I think the author of the Kotaku article is less complaining about the falseness of the NPCs in RDR2 and more pointing out the contradiction in all games that try to build immersive worlds. Of course it's all a puppet-show, and the weird thing is that the more "real" games try to feel, the more the falseness rings out. It's kind of an uncanny valley effect. This is why I tend to prefer games that are purposively unreal or stylized. Of course, the appropriate conclusion to draw from all this is "go outside."
― a film with a little more emotional balls (zchyrs), Friday, 9 November 2018 14:52 (five years ago) link
that is never the appropriate conclusion to draw from anything ime #stayindoors
― i want donald duck to scream into my dick (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 November 2018 14:59 (five years ago) link
Amen.
There have always been a handful of total freaks among these insular subcultures but I'm sure I don't really need to say that the internet is obviously the catalyst which made the total freak virus mutate and spread.
― Ham Beats All Meat! (Old Lunch), Friday, 9 November 2018 15:10 (five years ago) link
I'm very appreciative that I had to learn to navigate the ways of the nerdy pre-teen shut-in without the aid of a Council of CHUDs.
― Ham Beats All Meat! (Old Lunch), Friday, 9 November 2018 15:14 (five years ago) link
karl otm that videogames are a collossally, breathtakingly lucrative industry, so it's worth remembering that the very visible freaks of gamergate etc are only really very visible to extremely online folks like us - the vast majority of people who play games are only paying attention to when the next grand theft fifa: infinite blops is coming out
or just playing candy crush or whatever on their phones while watching tv
― i want donald duck to scream into my dick (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 November 2018 15:15 (five years ago) link
that's what i tell myself every time i accidentally look at a videogame news site's comment section anyway
― i want donald duck to scream into my dick (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 November 2018 15:16 (five years ago) link
― circa1916, Friday, 9 November 2018 15:19 (five years ago) link
we will all max out our storage get 10 really good guns and a set of good armor and power armor and be done we don't have room for anything else
Set everyone's stash limit to 1 lb as punishment for this post.
― jmm, Friday, 9 November 2018 15:31 (five years ago) link
NPCs are triggered by the presence of the lead character
amirite?
― crüt, Friday, 9 November 2018 15:31 (five years ago) link
lol
― i want donald duck to scream into my dick (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 9 November 2018 15:35 (five years ago) link
The NPC meme is a case in point of the thread thesis.
― jmm, Friday, 9 November 2018 15:40 (five years ago) link
I may have posted on here before about my dream of a Dogme-style RPG manifesto but as a passably sane human being I recognise the commercial barriers to this
― Tsugumo Alanshearer (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 November 2018 16:38 (five years ago) link
What rules would you put in?I feel like the overarching rule of a Dogme game would be that it cannot be a power fantasy. You are not be to be saving any worlds.
― jmm, Friday, 9 November 2018 17:13 (five years ago) link
That could definitely be part of it. No insta-heal, no fantasy elements are things I'd enjoy. Old game called Darklands had some of this I think but couldn't totally shake it.
― Tsugumo Alanshearer (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 November 2018 17:39 (five years ago) link
What interests me most about this as a thought experiment is how you might adapt conventions but still make something playable, I guess.
― Tsugumo Alanshearer (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 November 2018 17:41 (five years ago) link
whoa, speaking of people with warped minds, i barely remember starting this thread last night. way too much booze, sorry. i don't know what i was going on about in that last post, about what "this" is, "pervading the entire industry".
bizarro otm with "it's worth remembering that the very visible freaks of gamergate etc are only really very visible to extremely online folks like us - the vast majority of people who play games are only paying attention to when the next grand theft fifa: infinite blops is coming out
or just playing candy crush or whatever on their phones while watching tv"
in addition to the booze, i think i might have been influenced by watching a speedrun of dragon warrrior (NES) completed in 27 minutes at Awesome Games Done Quick, using no glitches or cheats, but instead exploiting an intense understanding of the game's underlying logic for "random" encounters. it is fucking amazing. top youtube comment otm: "I wish I could go back in time and do this for people in 1989 without explaining it." watching it reminded me of Arthur C Clarke's law, 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'
the dragon warrior speedrun is another side of being ~intensely into videogames~, one that doesn't involve demanding things from developers or complaining about the thing that you're voluntarily doing, but instead embracing the object as it is, trying to dissect it and perfect it. these speedrunners (and the people on the couch cheering them on, and the crowd that gives him the standing ovation at the end) are fascinating, i think, and i appreciate the commitment to projects like these that probably seem pointless to so many people. but they can also be very surreal and unsettling to watch, in some ways (especially when emptying out the liquor cabinet in the middle of the night). not to get all dramatic about it and repeat some of my stupider things from last night, but i can't help feeling there's a certain sadness to the whole endeavor. these incredibly bright, genius people dedicating themselves to the complete domination of a game that is 30+ years old. it's not sadness that their efforts are "wasted" on such things, it's more that this is their corner of the world where things make sense, where the rules can be laid out and discussed, where achievements like figuring how to shave 6 seconds off of a speedrun will almost certainly be recognized. i don't know. i'm not sure why that makes me sad. clearly they're all having a good time. it just reminds me of that part in the matrix where Neo is in the "real" world and sees that he's just one of millions of humans being harvested by the machines for energy.
