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Vidya Gaems General

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Comments

  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Can someone explain what the significance of 60 fps (as in frames per second, not first-person shooter) is -- specifically why some gamers seem to insist on being able to do that, or higher framerates, with their PC games.

    I haven't kept track of the framerates of the games I've played, but apparently Anodyne is locked to 30 fps and I didn't notice anything amiss about it.  (At least it is according to TotalBiscuit's list here: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9393382-The-Framerate-Police/ .  I haven't played anything else on this list.)

    Also apparently anime is normally 30 fps?  And people say it looks funny when it's 60 fps?  So why do gamers want 60 fps?  Though I guess anime does look a little choppy at times, but I'm not sure that's even 30.  And don't most displays have a 60 Hz refresh rate anyway?  Why go higher?
  • edited 2015-07-19 06:04:45
    I thought anime was at 12 fps.
    For cinema, the convention is at 24 fps.
    It's what it sounds like, the higher it is, the more fluid it feels. It's higher for games than movies/TV because it's interactive, the player needs to be immediately aware of what's going on and what they do often has to have an immediate impact on the screen. Depending on the game (e.g. RPGs) it's probably not a big deal if it's 30 FPS, and is likely worth it for better graphics elsewhere, but for twitch based games, the difference can be noticeable.
    I dunno about the going higher thing, tho.
    Edit: Also, live action will be subject to motion blur, which makes it feel drastically more fluid than an equivalent non-motion-blurred videogame/drawn/3D animation.
  • There is love everywhere, I already know
    Considering that some games apparently can be just uploaded to the
    memory card, there might be a way to get the data onto one's card
    anyway.

    PSVs have the most user-unfriendly content transfer system which I assume carries over, so you probably still can't do anything (ie transferring games and saves) without it going through your PSN account.
  • The significance of 60fps specifically is mostly just that that's the standard refresh rate of most monitors and TVs, so it's the highest visually perceptible framerate you can have on a lot of displays.

    The reason people like high framerates though is that it, well, looks way better, for one. 60fps is noticeably smoother than 30fps. In particular though, higher framerates give a faster response between hitting a button and getting a result, which leads to better gameplay, particularly for fast-paced games like fighting games, shooters (fps or otherwise), and racing games. A lot of console games are locked to 30fps and are of course playable, but it really is a much better experience at higher framerates.

    And the reason PC gamers insist that they be able to run games at at least 60 fps is because seriously games should run well if you have good hardware.

    Movies are 24 fps by convention. People would probably think higher framerates look good for movies but producers will probably not want that in general since it's more expensive, and audiences just aren't used to movies at more than 24 fps (some tv shows are at 30 fps but generally not any higher than that) so when they see something that isn't (i.e. The Hobbit) the immediate reaction is that it looks weird.

    Anime is either broadcast at 24 fps or 30 fps depending on whatever, but usually most of the actual animation besides camera pans and stuff is done at 12 fps to save money. It also always looks extremely choppy and fast-paced scenes are often completely incomprehensible so I'm not sure why you're using anime as an example of frame rates not mattering.

    And of course yeah movies aren't interactive so it matters less.
  •  People would probably think higher framerates look good for movies

    People, in general, think higher fps movies look "weird". I'm not sure how successful The Hobbit's high FPS release was in theaters, that could be a good indicator of reception.
  • edited 2015-07-20 21:18:59
    That paragraph (and the rest of my post actually) was terrible, but I meant that people might respond better to higher framerates for movies if it were more common, but as it is, for various reasons it's not common and people don't like it.

    Though actually GMH's comment

    Also apparently anime is normally 30 fps?  And people say it looks funny when it's 60 fps? 

    makes it sound like he's talking about motion interpolation or something (since I doubt any anime ever was animated at 60fps), which is sort of inherently going to look really bad compared to content that is actually 60 fps so something.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    I once overheard someone talking about watching anime at 60 fps and commenting how weird it was.  I don't know what he/she was watching or what it looked like.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Saving link for posterity: http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/7/541906989394907924/

    Rome-themed builder games: Imperium Romanum, CivCity: Rome, Grand Ages: Rome.

    Also I'm now wondering where my CD-ROM of Caesar is.  I think it's in a box in my apartment.

    For some reason I am currently in the mood for a Rome-themed city sim game.
  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    I think Caesar 3 can be found on an occasional abandonware site, I don't know if it means the copyright owners allow for that or it just slipped someone's attention.
  • Wow.  I even remember Caesar 3.  People complained my city wasn't populous enough, and never fucking moved into the tents I put up for them.
  • Abandonware just means the copyright owner isn't likely to excert their claims to it for whatever reason (they don't care, they no longer exist, etc.). I know that in at least one case (X-Com) the product eventually got picked up and is no longer abandoned.
  • edited 2015-07-25 07:24:46
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/9/8006693/the-truth-behind-those-mysteriously-cheap-gray-market-game-codes

    Not a surprise at all that many of these codes come from credit card fraud, press kits, and bundle promos.  What's more informative is the fact that this story took the time to actually investigate the multiple links of the chain, actually confirm that someone's gotta be lying somewhere along the way, and report all the details that came out of the investigation.

