Vidya Gaems General

glennmagusharvey

FWIW the Social Justice Ranger, Social Justice Sorceror, Social Justice Bard, and Social Justice Druid actually appear in the game, as NPCs. (No, not the stupid "NPC" meme kind.)

The Social Justice Ranger occasionally fires an extra shot at your opponent, doing minor damage.

The Social Justice Sorcerer increases your Reputation.

The Social Justice Bard increases your Patience by singing of past Social Justice Warriors (i.e. characters you've played as and lost as before, in your high score chart).

The Social Justice Druid appears with "perplexing riddles", which, depending on how you answer, may be very beneficial, completely useless, or horribly disastrous.

There's also a Social Justice Necromancer, who occasionally revives you after you run out of either Patience or Reputation.

fourteenwings

This game would be more fun if it had IRL nerds in typical outfits. That'd be cuter. Like:

Social justice monk: eschews Internet to hone his body itself into a weapon

Would be "Words are violence!" people.

Social justice sorcerer: is just naturally adept at constructing arguments that are difficult to pick apart

A Gender studies professor!

Or a Vox writer.

Though now I wonder if the Bosses in such type of game would be the Ben Shapiro or Michael Knowles sorts (if it were more lighthearted) or the Milo or Nicholas Fuentes types and MRAs (if it were like... the opposite of lighthearted).

I mean of course it would become 900% more controversial but I think it'd be cute gosh darn it.

glennmagusharvey

High-level Super Metroid gameplay, in the context of such things as the low% runs, reverse-boss-order runs, and the Super Metroid Arcade hack, is basically like playing a game of chicken with the game engine.

It's not fun if you're not experienced with the game mechanics (such as the jump physics), but if you are, they give you a lot to work with...but at the same time, they may eat you alive if you touch the wrong thing.

A decade and half ago, which is when I first played Super Metroid, I never though I'd actually get to the point where I'd be dabbling in this. It was never my intention. But starting a few years ago, I suddenly discovered using this game and its hacks as a source of procrastination, and now I finally am finding myself appreciating pro-level shenanigans in this game.

anyhow i just got owned in Arcade by an unforced error involving the acid bath and not jumping off the ramp in time in the grapple ramp room

Stormtroper

As a consequence of the fact that most of my knowledge of Super Metroid comes from Unknown_Entity's streams, I know more about sequence breaks than about the normal game.

glennmagusharvey

I learned the game "backwards" from speedrunners too. The story, thus, was something I never quite experienced first-hand.

glennmagusharvey

https://www.gog.com/promo/20200415_midweek_sale
I definitely recommend Mini Metro.
(Dunno any of the other games, though Space Colony HD seems interesting so I threw that on my wishlist. Dunno whether I'll buy it this sale.)

fourteenwings

I've digressed and purchased the original Final Fantasy VII on my PS Vita. I'm aware that this could lead to further slip-ups in terms of living without video games, but as for now I'm just going to keep mulling this decision.

Stormtroper

^ Sounds weird when you phrase it that way, like it's an addiction you're overcoming by going cold-turkey.
(Bad timing?) It's been a while since I've posted about Danganronpa.
I finished the Talent Development Plan / Monokuma's Test. It occurs to me that every series with loads of characters could use a similar RPG side-game.
Well, I'm still missing the (I assume) final final final boss but I'm not looking forward to develop confuse-proof characters just for that. I did, turns out a Hajime with Endurance Up and a Hydraulic Press was all I needed.
My final team was Akane, Peko, Gundham and Chiaki the aforementioned Hajime. I wasn't intending to do a DR2 theme but then I did. I also used Kaede, Kaito, Izuru, Chihiro, Kyouko, Hiyoko and Monokuma (which felt wrong) quite a bit. And a bit of Mahiru and Jill too.
The events were more miss than hit, not always having a visible point to them and almost never telling you anything about the characters that you didn't already know, which I guess is to be expected as they're basically fanfic within one of the games, though I find it interesting to see characters with similar/opposite traits from different games interact with each other. Anyhows, the characters ended up having fun, fulfilling, healthy school lives, which is especially good because this mode shares with School Mode and Island Mode the property that everything that happens in it is absolutely completely 100% canonical.
I may play it again in the future.
I still haven't done all the V3 free time events tho. Or watched the Island mode ending events, come to think of it.

fourteenwings

like it's an addiction you're overcoming by going cold-turkey

I acknowledge that there was a time where I felt, somewhat generally, that I was spending too much time behind screens and could be doing something more analogue.

Quitting video games was like, a part of that, but now I'm cultivating a reputation as The One Who Doesn't Play Video Games, and most of my worry stems from losing that (kind of pointless) title.

I mean there are people who have claimed they had genuine video-game addiction, but I waver between giving that school-of-thought-leeway and not taking it very seriously.

It occurs to me that every series with loads of characters could use a similar RPG side-game.

Yeah that would add a lot but probably also costs money, which is why most games don't have it. You tend to see visual novels that have lost of alternate modes, though I don't really know why.

Stormtroper

I acknowledge that there was a time where I felt, somewhat generally, that I was spending too much time behind screens and could be doing something more analogue.

Yeah, definitelly dat feel, it's a bit of a downer those afternoons spent playing some pointless game or mindless browsing or whatever when one could be doing something better. I've found it well worth it to develop the discipline to not get caught up in that so keep at it!
Though if we're talking about computer stuff in general, yeah I definitelly use my computer a lot, though I think nowadays I'm spending my time well enough with it.
Also I think I may be developing the opposite problem with games, where it feels a bit too much effort to set out to play a game even if I know I won't regret it.

