Posts made by Thenomain
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RE: RL things I love posted in Tastes Less Game'y
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RE: RL Anger
There might well be a great deal of damage. But it's eight hundred and change years old. Fire won't end it.
But it will burn it down almost completely at this point.
It will get rebuilt. It will be political and frustrating and we will have lost one of the most iconic use of the flying buttress and the source for the book "Cathedral" by David Macaulay (of "How Things Work" fame). I made a board game when I was 13 about that book.
I will get pissed if or when they determine this was arson. For now this is disturbing at a spiritual level.
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RE: Random links
@Auspice said in Random links:
MSB discussions in a nutshell.
I can almost guarantee you cash money that the discussion about this color choice in the hospital went much the same, and they still decided on bleeding-torso.
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RE: Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.
Every time I complain about wearing ties, I remind myself: I could need a bra instead. Then I stop complaining.
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RE: Lancer RPG
@fatefan said in Lancer RPG:
@Thenomain I was reminded this morning that Abbadon made a PbtA-based Kill Six Billion Demons RPG that I still need to play, too...
And suddenly all his side-stories becomes RPG fodder, giving you an excuse to burn through the entire backlog again.
Like anyone needed a reason.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
@Jennkryst said in General Video Game Thread:
My need for a Battletech MU is back again. Get on it, @Thenomain.
I summon for thee @Volund and his Evennia Insanity Project, or EIP, or Volund-Codes-Everything-Because-He-Feels-Like-It. He's doing this Dragonball game unlike any other because, get this, your arm can be removed from your inventory and still exist as something people can pick up and loot.
(edit: Or probably hit other people with. Why limit it?)
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RE: Lancer RPG
I Kickstarted it because Kill Six Billion Demons. I will probably never play it even once.
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RE: NPC Roster
@Ghost said in NPC Roster:
Could also add something like "Pop Culture Society" that covers everything vague from the local band scene to street art to LGBTQ+ scene.
Wait. Are you suggesting that the Rainbow Flag scene is “pop culture”?
And they’re all into Banksy?
I know it’s hard to categorize many things but I think grouping these things together isn’t wise. Hell, the idea of “3 dots in Status: LGBTQ+” even by proxy should probably be “nope”ed.
I know they were off the cuff examples, I just wanted to shoot it in the bud before it went anywhere.
But to add something instead of just removing from ideas, if the area’s politics or composition did mean that “LBGEtc.” would make up a community group, perhaps around the Stonewall era, then go for it. Portland might have a “Performance Art” Status, Miami might have a “Bringing Back Neon 80s For Some Reason” Status.
You know, Pop Culture.
The sexuality revolution going on right now just...isn’t Pop Culture.
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RE: Random links
Mad props for @Wyrdathru for bringing this to my attention.
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/b9d880/if_accountants_were_streamers/
You've got to admire the commitment to the joke with the 'stache.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
@Testament said in General Video Game Thread:
It was supposed to be so different, but it got changed and we're supposed to just gloss over the whole 'suns going out/dark energy' stuff that was pressed so hard on us in ME2'. You know, that massive plot hole.
You mean brought up in one recruitment mission and never again?
I think I know why we have such conflicting opinions on BioWare games, because we are picking up on entirely different things from them.
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Incidentally, here's what I think the "sun oddity" was about: http://www.starflt.com/
Star Flight, an ancient PC game about explorers going from planet to planet running a little buggy across sometimes hostile terrains. The thing had big wheels and was kind of bouncy. This is DOS-era, so it was more how it looked than how it acted, but doesn't this sound eerily familiar?
Fuel was found in these ultra-rare crystals on some planets, and fuel was very important because many, many suns were getting dangerously hot, like they were suddenly aging faster than they should be, so finding the fuel and exploring around for a reason why is the main plot.
The secret (I'm going to spoil a 30-year-old game, sorry everyone) is that the stars are living creatures and the bits you're burning up for fuel to find this out are their eggs. (Honest, it makes sense when they tell it.) So the stars are going to kill everyone for using their eggs as fuel.
I see the whole writer's bit as an homage to Star Flight, much like the Mako, and offered up as a plot hook that wasn't picked back up. It's too bad, because I was excited to see it.
I say this because I heard that the spilled plot was about The Singularity, and it's too bad they didn't just own the shit out of this because that sounds fantastic.
