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Just thought I'd share my tattoo🙂

I, too, am awaiting the return of Hugo, the perfume salesperson. I think it'll be a while. :~

Yeah that’s true. I was just worried about murray fatigue. In the post I accidentally deleted i compared the coffin holding stan in curse and the chest holding murray in tales to surprise christmas presents. It was a beautifully worded analogy worthy of wordsworth. Its a real shame for all of you that you’ll never get to read it.

So I can finally post my wall of text on why the best Star Wars movie is actually the second Ewok movie!

I think they need to release a marketable baby version of Murray.

I think we should just stick to the weather in this thread.

Ron did mention very early on in a tweet that Murray is in the game "big time." I love Murray, so I'm incredibly happy with that, but particularly because I wouldn't say he's been overutilized in the series. Curse was his grand debut. Escape he was just put in for the sake of it for a small portion (you don't even need to talk to him) and Tales he was only in one chapter, in a great capacity though. I would have no problem if his role is more critical to the story and has more interactions with other characters. Again, so long as his inclusion makes sense. Ron and Dave have mentioned many times it was important to them to include returning characters in a capacity that fits and not forced in for simply nostalgia reasons. So, I have no fears in Murray's role in this game.

And to address the Wordle/Mojole thing: Total coincidence that both featured "WHOOP" on the same day. Unless Wordle ripped off Mojole, which sounds plausible.

I think we all should be grateful Bea Arthur is part of the official Star Wars canon.

That's odd--did a mod change the name of the "Let's expend precious time and energy on relitigating the same Star Wars arguments everyone got bored with years ago so that we'll all have one more thing to regret on our deathbeds" thread to "How are you going to play ReMI?" That's weird, I wonder when that happened.

The Pirates of the Caribbean gift shops in Disney parks would make a mint on talking skulls with Danny Delk yelling and posturing.

I think there’ll be plenty to talk about. Tone, quality, difficulty, hilarity, comparisons to the rest of the franchise. All of these things could be discussed at length without getting into specifics. But as soon as i’m finished i’ll be heading straight over to the spoilery thread to talk about how elaine left guybrush for otis and how much i hate the retcon that the navigators head is actually rum rogers sr.

But where is my EMI pandering at??? I think it's cool that Murray is becoming a more active part of the cast instead of just kind of being in there like in MI4 and the majority of MI3 (except for that one puzzle). Tales made Murray as a sidekick work, even if it was only for one part

I would imagine this thread could serve for but is not limited to: "I'm loving/hating/liking/disliking the game so far" (but without spoilers) "Is it on GOG yet?" "Is there a physical release yet?" Whatever the heck we talked about in the other spoilery thread when there were no spoiler yet News about the game, launch, events, etc... BUT without actual game spoilers

There's never too much Murray

Ok so i just spent 10 minutes typing out a wall of text that for some reason disappeard when i posted… i’ll sum up. Too much murray?

I don't actually have that many expectations for the game. I already know I'll love it from the snippets that we've seen and from the interviews because it's made with LOVE. I have loved every Monkey Island game so far because they were always made with love and care, and even if they had things I could nitpick or plot twists that made no sense, they still had the spirit of Monkey Island. Even if I played the first two games last (before Tales came out) I do think of them as separate from the others, because they have this special atmosphere that the others don't really have, but that doesn't really mean that the others are less quality games. I don't know if Return will give us back that magic feeling that the first two games give, I'm not expecting it to do so, but I'm not expecting it NOT to do so too, if that makes any sense. I do wish that it did, because it would be a dream come true if this could be the final chapter of the "Ron trilogy" everyone wanted, but if it's a different Monkey Island game like the others before, with its own atmosphere and its own special feeling I'll be happy too.

I am so with you on this. I’ll be checking back with Mojo after my time with ReMI in my zombie bunker! (At least on the Monkey Island threads, I’ll discuss The Dig with anyone anytime!)

