emil.y is probably the authority here but as for me, i saw it on a "best of" list and it piqued my interest (in no small part due to the awesome name)
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Friday, 10 September 2021 21:30 (two years ago) link
I have a interactive fiction app called Frotz on iOS, and you can use it to download titles like A Mind Forever Voyaging from the IFDB with it. It's a good way to go into them I think.
― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Friday, 10 September 2021 21:32 (two years ago) link
yeah it's still pretty easy to play a lot of the IF classics from back then
― cheesons to be rearful (Noodle Vague), Friday, 10 September 2021 21:38 (two years ago) link
problem is i'm not as patient as i was back in the 80s
It's definitely one of the best regarded of the old guard of IF, and stands up well today. I'd be surprised if I've not mentioned it before, but I'm not sure if I would have raved about it - it has incredibly interesting ideas but in my memory I didn't get that far into it, and has been on a mental "to revisit" list for a while.
It had some great promo materials, too:
https://www.filfre.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/joybooth.jpg
― emil.y, Friday, 10 September 2021 21:39 (two years ago) link
― cheesons to be rearful (Noodle Vague)
I feel like a philistine but I've never been able to properly appreciate the really old games like Zork. Parsers are far too small, the world isn't interactive enough, they're too unforgiving on the cruelty scale, hand-mapping is required - pah!
― emil.y, Friday, 10 September 2021 21:44 (two years ago) link
mordy likes amfv a lot iirc
it is often cited as a masterpiece yeah which is something it is openly attempting to be-- formalists may prefer a tight little knot like spellbreaker or one of the mysteries; i bet it's been argued that the austere suspended does the interplay between top-level you-are-a-menu and bottom-level get-keycard-go-west better than amfv (which also does this); many in search of deliberate masterpieces may prefer trinity anyway. i think about it (amfv) all the time tho, certainly more than any of those-- has a v nicely paced grim arc and uses the medium for emotional effect in ways that feel v natural. be sure to read the accompanying short story before beginning play lol
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 10 September 2021 22:00 (two years ago) link
https://tedium.co/2021/09/15/trivia-technology-arcades-1980s/
― think “Gypsy-Pixie” and misspelled. (We are a white family.) (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 15 September 2021 13:01 (two years ago) link
I guess I'm the Polygon simp now who'll share their videos on stuff at any opportunity, even as the actual writing on the site gets worse and worse, but truly this is a really fun video:
https://www.polygon.com/videos/22633055/weird-french-adventure-games-polygon-video
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 20 September 2021 10:24 (two years ago) link
That was good. I don't think I knew anything about any of that.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 20 September 2021 18:20 (two years ago) link
well done, good videoalso agree that the site writing has been getting worse sadly
― Nhex, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 05:09 (two years ago) link
it's all bad. there's not enough news to warrant covering 40 things a day. plus, it's one of those sites that look like this:
https://i.imgur.com/ASXJyY7.png
― typo punishment #4: it feels better to me to be like there, this (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 05:10 (two years ago) link
i don't really have a better idea and i'm not a designer but i recognize when i hate looking at the internet
― typo punishment #4: it feels better to me to be like there, this (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 05:11 (two years ago) link
Yeah, way it's shaken out is all the cool ppl that made me like the site have either left or are in the video team and the writing's been left to ppl with takes like "is Ace Attorney Chronicles a convincing critique of British imperialism?".
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 09:40 (two years ago) link
Part of me wonders if they're straight-up clickbaiting the 'gaters with that stuff
― Nhex, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 12:39 (two years ago) link
Eh, I think it's done earnestly. It's just that while I think "keep politics out of my culture!" is a fundamentally ridiculous stance to take, expecting a fun little adventure game to double as the definitive historical analysis of British imperialism is also, erhm, somewhat unhinged.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 13:00 (two years ago) link
i think it's a strength of that game that it goes hard on that stuff! i know what you're getting at though, there's a lot of headlines like that that are way more of a stretch
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 13:34 (two years ago) link
yeah the problem is too many gaming articles about the politics of games
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 16:28 (two years ago) link
I don't think any of the stuff we're discussing here re: Polygon's output is really about "the politics of games", tbh.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:12 (two years ago) link
as in, holding tight to even the slightest patina of progressiveness in a game and then discussing the whole thing solely through that lens is not really analysing its politics in any meaningful way
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:17 (two years ago) link
i just don't think critical writing has to be a tight mathematical thesis where you get to the QED, what's wrong with riffing on whimsy?
