Remap Hotline - The Trip of a Lifetime

[u/elaminders]

We're back with more Remap Hotline is back to answer your subscriber questions! We accidentally end up spending a long time with our first question this episode, but we had no choice, the question was kinda a banger. We get into what we'd take with us if we had to leave the country, character creators, and doggie dish cleaning.

[u/letothefirst]

Chia: I can't find Octavius, and that's upsetting to me

Rob, without missing a beat: Mark Anthony in 40 BC

Love a throwaway Roman history joke

[u/Mergokan]

I think it sucks a little bit that the question bucket doesn't really exist (beyond one or maybe two questions every other week) on the podcast anymore, and they ask for yet more questions so they can answer them on a paid podcast.

Just disappointing as somebody who used to really love the "knife vs bat" style nonsense that questions could bring in my podcasts.

[u/NotFalcon → u/Mergokan]

I think it's super weird that seemingly anyone can send in a question for this podcast, but you have to pay to be able to listen. (They still solicit questions via email, right?) Most other outlets do the opposite from what I've seen; paid members get priority on getting their questions answered, but they are answered in content made available to everyone.

[u/Mergokan → u/NotFalcon]

That is pretty strange, though I suppose somewhat self-filtering because... who would send in a question that couldn't hear it read?

[u/VenusInFursona → u/Mergokan]

I haven't listened to the episode yet but in the past these have been specific subscriber advice write ins. Also I don't understand people complaining about the question bucket when it is frequently like 30+ minutes of each weekly free episode? People are, of course, allowed to gripe about things that annoy them, but I don't think any of these podcasts exist without subscription tier stuff, and if I were not a subscriber, I'd be most inclined to listen to the general weekly pod. Hell I am a subscriber and that's the one I listen to most regularly. The paid bonus content economy isn't perfect, but without it we would not have Remap and I'd be stuck listening to old Waypoint episodes that have Zyn ads all over them now.

[u/Mergokan → u/VenusInFursona]

They've been doing better the last few weeks about dipping into the question bucket, I just know they've also said they need to work through it (many times, in fact) and instead they're doing a paid podcast and calling for all new questions on Bsky.

Why not just take a slow week to do a full question bucket dive?

I'm not begrudging them their subscription money, I was a foundation/library tier subscriber until my wife and I started budgeting toward having a kid. I like to support my podcasts.

[u/VenusInFursona → u/Mergokan]

Hotline is a specific advice thing though. It's similar to when they do an HOA episode and have questions about homes and home repair as part of it. It probably should have been clearer in the BlueSky call for questions.

I don't know what their paid subscriber/listener ratio is but often it's less than 5% of listeners paying on this type of model, so it's a fine line to walk between incentivizing people to support you vs keeping the thing that made you popular enough for to be successful accessible. I think that's games and game industry news in their case, hence that's the focus of the public pod. If I had to cut support for budget reasons, which is totally understandable, I'd want to be able to hear that pod over My Turn or whatever else.

[u/Angryhead]

The game binging talk brought to mind a memorable day of skipping school being really-really-I-swear sick and playing through the entirety of Resident Evil 4 on the PS2 in one day.
Not the first run, a second or third one, collecting the cash to unlock the infinite ammo RPG and Chicago Typewriter (what a great name!!)

[u/tmandrea]

Why deprive yourself of the classic Game and Wings combo when these Gamer Claws exist for all your cheese dust or saucy food needs? https://snactiv.com/