About that Ars Technica article, I think that we're entering a zone that some players might find seriously spoilering, so I'll report here the warning of the editor: Editor's note: This article is careful not to spoil a single puzzle, joke, or unannounced character reveal. One plot-specific reveal, which Gilbert and Grossman were happy to announce, lands near the end of the article.

‽

I am not sure how to conform to the discussion, so I will state that I will play the game as slowly as a AT-AT walker.

Stan popping out of that coffin in Curse was such a perfect moment. I had no idea what was going to be inside, and then when it was Stan, I laughed out loud and thought “of course! who else could it be?”

I suspect we'll see him in similar intervals as we did in CMI. Going by the #MonkeyIslandMonday teaser set on Monkey, it's implied that Murray makes his way to the island by himself. That's the sort of thing we saw in CMI.

About expectations I do think it's possible to separate your excitement from your expectations, to a certain extent, but they are linked. I feel like expectations don't rule my excitement, exactly, but it can be used to help me know where to direct it. They're just an... estimate about how much I'm going to like something. I've found that generally something hits PRETTY close to my expectations, and the more I know about something in advance (to an extent) the more accurate my expectations are. For example, if I'd gone on a complete media blackout on ReMI since the announcement I'd have no idea where to set my expectations because I haven't seen anything. I'd be very, very excited, but I'd have no way to think about whether and how my excitement would be matched by the game we get. But then again if I'd allowed myself to watch the trailer and a couple of other tidbits, maybe I'd be more excited about certain details than I ought to be, because I really enjoyed the trailer and certain comments made in interviews. As it is, I've looked at everything I can, but I won't be seeking out major story spoilers when the game comes out. This, to me at least, has lent my excitement a sense of... realism? I'm still very excited about the game, of course, but I've seen enough to know I'll probably like some bits more than others, maybe not everything will hit the way I'd like it to, but it's playing with some really cool ideas and I think I'll have a great time with it over all. I remember very much the same process happening with No Man's Sky. People who didn't play very close attention were expecting it to be some life-changing forever-game where you can do anything, but actually in interviews and stuff the developers were really clear that in it's first iteration it was really supposed to be this slow, relaxing, vibey sort of experience, and with that knowledge I got what I wanted out of it. More recently, I quite enjoyed a game called Biomutant. I wasn't blown away by it, but I wasn't really disappointed either because the more I looked at the pre-release material it the more I realised that it was a 7/10-as-heck game, and if I approached it like that then I'd have a nice time. I feel like I know what ReMI is trying to be, at this point. I'm ready to meet it on its terms. I can't wait, and my excitement is still all the way up here *indicates a high spot* to see where they go with the story, the intro, to learn the secret, to hear the new soundtrack, to spend time in this world again - but my overall expectations are just that I'll have a good time and come out the other side fairly happy. You can if you want, but I don't think I'll join in. You actually don't need me or anyone else to tell you whether I think the First Order was blahblahblahvhfdjsklf because I literally do not care, it has little to no bearing on what I think of that film, and I like you but I don't feel any need to justify my liking of it to your satisfaction 🙂. I've had all the conversations I can possibly bear to have about why I think The Last Jedi is great (not perfect, but really great) and heard what I think is every single point that everyone has ever made about why they disagree, years ago - and I'm not especially interested in revisiting it again 😅 (incidentally I also think this would be a perfectly understandable response for EMI-likers to have - I get that it can be frustrating when you like something a lot and everyone always seems to want to 'disprove' you. You don't have an obligation to justify your liking of something. It's just that I also think that it's reasonable to expect that people's opinions of EMI might come up from time to time on the Mixnmojo forums 😄)

