Pinned Topdeck Radio - Viewer Mail and "Plays of the Week" submission thread

    • Thrawn wrote:

      Wolzarg wrote:

      Pandaemonium wrote:

      If thrawn was secretly plotting to sell his collection in the hope the transaction occurs before the game goes bust, then sure I see your point. Since that is not happening, kind of odd to go after him.
      How do you know? The plot thickens dun dun dun!
      Busted. Selling my collection. For ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!

      This is a joke... unless you're actually going to give me $1 million.
      Will you accept this?

    • Thrawn wrote:

      Vroengard wrote:

      Are questions like the following Ok to air?

      "What would, in your opinion, the worst-case scenario be, regarding the current HXE status (forced communication shutdown, State of the Game report, withdrawing of cash prizes, possible delay of Set 10 spoiler season and/or set itself)?"

      It does touch upon the current issues but it specifically asks the hosts' opinions.

      If that's cool then pick any/all from the above and the following:

      "What would the tipping point be for you for saying <Enough is enough>?"
      "How do you evaluate the communication embargo specifically, compared to other experiences (other companies) and what might it indicate?" (I refuse to accept it's just because forum posts hurt their feelings)
      "What kind of miracle would be needed to get the game back on track?"

      In any case, I realize the atmosphere is already heavy and you sometimes can't stomach dealing with the difficult stuff so here're a few topics to pass the time:

      "2018 Exalted program: Thoughts and possible candidates' (assuming 3 like last time, with similar categorizaation)
      "Is VIP really needed? Should it be scrapped instead of being redesigned? What does it serve, exactly? What can take its palce 1. prestigiously, 2. as a monetary means?"
      "Streaming card games: How do other card games do it successfully? Why is streaming Hex non-existent (apart from the playerbase numbers)? Is it even possible to fix that?"

      @Thrawn
      I mean no disrespect to you at all in this post. As someone who deals with anxiety and depression, I play Hex to relax. I stream to feel better. I'm really getting tired of people asking me to cover these types of questions. Not mad at you personally, this is just the latest example. This is a generalized response to everyone.
      I know people are concerned about the state of the game and looking to me and @Manifesto to talk about some of this stuff, but I'm Not giving airtime to doom and gloom questions. Full stop. Topdeck Radio will not become Hex Forums: The Podcast.

      Before people accuse me of "White Knighting" or being a shill for HEX, let me make clear why I refuse give these questions air time:

      1. Venue - This is not a show on my personal channel. This show airs on the OFFICIAL HEX CHANNEL. I feel it's inappropriate to be broadcasting in their house and talking like the world is going to end. The official channel exists to promote Hex. It'd be a different matter if the show ran off my personal channel. Why do people keep expecting us to be hyper-critical doom and gloom talkers on someone else's promotional platform? That's be like someone making a commercial to air on YouTube or TV with the basic message "Our Product is Crap. Don't Buy It." Which leads to,

      2. It's Counter-Productive. This does nothing to help the game. We all want the game to survive and do well, right? What message does it send if someone rolls into the official channel looking to learn more about the game, to find people debating when the game's going to die? Or just constantly complaining? Do we really want to be using our platform to push people away and make them not even want to try out this awesome game? That Official Channel grants an air of legitimacy / weight to what we're talking about (it's open for debate on how big that is and what it's actually worth). We're just burying the knife in deeper to talk about the top half of your post.

      3. My mental health. I don't have time for the drama. This is a GAME. I'm here for FUN. There's few enough content creators left for Hex. I sometimes feel like I've got to the position I'm in in the Hex community by virtue of being the Last Man Standing, and not through any actual talent on my part. Want me to burn out and drop out? Keep pushing this stuff. I can think of at least 8 prominent Hex streamers who stopped streaming this game in the last 12 months. Don't try to drag down the few of us who remain.

      I DO think we can criticize Hex on the official channel. I'll remind you I've probably bitched about their communication in almost half of our episodes. But I have to make judgment calls between criticism that I think is valid feedback for the developers and could be helpful for the game, and "What's the WOrst Case Scenario?"

      All of your questions after "In any case" are things I'm OK discussing on the show.

