Posts made by Ganymede

@caryatid said in I owe a lot of people some apologies.:

Let's have some transparency from the admin side of things, regarding one of the admin's behaviours.

It's a fair request.

I've talked with a number of other members. Some have even come forward to me. I have discussed this matter with them, and promised confidence.

I have already discussed the matter with Arkandel briefly, but intend to do so again when I get back home.

I'm afraid that's all that I'm comfortable with coming out and saying at this point.

@kanye-qwest said in RL Anger:

Have you tried KALE?

@tinuviel said in RL Anger:

Something, something, electoral college...

@misadventure said in RL Anger:

Maybe that's the sort of benefit that the Federal government should mandate?

The feds have better things to mandate, like proportional representation.

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

If I were prepared for the challenge I would be able to link how Star Wars hit the Hero's Journey beat for beat. If you are saying that Ryder refuses the call for more than a few moment or ever meets a mentor, I'm going to have to ask for more. (n.b., I don't consider the AI a mentor. He's slightly less lost than Ryder.)

Luke doesn't refuse the call; he wants to take the call immediately, but can answer once his adoptive family is killed. (Sort of deus ex machina, if you ask me.) Ryder's mentor is his/her father, with whom his/her actions are always measured. We could run around in circles for hours. I accept that we have differing opinions.

Telling a good story is independent of genre. The way the story is told is almost certainly different, but if you want a better parallel:

No, no, that's it, that's what I mean to say: that the way a story unfolds will be different between genres. How the story in DA2 should unfold in a way different than in ME:A, and, frankly, I liked both stories for different reasons. I just don't compare them, due to significant differences in genre.

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

What I want from a story is something done well. Take Star Wars, the original. It was little more but the standard Hero’s Journey, but it was done with passion and consistency and brought a sense of epicness to the table.

Comparing ME:A to Star Wars is a problem.

If we're going to talk about the Hero's Journey, then the Pathfinder's Journey, to me, is far more faithful than what Luke went through. Whereas the journey into the unknown isn't about magic (the force) or some ominous threat, initially (the Reapers), ME:A did bring that out with the Kett and their masters.

Comparing it to DA2 is also problematic, given that they are of different genres entirely (tactical fantasy v. FPS).

Still, like some, I think ME:A got unfairly pooped on. We all expected something grandiose like ME3, I guess, but that, in retrospect, is an unfair comparison. As ME looks like and is a horrible game relative to ME3, the only real comparison that ought to be made is whether ME:A lives up to future games.

For me, I compared ME:A to ME, and found ME:A fully and completely superior in story and play. ME:A is about as close as you can get to an open world ME game, and it delivers to that extent. ME:A gives us functioning vehicles that are gasp actually kind of useful and fun to bump around in. ME:A introduces us to a new kind of threat: an indoctrinating race that seem really close to the servants of the Reapers, and, for all we know, could have the precursors thereto or a splinter-group of Indoctrinated that could bring back the horror of the Reapers in a meaningful way (after all, the game is set way after the events of the first ME trilogy). There is, or was, a lot there to explore.

And then EA shit the bed.

@jennkryst said in [L5R] Giri - Now Hiring:

It was previously mentioned to be the FFG L5R Beta, but... the FFG L5R RPG is published now, so that might be the thing. OR I could be wrong, not sure what coding has been done.

If skew's SW game is a smashing success code-wise, then you could feasibly run a L5R FFG game if that game'll let you take bits of that code.

And it'd be on Ares.

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

I called Andromeda playable, yeah, it just wasn’t very good storytelling. I even enjoyed playing it when the head of the space station looked like a two dollar whore, before the patches, and I still think the story was better than FO4 or Skyrim.

Okay, I'll bite.

Why wasn't it "very good storytelling"? What QUALIFIES as "very good storytelling"? What are you comparing it to?

@thenomain said in General Video Game Thread:

ME:A is playable, but it suffers the rushed production cycle. And it suffers a lot of SSDG (same stuff, different galaxy).

The rushed production cycle made things feel clipped, yes. And it's still a space-exploration sort of game, with mindless side-quests.

But it is a very pretty game for a first-run high-end game. The freeform combat, mixed with cover, was enjoyable. And I loved how you could mix-and-match your powers to fit your play-style, with bonuses given if you group your powers into the traditional three classes.

ME:A, I think, got shat on a little too hard. I enjoyed it a great deal. The character interactions were not as strong as in ME:2 or ME:3, but they are comparable or better than what you had in ME, which is the proper benchmark where we are just getting to learn about the protagonist.

I liked the Pathfinder a lot. I liked the story arcs. I really liked Lexi, Drack, and Vetra.

Horizon Zero Dawn is light-years ahead, but that's like comparing apples and orgasms.

@kanye-qwest said in RL things I love:

My company has added more comprehensive care for mental health to their insurance offerings, and partnered with a network to provide resources for mental health and counseling, etc, to employees. For a corporation, they really aren't so bad sometimes.

Not all fiefdoms are full of corrupt shitheads.

@kanye-qwest said in Historical settings:

I think frankly if you are doing Historical Accuracy, that should probably be the focus of the game. It should be for people who specifically want to explore themes in a certain time period.

I concur, but I think the same of any game that strays away from contemporaneity.

I have a lot of ideas for settings, but blessedly little time to realize them.

@admiral said in General Video Game Thread:

Fallout 76 is worth buying. That is all. Carry on.

Why?

@auspice

You could look into a sex discrimination case or an ADA case.

@thenomain said in How old are MU* players?:

SO.

OLD.

Sometimes, all it takes is one moment, one scene, and one player to rejuvenate your interest in a game.

Please be that player when you can.

@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:

Absolutely. And may very well be lower than the XP cap that was in place at Reno. We're still discussing policy changes.

I think 50 XP is reasonable to start with, personally.

I'll probably be there. We'll see how my schedule works out.

@scorn said in Reno is closing! ....Or is it?:

One of the issues we ran into with Reno was that our generous XP policy led to a heavy population of 'dinosaurs.' We're going to be toning that back, at Portland. Things will be more challenging. People won't be able to sneeze in the general direction of a Rank 5 ephemeral and wipe it out of existence. Risk will return as a prominent factor, and along with it, we hope, more of the 'darkness' that's supposed to be a core theme of the World of Darkness.

For the love of everything holy, please implement an XP cap.

I think Arkandel is implying that changing settings may not solve underlying issues that made Reno unattractive to some players.

@thenomain

I know.

Occasionally, I like to get really angry.

Get angry with me! Go watch Netflix's Dirty Money series.

Get angry.

(And then vote.)