for it. It's It's got a lot of promising Aspects, but I I think it needs more. Yeah, and I think they I if if pocket pair just does If they're just gonna cast the checks and then move on to their next thing Whatever. The next thing is I'll never gonna mess with it. Yeah, there's gonna be there's gonna be no trust there So yeah I really think they they really struck gold with an idea like with with a new tape on an idea and If they have any like essence of being gamers themselves Which I feel like a lot of developers have to some degree maybe not all the time But if they if they relate to gamers in any sense, they're they they can't Without being total pieces of shit just cast the check and run and not run anything with it They I really think if they if they put some stuff put a little bit more TLC into this this could Be a game that lasts years Genuinely I genuinely believe that but in its current state It's fun for a month and then you got to move on to something else without question. Yeah My thoughts are it's power world is just like masturbating. It's fun for a little while it's more fun when you're doing it with the bros, but At some point you just you gotta you gotta do something else And With that I think we're finished side You You