alanschu

Slight aside, I did enjoy that, during my brief stay in Seattle, the two restaurant/pubs that had passcodes for their bathroom used 223 and 308 haha.

Just finished my playthrough of Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

So what you're saying here is that I don't know what I like, but you do know what I prefer? Like I said, "How quaint." If I could choose one story experience to have stripped from my memory so that I could experience it again, it'd be Planescape: Torment. I will say this despite believing that Shawshank Redemption is a better constructed story. Why? Because Planescape: Torment has that intangible aspect of interactivity. It has the advantages of making that story and journey so much more personal, and as such memorable, to myself. Now maybe I'm psychologically maladjusted and immerse myself too much in video games, but to be frank you listing off a series of famous authors accomplishes nothing. Unless your point was a strawman and you've decided to now argue that the entirety of literature, and all of its history (and sheer quantity of authors), has better constructed stories than video games in their 30 year existence, most of which mired by technical limitations (i.e. Wasteland would refer to the manual for full text, since disk space was too valuable)... then I have to ask "are you even paying attention to what was said?" You seem to also fundamentally feel that a video game could never be as good as a book or a movie (how many felt the same about movies...) in telling a story as well. Coming from the guy that seems to think that caves and D&D are essential to good gaming experiences, if you think that my response can only be one of trolling, I can only offer that either you have similar psychological maladjustment that I have, or you just straight up need to get your head out of your rear and start paying attention to the throngs of individuals that aren't Monte Carlo and like different things than Monte Carlo. There's a lot of them and though you often state so, they aren't all idiots. If you can't understand why I might prefer video games as my medium for story telling, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you're simply being too rigid in how you break down why someone might prefer to experience a story interactively. It's your problem, though, and not mine, and for all the judgment you pass on other gamers for liking different stuff than you, at this point I'll just conclude that I don't think we have anything more to discuss with each other. EDIT: Just as a further point, the other aspect of narrative that I like about video games is the emergent one. There's no scripted storyline in a game like Europa Universalis or Civilization, yet every time I play the game I am presented with a different story that I enjoy connecting the dots between events. This goes for games like FONV and even War in the Pacific. I'm not restricted from what a writer writes in a game, but also what I can imagine as I play the game. So I suppose I also have myself on my side as well, because it's damn fun creating (and sometimes even hilariously rationalizing) narratives for what has happened in my game experiences.

trolololol How quaint.

I have thought of the best way of convincing folks of my point, so I devised a situation to illustrate why games aren't a good medium for storytelling. I would ask the person what their favorite movie was or what movie they are really excited about, after they answer I would say that we should watch that movie. On said viewing I will place a Simon Game in front of them and I will make sure that I have the remote. After that at any pivotal point in the film I will pause it or stop it and tell them that to keep watching it the must beat the Simon Game a undefined number of times. At least if I can't convince them I will have some fun at their expense. While I didn't mind Fahrenheit, I haven't played any of David Cage's other games. This sounds more like an indictment of his method of delivering story within a game, than a clear cut portrayal of how story is not required for games. Planescape: Torment is probably my favourite game, because of its story. The RPG genre is probably my favourite, because I like to immerse myself in a story. Heck, even Fahrenheit is a game that I only really enjoyed (at least the first 80%) because of its story, and more specifically, the subtle ways I can influence it. I certainly didn't enjoy Fahrenheit for its gameplay. I don't enjoy Baldur's Gate because of it's AD&D combat. I don't enjoy Bloodlines for its gameplay. Nor do I really care much for Arcanum for its gameplay. Fallout's gameplay isn't exactly top notch (though I'd probably prefer it over many other RPGs). And I still really enjoyed Telltale's The Walking Dead, moreso than a TV series, simply because for myself putting something in game format is simply a way to make it more appealing to me. You can give me sheet music to teach me how to play guitar and I'll learn. Put it in video game form and suddenly there's that extra, intangible something that motivates me more to pick up the guitar. I'd dare say that games like Baldur's Gate 2 would not be as popular as they are if they contained no writing and were akin to a roguelike like Dungeon Hack.

I personally prefer video games as a medium for story telling. Different strokes for different folks, and all.

Yeah I remember hearing your enthusiasm for X: Rebirth and it sucks that it wasn't what you had hoped for :\

Heh, here it's drilled into us not to do anything around snow in jeans. Of course, we don't actually have snow sitting around populated areas much so you're far more likely to be tramping or skiing when encountering snow here. I certainly wouldn't ski in jeans. If you *fall* into the snow, that's probably bad. I'd still wear ski pants or some sort of focused winter leggings in that case. But for just standing around or casual walking, jeans it is. Even if it's snowing heavily I probably won't get too wet (unless it's near zero). I don't do much for winter sporting activities though, so I don't even have a pair of winter boots, let alone winter pants (that still fit.... >.>)

Don't take much of what some posters say to heart. Where do I sign up?

More RPG or Adventure game, would you say?

I'd need a bit more information on what it is, but I could probably spend some time this weekend.

I almost always wear jeans, including in the snow. If it's super cold, I'll toss on some thermal underwear underneath. I find they don't get too wet in the snow, to be honest, especially when compared to the rain.