    BTW, in case you weren't convinced press kits are a source of these keys, do recall the Original Traders Group / Original Curators Group scandal, where a group leader bribed/extorted keys from devs by promising/threatening good/bad reviews, and then went on to resell/trade the keys away.
  • "you duck spawn, refined creature, you try to be cynical, yokel, but all that comes out of it is that you're a dunce!!!!! you duck plug!"
    ^^ Well, once folks with rights got the wind that people are willing to pay for the stuff they download, lots of games got removed from abandonware sites. So if Caesar 3 is still there, then either they still don't care, or they didn't find it.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Meanwhile, some people threw up a "remake"(?) of Caesar III onto Steam's Early Access section -- it's called CaesarIA, and its main feature judging from the store page seems to be an abundance of broken English.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    lrdgck wrote: »
    Do you guys too, when you type a password, try
    not to repeat it in your mind as you type, just in case somebody was
    reading your thoughts? 'Cause I've been catching myself at that
    recently. Well, what can I say. Better safe than sorry.



    Well, guess what, I just happened to have had some attempts to hijack my Steam account.

    If you're looking for me on Steam, I won't be online for a little while, while I look into this, as I locked my account just to be safe.
  • edited 2015-07-27 05:23:38
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Well, the culprit has been identified, because apparently this happened.



    THANKS GABEN

    (FYI it's fixed now)
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Fairy Fencer F is coming out on Steam.

    I forgot how weeb this thing is.
  • Lots of JRPGs have been getting PC ports lately.
    Unfortunately, my PC sucks so I don't really benefit from this, but it's still neat.
  • Dear Blazing Sword
    Why do you hate me so much
    Why do you spawn so many pegasus knights
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human

    Bee wrote: »
    Dear Blazing Sword
    Why do you hate me so much
    Why do you spawn so many pegasus knights


    because pegasus knights are cute and interested in impaling you

    anyway

    So last night I had a dream about a game design.  In a game, there are seven times when you have the option of stealing (or getting more than your fair share of) something.  (In my concept, it was a logo-branded pen, the kind that one might encounter at a career fair or a corporate office.)  If you take the 7th one, you can get a really awesome item as a consequence of doing so.  Thing is...if you've stolen these things the first six times, and then you try to get the 7th one, you get a game over.

    So you gotta not be too greedy earlier on.
  • edited 2015-08-17 02:19:06
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Currently arguing with someone on the Steam forums about achievements.

    I'm in favor of making it possible for players to unlock and re-lock achievements at will, in addition to keeping it possible for games to unlock achievements in their normal way.  Ideally, each achievement should have not just an unlock status and an unlock timestamp but a table of unlock/relock actions, who did it (manual or normal), and corresponding timestamps.

    I see it as a way to deal with bugged achievements that don't unlock properly or unlock too early, and also allow a player to re-lock and re-unlock achievements for replay value.

    But other people are arguing that this cheapens the whole point of achievements (or what they see as the point, at least), saying that the existence of an officially-sanctioned way to cheat them changes their meaning, and speaking of how much they value getting rare achievements.

    My reply to this is that achievements ought to be about recording one's enjoyment of the game and overcoming the challenges it presents to them, rather than about the social dimension of showing off their skill or judging others' skill.  Furthermore, as long as manual unlocking is something that one has to specially go and do, few people will actually claim the achievements out of the blue, since there are few or no external incentives for getting achievements in Steam itself.

    What are your thoughts on this?
  • Achievements for me is a cool reminder I did something reasonably cool or difficult, and it's nice to have a memento. It really only means something to me, not really something I show off to others.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    "Elsword" strikes me as a silly name for a character.
  • To be or not to be? That is the question.

    "Elsword" strikes me as a silly name for a character.



    Barring the occasional "Add" and "LuCiel", Elsword is a rather silly name.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    Okay, yeah, Add is a stupider name.  They should subtract that from the roster.
  • edited 2015-09-05 19:52:59
    Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    So it seems to me that Castlevania Judgement's characters are roughly as follows:
    * Simon: metrosexual barbarian
    * Sypha: has boobies
    * Maria: can't stop talking about boobies
    * Grant: mummy
    * Dracula: actually not much changed; still an arrogant jerk
    * Aeon: bad time puns

    AttObl wrote: »

    "Elsword" strikes me as a silly name for a character.



