Everquest With John Krikorian - Part One

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Players

Squidge

Jay

JohnK

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Content Warning

Before we even begin, it’s worth noting that John brings up some heavy things in this episode. It’s all preceded by warning klaxon

Squidge plays an example during the intro

and the topics he touches on (albeit lightly) are pretty dark - there’s talk of abuse and a suicide attempt. I promise you that what John has to say has a happy ending.

The warnings for John’s contents appear at 25:47. At this point, John talks about some of the folks who have been on his show who have been through some very troubling times, but where able to turn their lives around due to the friends that they made due to the shared experience of Star Trek.

check the chapters tab in your podcatcher, in case you want to skip straight by this section

Once 27:37 rolls around, these potentially worrisome topics have passed us by.

Please listen responsibly

Show Notes

This month we’re joined by John Krikorian of the Trek Profiles podcast. We don’t usually talk about Star Trek a huge amount on the show. In fact, writing up these show notes

a month ahead of release

I can see that we’ve only referenced three Star Trek titles on the site so far:

But after this episode, I’m expecting that number to escalate

who can say? We’ll have to wait and see, I guess

Anyway, John has a wonderful podcast that you should go listen to if you’re interested in the Star Trek franchise and it’s fan base.

We started our conversation with a minor tangent on fandom, and how you should like what you like. In John’s words:

John K:

I don’t understand this Star Trek vs Star Wars thing. The only thing that they have in common is that they both have Star in it… You can like both, you can like one, or you can like neither

and he has a great point there about fandom. I’ve always lived by a quote from Sherman T Potter (of MASH)

I don’t think I’ve dropped too many MASH quotes on the show

If you ain’t where you’re at, you’re no place

meaning: “if you’re not being true to yourself, then who are you being true to.” Go like the things that you like, and let that flag fly. No one is going to pick on you or treat you badly because of what you like, and if they do then they don’t deserve your time.

John then drops some wonderful knowledge about how “red shirts” aren’t the most likely to die on away missions in the original Star Trek

here’s a link to an article discussing the maths involved

which, pretty much, debunks the most common myth about the original series.

The Trek Connection

We asked John about his podcast and whether there’s a “best” series. For him, his favourite

in his words, "there is no best"

is The Original Series, and mine is Star Trek: Voyager - or as I put it:

Jay:

it’s Die Hard in space

even though the writers of Voyager never really took their own premise (being lost on the other side of the galaxy, with very limited resources) too seriously. As John points out, there’s a wonderful super-cut of every time they fired a photon torpedo, showing that they had a lot more than they announced in the first episode - and here it is:

then again, it’s a TV show so we shouldn’t really take it too seriously

John then told us the story of how he got into podcasting and it’s quite an interesting tale, to be sure. It includes moving from New York out west, attending conventions, the Star Trek: The Experience attraction, and sharing his experiences as someone who lived near the biggest conventions.

when discussing the guests that John has had on the show, he touches on some dark things

You’ll notice the warning klaxon which fire at 25:43. These are the warning sounds that we added in post-production, because John was about to touch on some potentially upsetting things. By 27:37, he has finished talking about the potentially upsetting points, and everything is back to normal

well, our version of normal that is

We then have a discussion about how the communities and media around us can help to make us take a moment and really think about the lives we lead, and how we might be affecting others around us. We’d be interested to know which games you’ve all played that have made you step back and reflect on what you’ve just witnessed. Some of John’s are:

• Bioshock
• Alien: Isolation

John also brought up this article about the AI in Alien: Isolation, and how well engineered it is. There are two AI systems in the game: one which knows about the game state, and one which controls the Xenomorph. The Xenomorph AI isn’t told the entire picture by the game state AI.

I then bring up the fact that Alien: Isolation can capture your audio

as in, you the player, outside of the game

and places that into the game. Which is an amazing way to increase immersion.

John K:

If you see Mr. Munchy McMunchface, you’ve lost

And I admit that I had never finished the game.

is that a gamer confession? We should totally bring that segment back

John’s Recent Games

• Gang Beasts

This is the lighter of the games that John has been playing as he’s been playing it with his son on his brand new.

with WiFi

gaming laptop.

If I’m completely honest, this game looks like a tonne of fun. And I think you’ll agree, based on the trailer

• Detroit: Become Human

Which is something that John has been having trouble with, based on the fact that there’s no real save option, that there are many, many branching narrative points, and that some of the story points are rather challenging from an ethical point of view.

I’ve been wanting to play this for a long time, as it seems to ask a lot of questions about what it is to be human

in the same way that Philip K. Dick asked those questions in his writing

Squidge’s Recent Games

Squidge has been waiting for the release of a game since 2012 - that’s when it originally came out in Japan, and the Western release been held off until earlier this yea

2020, in case you’re reading these notes in the future

and that game is:

• Phantasy Star Online 2

Anyone who has been listening to the pod for a while

or the folks who know us in real life

will know that both Squidge and I are HUGE fans of the PSO series.