      (deleted unhelpful rant at the end.)
      Please apology if I'm derailing things a bit here but I'll add a small, hopefully helpful, rant of my own:

      It is simple guys. If you find that the content being produced by the community right now is not how you'd like things to be, just start creating content on your own. If you have an agenda to push, don't try to get other players and content producers to do it for you. If you are not ready to do what it takes to get your message across, stop asking others to do it for you.

      The Wardens of Entrath is a large, open to public community of Hex enthusiasts with a mission to help and support Hex players and content creators alike!

      Find us on our Discord server or website!

    • That's a little disingenuous. As someone who has gone through quite a lot of effort to get a fairly shitty stream setup up and running, I can say with some confidence that there is no such thing as "just" starting to create content. :P

      There's also a big difference between creating content for the 2 people in 5 hours that are bored enough to click on your name to find out who the fuck you are, and running a show for an established (but rapidly dwindling!) audience of loyal Hex followers who already know who the hell you are and what the hell you're all about.

      Nobody is asking existing streamers or content creators to subvert or switch their agendas to "our" agenda, we are trying to use whatever means we can to have a fucking discussion about a multitude of issues that are of great importance to a very significant percentage of the VERY small number of us regulars that are left.
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Ossuary wrote:

      That's a little disingenuous. As someone who has gone through quite a lot of effort to get a fairly shitty stream setup up and running, I can say with some confidence that there is no such thing as "just" starting to create content. :P

      There's also a big difference between creating content for the 2 people in 5 hours that are bored enough to click on your name to find out who the fuck you are, and running a show for an established (but rapidly dwindling!) audience of loyal Hex followers who already know who the hell you are and what the hell you're all about.

      Nobody is asking existing streamers or content creators to subvert or switch their agendas to "our" agenda, we are trying to use whatever means we can to have a fucking discussion about a multitude of issues that are of great importance to a very significant percentage of the VERY small number of us regulars that are left.
      I agree with the above and reposting it so people can read it twice.

      I can rant around in my home and record it, but that's just venting. It doesn't do any good. Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of people complaining are not doing so to make themselves feel better.

      People also say that we're "pushing an agenda" like it's a bad thing. Newsflash: People protesting for recycling, human rights etc are pushing an agenda too.

      We need to keep pushing the agenda in the channels that have a big audience and in a way that can pressure the powers-that-be.

    • News flash people know what is going on already and have for years. Having Thrawn talk about it is fine if he wants, but he has a right to say no. Communication has been poor for years. A blind squirrel knows that pvp never took off in this game.

      I am sorry guys much of the "protest" is too little too late. Some of this protest stuff almost sounds insane tbh. Hex has made its bed, and I am not sure it can reverse course. We can hold our breath till we are blue in the face, but it will do little good.

    • Ossuary wrote:

      That's a little disingenuous. As someone who has gone through quite a lot of effort to get a fairly shitty stream setup up and running, I can say with some confidence that there is no such thing as "just" starting to create content. :P

      There's also a big difference between creating content for the 2 people in 5 hours that are bored enough to click on your name to find out who the fuck you are, and running a show for an established (but rapidly dwindling!) audience of loyal Hex followers who already know who the hell you are and what the hell you're all about.

      Nobody is asking existing streamers or content creators to subvert or switch their agendas to "our" agenda, we are trying to use whatever means we can to have a fucking discussion about a multitude of issues that are of great importance to a very significant percentage of the VERY small number of us regulars that are left.
      I get it, I agree.... but really....

      What is the point?

      If it wasn’t clear to us several years ago, it should have been clear several months ago. If it wasn’t clear then it should have been 3-4 weeks ago.

      Our opinion as gamers do not matter to a collectible cardboard company attempting to monetize every effort they make to deliver some sort of product.

      The long term vision will never be seen. There is no reasonable explanation as to why outside of lack of talent to deliver on that long term vision. 5 years and millions of dollars for a colorful slot machine and card art. 5 years for a thimble to move across a 3d map. 5 years for a shrinking sandbox in pve across desired end game modes. 5 years to see Some form of PvE interaction with players be regulated to AI we program, and interactions we pay for.

      It just all really pisses me off.
      I should have left 3 years ago when Barkam smelled the roses, or 2 years ago when Yoss did. A lot of us fucking tried. We tried hard. We paid for the dream. I feel bad for content creators now. To what end do you want to succeed? What are you supporting now? Who cares about your support?

