Messages

I'm all for indie games, but I agree with YOG for the most part. A lot of indie games are either not-indie (IE; Bastion, which was funded by Warner Brothers and stamped INDIE on itself for some reason) or clones of other, more successful games in some form (OH LOOK! ANOTHER ZOMBIE SURVIVAL GAME! OH LOOK! ITS TETRIS WITH DIFFERENT COLORS! OH LOOK! ITS MINEBLOCKER! Oh wait, it's basically MINECRAFT with less features!) But occasionally indie developers come up with something entirely new and creative, which is what keeps me looking at them. For the most part though, they're shovelware I'd expect to find in a $5.99 CD rack in a convenience store in the early 2000s.

As an artistic medium, I think some games succeed on that level but fail as a game - as far as I'm concerned the purpose of a game is to provide a challenge to occupy the mind without being simply a puzzle, but having some other feature - a story, an objective, other than completing a puzzle with the given parameters. It's why I rarely play standalone puzzle games but enjoy a game like Legend of Zelda, that tells a story while also offering a challenge.

I think the best personal example I have of this 'clash' between artistic vision and the will of the gaming community is Mass Effect. I love the franchise, but I absolutely despised the ending of ME3 and even their "fixed ending" didn't appease me. But would anything have appeased me? Probably not. The end to my favorite game series ever was always going to be the end, and no matter what that end was, I'd still have been upset. I guess what I'm really asking is if you guys think game devs should bend to a fanbase in a situation like that, or if it's right to stand their ground and say "this is what we intended from the beginning, if you don't like it, tough." Where should that line in the sand be drawn?

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?

How about a reverse one? How exactly does Dodrio use Tri-Attack? I've never understood that move. It's cool, but like... nothing else about the bird other than it having three heads implies an ability to shoot fire, ice, and lightning. For that matter, Magneton as well. Nothing would imply it can use ice (as it gets no ice moves naturally). Dugtrio gets it as a tutor move as well and can use none of those types of attacks.

It's always just been a weird move to me. Makes it seem like grouping three things together gives them the ability to fire off ice, fire, and lightning, no matter what those three things are, as long as they're all the same.

Most of the big storms moving up from the US have hit us here, in smaller snowfall amounts - but of the five storms to hit, three of them turned to freezing rain. So the banks may only be four to six feet tall, but they're frozen solid and unable to be moved. Main roads are clear now, but sidestreets are in general bad enough that anything short of four-wheel drive is skidding halfway. It certainly doesn't help that our roads are bad and uneven, so the plows are leaving big chunks of snow and ice on them, and the sidewalks are nominally plowed, but rainfall followed  by sudden cold snaps has left them all sheet ice slides.

And when the city is pretty much all hills... it's bad.

Bidoof and Bibarel. They're dumb looking, but I just can't hate them. I want to but Bibarel is just the perfect HM slave, and I think having used one for explicitly that purpose has kept them in every in-game party lineup since they've existed. Kind of numbed my rage I suppose.

Also I can totally still hate Stunfisk for having a typing I wanted to exist for so long and still being totally derpy and useless.

I dreamed that I was going to the comic shop I used to go to as a kid, which is now closed, and that I got up early to go before the dentist. Also while walking there I was talking to some guy I know (but am not friends with) about assassin's creed who I just happened to run into.

Then I woke up an hour after my appointment time for my actual dentists appointment.

Overslept and missed a dentists appointment. So I'm well rested but it's going to cost me an uninsured surcharged for a missed appointment. Bleh.

I resolved to put myself first more often, especially at work, where everyone else I work with already does that leaving me with hours of their work when I show up for night shift.

I feel bad about leaving things for other people, especially if it's something I should be able to accomplish. But given the toll it's been taking on me (working 12 and 13 hour shifts hauling stock and cleaning up after day staff) and the stress I've been under at home the past couple of months, I think it's time someone else take some responsibility.

2014 was the worst year of my life (which I say with no small measure of certainty) and 2015 absolutely has to get better.

Got home from game night last night with the sniffles and a scratchy throat so took some cold meds and napped, woke up with a splitting headache and full blown cold six hours later. Not looking great so far, 2015.

I doubt the incentive is even really there - the invitation of Un to Russia is more of a tongue-in-cheek insult to the United States.

Honestly, no major world leader would risk anything more than a polite refusal to North Korea - hell, when they claimed to be testing nukes, China told them to back off - their only actual ally. Russia's economy might be unstable, but I'm pretty sure North Korea doesn't have the purchasing power to stabilize it.

The real question is, is it legit?

I have a bum arm for the time being, fell at work night before last and caught myself on the floor with my shoulder, which I suppose is better than bouncing my head off of the tile. Also bought a new bed last night because Boxing Week sales.

I just built my new bed (with help from my brother due to aforementioned bum arm) and man is it ever looking nice.


Two of my dogs like it too, apparently.

Just got back from the dentist and my gum is healing properly, which is good. Been able to eat normal food for a few days now.

Off until New Years Day (I work overnight into January 2nd) So might actually catch up on my sleep and stuff.

Welcome to the site! I'm relatively new as well, and pretty antisocial in my day to day life, but being on sites like this has gone a long way to realizing that hey, there's a lot of other nerdy/dorky people like me out there as well, and eventually I will meet some of them in person.

Hope you enjoy yourself! =)

AC/DC - Rock Or Bust

Feels much like Black Ice in my opinion, but I've heard a few AC/DC fans say they don't like that album, so I suppose this one is in that boat as well for them. I enjoyed it greatly though. Next up; entire score from Doctor Who (reboot).

I'm depressed. Christmas was okay, but just didn't feel right without my dad. I guess I have to learn to get used to that.

Have to work tonight, expecting three days worth of orders all at once which is making me really not want to go in and deal with it.