Yup, definitely an autoresolve. Given that I find it can be pretty easy to exploit the AI in a lot of the real time battles, some argue it's a more interesting game that way.

Hasbro probably isn't too keen on supporting the old rulesets similar to how Activision isn't too keen on still supporting the older Call of Duty games.

The total war games might be something you find interesting then?

Ultima VII's place is a crime! A CRIIIIIIIIIME! <ahem>

Even Communist Allan doesn't think that regulating this through law is a good idea. 213374U, your post is a home run BTW. I think it's easy to judge those people, and even overlook that in some cases it may not actually be a serious condition (I remember learning of a triathlete who basically looked like a short, fat man, but his body vitals were pretty good). Granted this is probably rare, but as you say it's important to not generalize too recklessly.

Haha, I tend to have my archetypes that I prefer too. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people do. My problem with the Legion is that I find it so impossible to reasonably motivate my character to join with them. I think they are a bit too extreme.

Yeah, the recent influx of RPGs is still riding a crowd funding wave, in my opinion. It's slowed down a bit, somewhat. Digital Distribution is a big influence too, as it helps enable things like kickstarter and even just indie/smaller projects. I honestly wouldn't be surprised. Most games I play I tend to enjoy more if I have a degree of intrinsic customization (aesthetic customization doesn't appeal to me as much). Not always. I don't think games that don't include these will die out altogether though, especially in light of my previous comments in this post. RPGs are the genre I tend to prefer, so for the most part I, personally, don't mind the shift.

I think RPGs, or at least RPG elements, offer a degree of personal investment that a lot of other games cannot provide, so I wouldn't be surprised if there's a continuing trend in adding those elements as I think that personal investment is typically seen as a positive for a lot of gamers.

I find this endemic to game development and gamers as a whole (it's probably seen elsewhere too, though I just have more visibility with the gaming aspect of it). I follow Hearts of Iron IV and some people are raging at how the map looks on a frame by frame breakdown of how it looked in the background of a video and they do it with all sorts of justifications that they think make sense simply because it allows them to justify their outrage. Then, hilariously, they say that Paradox would be better served releasing more screenshots to assuage fears, when IMO the reality is people just want "MOAR INFO" because... well, I don't even really understand why. I can understand excitement, but I also remember a time before the internet when I didn't have immediate access to game details and those games still came out and I still enjoyed them! I agree that the "I will withhold money" arguments get tiresome. It's, in my opinion, mostly a result of a simplistic logical construct where someone goes "they want my money, so if I can make them feel like they won't get it, they'll pay closer attention to me" though I am skeptical at how reflective of reality this thought process actually is.

I have been watching videos of these and cannot stop laughing.

Most people want a "cool game" but I wouldn't be surprised if there's no majority (i.e. 50%+1) consensus on what is essential for a cool game. I'm sure many of the people that "just want a cool game" are perfectly okay with many of the things that the various minorities want, because ultimately it doesn't affect them. In my opinion, the only legitimate reason to be upset at someone asking or suggesting something like this is if you think that it'll ultimately deliver a less than satisfactory experience. To me, this means that you're either upset at the specific content request, or at the perceived opportunity cost of implementing the request (i.e. it'll take away from something else you consider more important). The problem I have with the defense of "people just want a cool game" is that, if that's the case, then really should it not matter at all with respect to whether or not you can play as a female player character, or what have you? Or would the inclusion be something that makes the setting unsatisfying for you? If so, what exactly does that say? In the world of RPGs there's definitely that group of people that want the "edgy and mature" topics with things like rape and all those dark things to make the world more vicious and seem more real. These threads inevitably popped up on DAI forums, and I responded with an idea of "Okay, how about the notion that the player character gets captured at one point, and if the player is male he gets raped by the homosexual jailer." The response was that that would just be a clear attempt at being subversive and would be frankly, lame. So to that poster, it wasn't just the inclusion of rape he wanted, it was an inclusion of rape of a specific nature (i.e. of a woman). Whatever his reasons are for doing that, I do find it an interesting point that for that person, having a woman get raped would be perfectly acceptable while having a man get raped would be out of the question. There's no real definition of what it means to "have a cool game" and for some people, adding something like this is just something that makes the game that much cooler.

I'm not sure I can get any sort of accurate bearing on what Gorth's estimate is of the reach and popularity of D&D, especially given that the word "masses" was in quotes.

Interesting. I think that those that disagree do themselves a disservice when they respond with such vitriol (on top of granting exposure to a topic and increasing awareness of it, when they may not actually want that). I agree with the one commenter that said they find it disappointing that people would react to the idea that Medieval Europe may not have been as white as many think with anger rather than curiosity. Though I suspect (given comments like "Idiot SJW") there's an innate disbelief for whatever reasons that would need to be overcome. As I said, I have no beef if the developers want to have only a male character, or only white people. As the article you link messages, it takes place in a pretty small area so "realism" arguments can go both ways. If the game completely lacks POC, that doesn't make it unrealistic. Nor does the inclusion of POC innately make it less realistic either. Which boils down to the issue: claiming that a game is "realistic" is going to really bring in people's notions of what they think is considered realistic, and when those notions are challenged then fighting cognitive dissonance is going to be a huge barrier to overcome.