      Sorry for being so negative and abrasive but it needs to be said. It needs to be said here. And it needs to sting. I can and will move on, but I will continue to be here to talk sense into the few that remain before they hopelessly feel abandoned as well, without fair and numerous warnings.

    • Be clear: I don't hold out any actual hope. I'm too much of a realist for that. I'm not fucking blind. I know damn well that, short of a true miracle, HexEnt shit the bed good and proper years ago, and even more violently a few months ago, and there's no coming back from that. I don't say what I say because I actually expect to turn things around. Yes, there's a very small chance that HexEnt could miraculously wake the hell up and do a course correct, but at this point, even a complete turnaround and come to Jesus moment probably won't do them any good.

      At this point, I'm mostly just saying what I'm saying because I enjoy the discussion, and I enjoy the mental challenge of not only figuring out what went wrong, but how it could have been fixed. I kind of can't help that impulse - I'm a project manager, and problem solving is what I do. ;)

      I don't say what I say because I expect HexEnt has the brains or the common sense or the ability to set aside their stubborn pride and actually listen. Clearly they don't, or they would have fucking said something by now. I hope that people don't take what I say and garner from that hopefulness of their own towards a positive outcome... I feel I've been sufficiently bleak in my various prognoses to avoid that. I'm not talking about what could still be done (other than theoretically), just more sort of a preemptive post-mortem on what should have been done. :)
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

      This is a guy trying to do a good thing for the game you claim to love on the official channel of that game.
      There is multiple threads full of negative hateful spew you can chew on all day.. please stop hijacking the few good things going on around here.

      Cheers

    • SlimHeavens wrote:

      You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

      This is a guy trying to do a good thing for the game you claim to love on the official channel of that game.
      There is multiple threads full of negative hateful spew you can chew on all day.. please stop hijacking the few good things going on around here.

      Cheers
      No. You should be ashamed of yourself.

      The greatest gift we can give the amazing community members still trying to make mountains out of minced meat, is our blessing to see their efforts be put to good use, somewhere they will be appreciated and have viewership and be able to play a year from now.

      I honestly don’t know where that place is anymore or if we all land in the same place when we are forced to, but that is what my messages here are attempting to put forth.

      Negativity to many is just being wrongly associated out of personal denial.

    • SlimHeavens wrote:

      This is a guy trying to do a good thing for the game you claim to love on the official channel of that game.
      There is multiple threads full of negative hateful spew you can chew on all day.. please stop hijacking the few good things going on around here.
      You're implying we're not trying to do a good thing. That is your opinion. Also, quite possibly, it's wrong. In our eyes, we're trying to do a good thing for the game too (I could go explaining in detail why that is, but it'd be a very long post). In fact, Thrawn himself has criticized HXE on stuff. Should he be ashamed he let his "weak side" or whatever you'd call it, stray him from the awesome path of burying one's head in the sand and saying that all is dandy?

    • Bizznach wrote:

      every time i hear someone just going off with, "because i love" just thrown in...

      bet there are alot of people out there that smack the shit outta things while professing their love for the now smacked thing
      Great point... best analogy... since this is so close to being like an intervention for an addict you have to commit before they fully ruin their life, smacking the shit out of something you love would be squarely correct..

      except in this case, we waited too long to intervene... (not entirely true because many of us have been attempting to intervene for a long fucking time now, to no avail)

      Also, again I am sorry. My posts are not about top deck radio and should be deleted. They are in response to Oss. And to that end, a lot of things won’t end in closure or figuring out what went wrong. Not really for discussion, as to whoever knows the answers comes the real 3 million dollar Kickstarter solution.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by NicoSharp ().

    • Ossuary wrote:

      Nobody is asking existing streamers or content creators to subvert or switch their agendas to "our" agenda, we are trying to use whatever means we can to have a fucking discussion about a multitude of issues that are of great importance to a very significant percentage of the VERY small number of us regulars that are left.
      Oh, one person (not you, of course) has been very vocal telling me my priorities are wrong, I'm too sensitive and sheltered, implied I'm dishonest, etc. All for not wanting to be a Negative Nancy every week. It's clear we have a fundamental disagreement on how I should conduct myself on my (and Manifesto's) show. So, let's not say NOBODY ;)

      I knew stuff like that would come with the territory of offering to do a weekly show. With how things have been lately, I'm surprised we made it to 9 episodes before this little flare-up.

