Sacred Symbols, Episode 357: The Thread
Added 2025-04-30 19:00:07 +0000 UTCHi!
Submit your questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas for this week's episode of Sacred Symbols in this thread.
As always, please keep your inquiries well-written and pithy. Novels, poorly-written posts, etc. are politely ignored.
You have until Thursday, May 1st at noon ET to submit.
Talk to you soon!
Comments
Hey boys, Just writing in based off of the migraine discussed last week. I randomly started getting migraines about a year and a half ago and for the past year I have been getting botox shots to help from my neurologist. I have found that they do help a bit for the first month or so after you receive them, the issue is that for me it basically stops helping after that and you can only receive them every 3 months or so. I do question sometimes how much of it is a placebo or how much it does actually help. Have a good one gentlemen
Scott LaFontaine
2025-05-01 16:24:08 +0000 UTCHey Gents, This one is mainly for Chris but really anyone who’s played the Marathon alpha I’m enjoying it but I’m worried about selling this to my buddies. I think being able to rally a group of 2 people you know could make this a lot more fun and hoping that an open beta is planned so I might be able to convince my buddies to buy in. Some invite codes during this alpha would have been nice. I’m enjoying it and that’s as someone who’s never enjoyed extraction shooters at all. It is intense and disappointing when you fail but I’ve had some enjoyable moments with strangers and that extract dopamine is certainly the secret sauce. Do you think this is one that relative newcomers like me and their hopeful friends could be sold on or are you concerned that maybe this genre and on an understandable but also slightly challenging paid game price might be too daunting to get the legs it needs? Also, Colin, this is for you. I love this guy’s music. https://youtube.com/shorts/RikB-LvD-v0?si=RYYzHD190rVM9KFh
PopeMcDope
2025-05-01 16:08:41 +0000 UTCHey guys, who’s excited to spend $730 on an Xbox Series X????
Justin 24Hr
2025-05-01 16:07:48 +0000 UTCHey Sacred Crew. There will be a lot of focus on the layoffs at Respawn following the EA layoffs news, but I wanted to draw attention to the other studios affected, one of which being Codemasters with further news that EA has announced stopping all development on the WRC franchise only a couple of years after buying the license from Milestone games. This is sad times for the racing genre in which success seems to only be found in the hardcore sim space or kart racing, with the rare exception being Forza Horizon. WRC obviously didn't meet EA's expectations and I now wonder if they regret buying Codemasters in the first place as they have gone from working on 5 projects in Formula 1, Dirt Rally/WRC, Grid, Project Cars and Need for Speed to now just Formula One. Would you agree that EA may regret their purchase and that the racing genre seems to be on the decline?
Kurt Lewin
2025-05-01 15:15:42 +0000 UTCDear Sacred Crew, What are your thoughts on Physical vs Digital Media? I love movies, and can watch the ones I like multiple times, and hate that I have to find a specific movie through the various streaming services being offered these days. Especially now that they rotate in and out at various times. I personally see the value in owning the physical disc. It doesn't bother me to have to get up and put the disc in the system to watch it.
Andrew
2025-05-01 15:06:57 +0000 UTCHello my Sacred Slit Heads, Today is my 3 year wedding anniversary and my wife and I are going to spend it in Las Vegas. We leave the day this episode goes live for Patreon supporters “Patreon.com/laststandmedia” and I was planning on putting this episode on in the car since it’s a 4 hour drive. I would like to tell my wife “Natasha” that I lover her very much and how sorry I am for putting her through this torture between Colin’s Winnie the poo sleep habit, Dustin’s anime jars or Chris’ Trump impressions. I hope that you guys will have a rated G podcast and act accordingly for the sanity of my marriage. Thanks for everything, you guys are the best! P.S. Dustin don’t make this a time stamp and give yourself a break at this time.
Mark Melton
2025-05-01 14:14:23 +0000 UTCSacred Gents - I think we really need that Gamer summit to define terms and genres. There's so many articles breathlessly calling Expedition 33 a JRPG, and I'm pretty sure France isn't even in Japan. Perfect use for that JSRPG term. (Also, unrelatedly, would be nice for PSN store to have a Eurojank section someday)
towtansua
2025-05-01 14:10:56 +0000 UTCTom Warren reported that Xbox is raising prices. Series X by $100 to $600 Series S by $80 to $380 Games up by $10 to $80 And accessories also up as well. Fellas, will PS raise prices as well? Queue the “thanks Nintendo” comments.
