Mailbag 3: The Most-Recent Mailbag

It's taken a bit longer than the previous two mailbags -- 6 months instead of 3 -- but we've finally got another one. And boy howdy some of these questions are good!

Was it worth the wait? You can be the judge of that!

To start off, we have a simple question about the Canonicity of so-called "real world" places in my universe:

somerando(caauyjdp) asked:

question into the mailbag, is japan real?

survey says yes

For our first really big question, we have one from a longtime friend of the show asking about the corporate structure of our Cohost page:

sanctumsys asked:

is the gadfly simply a concept, or a real physical fly within the gadfly goods offices that serves as the company mascot? is there a distinction between gadfly the mascot and gadfly the office worker? please i must have the l o r e

The gadfly of Gadfly Goods is named Goodfry Gadfly. He was the star of my lovely (?) ZZT debut game A Day in the Life of Goodfry Gadfly^[1], which I made for a small jam I hosted in 2020. In it, Goodfry is depicted as a depressed, down on his luck fellow in a world of bugs who has to deal with a pending eviction (I made this at the beginning of the pandemic when facing a questionably legal eviction). In addition to being a literal gadfly, he is also a bit of a social gadfly (though that aspect is not really depicted since I haven't finished the game). Besides his house (pictured below), there's a beehive, an anthill, his workplace, and a VRcade (all the essential elements of your local bugtown).

You can play the demo of it (and the two other games that were submitted to the jam^[2]) here. Maybe one day I'll finish it.

At the end of 2021 I decided to create a "ZZT Company" (as was fashionable at the time), and eventually settled on the name Gadfly Goods ("Gadfly Games" was rejected on account of being taken and being limited to game's). My first release under the Gadfly Goods umbrella was the Gadfly Goods Grab Bag, which was a ZZT magazine, featuring various bits of art, my CV (of things ZZT and otherwise), teasers for random ideas of mine, and various engine quirks. The first ZZT game I released under the Gadfly Goods banner was an updated version of my Christmas shopping simulator, BUYSO.

Now, as far as Mr. Goodfry Gadfly's place in the totally hypothetical real offices of Gadfly Goods, I like to imagine that the company follows a cooperative structure, with people's precise roles and responsibilities rotating around on a semi-regular basis. Currently Goodfry is holding down a desk job doing clerical work of various sorts. He harbors a minor resentment against the fact that Samantha seems to be doing most of the PR work nowadays, though deep down he realizes that he probably isn't the best suited for public facing roles like she is.^[3]

Our next question comes from a very handy man with some practical concerns:

Handyyy asked:

What are your aspirations in life and how does your view of the world influence said aspirations?

One of my aspirations in life is to become President of the Great United States of America^[4] and sport a giant mech while in office. My view of the world, however, is that this is an intractably difficult problem on several levels with many externalities that I don't want to deal with, so I generally do not work towards this as a life goal.

Now, as for other parts of my worldview, I believe some of the most important things in the world are human^[5] relationships and wellbeing. In terms of aspirations, this translates to more mundane things like having a comfortable existence, having friends, resolving conflicts, helping others, and upending the current economic order, but admittedly my skills in all these areas are somewhat lacking (especially when it comes to formulating specifics like "weekend plans").

I also have a hankering to make games, but I have a very poor view of Gaming as a hobby or career path, so I'm never sure what to make of that.

Thanks for the question! I hope this answer was to your liking.

Up next we have a nice exchange with someone who sent a rather boilerplate question, if you will:

elegy-n asked:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua?

First off, no offence, but geez you're Latin needs some work.

Second off, I'm inclined to disagree with the premise of this question, because it implies a false dichotomy. Yes, many people purposefully choose toil and pain in exchange for deferred pleasure or some greater award, but I would argue that there are still plenty of people out there that choose pain for pain's sake. For some people, pain could be an immediate source of pleasure. For others, they might be so disgusted by any notion of pleasure that they avoid it at all costs, opting to live a life of deliberate misery instead.

Of course, you would be right to be confused by the existence of such person. Nevertheless, even if their psyches are mysteries to us, we cannot honestly claim that they don't exist. I mean, we all know that thousands (if not millions!) of such persons log in every day and post on twitter dot com.