― Karl Malone, Friday, 9 November 2018 17:44 (five years ago) link
Isn't Kingdom Come: Deliverance a Dogme-style ARPG?
― Captain Hardchord (Leee), Friday, 9 November 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link
Ooh, dunno, I'll have a look.
There are solid reasons why these things aren't standard, and solid reasons why remimaging gameplay mechanics is commercially dodgy, but there's also a sweet spot between reinvention and crowd-pleasing that produces a lot of great games, given the chance.
― Tsugumo Alanshearer (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 November 2018 18:27 (five years ago) link
But obv I don't harass people online for not doing this stuff.
― Tsugumo Alanshearer (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 November 2018 18:28 (five years ago) link
https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/21/17031138/deliverance-kingdom-come-warhorse-impressions
― Captain Hardchord (Leee), Friday, 9 November 2018 18:42 (five years ago) link
Just remembered, isn't that the slightly white power mmorpg?
― Tsugumo Alanshearer (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 November 2018 19:25 (five years ago) link
yep
― Karl Malone, Friday, 9 November 2018 19:28 (five years ago) link
Aww nuts didn't know that. :(
― Captain Hardchord (Leee), Friday, 9 November 2018 19:40 (five years ago) link
That's a bummer, I was kind of sold on "reality-based peasant simulator"
― a film with a little more emotional balls (zchyrs), Friday, 9 November 2018 20:23 (five years ago) link
if it helps to ease the pain, apparently the game kinda sucks, too. i was really excited about it when i first heard about it, too, because it sounds awesome. but the reviews amounted to a universal meh
― Karl Malone, Friday, 9 November 2018 20:44 (five years ago) link
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--VSEi0AVd--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/nhjtekda5lvfjkitzztw.jpg
HERE LIESCONSUMERTRUSTR.I.P.
― Karl Malone, Monday, 12 November 2018 18:34 (five years ago) link
I demand that all NPCs in online games be played by actual actors in motion capture suits, in real time
if you find where they sleep in game, it wakes up the actor and they are forced to interact with you
― mh, Monday, 12 November 2018 18:39 (five years ago) link
in addition to the booze, i think i might have been influenced by watching a speedrun of dragon warrrior (NES) completed in 27 minutes at Awesome Games Done Quick, using no glitches or cheats, but instead exploiting an intense understanding of the game's underlying logic for "random" encounters.
― Karl Malone
i'm definitely into the TAS scene and i find it utterly fascinating on a meta level. i don't watch much streaming speedrunners because i never know which ones of them will be awful people, and even if they're not twitch chat is awful, but multiplayer gaming has never been something i've cared about. for me it's very much player vs. game programmer. i like seeing, in a pkd sense, just how badly most of these games can be broken.
― dub pilates (rushomancy), Monday, 12 November 2018 18:41 (five years ago) link
for real, you should check out that dragon warrior speed run. the way he explains it as he goes it brilliant, too.
― Karl Malone, Monday, 12 November 2018 18:45 (five years ago) link
i don't watch much streaming speedrunners because i never know which ones of them will be awful people, and even if they're not twitch chat is awful,
― dub pilates (rushomancy), Monday, November 12, 2018 6:41 PM
You mean guys that act like assholes during their stream?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 12 November 2018 18:50 (five years ago) link
^literally 90% of twitch streams that have more than 100 viewers^
― Karl Malone, Monday, 12 November 2018 18:54 (five years ago) link
There's a lot of extremely popular girl streamers who have legions of trolls following them.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 12 November 2018 21:47 (five years ago) link
If you’re surprised that chat is awful you must have been born yesterday
― calstars, Monday, 12 November 2018 21:51 (five years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/pOh0tRL.jpg
― ciderpress, Monday, 12 November 2018 21:54 (five years ago) link
Looks like another medieval peasant simulator but this time with magic and weird monsters is coming, hopefully not made by racists this time: https://www.pcgamer.com/outward-rpg-preview/
― Stateleee, Plump Buck Mulleeegan (Leee), Saturday, 2 February 2019 18:32 (five years ago) link