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5 January 2024

Hard Mode

S2E9: God, King George and England!

Happy New Year from the PastMaster crew! Wishing you 12 months of success, happiness and safe time travelling adventures. 

Kicking off our antics for 2024, we’re about to crank up the difficulty and trial PastMaster: Hard Mode.

After consistently getting feedback from listeners that the game is too easy, too willing to bend to the nonsensical whims of the player, I spent an (inordinate) amount of time tinkering with the rules to try and make the game harder.

Then I challenged Ryan to try and break it. 

For this mission he is heading to America. Specifically to the Boston Tea Party in 1773 at the heart of the movement for independence from the British Crown. While harbouring a secret but vivid loyalty to the king.

What could possibly go wrong?

Tune in to find out if Ryan survives. S2E9 is out on Monday 8 January.

Ryan Mulchrone: patriotic to a fault

AI in the news

Beware the ‘botshit’ warns City University professor André Spicer on the Guardian website.

With a mammoth set of national elections due this year in countries including the US, the UK, India and Turkey (among a host of others), Prof Spicer warns us that AI generated dog gravy could have a profound and frankly awful effect on the democratic process.

The example he gives at the start of a video of Hilary Clinton apparently endorsing Ron DeSantis for US president is just the tip of the iceberg.

PastMaster predicts a sweeping AI-driven win in the UK for the Monster Raving Loony Party in what will become known as the ‘mad wave’.

PastMaster, the final frontier

As we approach the ten-episode mark for season two of PastMaster I’m wondering where we should go next. We have options:

  • Empires to explore – “GameMaster, take me to visit the Aztecs, or maybe Genghis Khan!”

  • Three player PastMaster (or why not four player, come to think of it?)

  • True crime – did Adnan Syed really kill Hae Min Lee? (Of course not)

Read the full blog post here.

Until next time, Tan and the PastMaster Crew

PS if you’re enjoying the show please, please, please mention PastMaster to a friend you think might enjoy it. 

PPS You can check out the whole PastMaster back catalogue here.

PPPS if you’ve got any suggestions for what you’d like to see the PastMaster team try next, get in touch:

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