United By Backlash || CheckPoint 523

[@Dovorans]

EVE translation "Links" are temporary buffs a ship can give to other ships. Bifrost, Drek, and Gnosis are ships that have bonuses to giving those buffs. In this case the Gnosis is less desirable because it is slower. The specific buffs in this case is for the range of the ships' "scrams". A "microwarp drive" (MWD) is a module that when activated increases the speed of a ship by ~500%, and a "scram" is a module that both turns off another ships MWD and prevents it from warping out. A "web" is a module that simply reduces another ship's speed by about half, and has a slightly longer range than "scram" under normal conditions. A CN scram (short for Caldari Navy) is a fancy and expensive version of a scram with longer range. An interceptor is a ship that naturally gets bonuses to scram range, so a combination of links, fancy scram, and the interceptor bonus should allow the interceptor have a scram range longer than the ramjag's web range. This then allows the interceptor to kite the ramjag's by turning off the ramjag's MWD before the ramjag can get close enough to web the interceptor. Oh, and snakes is referencing "Snake implants" which are implants (items that are applied your clone rather than the ship) that increase your speed. Loki's, rapiers and hyenas are ships with bonuses to web range and effectiveness. Phorde, short for pandemic horde, is a noob friendly player alliance with a heavy focus on PvP, and are the kind of players one would expect to bring a ramjag to a fight. Cont.

[@Dovorans]

But what is a ramjag? Ramjag is short for ram Jaguar. A ramjag uses the speed and relative tankiness of Jaguar to chase down a kiting ship like an interceptor and pin them down long enough for the Jag's friends to finish them off. It's a relatively inexpensive and easy to fly ship as PvP ships go, and a new player can get the in game skills needed to fly it somewhat effectively in about 2 months, making it attractive to a new player PvP alliance like pandemic horde. What is a backpack Bifrost? A backpack Bifrost is a Bifrost with a loadout entirely focused on providing buffs, without consideration for any offensive abilities. It's normally run using an alt account and will be set to simply follow the primary account's ship, giving the impression that the primary account is dragging the Bifrost along like a backpack. Why bring specifically a Hyena to PHorde space over a Rapier or Loki? A Hyena is the smallest and cheapest ship with a bonus to web range and effectiveness, making it more of an even match and less intimidating to a new player alliance like phorde and increasing the chances they'll undock and fight you.

[@Zabzim]

⁠@@Dovoranswhich faction does ramjag belong too? Sounds like Amarr to me.

[@Sahdirah]

@@DovoransAh, Eve, my favourite game to never play. 💙

[@spencereades]

@@Sahdirah Or more to its credit, my favorite game to have other people tell me stories about.

[@Dovorans]

@@Zabzim the Jaguar is a Minmatar tech 2 frigate. The space Catholics aren't exactly known shield tanking and the Jaguar has a whopping 5 medium slots.

[@ethanpurcell7007]

Bless Graham for immediately pointing out that whatever Unity says now is, more or less, meaningless, since if they cared about anything but money, why would they do this stupid plan?

[@OrcaIguana]

Also not walking back entirely makes me incredibly suspicious they knew it would get bad rap so intentionally made a ridiculous claim then pulled back to a still bad plan for developers to try and get ahead of bad press. Appears it backfired spectacularly and I hope unity runners explode from it.

[@FFKonoko]

​​@@OrcaIguananah, no need for conspiracy thinking. They really wanted to do the idea, the backlash made them want to change it, but they still want to do it. No intention to fail needed.

[@Veelofar]

@@FFKonokoI still hope they get kicked to the curb. They can’t be trusted and the “well it’s not as bad as it could be” mentality is how we got to a world of pay to win games and piecemeal things that cost full price and then half that or more to purchase the ending.