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:19 (two years ago) link
there's many ways that a piece of writing can be bad but i don't think the tenuousness of its conceits is one of them
― look on my guacs, ye mighty, and dis pear (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:21 (two years ago) link
"Riffing on whimsy" is p much the opposite of what I'm discussing here, tho - finding a political hook for a game and discussing how well it lives up to that hook is very much a formula! And when that formula gets adopted as the main way to write about p much anything you're going to be leaving out a lot of interesting stuff.
Like I'd be totally down for, say, an article that actually goes deep into British imperial history based on some Ace Attorney plot points but that's not what that is.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:26 (two years ago) link
With Polygon, there's so much of this kind of output, and some of it fairly half-assed, that I do wonder if the editor is just shrugging their shoulders saying "thoughtful... enough?" It's just in the games writing, it's like everything from comic book hot takes or a middling streaming movie review every week.
As said, they have to make filler content for everyday of the week...
― Nhex, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:56 (two years ago) link
Like maybe they're still trying, or maybe they're just buzzfeed, I don't know anymore
overall tiring trend in media of the phrase "all art is political" collapsing from meaning "all art has a political dimension" to "all art must be analyzed based on whether it has Good or Bad politics"
― oiocha, Tuesday, 21 September 2021 17:59 (two years ago) link
What makes it sadder is that when Polygon was trying to be weirder apparently that just didn't bring in enough money.
Gotta say they still occasionally do good work, tho: Kazuma Hashimoto is always worth reading, a queer Japanese voice who can contextualise stuff in Japanese culture from that pov. Not video games at all, but I really enjoyed Kendra James' memoir piece on being in an Ornaldo Bloomps fan community, too.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 10:02 (two years ago) link
posted as yet unread:https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/sid-meier-and-the-meaning-of-civilization
― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 22 September 2021 20:06 (two years ago) link
this looks funhttp://www.movingimage.us/visit/calendar/2021/10/23/detail/an-excavation-of-light-single-player-rpg-museum-experience
― When Young Sheldon began to rap (forksclovetofu), Friday, 1 October 2021 20:56 (two years ago) link
haha, this is and is not worth reading:
https://artreview.com/this-videogame-is-killing-the-planet-battlefield-2042/
― my hands are always in my pockets or gesturing. (Karl Malone), Monday, 13 December 2021 18:09 (two years ago) link
One of his video essays, more or less:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvn9Pg4lUy8
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 10 January 2022 01:00 (two years ago) link
Some interesting stuff in here:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-01/arcane-s-redfall-misfire-for-xbox-panned-after-7-5-billion-microsoft-deal
As the author suggests:
If you're wondering why a lot of video game publishers are announcing games years in advance these days, this is the main reason! PR-driven secrecy hurts the industry more than people realize: pic.twitter.com/Gwz8puuc4M— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) June 1, 2023
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 1 June 2023 16:30 (one year ago) link
hoping companies will get the message that genocide is bad for business
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 1 June 2023 16:43 (one year ago) link
Wait, I don't understand how that article quote relates to delaying video game announcments...
― Nhex, Friday, 2 June 2023 19:38 (one year ago) link
It's not about delaying game announcements, but more about why more publishers are announcing games earlier than in the past so they can avoid situations like with this one where the people applying were under the impression the game would be like Arkane's prior work as opposed to a multiplayer thing, which had to be kept secret since it wasn't announced yet.
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Friday, 2 June 2023 19:44 (one year ago) link
oooh ok.
― Nhex, Saturday, 3 June 2023 12:29 (one year ago) link
Heh, the part about it being difficult to attract talent to Texas because it’s Texas is definitely a problem from my slim view of things. Cool state.
― circa1916, Saturday, 3 June 2023 13:27 (one year ago) link
Yeahhh, kinda felt like that was the bigger issue there. Well, that and for some weird reason not just being able to tell hires what they're supposed to be working on in the interview process, without giving away trade secrets, guess that's too hard or something
― Nhex, Saturday, 3 June 2023 15:13 (one year ago) link
― Nhex
oh like anybody does the job they're paid to do, if i wanted to have privileges like doing the job i'm paid for i'd, i don't know, form a union or something
― Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 3 June 2023 18:55 (one year ago) link
youtube documentary on vampire survivors including an interview with the creator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQVdR8mJrds
i love that a zero-budget game by one guy and some asset packs can blow up. interesting to learn that the bad pixel scaling was left in intentionally.
