Topics

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Debate / Are Video Games Art, or Entertainment?

« on: February 24, 2015, 13:15 »

How much control should a game's creator have over their game, and does the opinion of the masses really matter? This only came to mind due to the recent activity in the "What is art" thread, but I think this is its own entire debate. Once a game enters the public domain and starts getting modded and updated and gains a community (such as this one), does that game still belong to its original creator? Are they right to add or remove or change whatever they see fit from future incarnations, to change the established universe? Or do gamers deserve some say in this, because of the interactive medium? Or should they be handled like books or TV shows, where the fans can not like it as much as they want, the creative direction is what it is?

I can think of one big example, the ending of Mass Effect 3 - which was total crap and felt extremely anticlimactic (given the game's supposed 'choices'). Games evoke emotional responses in people like fine art, perhaps moreso. We become attached to a plot or to characters. If we didn't, none of us would be on this forum, would we?

To what extent should 'fans' - or perhaps better, critics - opinions be regarded in the gaming industry? Do they really deserve the say they believe they do, or should we all just take it for what it is, even if we did pour 300 hours into a franchise only to have it end horribly in a way that could never be satisfactory?

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Debate / Modern Democracy - Is it really all that good?

« on: December 16, 2014, 06:45 »

I used to talk about this kind of stuff all the time in college, so figured after reading a few of the other debate posts from last year, it might be worth raising a question (rather than reviving dead topics). Is Democracy really all it's cracked up to be?

I see a common sentiment that people think the US (and by extension perhaps the entire western world) is full of closed-minded, media-fueled intellectual black holes incapable of bringing any level of understanding to the rest of the world. But spending four years studying politics instead shows me that the United States' actions in the global community are hardly driven by common public interest, and instead the interests of wealthy politicians abusing a system they've learned to manipulate. Young people - the 20-somethings of the world - have no real shot at higher office due to the lack of realistic financing to compete with these politicians driven by radical agendas and lobbyist promises. Getting voted in as anything more than a member of the house is a pipe dream for most, and even that is unlikely at best.

I live in Canada and see a few of the same problems regarding foreign policy (albeit our social policy is far more reasonable). It just seems to beg the question, is this really the best system of government the world has to offer? People sacrificing their own principles and ideals for the funding required to 'play the game' so to speak, with the end results being only what major corporations (and by extension, politicians practically on their payroll)  can make some profit from?

3

Say Hello! / Howdy Folks

« on: December 06, 2014, 14:37 »

Howdy! I'm Winterbane, or WB for short. Been going by his handle for... a while now. A loooong while. 9? 10 years now? I used to go by Moogle until I kind of fell out of love with Square Enix (shortly after the "enix" bit came into existence). Somebody or other around here might know me, I used to administrate somewhere else Pokemon related, but then I left. Anyway, I found PKMN.net when Google searching nicknames for Pokemon when I was stumped and unhappy with my current ones, only to be left happy with them after becoming distracted by the resident Name Rater here. Saw the forums and figured hey, these folks seem pretty okay. Might as well join so I can stop living under an online rock.

I've been playing Pokemon since Yellow Version, have played most of the earlier spin-off titles (kind of lost touch with those around the same time as Conquest came out). In Gen III I got into competitive battling with a couple of friends who I lost touch with once I was in high school, and in Gen IV I dabbled online with competitive battling, which I continued into the fifth gen. Sixth gen I slipped a bit with the competitive play, if only due to lack of time to actually raise anything. I however do make liberal use of wonder trade for my random breeding project babies that are less than optimum.

I used to moderate (and then admin) a pokemon roleplaying site, then a text-based Pokemon RPG site (with a lot less roleplaying), and for the past year or so ish I've been effectively off the grid.

What else to know about me, that isn't in my profile... I'm 25, Canadian, like cold weather (but not snow and ice), and my favorite color is blue.

Oh. I do a lot of tabletop roleplaying with my not-Pokemon friends, who are also in general not-Nintendo friends. I play Pathfinder, have played Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and 4th Ed, still play New World of Darkness (which is my favorite), and currently play a lot of the new Fantasy Flight Star Wars games (currently playing the beta of Force and Destiny with my regular crew.) I'm always up to talk this stuff, it's probably the most fun thing ever that isn't video games (and actually beats a lot of them).

I love science fiction in general, with a few exception, and I work nights, so I'm around all night on my nights off, and awake in the evenings and early mornings in my time zone. I think that just about sums it up! Nice to meet y'all.