[@loganhaynes5650]

Pretty sure that they wanted the terms they are now offering initially, but knew that moving to the new pricing model would cause issues. So instead they opened with a ridiculous over the top offer that would piss everyone off so that they could pretend to walk it back to what they wanted in the first place and customers would be more likely to accept those terms. They treated this like an opening round of a negotiation. Then they pretend to compromise with what they originally wanted. They have learned to be sneaky.

[@VGJustice]

Now do the same sentence but for Wizards of the Coast.

[@Ranakel]

Checkpoint watcher that's also French and also went to law school (for like, a year so don't get your hopes up). First of all, I'm pretty glad typing "Ubisoft Libération" pops up stories on that case, and isn't drowned in "hey, you interested in Assassin's Creed Libération?" Anyway. The legal process for the execs being detained is called "Garde à vue". It's specifically (supposed to be) used when someone is suspected of having done a crime, or was about to commit one. And that crime specifically could lead to prison. In practice, that kind of detention happened to more or less every person that was drunk, loud and non-white of course. But the point in this case is that they aren't just "brought in to ask some question, have a chat and a nice coffee". They're brought in specifically within the frame of the investigation on harassment at Ubisoft, that has been brought in due to the Solidaires Informatique union jointly with the victims.

[@heyy13]

Thank you for this context!

[@plundypops]

I love the evolution of the after checkpoint talk becoming as long or longer than the news segment in the video. Lol.

[@SnyperWolf101]

I mean, that kinda goes back to the idea that checkpoint is short because it is well produced. "If I had more time, I would have written a shorter [checkpoint]"

[@KingTaltia]

It's like we get two chillpoints a week!

[@utility63]

"And John Riccitello will send you a greeting card that says you're not actually a fuckhead." But the gaming industry as a whole agreed that it could not, in good conscience, reciprocate.

[@THESP-rz3hg]

Aww Beej- you're the Big Boy Journalist of our Hearts

[@azninja888]

And just in time for Sonic’s 30th Anniversary.

[@Alsritt]

God, Beej making a Nethack joke is such a deep cut that is deeply appreciated

[@moosemaimer]

turbo encabulator, now _that's_ a deep cut with no side fumbling

[@pBlackcoat]

I loved that Graham came up with the pdp11/antiVAX joke from first principles

[@warkface0]

@@moosemaimer Some people claim you can get away with just five hydrocoptic marzelvanes, but in my experience you really need that sixth to effectively prevent side fumbling.

[@bttmofthebrrlstudios]

I played Nethack (very badly) a ton in college and I had such a visceral reaction to that joke omg

[@DewMan001]

The more niche the joke is, the harder that niche laughs

[@chaosof99]

"Just Warp Off" sounds like something you hear in a Space Marine barracks.

[@soratorb]

"I have bad news; I think that's us." is SUCH a mood

[@donaldtNS]

That might be the truest and best use ever of the "I wish all" meme.

[@Sahdirah]

And so say we all 🖕🖕

[@FakeSchrodingersCat]

It has been years since I played Eve and I only understood half of that. But a ramjag is a loadout for the Jaguar as a relatively cheap but durable tier 2 frigate used to lockdown a high value target ship for an ambush in pvp. The name comes because ships need time to align to warp but it also takes time to target lock, so a favorite tactic is to ram them immediately until you can get a warp disrupter on them. The rest were ships either designed to quickly kill small shield based ships or disrupt it's systems, with the stupid amount of slang you would expect from 20 years of an extremely dedicated subculture.

[@metalphantomgames3966]

I’m kinda disappointed that the prize in the Big Boy Box wasn’t a Breeding Pool.

[@radical_ans]

GmbH is, in fact, the funniest type of company.

[@grauekatze]

Only with its friends "& Co. KG"

[@tuxbeej]

And “_____ Heavy Manufacturing Concern”

[@EricChoiniere]

Fun fact: "arrested" and "stopped" in French are both "arrêté" so being "arrêté" by the police could mean pulled over for speeding or brought to jail for a more serious crime. We were crossing the border to the US once when I was a kid and they asked my dad if he'd ever been arrested. He said yes, once, for speeding, and the rest of us tensed up... but I guess they figured what he meant and let us pass without any trouble.

