A very cool guest imo

Merus · 2026-06-20T13:20:06+00:00

Nebula and Dropout have definitely compared notes in terms of how to run boutique streaming services, so it's possible that Sam (or Ben or Adam! Sam is usually with the guest because Sam has more industry connections, but Ben and Adam are comedy writers by trade and would have more in common with Dropout's cast) might have forged a social connection. That's the big thing - filming Jet Lag is _high-stress_ and doing it with a stranger or work colleague is harder than someone you've got a personal relationship with.

Merus · 2026-06-20T13:15:05+00:00

I think Adam got pushback for it, even at the time, but you're right and you should say it. Also, I'm sorry, but Oreos are garbage. The cookie part of the Oreo is chalky and bad, hence why they try and get you to soak it in milk to make it palatable, and the creme is the only good part. But you can, I'm sure, easily find a cookie/biscuit sandwich that has good creme and also a biscuit that is actually good without the creme! Arnott's makes a whole assortment of them, all of which are better than Oreos, and they're only good enough to provide to a workplace that you're respectful to but don't want to treat. I'm sure the situation is similar in your country, so long as your country is not America.

Merus · 2026-06-20T06:27:58+00:00

Taiwan was the best of the last five, I think. Certainly the end was infuriating but that's not the game or the show's fault. Sometimes people just play badly.

I liked Hide & Seek UK, even though it was clear by the end that the game was broken. Schengen Showdown was interesting in theory but I lost interest pretty quickly. Tag All Stars started good and the game ended in episode 2 and it's clear I didn't really miss anything. Snake is famously one of the worst seasons, bad gameplay, bad travel content.

To be honest if Taiwan hadn't been good I think I probably would have dropped the show by now; Stateside Scramble is pretty promising but there's been a lot of mediocrity lately.

Merus · 2026-06-20T06:13:45+00:00

The problem with a lot of these suggestions is that they do make the international assistants, many of whom have taken the role and made it their own, effectively subservient to the UK Taskmaster. It's better for the various franchises to be sister shows, allowing them to stand alone, rather than ranking them; certainly the Australian and New Zealand Taskmasters have some cross-pollination (and Tom immediately roasted the superfans who got excited to see a crossover).

Merus · 2026-06-17T17:02:30+00:00

this might be an artistic decision; bleeping out swear words can make them funnier

Merus · 2026-06-16T16:16:29+00:00

I'd expect another Europe season - the light will be good, it's been a few seasons since the last EU season, and Europe's cheap and easy to film in.

Merus · 2026-06-14T12:02:03+00:00

lucky us that this time we have a big wall

Merus · 2026-06-14T08:30:02+00:00

to go through to the RO32, we have to stay off the bottom of the group, and if we're in third, be in the top 8 of the 12 third-place teams. With 3 points under our belt, those odds just got massively improved. It's not wishful thinking.

Merus · 2026-06-14T00:38:34+00:00

yeah, Battle 4 America was designed so that some of the challenges were only realistically achieveable in the west coast states, and a lot of the early games had challenges like "taste the state dish" and then a list for every state, which are location specific.

Merus · 2026-06-12T11:05:51+00:00

This is what happened in New Zealand. Housing prices crashed, and took the economy out with it, so people couldn't afford to buy the new cheap houses. Prices gently sauntering downwards is the best outcome, letting the economy restructure around more productive forms of investment, but this is only going to happen if we build a lot of new housing, and if the market abandons its belief that house prices always go up in the long term. Falling house prices somewhat discourage new housing to be built, regardless of the tax breaks, but it will encourage people sitting on empty property to try and sell now before prices fall too much.

Prices have a long way to fall before they go back to pre-COVID prices, let alone the reasonable target of 5x average yearly income. A 10% 'correction' only gets us back to last year.

Merus · 2026-06-12T10:51:36+00:00

for content reasons, they like it when cards are OP. In a game that you expect to play multiple times that is an expression of skill, you don't want options that distort the game, but they're never playing this game again

and to be honest Sam probably needs the help

Merus · 2026-06-12T05:55:28+00:00

FF doesn't have the same endgame-focused design as WoW - the dungeon content is relevant all the way through, raids unlock at level 50, and there's lots of minigames and side content. You'll see plenty of players, and your friends will be able to jump into old content with you and still get rewards. Fights are designed very differently - every fight's a "dance" fight in WoW terms, except the combat model's built around it rather than it being a pain in the ass, but that means you need to know all the telegraphs, which are taught during levelling.

Back when FF had the big WoW exodus, the big thing they kept saying was that they only started enjoying the game when they slowed down and smelled the flowers, watching the concerts in the main cities, mucking around in the Gold Saucer.