Yep, you kept your expectations in check

I'm also recently realizing that there are genre spoilers we'll probably never get as adventure gamers again, or as Monkey Island gamers. When I first played Secret (after playing Indy 3, Loom, and at least one Sierra game), it took a little while for ne to get a gauge of how much of this world was serious business versus how much was comedy. There are bones in that game that show how the tone could have veered differently. The conversation with Mancomb Seepgood... you can say "I've come seeking my fortune" instead of declaring you want to be a pirate. If you ask who's in charge, he'll drop a bit of worldbuilding of Governor vs. Pirate Leaders that never gets mentioned again. Coming out of Indy 3, I'm not sure how long it took me to realize I couldn't die (minus that one part). At the bridge, I think I believed the Troll was going to kill me if I gave three incorrect items. At Captain Smirks, I was authentically surprised that the combat system was dialogue based instead pf resembling Indy 3 or Sierra's Conquests of Camelot. I was paranoid of running out of the 480 pieces of eight in my inventory. I tried to be careful not to miss any important items that I might need later when escaping Germany... I mean, exploring Monkey Island. We aren't getting that experience in a MI sequel, nor can we. EDIT: Do we need a new thread to discuss why The Last Jedi is the third worst Star Wars movie, after the other two Sequels? I'm on a hate reddit for that kind of discussion. I can link you to things, or summarize.

Expectations can spoil all of those. Parasite was an amazing movie, but everyone I saw it with was disappointed: It has just won the Best Film Oscar a few days before and their expectations were through the roof. I absolutely loved it, though. The Last Jedi is the best Star Wars movie. There I said it. Nobody believes me, but I think I can construct a sound argument where it just slightly ekes out Empire. (And Rise of the Skywalker is sadly the worst.)

I'm expecting to be somewhat disappointed, or I guess I should say that I'm tempering my expectations. I guess it's kind of like when a rock band reunites after 20+ years and decides to do another album together... it's very exciting and cathartic to get to have another go-round with something that you loved so long ago, but it's very unlikely to reach the highs of the original experience. The indications from the screenshots and marketing so far is that RtMI will mostly be 'playing the hits', and I like the idea of returning to Melee Island after several decades, etc. I'm going to be interested to play it and reflect on how times have changed, but I don't expect that it will be on par with the original games. That's all OK! If it's comparable in quality to Tales I will be happy.

I think it'll be a good Monkey Island game, perhaps even a very good one. I think it'd be very unlikely if I rank it equal to 1 and 2, maybe even 3 just because especially the first two of those games were just so much part of my formative years that I find it very hard to disentangle how those games make me feel from who I am today as a person. It's nothing against ReMI to say that I don't think it is going to sit easily alongside games that feel like an almost literal part of me. But I have high hopes for it, because Ron and Dave are saying all the right things (moreso than I thought they would) and I love most of what I've seen so far. I think it'll review decently but it's a niche genre and there are a limited number of reviewers who truly appreciate it. 8/10s from the average reviewer if it's as good as I hope. It's not going to be the best selling Devolver game of this year. What are you TALKING about. Cult of the Lamb has just been a huge hit. Weird West did 400k in its launch window too.

I agree with both how difficult it might be to write a good sequel and the quotes that you put around "final". 😛

👕 I beat #Mojole #169 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 4/6 🖤🖤🖤💛🖤 🖤🖤🖤💚🖤 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

👕 I beat #Mojole #169 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 5/6 🥲 🖤🖤💚💚💚 🖤🖤🖤🖤💚 🖤🖤💚💚🖤 🖤💚🖤🖤🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

👕 I beat #Mojole #169 and all I got was this stupid t-shirt. 3/6 🖤🖤💚🖤🖤 🖤💚🖤🖤🖤 💚💚💚💚💚 https://funzone.mixnmojo.com/Mojole/

All said, it’s the first interesting interview I’ve read in a while — it actually has quite a bit of good non-spoilery information. Linux port is all but confirmed for those who are interested in that kind of stuff.

Thank you, @LowLeveland @Remi. I edited my post to try to make that clear as well.