[@RoonMian]

If I was pretending to not get what you said I would now say: Man, he must have gone hella fast. :D

[@spencereades]

Eve Online is such a realistic portrayal of what a life among the stars would actually be like; the same endless drudgery under the thumb of the same three mega-corporations.

[@DimT670]

I dont know, eve players are able to individually accumulate incredible wealth and literally confound and reject even the strongest corporation and kingdom, as well as, you know, commit various genocides and war crimes upon each other and the local peoples. And regular crimes ofc Its essentially a simultaneously down to earth and idealised far west thing is what im saying

[@dgSolidarity]

Amazing Beej managed to pull that out with so many spiders in the box.

[@ssgtmole8610]

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the people responsible for Spacewar at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. It ran on the PDP-1, a forerunner of the PDP11. My high school computer lab had a multiuser pdp-11.

[@tikatoo]

I feel like we should probably also acknowledge the possibility (I have no evidence for this) that the current changes to Unity pricing are EXACTLY what they were trying to do in the beginning, and the "original plan" was just to make it look like they were letting the community negotiate back to that.

[@stevethepocket]

I seriously doubt it. The new terms are basically "we're jacking up our cut by 2.5% and providing a convoluted way to possibly get away with paying less", which I think most devs would write off as the cost of doing business. Nowhere near the level of backlash that would merit creating panic just to remind everyone how much worse it could be.

[@ImminentVideos]

The only thing I can translate is "Single Box". In online games, if you launch multiple clients (think runescape) then its called "multiboxxing" as in you are running multiple windows of the game. So single boxing in this context most likely means you're flying alone and not controlling multiple ships.

[@elfinfluff]

Tommy Francois sounds like a fake name they'd make up for a temporary character on Letterkenny.

[@gregoryvn3]

Checkpoint Bingo needs to be a reoccurring thing. I laughed.

[@matohibiki]

Beejgo?

[@ribbontoast]

I hate that I played enough EvE for that to kinda make sense. Like whenever I watch a Canadian Highlander announcement.

[@berrim26]

I quit like five years ago so I got about half of it

[@TehFrenchy29]

I mentioned in reply to someone else it's been almost that long for me as well and I understood almost everything they said, and that I'm surprised and disappointed I understood it so well. I guess flying small shit in a null alliance and then faction warfare outfit for most of my time playing the game ingrained a bunch of this stuff in me more than I realized

[@RoonMian]

@@berrim26 I quit about 15 years ago and I got "Interceptor" and that was it. And remembering that I played EvE when it launched and that that was 2003, twenty years ago, makes me feel incredibly old now.

[@majorfrostbyte7022]

I used to work on DEC VAX machines. Thanks for making me feel old Graham!

[@Tr1sh4Lynn]

My first Internet account that I used every day was a CCVAX one during my undergrad years.

[@ASpaceOstrich]

Checkpoint comedy hosts asking real games journalism questions while actual games journalists don't. I can't speak for anyone else, but I love when Checkpoint goes full real-journalism.

[@Ariamaki]

Was nobody going to tell me, as a Playdate owner, that one the guys who makes the thing is the creator of Buggy Saints Row, still one of the greatest machinima music videos of all time? :V

[@martinharriman616]

You don’t absolutely have to choose between PDP-11 and VAX 11/780. The VAX had a PDP-11 built in to handle the joys of boot. VAX boot is also PDP-11 boot.

[@stephentoropov4990]

The pain of watching this early is being unable to look at the comments to explain that impenetrable EVE-speak

[@Sahdirah]

Someone’s added the translation now. :)

[@lostmarble540]

I liked the net hack joke and I really liked the explanation at the end, it's one of those jokes that get better after you explain it

[@featherweight]

Oh man, the brave boy box is stacked.