NeO JD
2025-05-01 13:36:29 +0000 UTCHello Sacred crew. My name is Matthew and I’m writing in to offer a perspective on the infamous “Crying girl in the bathroom” story from the show in Virginia. I was at the show, along with my girlfriend, and it’s possible that I might stick out in some people’s minds because I was the audience member who spoke of the penis monsters in Persona 5 and having to replay a large chunk of the game when I gave Ann a hug and she took it the wrong way (if my Joker had a tattoo it would read Makoto 4-EVA). I am not the boyfriend of the girl who came in to use the bathroom when Nicole was already on the phone who then relayed the story here on the podcast. No. However, I am the boyfriend of the girl who was already hiding away in the bathroom when Nicole came in and began railing away about being “dragged to this fucking Sacred Symbols thing”. Yes, my girlfriend Amber was already there (and, yes, it is the color of her energy). She was there for the same reason, to get away from the show, although she was just in there quietly scrolling away on her phone. It was a funny experience for me when someone wrote in to relay the story that I had already heard that night and it’s always been cool that it’s become a part of the ongoing lore of the show. Amber’s never really enjoyed the show, although she does agree to just put up with it sometimes, and she wanted to go along for the trip to Richmond and didn’t want to be bored in the hotel which is why she went along to the show, however, as I said, she didn’t last. I meant to relay this story to you all in person at the VIP session at the show in Houston, however I missed the VIP session due to car trouble leaving my hotel (although, thankfully, I at least made it to the main show) and on that occasion, while she did accompany me to Houston, this time she had learned her lesson and just stayed in the hotel. When I mentioned to her after the latest episode that the girl in the bathroom had been having a migraine she said, “yeah, that was certainly possible……but she was fucking pissed.” We’d both agree though, migraines are no joke. And if you’re asking yourselves how could I be so disloyal as to remain with someone who hates Sacred Symbols so much that she would hide in a bathroom to get away from it, indeed, we had been together for 4 years at that point and are still together now 3 years later, all I could say is, well, nobody’s perfect. But she is pretty great. Love the show and if this ends up being read on the podcast then I’ll certainly have her listen. However, I then will be listening to the rest of the episode by myself. Cheers.
Matthew Cheatham
2025-05-01 13:27:06 +0000 UTCHey boys, For a decade we've been told ad nauseum that protracted dev cycles and ballooning budgets are an inevitably, and that gamers need to suck it up and accept that games will need to get more expensive to guarantee return on investment. Clair Obscur was made by 30 people, cost me 45 dollars, and I'm almost positive it's going to be my game of the year. I'm not buying what industry pundits and AAA studios are selling any longer. If your game takes 10 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to make, that's a dev studio shortcoming and I feel zero obligation to subsidize irresponsible wasting of time and money. Not every game needs to be Clair Obscur of course, but these teams to sort it out and focus their energies on what actually matters. Have a great one!
They hate us 'cause they anus
2025-05-01 12:30:54 +0000 UTCAfternoon chaps. First time doing this here so just a quick one for you guys about another cancelled Titanfall game and more layoffs of about 300 employees at EA and 100 of which working at respawn. This is terrible to hear and I hope the employees and their families aren't badly affected by it. I had seen that apparently Titanfall game was going to be an extraction shooter and I couldn't help but wonder what that would have been like. Does this show there is more interest in extraction shooter genre to developers than we expected and can we expected more showing up in the future if marathon has success. Cheers for keeping me busy at work and not blowing the place up.
My left nut
2025-05-01 12:22:36 +0000 UTCHey fellas. With all the talk on SS+ about the changes to the last of us season 2 from the game, does the fact that Neil is directly involved as essentially a co-showrunner ease any concerns? I actually like some of the changes and it helps me knowing he very likely created or signed off on the changes. Either way it weird being on this side after always hearing people complain about book adaptions. Cheers!
Kyle Day
2025-04-30 19:55:11 +0000 UTCHello CDC. Collin, last week you said you wanted the Tarkov players perspective on Marathon. While I can’t speak for everyone, I will say that from my perspective it doesn’t not look good. The major issue comes from the games focus on squads. In Tarkov, squad fill doesn’t exist and there are no separate queues. Solos get queued with 5 mans and every variation in between. This sounds bad on paper but is actually vital to the experience. While teams have a numbers advantage, they also have a massive disadvantage from the games lack of HUD telling you who your teammates are. Friendly fire is a real threat to teams who don’t communicate properly. This combined with the ability to kill a player with a single bullet to the face creates a level playing field for a variety of play styles. This does not exist in Marathon. The likelihood of a solo player killing a single person from a team is near zero since you go into a down but not out state and can be revived. Not to mention the extremely high time to kill prevents you from gaining any momentum against your opponent. Teams will always win. There is no victory state in extraction shooters. Your goal isn’t to kill all the other players in a match like a battle royal. Your only goal is to survive. Marathon feels more like a battle royal with extra steps. These are just the issues with how the game focuses on teams. I could write a book on all of the other issues I have. It’s a huge bummer since the lore of Marathon is incredible. I hope it finds an audience on consoles but compared to Tarkov, Marathon is unbelievably shallow. I think Marathon is technically a good game, but it’s a terrible extraction shooter.
Eric
2025-04-30 19:54:49 +0000 UTC