― formerly abanana (dat), Monday, 17 July 2023 18:02 (eleven months ago) link
oh i'm excited to watch that. love vampire survivors
― c u (crüt), Tuesday, 18 July 2023 00:20 (eleven months ago) link
Gah 2 minutes in and he's talking about going through a big box full of C64 cassettes and they use imagery of 3.5" floppies to illustrate that point. WHY CAN'T I GET PAST THAT SORT OF THING?
― JimD, Tuesday, 18 July 2023 10:48 (eleven months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVzSHVS-CT0
― Albert Canoe (Leee), Wednesday, 26 July 2023 05:08 (ten months ago) link
That was cool. Simultaneously makes me want to play it and glad that I can't.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 26 July 2023 12:37 (ten months ago) link
https://www.eurogamer.net/diablo-4-season-1-is-a-hell-of-my-own-making
I'm grimly fascinated that after the initial round of politely enthusiastic release reviews for Diablo 4, you now get these kind of articles from terminally Diablo-pilled people basically going "please don't ever play Diablo 4. I am completely incapable of taking my own advice on this because it's too late for me, but trust me"
― hiroyoshi tins in (Sgt. Biscuits), Sunday, 6 August 2023 12:36 (ten months ago) link
that describes every service-based game these days. the reviewers don't get the real experience
― ciderpress, Sunday, 6 August 2023 15:07 (ten months ago) link
A different take on the thread subject, I think. I found this thread with comments from video game fans living in far flung and often tough locations that make being a gamer really hard:
https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/15whag9/physical_games_are_almost_gone_where_i_live_and/
There's some of the usual posturing and debate, but mostly lots of stuff about the practical challenges of game costs, dwindling physical media, download speeds, lack of stable power, low wages/weak economy. Caught my eye.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 22 August 2023 12:54 (nine months ago) link
Thanks to Leee on the Last of Us thread for recommending that Something Rotten podcast. I've listened to most of the LoU2 episodes, and while it's often chaotic or incoherent (per hang-out podcast protocol) and I often disagree with their takes (which are steeped in not just general cynicism but also the sort that comes from spending way more time with this particular game than the vast majority of people) it's also often very incisive, and it's all been worth it for the (more or less) last installment with Cameron Kunzelman, who I was unfamiliar with, and whose smart presence sent me scrambling for a pen and paper to note down all the other stuff I wanted to pursue. Kunzelman's book, for example, The World Is Born From Zero, and his other writing on video games, or writers like Stuart Hall, who I also don't know. Not to mention Jacob Geller's video essays, or the epic game analysis videos from Noah Caldwell-Gervais.
For example, I was watching one of Caldwell-Gervais's videos on the Souls games, and he brought up a very interesting point, how almost no matter what action game you are playing, from Last of Us to Doom to Spider-man to Uncharted or whatever, but especially conventionally story-driven games, no matter how easy or difficult, everyone ends up at the same place, more or less the same way. But in Dark Souls, et al., no two players - and in a lot of ways, no two playthroughs - are the same, and how you reach the end is as ambiguous as what the end even *is*, which makes the games particularly rich, mysterious and entrancing. As a more or less casual gamer I'd never really considered this aspect.
I've also got a bunch of books about games queued up. Blood, Sweat and Pixels; Masters of Doom; All Your Base are Belong to Us; Extra Lives. Go figure, there are a lot of books out there about video games.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 21 October 2023 13:41 (seven months ago) link
Interesting interview with old heads in the industry: https://kotaku.com/activision-ageism-video-games-cliffy-b-warren-spector-1851220345
Not as in depth or groundbreaking as I'd like but it approaches game development from a different angle.
― Temple of Selune Gomez (Leee), Saturday, 3 February 2024 16:21 (four months ago) link
https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24070454/banishers-ghosts-new-eden-review
Sounds like my kind of game, gotta keep an eye for this if it goes on sale
― Nhex, Monday, 12 February 2024 19:49 (four months ago) link