(Sorry if this answer came off as rude. I really enjoyed the question. )

elegy-n replied:

Don't worry about being rude, I was being a smartass with your question post. But it looks to me like you out-smartassed me. All I can say is well done.

Thanks. I can't resist the opportunity to out-smartass someone when I'm being smartassed. It's fun! :3c

Finally, we have some recent additions to our lovely Guestbook from some very lovely fans.

Charbomber says:

Badass ZZT games

(math-based dance party)

Thank you! I always try my besht!

ROSI says:

hi

Hello and welcome! I hope you enjoy your stay.

I can ask stuff too!

Sometimes I use Cohost's ask feature to ask other people questions!

Out of a potentially misguided sense of propriety, I have opted not to post the contents of their answers here, but instead have provided links to their pages. Please understand.

Question for my friend AutomaticTiger:

does your fursona have some sort of dashing or sliding maneuver for dodging attacks?

Find out the precise details of her answer by clicking HERE!

Question for the GDC Nuovo Award Winning Game Designer thecatamites:

Do you have any advice or guidelines you follow for making regulation-compliant "little guys" in the computer zone?

Find out his expert advice by clicking HERE!

Question for the invincible, Sonic-knowing muteKi:

We all know that Dr. Eggman is quite the feminist, but do you know where he stands with regards to trans rights?

Find out the whole story by clicking HERE!

...and just before the finish line, we got somebody who answered the call for a last minute Ask!

rosette asked:

ask ask ask!!! what's drawn u to metroid?

Just from the perspective of Metroid as a series of "games", what attracts me to them is that they have a little bit of everything.^[6] I mean this not in a jack-of-all-trades sense, but more of a queen-of-all-trades sense. Its particular combination of sci-fi horror aesthetics, expressive player controls, actiony combat, exploratory map design, and ludonarrative deftness is something many games try emulate, but rarely do they hit all cylinders, let alone aim for them. Just going by Officially Sanctioned Metroid Products, I'd say Nintendo has hit that mark at least 5 times with the series, which is an incredible batting average (and the list more than doubles if you consider fanwork (and have the patience for it)).

Like, don't get me wrong. There are plenty of "metroidvanias" out there that are holistically great works in their own respects, but they don't quite hit the same notes. Hollow Knight's atmosphere is great in its dismality, and its exploratory design is second-to-none, but I found the movement comparatively unexpressive and the paucity of major upgrades unable to support the sheer size of the map. Similarly, games with Lore these days are dime a dozen, but few are able to match Metroid Prime's ability to use Lore to tell a developing story, instead of having it be a substitute for a story (original release only, screw the hackneyed revisions they made).

There's also the whole deal with Samus as a character. Sure, she has a cool suit and they always try to make her look conventionally attractive, but there's a bit more to it than that. The games and ancillary material provoke questions of the self, of whether her true persona is the one inside or outside the armor, and how her life traumas have transformed both.

_{◀️ Read right to left! ◀️ Manga Alert! ◀️}

^{Image taken from the Metroid Database, pages 5 and 6}

In the canon, it's nothing especially deep, per se, but having imprinted itself on me at a formative age it's hard not to read a lot more into it or to see myself in her (hence my incredibly cringe-core self-insert OC).

tl;dr - when I was a young child, a Japanese entertainment company stuffed some brainworms in my ear. I have been under their thrall ever since.

Thanks for asking!

Thank you for reading this far! If you want to ask me questions yourself, head on over to my Cohost page or my guestbook and send me a good one (or a bad one -- I'm not your mom).

Footnotes

1. I had been dabbling with ZZT on and off for literally 2 decades by that point, but hadn't joined the community until then. ^

2. I think it's very funny that two out of three games in the jam independently decided to represent the futility of wage labor in capitalist society with a job in a red-colored factory. ^

3. As for other roles, the IT duties are being handled by a Real (Totally) Jolteon, and there's an ostrich running the valet service for some reason (not sure for who tho) ^

4. I swear we've figured some things out by the 26th century! ^

5. using this as a general term for sapient life (apologies to my furred friends) ^

6. Rhetorical exaggeration. Please understand. ^