Space. The final Frontier. For centuries, man has looked up at the sky and wondered what exists out there beyond the reaches of our imagination. And in 2013, a hero-turned-villian-turned-back-to-hero named Sean Murray dared to answer that question. His answer: Nearly infinite procedural generation.

No Man's Sky is one of the most interesting case studies among modern video games. As we near the game's 10-year anniversary, this marks a great time to look back and reflect. On the surface, this is a story of a game dev who flew too close to the sun and whose wings burned off like Icarus. But, 10 years of free update and massive, free update tell a much different story. Not only did Icarus grow his wings back, but they eventually grew back bigger and better than ever before.

Follow along with this weeks Imgur Gallery here: https://imgur.com/a/BVcEjaZ

This week's FT! was commissioned by our patron @zhakhix! You can commission your own Flavor Text right now at patreon.com/debatethiscast. We'll record an audio book report on whatever you want. Do you yearn for a dissertation on the Void Mother, or even something from a different and obscure IP? You can have that! Get all the details at patreon.com/debatethiscast.

Recommended Reading:
- The trailer shown at the 2013 VGX Awards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-v6R_T1hEs

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Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a creative commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

Modern games like Kirby and the Forgotten Lands and Pokemon Pokopia have put a new twist on post-apocalyptic media. These games combine the bleak realities at the end of the world with cute, cozy gameplay and aesthetics. What inspired this fresh outlook on the end of days? Who knows! But we here at DT!HQ are ready to capitalize on the trend. This week we're prepping for the collapse by rebooting old game franchises as cozy, post-apocalyptic tales.

Todd is ready to surprise you with a casting you forgot. Kyle is ready to depress you with an economy you remember. Matt brought cryptids?

The title of this week's episode was selected by our Patrons in our Discord Community! If you want to help us choose the next one, join our discord, and/or get some bonus content, become part of #ButtThwompNation at patreon.com/debatethiscast!

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MERCH! We have that! Right now you can go on the internet and order things that say Debate This! On them! All you need to do is head to MerchThis.net and give us your money! Ever wanted socks with the DT! logo on them? Well now you can get em! One more time that website is MerchThis.net!

Properties we talked about this week: Pokemon Pokopia, Spyro the Dragon, Wario Land, WarioWare, Skylanders, Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2011, Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013, Happy Feet, Stardew Valley, Paper Mario

Music for Debate This! is provided by composer Ozzed under a creative commons license. Check out more of their 8-bit bops at www.ozzed.net!

March has five Tuesdays so we're blessing the DT! Main Feed with a bonus episode! Our latest premium show is called Fellowship This! AKA One Does Not Simply Record a LOTR Watchalong Podcast: There And Pod Again: An Unexpected Recording. That's right, we're doing Lord of the Rings! Before we began this venture, Matt had never seen ANY of the LOTR movies or read any of the books. Do you want to experience The Fellowship of the Ring for the first time again vicariously through the eyes of a podcaster? Great news, that's what this is!

If you like this episode and want to hear the rest of the series, head over to our Patreon! You can get access to all of FT!AKAODNSRALOTRWP:TAPA:AUR as well as our other premium shows, The Office Drones and DCOMstructed, at patreon.com/debatethiscast.

You've stuck with us for two years of Disney Channel holiday movies, and so now we figured it's time to shake things up. It's time to talk about one of the most quintessential Holiday movies no one in the history of podcasting has ever talked about: Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Join us for Pt 1 of this epic quest as we journey through The Fellowship of the Ring.

Highlights from our discussion:
- Holy crap does this movie hold up
- But no really...it really holds up
- Even the 2001-era effects look pretty great!
- ...and even more Boomer takes like these!

Have you seen our Instagram? instagram.com/debatethiscast
Have you seen our YouTube? youtube.com/@debatethiscast
Want to send us an email? debatethiscast@gmail.com

MERCH! We have that! Right now you can go on the internet and order things that say Debate This! On them! All you need to do is head to MerchThis.net and give us your money! Ever wanted socks with the DT! logo on them? Well now you can get em! One more time that website is MerchThis.net!