      I missed doing a Dungeon Masters of Entrath this week, which is a bummer, but it had nothing to do with the game or anything being discussed here.

      I handle AUTO INSURANCE CLAIMS for a living folks. I deal with worse than this a couple times every week. :thumbup: For reals, don't worry about me at this point. Reports of my sensitivity have been greatly exaggerated.




      Now, can we return this thread to the subject of actually asking us questions for the show, please?
      Watch Dungeon Masters of Entrath - The HEX Gameshow! Wednesday 8pm EST
      I am ThrawnOmega on Xbox Live, Twitter, Steam, and Twitch.
      Forum Avatar by @tfa_96 on Twitter.

    • Ok, sure, "nobody" is hyperbolic. "Nobody who counts" might be close enough for us to move past? :D

      Real question (oh shit, ossuary's on topic! circle the calendar):

      What do you plan to talk about on the show on weeks when there is no news? I imagine it can't be easy to talk about a meta that's pretty much solved and has already been discussed at length... so what's the plan to fill the time when there's not enough news to span the whole hour?
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Ossuary wrote:

      Ok, sure, "nobody" is hyperbolic. "Nobody who counts" might be close enough for us to move past? :D

      Real question (oh shit, ossuary's on topic! circle the calendar):

      What do you plan to talk about on the show on weeks when there is no news? I imagine it can't be easy to talk about a meta that's pretty much solved and has already been discussed at length... so what's the plan to fill the time when there's not enough news to span the whole hour?
      Answering here as this sounds like a question you wanted me to answer here - but I can discuss on the show too.

      We dig deep and figure it out. In general, if you only know how to do a show when Hex has provided talking points, you're not much of a talkshow host. I mean, we haven't had real news for WEEKS and we've still been doing shows.

      Two weeks ago, we talked about memories from across 5 years of Hex, Immortal cards we'd like to see reprinted, and places where Hex could cross-over with other IPs.

      Last week ago, we answered questions from chat, and Manifesto and I asked each other silly Hex-related "Would you Rather?" questions.

      This week, we brought on @Blackwood and talked about his siege stuff, and Hex lore.

      I'm holding off on a plan for Monday, of the off chance that either
      A: We get some spoilers this week
      B: We have a guest for Monday. (It's unconfirmed - but if this guest comes on, show plan will heavily revolve around involving them)

      Manifesto and I have a "Rainy Day Topics List" that we add to so we have topics in our back pocket, and pull from it as needed to have things to talk about.

      My mind has drifted to whimsical questions the last few weeks, rather than more serious TCG / PVP questions, which has probably annoyed some folks. Sorry, I'm not an elite competitive mind, and as you said - meta's established at this point.
      Watch Dungeon Masters of Entrath - The HEX Gameshow! Wednesday 8pm EST
      I am ThrawnOmega on Xbox Live, Twitter, Steam, and Twitch.
      Forum Avatar by @tfa_96 on Twitter.

    • Thrawn wrote:

      Ossuary wrote:

      Nobody is asking existing streamers or content creators to subvert or switch their agendas to "our" agenda, we are trying to use whatever means we can to have a fucking discussion about a multitude of issues that are of great importance to a very significant percentage of the VERY small number of us regulars that are left.
      Oh, one person (not you, of course) has been very vocal telling me my priorities are wrong, I'm too sensitive and sheltered, implied I'm dishonest, etc. All for not wanting to be a Negative Nancy every week. It's clear we have a fundamental disagreement on how I should conduct myself on my (and Manifesto's) show. So, let's not say NOBODY ;)
      I knew stuff like that would come with the territory of offering to do a weekly show. With how things have been lately, I'm surprised we made it to 9 episodes before this little flare-up.

      I missed doing a Dungeon Masters of Entrath this week, which is a bummer, but it had nothing to do with the game or anything being discussed here.

      I handle AUTO INSURANCE CLAIMS for a living folks. I deal with worse than this a couple times every week. :thumbup: For reals, don't worry about me at this point. Reports of my sensitivity have been greatly exaggerated.




      Now, can we return this thread to the subject of actually asking us questions for the show, please?
      can confirm I'm the one who said all those things to thrawn.