They're releasing Syndicate on GoG Matt! I was totally going to use your kickback link, but apparently it's not out until Thursday... >=O

Also, on the Kotaku post about it, I was able to link your Syndicate interview with Sean Cooper. Hopefully some new people check out the channel! =D

I already voted on the YouTube page, but I'm voting again here anyway: Tass Times in Tone Town (Is that how it goes) for the next retrospective. I'm interested in seeing what that one is all about. It sound wacky. Not a word I generally find use for, but seems appropriate in this case.

Hey Matt, Thanks a lot for your time and your show. As a game developer - i love your show. 2$ went to you from me! Cant wait to see more. I wish you could make a show with John Carmack or Tim Willits or Kevin Cloud from id Software. Or Tim Sweeney from Epic. Have a nice day man!

Matt - Love the latest episode, it was awe inspiring to listen to Mr. Mandel talk about that period of history. (plus I never heard of AGDInteractive before...and thanks to that I am re-living my old adventures as King Graham!). But whatever happened to Matt Podcast?!?! :(((((

It's seems "achievements" have this function today, but not the gameplay. Throw 100 fireballs and you get a reward in form of a badge :D. Do you think it would work getting new skills from your main attributes? Raising strength will give you bruteforce skills and raising wisdom will give you new magic skills for example. Or would it be too boring for the player; not being able to fiddle around the spells and stats. Hoping that maxing out strength will lead to something good or maxing out wisdom will lead to the ultimate spell?

Have you ever have the same thought about classes? What if you would become your class. Raising just your strength would make you a barbarian.

That's a great question. It is possible to get too carried away the character creation process, because most people don't want to put so much investment into something before they've had a chance to play the actual game. So I advise having some pre-made characters already built as an option, or at least some templates to simplify it for people who don't care. However, I also like having the options there to really dig deep into the stats and such if that's your game; it's not something I love, but there are plenty of others who do.

I prefer character customization as an ongoing process. I particularly like the idea that you start off with basic choices, such as magic-user or fighter. Then as you develop the character you can select a special class like healer or AOE for the mage and archer or martial artist for the fighter, etc.

On a side note, I've been thinking a lot about how one thing we all love is learning cool stuff, and we especially like "hands on learning." A lot of games (Oblivion, etc.) have tried to have you learn skills by practicing them, but it's never been perfected IMO. I also am getting tired of all the branching tree systems out there for leveling and skills these days.

What I'd like instead is a system that closely follows your play styles and gives out a big stream of small bonuses and perks for particular applications or techniques. Since this wouldn't be something the player would control directly, you could really go to town with thousands upon thousands of them. For instance, if you cast magic missile enough times on kobolds, you could get a point for that particular skill and do extra damage next time. Or if you wear enough different kinds of chain mail, you could get a perk for appraising chain mail. These wouldn't be huge factors, mind you; just a constant little stream of perks and awards that would encourage players to both try new things with old skills or keep working on the diminishing returns, or perhaps you'd eventually max them out and then discover a new technique or set of techniques. So coming back to the kobolds; perhaps after awhile you'd discover exactly how much magic you need to use to kill one with a magic missile, thus conserving your mana.

One thing that also bothered me about lots of CRPGs is that you find a new weapon and it's automatically better for you. That doesn't seem realistic to me, because IRL if you use a particular sword enough, you'll really become familiar with its eccentricities (weight, balance, etc.) and be more proficient than you would another blade regardless of some objective quality factor. I've talked to hunters and soldiers, for instance, who would never consider trading their favorite firearm because they've learned that particular weapon and know what it's capable of.

I know that games try to use the loot system to change the gameplay, but really it's a mirage anyway. I still think people would enjoy getting real loot, but it should mostly be currency or valuables to be sold or perhaps used to decorate one's home. That's an avenue that's just starting to open up in games like Mass Effect, where you can find little things to decorate your ship. I could see that system exploding, though, so you suddenly have lots and lots of ways to use the money you collect while raiding and looting. I particularly love the idea of helping out your town or city, building a library to educate the citizens, for instance, or a fountain to make them healthier. You could have a separate sort of experience point system for your town, as well, so that you're not just building up your character or party, but that party's home base.

Just wanted to say I love the show Matt. The oldschool CRPG are the best. Wanted to hear your opinion on how much customization is to much customization when it comes to charactercreation.

Have a nice one.

Way to go man! 100 episodes of Matt Chat, and all of them fantastic. The only thing I miss a little is the game reviews. It would be awesome (in my opinion) to alternate between an interview and a classic game review. I'm not suggesting you break up the interview though. I'm suggesting that after a complete series of interviews, we get a game review, and then proceed to another series of interview segments. That's just my two cents though; I've learned about some really cool vintage computer games on the channel and I'd love to see more.

Just out of curiosity, are most of your interview segments pretty much uncut now? I remember back when you interviewed John Romero, and there was an iTunes posting of the full interview since you had too much for YouTube, even when cut into segments. Do you still have too much content for YouTube, and if so, any chance you'd consider posting it on iTunes? I love listening to the Armchair Arcade podcast while driving, and I listened to the uncut Romero interview in the car as well. It would be cool to get these interviews uncut for my MP3 player.

Alternatively, I suppose I could look into methods of extracting the audio from a YouTube video. I imagine the simplest would be a cable from output to line in. It cracks me up sometimes all the money they spend on DRM technologies, when a $5 cable remains a guaranteed method of defeating any and all comers. Do you have any objection to me ripping the audio from your YouTube interviews for personal use on an MP3 player? I won't be redistributing it anywhere, I promise.

Anyway, great job Matt, the channel is just as fantastic as the day I discovered it. Scratch that, it's even better, and I'm betting it only goes up from here on out. I look forward to future episodes, and also to the upcoming Armchair Arcade podcast for May. Stay classy, Matt Chat! =D

Well played, the Donimator almost had me going there ... I look forward to future instalments! Matt Chat is great for all the reasons you said.

Seeing Death Sword tickled my nostalgia bone too. In Oz it was called Barbarian and my buddy had it on his Amiga, along with Rocket Ranger ... those games looked and sounded way better than anything on my 3-colour PC. Suddenly I was hanging out with my buddy a lot and I think his mum began to think I was a little weird after about the third time she had to forcibly eject me from their house after school. I would go home and cry into my Pool of Radiance. Ahhh, good times.