• Fall Guys

Squidge and I had been playing this game with, soon to be guest, Z-Boi and the Cynical Developer

ding

the night before recording this episode

we recorded this episode on August 15th

And we both agree that it’s a tonne of fun to play - except for when there are hackers in the game. The controls are stupidly simple, the design and look of the game is wonderful, and the sense of community

again, if the hackers aren’t playing

is amazing.

One thing that Squidge wanted to bring up was that he had received a USB Duke controller from Hyperkin

as in, one of these

and he has been playing

• Fallout 4

Squidge:

I’ve been playing Fallout 4 with this, and it’s been a challenge

and here’s a shot of Squidge’s Duke controller:

Jay’s Recent Games

• Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy

I love everything about the Phoenix Wright entries in the Ace Attorney series: the music, the character design, the simplistic controls, the puzzles. Everything.

Seriously, how amazingly chill is this:

that’s called "Maya Fey ~ Turnabout Sisters Theme"

you know, so that you can Google it

• Resident Evil: Revelations 2

I’ve really only been playing this for the raid mode, which is a wonderful example of the “shoot ’em up” type of game that John references early in the episode

the sort of "pick it up, play it for 10 minutes, put it down" kind

• Fall Guys

I’m still

two months after recording this episode

unable to impress just how wonderfully silly this game is, and just how much fun it is to play.

Simple Games with Incredible Depth

John brought up The Stanley Parable as a way to discuss simple games which have incredibly deep, rich story lines. And that took us on a journey of discussing games with similar set ups

John K:

first of all, if anyone out there has never played it: you should. And second is: do not, DO NOT read about the game.

Nimbus III Games

For those who are new to the pod, we have a section called “Thunder Plain Games” which might be vaguely reminiscent of a certain programme on BBC Radio 4

but for copyright reasons, it is completely different

The usual rules the Thunder Plain Games are:

• You have been trapped in the Thunder Plains
• You will get help, at some point in the future
• Before you are sent there, you can pick a number of video games to take with you
  • You can have an Internet connected game, if you wish
  • But you cannot tell anyone that you are stuck in the Thunder Plains or ask for help

We challenge all of our guests to come up with a short list of games that they would take with them, in order to keep themselves busy whilst waiting for help to arrive. And John was no exception, however we’d decided to rename it the Nimbus III games for one episode.

John’s chosen games are:

• Civilization VI
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• EverQuest

John’s rule about “no fast travel” sounds interesting to me, especially since the world in the Elder Scrolls games is HUGE. It also reminds me of my one-in-one-out rules for buying games on my Switch.

Squidge and John then talk about of the interesting achievements that folks post on the Skyrim subreddit

warning: it’s reddit, so be careful

Things like:

• Pacifist runs
• No dragon runs
• No fast travel runs
• No level-up runs

Talking about these wonderful challenges, reminded me about the Nuzlocke challenges that both Squidge and Ik take part in when playing Pokemon games

and our own Nuzlocke-like challenges for PSO

which Squidge kindly explains to us all. He also talks about taking a controller, turning it upside down

with the buttons facing the floor

and playing through a title like Sonic the Hedgehog. I brought up the E.T game, and bring up the video game crash…. again. We also bring up crunch in video game development, which was incredibly prescient

please, be kind and treat people nicely

One of the last things that I brought up in the episode is Wikipedia’s list of Star Trek games, which goes all the way back to 1971.

External Links of Interest

• Support us on Ko-Fi
• Our Facebook page
• Us on Twitter
• Trek Profiles
• Trek Profiles on Twitter
• Star Trek: The Math of Khan
• The Omega Directive
• Star Trek: The Experience
• Roddenberry Podcasts
• Daily Star Trek News
• The Perfect Organism: The AI of Alien: Isolation
• Cynical Developer
• The Duke controller
• Nimbus III
• Skyrim subreddit
• Nuzlocke challenges
• “We have important news to share with you”
• Wikipedia’s list of Star Trek games

Music

Links to the music used in the podcast can be found below. Definitely check them out, because they're amazing tracks by awesome musicians.

• Intro music is Among The Stars, from the Cosmos Music Pack by Muz Station Productions
• Spoiler Break music is Spectrum (Subdiffusion Mix) by Foniqz (BandCamp)
• Pallet Cleanser music is Breath Deep Breath Clear (Wu Chi) by Siobhan Dakay
• Outro Music is I N e e d Y o u 私の側て by G.H (removed from BandCamp)