[@Arrowatch]

Why aren't the Unity leadership team getting arrested for insider trading. Put them in shackles during a shareholder meeting, throw them in the back of actual police vehicles. What's the point of US police brutality continuing to get ignored if we aren't putting these people in a cold iron cell for the holiday weekend.

[@EricChoiniere]

Because they're rich people and the rules are different for them 😥

[@shadowmaster1313]

Because they didn't do insider trading?

[@stevethepocket]

@@shadowmaster1313 That's for the judge to decide.

[@Groovebot3k]

I was gonna make a joke about how Beej was gonna have to share his prize with Ian, but the RX-78 is too pedestrian for Zeon's greatest patriot.

[@Zectifin]

As someone who's favorite cat was a sphynx and hasn't gotten to that point in the game I'm glad to know they made him back into a sphynx.

[@lamenamegame9314]

Good to know that Graham is also a fan of spooky lake season!

[@amynelson8403]

I was hoping someone else caught that!

[@citizencait]

I was so excited to hear about haunted waters!

Hear me out: AC villagers as collectible minifigs.

[@ewhac]

10:04: "Well, actually..." _Nethack_ started life as a clone/reimplementation of _Rogue,_ both of which were written for the UNIX operating system and the 'curses' terminal manipulation library. UNIX was originally developed on the DEC PDP-11 at Bell Labs. When DEC released their VAX (Virtual Address eXtension) systems in the 1970's, UNIX got ported to it. It was on the VAX that UNIX saw its most active development, particularly the BSD (Berkeley) version of UNIX. In addition to _Rogue,_ you can also thank UNIX for the text editor _vi,_ written by Bill Joy at UC Berkeley; and the network sockets abstraction, used today by pretty much every other operating system out there.

[@neuroflare]

It would be fun if y'all could figure out a live Checkpoint during one of the marathons, as a treat. I'm sure you'll have no time to prepare news and jokes, but I miss the live show and the bloopers and cheering for a single take. Have fun!

[@captainunderpants200]

Paul simply saying '...or' got the biggest laugh in the show.

[@JamesURLJones]

Why did they call it an expansion slot if it couldn’t handle expansion?

[@BigDaddyBland87]

As a non-Magic and non-EVE player, I can confirm Graham's assertion. I was just as lost with that explanation as I am when they talk about Magic stuff.

[@ProfessM]

I was hoping Beej would pull a Sonic figure but his joy at that Gundam makes me okay.

[@proffapoluga2573]

Especially after his downer of both not being a big boy journalist, and being forced to continue the bit that is Sonic's thirtieth anniversary.

[@matohibiki]

It's an OG RX-78-2 Gundam, in what looks like 1/144th scale. Who wouldn't be happy?

[@logank9177]

That eve bit was hilarious lmao

[@flamewareyer]

Now I really want a Graham read of retro encabulator... perhaps Dave spokesman even?

[@hughcaldwell1034]

Boosting this! Dave Spokesman Encabulator please!

[@TheRealWormbo]

Desert Bus is coming up soon. You can make these fine folks do a lot for money and/or entertainment.

[@EternalDensity]

Okay I'll carry a hyena corpse next Friday to protect me from the ramjag's breath attack.

[@torokai]

"Bounce a Graviton Particle Beam off the main Deflector Dish!"

[@rditullio]

That's the way we do things lad, we're making shit up as we wish!

[@ravenlord_xix]

Honestly, now I want a LRR version of the encabulator video

[@Irsaan88]

Beej's enthusiasm for the playdate story was quite wonderful.

[@daxdowney5230]

Thanks for the spooky lake month reference

[@jareth431]

Yes that bingo card is EVE. I hate that i understood everything you said about it. Also its not PHORD its P Horde space. Pandemic Horde, the largest alliance in game.

[@rainmaker709]

Why not both? His Majesty's hair should honestly just be a toggle in the options. Give everyone what they want.

[@Lambda3141]

Gundam, Netheck, AND a Turbo Encabulator reference?!? I swear this episode was made for me.

