This is why I sleep in a giant pentagram, only let's the emacs demons in
CodexArcanum
joined 2 years ago
Seeing this actually sent a small wave of dread through my body
Well, banned for having mild opinions on US politics and then getting defensive when someone called them a genocide enabler. Sounds like hexbear did them a favor. If only the right-wing loonies were so quick to ban people who disagreed with them instead of setting up a big slide to draw them further in.
I'm reminded of a very passionate post I once saw about how tiktok dances have made some people afraid to dance because they aren't as good as people who literally live in dance training camps to factory -produce dance videos. Anyway, the plea was to just ignore that and dance! People largely have an innate desire to move when they hear music, and its OK to just vibe with it.
The internet has got people thinking that everything they make must be step 1 of their plan to monetize that thing and release it for global consumption. Write stories for yourself, letter for friends, and poems for no one! Dance no matter who is looking. Make art everywhere. And for goodness' sake, play table top games with friends, make up stories, and let yourself get wildly obcessed about it! It's yours! It's ok to just love the story your friends are telling and to talk about with people, and you don't even have to lament that your friend group isn't charming enough to carry the podcast of your game.
Wait until you hear about Final Fantasy numbering
B&W was a real fun game, very interesting ideas and it really tried to be different from other games in ways that did and didn't work.
We really take control and camera schemes for granted these days, but it took a lot of misses before we landed on the semi-standardized methods we rely on now. B&W portrayed the player as a divine hand, and you had to click and drag to literally "drag" your viewpoint around the map. You could also click on the creature to lock your hand onto it and allow you to gently move the mouse to pet it, or rapid swipe to slap it across the face!
The creature responded amazingly well too, reacting to many stimuli in the environment, mimicking actions you take, and responding to rewards and punishments. The systems of morphing it's character model based on how far along the "devil to saint" meter were reused heavily in Fable. MS probably has a patent on the technique, the fuckers.
Anyway, super exciting to see fans reverse engineering it! I'm a big supporter of remaking classic games as new open source engines. I think projects like Spring (rts) and gzdoom really show how powerful and creatively productive a community that cultivates good, open, tools can be.
bee-mail*
I'm a big fan of the "wisdom " check before players do something that seems, to me, completely stupid. Like, hey, before you set out to storm the castle, roll your highest knowledge skill.
Tactics, architecture, history, etc, all good. But any success on any skill (or even, literally, Wisdom if nothing else) gets you a little hint that this is a terrible idea.
"OK well, as a Baker, you understand that the huge wagon pulling 500 loaves of bread into the castle means there must be an enormous amount of guards. Since you got a natural 20 on your Cooking check, you can estimate the number precisely to around 150. Even if they weild the baguettes as weapons, you are certain they will defeat you."
And then, most parties I've played with will then begin formulating their plan to sneak in on the bread wagon, which is a much funnier story. Or they'll complain that they meant the druid should cause a storm to distract the guards or something like that. It's kind of amazing how often these bad plans arise from a miscommunication.
Reads like political fan fiction. I put this story right up there with Trump's "Joe is going to storm the DNC and reclaim his candidacy" little wishful fantasy.
Joe Biden, in his final month as president, will pardon every guilty American politician right before sending SEAL team six to assassinate Netanyahu and Putin at the same time. Then he's going to ride on a bald eagle into the Summer Country while eating an ice cream cone and flipping off all the Fox News pundits, whom Gandalf has previously barred from those promised lands.
Only if you're a composite entity created in a fluke transporter accident, right?
...
...right?
I wish games just wouldn't license music, or would attain a perpetual license that allows the work to remain whole and as intended. Can you imagine if your movie collection just auto-updated to change the soundtrack or add some new scenes in now and again? It's fucking stupid what people put up with in games and software.