I don't think we are ideological opponents. Maybe I'm just a bit more open to different possibilities? I just think there are many, different ways to create something good. And future MI sequels are just one possible direction. But sure, if Ron really feels like making more Monkey Island games (and they let him do it his way), I think that would be great - because I think something interesting would always come out of it. But I would also love him to do other adventure games with a completely new story (I loved Thimbleweed Park, btw) - because that would probably be exciting as well. Also, I never said that these future MI sequels had to come from Ron. That's just one possible way!

I can't, this is the spoiler-free thread. 😐

Oh, nothing special... Original interview: https://youtu.be/r3Dbi1b8QDE?t=3392 Article that reported it: https://www.thegamer.com/return-to-monkey-island-masters-phd-thesis/

I for myself knew lots of plot details from “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” and was sooo disappointed. And I knew absolutely nothing of “Parasite” and was totally blown away. But that doesn’t prove anything, because objectively the one movie is better than the other. I think, if a movie (or anything else) is great, it is great - and no spoiler can change that. I can still rewatch “The Sixth Sense”, “Inception” or “Memento” again and again and they don’t lose anything good. Nevertheless, I still love/prefer to experience something for the first time without spoilers because this experience is just unique. Did this post help? I guess not. I just love good stories. 🤷‍♂️

I initially read this thread title as "Tell me why I’m about to get ripped", so my brain immediately went to Temple of Doom muscles - deciding to work out for the sake of effective cosplay.

I totally respect people's desire not to want spoilers. But I also think a few things: Firstly I think everyone would agree different people have a different relationship with spoilers and I don't think it makes sense to assume what is true for one person about them is also true for everyone else. I also think attitudes to spoilers have changed a bit over the years to the point that I feel like if I, personally, treated spoilers with the same level of aversion that some people do, then it would ruin a different pleasure for me - that is to say, the pleasure of anticipating something through the slow drip of information. I like this bit - obviously I don't want to know the whole story, all the twists, all the jokes, and I'm looking forward to meeting characters, visiting locations, hearing music and solving puzzles for the first time when I play the game. But I... basically trust that Ron and team also don't want to reveal anything they believe is best experienced fresh in the game for the first time. So I don't feel like I want to cut myself off. I enjoy the bit where we get to analyse every shot, guess at what it means, speculate on stuff. It's always been part of the fun for me. I did it for CMI, EMI, Tales. If I tried to shut my eyes and close my ears, I might, possibly, be improving my first time experience of whatever 60 seconds of game I refuse to watch, or I might not see something about the themes of the game that Dave mentions in an interview, but I'd also simultaneously be denying myself the joy of speculation, that drip of information that heightens my anticipation. I only get to play the game for the first time once, but I also only get to anticipate the release once too - and I can't replay my anticipation. I do think that some movie trailers do a pretty poor job of holding stuff back in a way that could lessen enjoyment. But as far as ReMI goes, if you'd told me know I could erase my Monkey Island related memories of the last 6 months and so play the game as if completely unseen, I think I'd still say no, because that would mean erasing all the fun I've had wondering about what will happen, hanging on Ron and Dave's every tweet, pausing the trailer every half second to get a closer look. I mean... I THINK we've had fun... right?

While we haven't had an official editorial meeting about it, we'll definitely make sure to keep it spoiler free for a couple of weeks. There'll obviously be some news, but we have a spoiler tag for anything minor -- the major stuff will be links to elsewhere, internally (separate page, below the cut, etc.) or externally.

Sooo.... as soon as RtMI is releasing I'm planning on going dark until I complete it. No twitter, no Facebook groups, no reviews, and no Mojo forums (even the spoiler-free ones) as I really don't want to be influenced by anyone else's opinions until I've completed it. Hopefully I have time right away, but life's pretty busy at the moment so it may be a matter of weeks (months?) rather than days if I want to complete it all on my own. Anyways, my only concern with all this is I want to know if and when any big box physical release is available and not miss out on any preordering etc. My question is - will the main mixnmojo news page be a good place to periodically check? In other words, will it remain spoiler free?