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All of this talk reminds me of the other game where I felt that the DLC was better than the main game: Fallout: New Vegas. I don't say that lightly because FONV was amazing, but the combination of the DLCs is a whole second game, not just a few things that happen for fun (and they are fun, even Dead Money and don't let anyone tell you otherwise). It even shares the same themes as the main game: What is it to be a people? A city-state, a country, a tribe.
Ahh, philosophizing over video game writing. Makes me all warm and happy.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:
@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:
I enjoy the DA games greatly, but there's little question which BioWare franchise truly owns my heart.
...as attested to by the fact that my housemate is now listening to the Mass Effect soundtrack while she writes, and hearing that distinctive music is giving me a little dopamine hit of happiness that very other video game soundtracks—as much as I might love them—can inspire in quite the same way.
Inon Zur absolutely can write a goddamn moody piece and I still love DA2’s soundtrack because of it, but damn if the Mass Effect trilogy doesn’t nail loneliness, exploration, and struggle throughout. And The Citadel is fun throughout but still undeniably Mass Effect.
tl;dr: I Agree
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@Coin : Fuck you for quoting the entire thing. Just saying.
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Because you can't really review something that's 'memorable' or 'intimate'.
Like hell you can’t. There’s a reason I watch Movie Bob; he does this all the time.
And I talk about it with Sparks and Gany. You’re right that these are not objective (back when you said that DA2 was “objectively good”, incidentally), but a good reviewer will explain how these elements affect their review. Many do.
Also, Merril is a fucking idiot.
She is also quite brilliant. She is young. She is trying to change things. She is desperate. You can watch her pain and her change. She is a realistic character in an actual story.
DA2 has very few of these.
- Varric and his brother (really the story).
- Merrill and the mirror and her place with the elves as someone expected to lead them one day.
- Hawke’s mom. (Short but powerful.)
- Hawke’s uncle, if you’re lucky.
- Avelline coming to terms with herself.
Everything else you see little bits of. Pedo noble. Hawke’s surviving sibling. Er, the dreamshaper kid. Even Anders, who is meant to be a major npc.
I admit I don’t have time right now to read the rest of your post because you know I have mentioned at least one of your criticisms toward people who think DA:I is better than DA2, so I’m not that worried.
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I just think that DA2’s stories were not good enough to make the game good. I can continue, but this particular thread of discussion is pretty much worn out now. I’m not trying to convince anyone DA2 is garbage, tho it’s good to see where people find love and fun in it.
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Also: I fully feel that Citadel was the real end of the story, they just needed to finish up the plot.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
I may have been better disposed to the game had it not waited until Inquisition to confirm that it was a tale with an unreliable narrator. Perhaps if it stuck with it instead of starting with unreliable narrator and then said, "No, just kidding, this is what really happened." Because it clearly wasn't. I felt extremely cheated.
Incidentally, I have a hard time just enjoying mediocre fantasy novels too.
In the meantime, more adorable Merrill.
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RE: General Video Game Thread
@Roz said in General Video Game Thread:
@Thenomain DA2 HAS MORE HEART THAN DA:I COULD EVER DREAM OF I WILL HAVE IT WRITTEN ON MY GRAVESTONE
DA:I did fall to Generic Open World Syndrome, but I can still identify many moments that had flavor, were crafted or surprising. My favorite at this moment is a situation in The Fade where you're getting ambushed by spiders, over and over, each representing a fear people have. They're not showcased, they just have names of "Dying Alone", "Heights", etc.
One spider is called, "Ironically, Spiders."
DA2 has a few moments like that ("if you end up sticking your thumb up his ass, I win" / "mummy, what's a slattern?"), but I will argue it's far, far fewer.
Now someone hold my beer.
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@Ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:
We haven't yelled at each other like this in so long, and I've had about 6 really good bourbon drinks.
You've now officially drunk me under the table. No, don't try. I concede already.
Dragon Age: Origins was a good game, but it lacked the personal feel to it.
You are in-sane. The only character I don't feel attached to from DA:O or DA:A is Zevran because he comes so late in the game for me. And I wasn't a huge fan of him, but he made an impact, I know his mannerisms and his actions are interesting. I may not like them, but I feel a real, full character there.
Where DA2 excels is in its story, which is far more intimate and personal than DA:O, DA:A, or DA:I.
But DA2 isn't a story. DA2 is a bunch of stories. And I don't think they're very well told, quite possibly because they tried too hard at branching narrative, quite possibly because they were too short, quite probably both. There was little chance of any build-up except for--wait for it--Merrill's and Varric's. Hell, with Merrill you get to see her entire story.