[@WFierce]

The subheading that starts with "In the absence of official details..." really says all you need to know about the 'reporting' on a new Switch. Also, this is Nintendo. It's not going to be called 'Switch 2' or 'Switch Pro' or anything that sounds remotely normal. Maybe 'Super Switch' or 'Switch Advance'.

[@stevethepocket]

And that's assuming they're not dumb enough to throw the whole Switch brand out the window along with everything about it that people like in favor of some brand-new bullshit. Again.

[@LordZarano]

'Switch Up'

[@whitefirecomix]

What's in the brave boi box? What's in the booooooooox?!! Praise Heather for the upload.

[@famout]

I love that while I haven't played EVE in two years...... Pretty much all of Paul's talk still made sense.

[@jasoman3899]

Graham's TBD sounds lit can't wait.

[@sharktoothjack8854]

"Always have a Hyena in Phorde space" has big !advice energy

[@jaey2k2]

i have a pavlovian reaction to "um yes, hello" and this triggered it. the joy of spooky lake month

[@Scheater5]

The last bit reminded me of John Cleese speaking gibberish - it's on youtube under "The Brain as explained by John Cleese" but he's done the bit in a few other places.

[@Scheater5]

*last bit = turboencabulator bit - guess it was more towards the middle of the video than I thought.

[@photosinensis]

I understood everything about the Nethack gag.

[@Sertion]

The Ubisoft people where refinanced on a new grid by the French police.

[@Eramiserasmus]

Beej and Graham reminding us the important things about news.

[@KasranFox]

it's okay, beej, i understood your nethack joke

[@hyperdistortion2]

Beej pulling an RX-78 from the box was very charming; except now I’m trying to work out which kit, and which variant 😅 Presumably an RX-78-2, not a -78F00? Although maybe?

[@Trockenmatt]

I'm surprised y'all didn't talk about Gigantic. A game that died out 5 years ago being brought back for 1 weekend with 3 days notice seems like it could be ripe for jokes, plus its name is a single word that can probably be used in a joke somewhere.

[@LordDeathington]

Heard it here first. Lego only producing froggy chair from now on.

[@WFierce]

That would be correct.

[@Sahdirah]

FROGGY CHAIR FROGGY CHAIR FROGGY CHAIR

[@gamercow517]

Thank you for the "Um yes, hello" shoutout to Spooky Lake Month

[@DiscordianTokkan]

That Nethack info legit is making me want to boot up the newest version and see if I can get used to all the WEIRD COLOURS they've added to things like HEALTH and INVENTORY. Because back in MY day (when 3.3.1 was New) those didn't exist, and I love that a game that first dropped in the 80s is STILL getting updates.

[@WorldofTomorrowInc]

So beej said that in the last 20 years theres only been 20 new/full moons on friday the 13ths? so its as rare as christmas, or easter, or my birthday?

[@meaghanwilson2407]

THE HAUNTED HYDROLOGY REFERENCE! that joke was made for an audience of me.

[@LRRVG]

YAY!! 😃

[@zen_of_chloe]

PDP-11 represent. Instruction set packed like a parachute.

[@mikemead7200]

I am upset and disappointed that nobody is explaining the ramjet thing. It sounds like a weird fun thing I won't understand even with explanations and those are my favorite explanations.

[@citizencait]

Thank you Graham for the nod to Spooky Lake Month!

[@K4RN4GE911]

*_...I WAS 11 WHEN LRR STARTED?!?!_*

[@johnalogue9832]

To quote a dev blog from an indie game I follow, shortly after the changes were announced: "I was always apprehensive about using a closed-sourced commercial engine, especially one of the duopoly engines that took over Indie development over the last decade and a half. Unfortunately, just as I adopted one, my concerns were proven correct." xkcd 743 is right again, play the world's tiniest open-source violin.

[@thepanpiper7715]

You’ll always be *our* big boy journalist, Beej. X

[@pyredynasty]

Okay but the SwitchU2 better have froggy chair.