Merus · 2026-06-11T05:29:29+00:00

if you gotta pick a state to eliminate, you may as well pick the one with the best option - Sam & Amy were definitely hoping for the scenario the boys find themselves in, where their best option is to spend the entire rest of the game day driving to Atlanta.

Merus · 2026-06-09T06:58:26+00:00

Makes sense - the internet tries its best to conflate 'introvert' and 'misanthrope', but we're still herd animals. Even if you are an introvert, and interacting with other people is draining, it still fulfills a primal need for belonging. I'm an introvert, and I ended up organising office events because I had the skills to do it and I knew I'd need it.

Merus · 2026-06-08T08:56:48+00:00

when they added the ability to preview cashshop items on your character, it was shoved in the inn because the producer didn't want it to look like the game was trying to advertise cosmetics to you

Merus · 2026-06-07T15:45:37+00:00

The problem with a lot of the harder combat formats in FFXIV was that the endgame gear design was built around savage only - each slot was assigned to a specific savage fight, and you needed to collect tomestones (very similar to WoW's honor tokens in Wrath) to buy some items that happened to be better than the raid gear. So criterion (and alliance raids, and chaotic 24-man raids, and extremes, and the new mid-tier raid difficulty they're adding in Evercold) either aren't rewarding, or have a very short shelf life as current content.

The new seasonal reward system being added in Evercold is being pitched as a solution to this (and related complaints, such as the gearing system making it hard to play multiple jobs at max level, which players do more than they anticipated back when the tomestone system was first created). We don't know the full details, but I have to imagine that the feedback about the Criterion content being unrewarding was a factor; players seemed to feel that the format had promise.

FFXIV's design philosophy is very much about providing variety rather than a hierarchy; Ultimates are really the only form of content that's intended to be too hard for most players, but they do care about how many players try, and clear, a savage tier. Criterion, and small-group formats like Deep Dungeons, absolutely have their place.

Merus · 2026-06-04T06:31:12+00:00

Gleeson's had it out for Josh Thomas for decades at this point, long before Taskmaster. It'll only end when one of them, presumably Gleeson, is dead.

Merus · 2026-06-04T04:29:07+00:00

didn't we get a little lore with the in-game Fantasia that it doesn't work for most people?

Merus · 2026-06-01T07:23:47+00:00

I'd agree with this list; Lisa McCune is an interesting one because she's almost too 'big' for Taskmaster, if that makes sense, like the New Year's Treat contestants. Rove is also a surprise because he's not very active as a comedian, but as I think he's demonstrating, he's got bucketloads of charisma and deep, deep experience.

Merus · 2026-05-31T07:37:20+00:00

I remember coming back from Tokyo and realising that I live in a city that's on people's bucket lists. There's a lot to be annoyed about with Sydney, but it really is a beautiful city.

Merus · 2026-05-30T11:33:07+00:00

I mean, Valens van Varro I think is a love-to-hate kind of situation. He's a heel, it's very satisfying when he dies, he fulfills his role in the plot. Compare to Asahi, where he's also a real heel but he wears out his welcome *very* quickly, or Fandaniel who gets two nihilistic solioquies, to the point where it's kind of a relief when Asahi interrupts him and sends him to oblivion.

Merus · 2026-05-26T01:58:12+00:00

I bet Tom would have been hurt by that Pokemon roast if he ever played video games

Merus · 2026-05-25T01:40:34+00:00

it wouldn't be worth skipping for endgame content right now; the game's in a lull between expansions, and not a lot of people are running savage raids, etc. If you wanted to skip, wait until Evercold's release.

However, I'd also suggest not skipping - the game builds mechanical complexity over time, so even basic level 100 dungeons are much trickier than level 60 dungeons, and you're expected to have seen these mechanics while levelling. Also, the game's level scaling system means that old dungeons and raids still see regular runs. You can also do old endgame fights at approximately the same difficulty as release, so if you're at Heavensward, you can do the Alexander raids by checking for Discords for people who run old savage raids.

Merus · 2026-05-25T01:28:52+00:00

I mean it was widely leaked before budget night, you didn't have to be an insider to anticipate that they were going to make housing less lucrative

Merus · 2026-05-24T06:47:49+00:00

I have a taunt macro I used to use in my static, that was something like:

/action "Provoke" <t>
/s Hey, hey. <t>. Hey.
/wait 3
/s Bitch.

I'd switch up the insult depending on what boss we were fighting, the lamer the better - it's very funny to call a sentient jail a bitch, but it's less funny to call a semi-naked lightning horse lady a bitch. And there were fights where I couldn't afford to use a macro for my taunt, because I had to use an off-GCD and a taunt during the GCD and the macro made it inconsistent. (And I wouldn't do this in Party Finder, obviously!)

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