I should say you get to see Aveline's, too. I liked her character in the same way that I like well-smoothed river rocks or zen gardens. Let me retroactively add Aveline to my list of characters who have actual stories. I think I forget her because her story isn't quite as strong; she almost doesn't have to struggle for anything.
Hell, if part one of the game (after the prologue) started with you coming into the Head of the Guard's office and Captain Aveline is arguing with Varric, that would've been a fun in media res. But I digress.
So I consider the story to be among the things I found to have a low production value. I feel bad for DA2. It was EA's attempt at milking a cash cow. But none of the stories felt fulfilled to me. Yes it had stories, but...neh, you get it by now.
I don't think DA2 did good by its stories.
Merrill is so very cute and likeable
And it breaks my heart that we didn't get an epilogue with her in DA:I. Especially if she's involved with The Champion. That was a painful moment.
If I see her in a "Dragon Age: Dread Wolf" (or whatever it'll be called) trailer, it might just hit my shut-up-and-take-my-money list right out of the gate.
That's why I disagree with Testament. I really liked Mass Effect: Andromeda's story. It has its flaws -- all games do -- but I enjoyed the storyline.
And I concur. I enjoy Andromeda in spite of its problems because it does manage to tell a story (ST:TNG-level silly in parts) and if not mature then rationalize the characters in small arcs. It had a chance to do this because we didn't jump ahead 2-5 years just to get to the next bit. We see everything the characters go through.
Merrill. Not a guilty pleasure. -
RE: General Video Game Thread
@Testament said in General Video Game Thread:
DA2 was [a] good game.
While @Sparks said it far more kindly than I ever would: DA2 blows goats. It was graphically ugly, stylistically cheap, written more rushed than a soap opera, bankrupt of any sense of creativity and heart with some sparks of love and desire that go to prove my point.
I know what happened with DA2 that made it such a bad, bad, bad, bad game. I do more than play a game and ooze out opinions as if they were truths. DA2 was pushed as a cookie-cutter fast-as-possible release and it shows. If it had quirky charm and passion (and by the Dread Wolf you can see they wanted to!) then I could love it like a bad sci-fi show. But DA2 was just...bad.
And I know in saying this I'm going to summon Ganymede telling me that I'm wrong, but we haven't taken the time to work out why the other feels so strongly about this. Or rather, why I feel so strongly and understanding how Gany can imagine the opposite.
DA:I had far more care about the stories they were telling than DA2 did (with the two obvious exceptions, of which we sadly did not get to re-visit Merrill's). And I myself wouldn't accept someone saying "the DLCs make the game better", but the DLCs certainly have the focus and interwoven story elements lacking in the core DA:I.
So you can take "good game" back to the Word Store and ask for a refund because I think you got swindled.
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@Sparks said in General Video Game Thread:
(especially from the people who didn't like that DA2's storyline was built around stakes whose scope was more personal than global)
In more measured tones: Too much (and many) of those stakes were told, not shown. I think they were mostly told on the wrong story beats. I ended up caring about Merrill and Varric because you saw the fallout, and their writer was pretty damn good. I loathed Anders because I loved him and Justice in DA:A, and their shared story was weak and abrupt and don't we hate when our favorite characters don't get the love we think they deserve?
I didn't need a "save the universe" plot. Clearly as I like Firefly I don't need much of a plot at all if the characters are strong enough. And the rest of the game's construction needed something solid to draw me in. And it didn't. Bleh.
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@Ganymede said in General Video Game Thread:
While I disagree with you on your opinion of the other games, I shall away @Thenomain's response to this little tidbit.
Goddamn you posting this while I was typing this post, woman!
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RE: General Video Game Thread
C’mon, BioWare! Pull it together for Dragon Age: By The Dread Wolf! You’ve made such strides since DA2.
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RE: 7th Sea Second Edition
From the 7th Sea Kickstarter list, and probably a bunch of other places:
As of April 2, Chaosium, publishers of the award-winning tabletop roleplaying games Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest, and King Arthur Pendragon, has acquired the rights to 7th Sea. I'm joining Chaosium as line editor and will continue to have creative oversight of the game, and will remain a principal author of 7th Sea material going forward. Beyond that, I'll also be writing for other Chaosium game lines.
This is fantastic. I will trust Chaosium with caring for 7th Sea as it exists, and am super-glad that John Wick has a steady gig again.
And maybe Chaosium is willing to front a lot of the cost for the 7th Sea Board Game, or make it cheaper to produce for their next attempt. Or maybe it's time to let it go. It's up to them.
Best of luck, John.