[@wormlunch]

PDP-11 for the win!!!! Such a beautiful CPU. It's where I first learned machine code. So many good memories!

[@karimkassam6874]

The only thing I got out of this is that there was a guy working at Ubisoft named after what legitimately sounds like a Dynasty Warriors villain.

[@WIImotionmasher]

Oh wow are you telling me that story from a year or two ago about the big sexual harrassment/assault culture in Ubisoft, backed by many many employees. Was true? Wow.

[@shadowmaster1313]

I'm more shocked that there might be actual consequences

[@EvilGenius007]

Can't spell succubus without UBUS.

[@thecaryou]

Under Arrest is different because the are charging you with something detained is is for investigation each of all the phases are different situations that are confusing.

[@andersgeek]

As a German, I somehow feel that it should be Bingo-Karten GmbH… but it made me actually laugh out loud nonetheless. :D

[@EForrest88]

Lego Animal Crossing would just be a revival of Lego Fabuland

[@kristianfischer9814]

Goddammit, Beej, good to have you back.

[@ampinstein]

As a former employee of DEC, I appreciated the PDP-11 joke. As a human I appreciated this video :)

[@causticarmadillo]

Love that Spooky Lake Month shout-out.

[@Qualario]

Wow…haven’t heard “OK Cola” in a verrrrry long time.

[@stevethepocket]

If you're going to reference a minicomputer, the PDP-11 is probably the one to go with. It's the one people who otherwise know nothing about that era are likely to have at least heard the name of before. Like referencing the Commodore 64 in a joke about '80s microcomputers.

[@Somtaaw7]

The Eve thing about how it must sound like when people talk about Magic is absolutely correct.

[@treyhawk42]

Dammit, Beej. I programmed for years on the VAX! Stop reminding me how old I am!

[@FearsomeWarrior]

Beej rage is best.

[@LadyLunarSatine]

Nintendo just recently said that the online features of the 3DS and the Wii U were going to stop being usable by non-hackers after April 2024.

[@Thesreyn1]

Best joke in the episode is after the outro xD

[@TehAmelie]

I've been thinking how to explain the Unity disaster to people who don't know anything about games. I think it's like if a paper mill announced they were going to bill everyone who published a book per unit sold if the writer used their paper to print their manuscript. And suppose you're mired in such a toxic money-grabbing industry that now after the paper mill changed their mind, you still have to worry they're going to do it as soon as they think they can get away with it, or maybe a keyboard manufacturer or a word processing software developer feel inspired to get in on this brand new technology for extracting money from their customers.

[@daredaemon8878]

Can't speak for France directly, but living in a country whose legal system is based on the Napoleonic code. There basically isn't a legal distinction between detained and arrested here. If they use their police authority to require you to come to the station where you're being held for any amount of time, it's an arrest. This is sometimes just used to bring people in for questioning, yes. Which is, as I understand it, equivalent to what being detained means in the Anglosphere.

[@bottleface]

I am always disappointed at the lack of new checkpoint but congrats on the 20th anniverary!

[@bgclo]

So Kermit the Frog is asking dumb questions of the Company President?

[@Phrixscreoth]

I often say what Graham says at @5:40 though I phrase it as "Are you an idiot, or an asshole?"

[@moosemaimer]

"Nintendo, and for that matter, anyone, wouldn't stop a years-long game development process for a current console just because they decide internally 'new console incoming!'" That is literally what happened to Starfox 2.

[@lirazel6414]

I am so old... I wrote documentation for systems that ran on both VAXes and PDP-11s.

[@_cybik]

@moosemaimer we don't talk about that one

[@chadoftoons]

I dont think unity can recover...as a company like that. Obviously they will have people still develop in their engine if they walk far back enough but they basically will make every person *not* recommend working with them. Forever. They just kind of confirmed to be unstable.... :(

[@kristianfischer9814]

I have a solution to the Ramjag problem. Just frogblast the vent core.