I mean there are people who have claimed they had genuine video-game addiction, but I waver between giving that school-of-thought-leeway and not taking it very seriously.

FWIW video game addiction is considered real by... I think it was the WHO? The APA maybe? But yeah, that's a couple levels above just plain "I could be spending my time elsewhere" playing.
Speaking of picking up games, I recently realized that I've never played a stealth game, maybe the first level of Tenchu or something over a decade ago. One of these days I'll try one of these games out.

glennmagusharvey

Re video game addiction:

I'd say that video games are definitely designed with player engagement (including continued player engagement) in mind, and thus can have addicting qualities to them, but these qualities are generally sufficiently mild (and also unable to alter brain chemistry directly) to the point where, for a person to become addicted to video games, there's probably something else driving them to this. And it's also akin to an addiction to various other forms of entertainment/diversions/pastimes.

I can definitely see the possibility of a situation arising where thinking about video games becomes the path of least resistance and a person may fail to get out of this slump and/or otherwise suffer due to near-constant engagement with video games (or, for similar conditions, web browsing, binge-watching stuff, etc.). I'm not sure whether this can rise to the clinical definition of addiction, but my point is that this is very much a thing that can get to the point of becoming a serious problem in one's life, though there are also ways to enjoy it healthily (ways that aren't present for things like smoking).

fourteenwings

>those times when GMH and I agree entirely

glennmagusharvey

fourteenwings wrote: »

>those times when GMH and I agree entirely

Kyon: "Something's...wrong."

glennmagusharvey

Its happened before in the past. Thankfully nintendo was able to bring gaming back, but who knows when the next nintendo will arrive? Im guessing VR, but that is literally a billion dollar question. This is just what happens when quality management is no longer a concern.

Not by a long shot. And by long I mean astronomical units. The actual gaming industry and the one in the 80s are not just comparing apples and oranges. It's comparing apples with a Tesla Roadster.

The 'gaming sky is falling' old adage gets boring after the first decade of listening to it, and I've listened to it for three decades straight. And here we are.

Apocalypse is always the day after tomorrow.

Look, if you're going to argue against that, actually give actual points, please. I agree with your position, but your argument is literally just platitudes and sayings.

Look at my post in contrast. I presented three reasons: the fact that there was a lack of demand back then that does not characterize the videogame market now, the fact that these are digital products that do not need to be moved off shelf space the way physical inventory does, and the fact that the videogame market nowadays has diversified into so many different genres and companies and platforms and market niches that one company running its slice of the market into the ground (even if it's a big company) won't take down the entire industry.

Screw platitudes.

fourteenwings

who are you talking to

glennmagusharvey

I'm complaining about a post on Steam. https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/2271447149948889029/?ctp=2#c2271447149951958060

specifically I'm actually complaining that a moderator of all people is arguing badly

fourteenwings

You need to get out of the house and go on a socially distanced walk right now.

Stormtroper

Glenn and wings got into another huge argument today~

I'm complaining about a post on Steam.

Oh.

glennmagusharvey

FWIW, that thread is someone complaining about anime games on Steam being on sale, specifically during a sale on anime games.

fourteenwings

Yesterday I learned about Trials Evolution and how it's actually not a motorsports game at all.

And that's how the mystery ends. We'll have to wait almost 100 years to solve it.

Yes, that means real life years.

Ultimatum

Last racing game I played was Gran Turismo,I've always found racing games boring

Stormtroper

Now that's dedication.
Free Game Alert: Civilization VI

Ultimatum

epic games tho

fourteenwings

@Stormtroper: New Kodaka game out soon.

Stormtroper

Awesome, thanks for the heads up, I'll keep an eye on it.

I was thinking about watching a Let's Play of 999 soon, even if the gameplay is not my thing.

glennmagusharvey

[7:54 PM] Quint Lindwurm: so the topic of games on Steam going free came up
[7:54 PM] Quint Lindwurm: and i recounted and old story where a game (Saira) went free and there was this one guy who complained really darned hard about how it wasn't fair to people who bought the game and to resellers
[7:55 PM] Quint Lindwurm: and that guy, a user named SalzStange, ran some scammy game curation/giveaway group called Original Curators Group
[7:56 PM] Quint Lindwurm: someone else found this: https://ggtriple.wordpress.com/2015/06/11/influential-steam-curator-group-blackmails-subnautica-developers/

Oh yeah, you can see SalzStange shitting up this thread on the Saira forum by being strangely defensive about the developer's responsibility to resellers, who are very clearly definitely not himself.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/48900/discussions/0/35220315604157862/

Ultimatum

I see

glennmagusharvey

Opinion/commentary:

1. I find games with full-body (or half-body) portraits less engrossing than games with just little pixelated sprites doing things, because sprites doing things is easier to abstract into a mental image than detailed portraits that look still (or even with minor animations).

2. We each probably get used to the types of artistic abstractions we grow up with, then find other types jarring when we first run into them at a more mature age. Though we are able to learn to appreciate it if we run into it enough.

Stormtroper

Free Game Alert: Borderlands: The Handsome Collection
Are they doing this every week or something?

glennmagusharvey

Epic's been doing this for a while now. They've been investing in a lot of loss leaders, paying devs to go exclusive with them for a year and also giving away a bunch of high-profile games as freebies.

I've ignored them, personally.