    Barring the occasional "Add" and "LuCiel", Elsword is a rather silly name.



    It could be worse.
    It could be Fal'cie and L'cie.  And various other things with apostrophes for no apparent reason.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2015-09-07 07:22:32
    but unnecessary apostrophes mean it's ancient and stuff because it obviously predates phonetics that make any goddamn sense

    Also motherfuck the Gore Magala.  Asshole spends 3/4 of the fight back-dodging halfway across the area then zooming back faster than it's mechanically possible to roll away from, and has almost no pause between these massive sweeping attacks.  It's as bad as Dream Drop Distance.

    And if you encounter him on an expedition he has fifteen zillion HP and runs away before you can kill him.  Like, I spent a good ten minutes continuously punking his contagious ass with stun-procing dual blades, Mega Demondrug, Frenzy virus, and Archdemon Mode on almost the entire time, and before even showing any signs of exhaustion or limping the fucker just flies off without so much as a shiny drop.  Asswipe.

    Remember how I said I felt bad about capturing the adorable monster because that just means the guild is going to cut it up while it's alive?  (EDIT: I just realized you probably don't because I said it on HH...)  No such qualms about this douchenozzle.
  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human
    I remember Extra Credits discussing three forms of religion in videogames, which, if I recall correctly, are:
    1. religion as part of the premise, such as games designed specifically to teach or prosyletize certain beliefs
    2. religion as part of the gameplay, such as priests with healing or smiting powers
    3. religion as part of the characterization, such as what one's faith or beliefs mean to a character, especially in times of duress

    They noted that #3 comes up rarely.

    Well, I figured out why it comes up so rarely.  Videogames generally don't have characters facing existential crises or otherwise pondering the meaning of their lives or other philosophical questions of that sort.  First, such a feature would only appear in a very story-heavy game (the example they gave is from The Walking Dead).  Second, generally speaking, videogames in their basic gameplay premises specify some sort of purpose to the player -- saving the world, managing the business, winning the race, destroying the enemies, exploring the ruins, etc..  There is no point at which the player is wondering "what should I do with my time here?" -- and should it ever come to that, the player can easily either discard this game to the wayside and do something else, or the player can attempt to create their own gameplay objectives.  Players are rarely confronted with the inability (or seeming inability) to solve an open-ended problem -- it's always possible to defeat that enemy or overcome that obstacle, or it was designed intentionally that that would fail.  And the purpose of such designs are typically transparent -- a beef gate or ability gate to prevent access to a certain area, or a barrier blocking access to an area that doesn't exist because it's not gameplay- or plot-relevant.  Even when players become stumped by puzzles or strategic complexities, the objectives are still clear -- you need to get past those enemies somehow, or bring the blue ball to the green square somehow, or acquire that many units of a resource somehow...and the only question is how, not what or why.

    To have this third kind of religion, you have to make the player wonder "what should I do?" in terms of the objectives, and correspondingly, "why would I do that?".

    Religion and faith is very much tied to our attempts at humans to comprehend things outside our control or understanding.  The phenomena of life of death, for example.  Fate, destiny, mysteries, miracles, feelings, inspirations.  And this includes vague philosophical questions such as purpose and meaning.  To have this third kind of religion show up in games, the character must be in a story-centric (and hopefully immersive) scenario where he/she feels hopeless or confused as to her/his purpose or objective, and thereby transfer this feeling to the player, or the player herself/himself must be made to feel this way.

    Incidentally, one common joke "deity" -- the Random Number God(dess) -- is used to personify a very common feature in many games, the random number generator.  Randomness is a phenomenon that is, by its very nature, outside of our control, and some of us seek to make sense of it on a deeper-than-rational level by imagining it as a deity whose whims can never be predicted.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2015-09-06 06:32:37
    This is kind of the reason I really wish Dragon Quest 9 didn't derail itself into a half-assed MMO.  It had the perfect setting and started to address things like that in what could have been a very poignant way, but then hamstrung itself by denying you any persistent characters except the jerkass fairy.

    "Incidentally, one common joke "deity" -- the Random Number God(dess) -- is used to personify a very common feature in many games, the random number generator.  Randomness is a phenomenon that is, by its very nature, outside of our control, and some of us seek to make sense of it on a deeper-than-rational level by imagining it as a deity whose whims can never be predicted."

    IIRC Avernum turned this into an actual in-universe religion.
  • Was watching a video about the Seltas Queen, and came across this gem.


    Seltas Queens are just like girls in real life...

    They lure you in with their pheromones and nice ti-thorax and just use you for your stamina seeping juice and pulling them out of pitfall traps before brutally smashing you to bits using their tail pincers. I-I miss you Stacey ;_;

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