clyde

That's deep.

Aren't there some Skyrim quests that put you into a different alignment for other quests? I did a quest in Markath that got me in trouble with the law and I ran away thinking "Well I can't ever come back here." Then the main quest line was like "Meet you in Markath." I figured that a statute of limitations or main quest prioritization might have cleared my name. Nope. I would certainly prefer more simulation effects like that to happen in Skyrim. I like how the dragons seem to be willing to attack you in any scenario. Going back to the original linked article, Skyrim has a lot of great "hair-complexity" with the race relations, establishment of symbolic relationships between NPC's and their ownership of homes and such. But I agree with you, I would love the status quo in Skyrim to break more frequently just by the method I use to complete a quest rather than having to go on a killing spree to really see some changes. I think you are right about Mount&Blade also. I wonder if the game could add enough story just by increasing the quantity of Mayor missions and things that generals and villagers ask you to do. I haven't played much Fire&Sword because I HATE the guns. You can't just ride up into a crowd of enemies and start hacking like you could in the old days. Times have changed and the battlefield with it.

Don't be. Solidarity. If it is any concession, it was not the David Bowie version that the other person linked.

That's the second time someone has linked me this song when I said Pablo Picasso was an asshole. I would start calling him a "dick", but now I want to see if it happens again. Here is a relevant article for those interested.

Enthusiasm is one of the most valuable things in the world, embrace it.

Thanks.

I'm scared to ask, but how do you feel about pinball thestalkinghead? Does it feel like a waste of time unless you get to the wizard mode?

You successfully expressed your glamourous view of self-destructive creatives. Your similes and metaphors don't provide me with additional understanding. I'm not sure if it's your selection or if it's a lack of implying the connection directly enough. For example: " It creates a splash in the neighborhood; the local gossip will nibble on the sea-weed the waves bring for weeks." Did you choose this metaphor as a way to describe the place? Or is there something about how sea-weed gets nibbled on by waves that is representative of the gossip? Another example is the continuation of the ocean metaphor through out the Fitzgerald part. After finishing that portion, I wasn't sure of why the ocean is a particularly reflective subject with which to relate Fitzgerald's life. I'm glad you are writing again. I hope this experience reminds you of why it is worth pursuing. There was a book I came across a while back. I can't remember the title, but it was full of anectdotal stories about the artists in Montparnasse in the early 1900's. I bet you would love it. That's how I found out that Picasso was an asshole.

Alright. Well when you all take the pill to make yourself super-human, when you walk past me taking a nap in my rags, please don't be like "Well he would have enough money to buy air if he didn't sleep all the time!"

Cool. So what would you rather do than have to eat dinner tonight? I want to know about your interesting stuff.

Is there something specific that you wish you had more time for? Or is it more like you have to rush when doing everything because you have so much you have to do?

For me, sleep and rest are essential parts if satisfaction. Working to achieve, achieving and then moving immediately to the next task doesn't satisfy me. It's as if I have to stop thinking in order to realize what I have done.Also, a lot of people equate recreational activities with rest, but I disagree with this idea. Watching a movie or playing a game is still activity. The way I visualize the difference is that if I set my phone alarm and find a nice spot in a park, lay down and close my eyes until the alarm goes off 20 minutes later; at first my my mind continues to think and consume and analyze all the information around it. But after a little while it is as if the direction of thinking reverses. My mind will begin releasing all if the thinking and just barfing up weird amalgumations of perspectives and subjects. It's clearing the cache. Recreational activities don't do this for me like naps and sleep does. Now eating. You are doing it wrong. I recommend taking an hour to look through recipes online, finding one with instructions you can follow but that looks like something better than anything you can buy at a restuarant and plan a day to cook it. If you make cooking a planned activity every once in a while, you can take the time to enjoy the process. I recommend potato tacos with cheese sauce. One really quick side dish is steamed kale with soy sauce drizzled upon it. So good. Enjoying food is a great pleasure.

Wait, is the only reason you hate sleep that you don't get enough time to do what you want? Or is it nightmares or sleep apnea or something.

I don't think that's how it would work out guys. Maybe I'm being unreasonably cynical, but I imagine that it would be a lot like cars where at first it's a luxury, but then it becomes a necessity.

This is THE subject that makes me look like a technophobe. When science figures out a way to remove the biological need for sleep and rent goes sky-high because everyone is working 18 hour days, I'm out. This is such a nightmare scenario. Productivity is not the end all be all IMO. Naps and objectiveless wanderings are way underrated.

Jobs tend to be where you spend a lot of you creative energy and will your intentions. This is why it helps to do something you enjoy for a living. I got lucky. I get to draw and write and read at work. Anything I want to draw and write and read. I can't afford health insurance though. Financial security would be a great added benefit to drawing and writing and reading whatever I want. I'm so selfish and narcissistic. I'm not sure if that's a choice. I can't imagine doing anything useful to other people with my time. I can't imagine doing it enthusiastically anyway. Production for exchange is so uninspiring for me.

I was thousand yard staring a bright red object and then I turned and looked at an off-white wall. That ghostly image optical illusion occurred and it reminded me of how I'm experiencing the visual world through imperfect stereoscopic cameras that are attached to my head. I like the idea that the Oculus rift can remind us of how surreal our abilities of sight are. I wonder if a developer makes the game camera show the front view of a first person game in the left eye and shows the rear view in the left eye, and I walked around the game world for two days and put a blindfold on when I wasn't in game, if my brain would adjust to my right eye being on the back of my head and creating a single 360 image in my mind. Anyway, thinking about camera tricks being applied to VR for the purposes of coming up with game mechanics is kinda fun. I was thinking that it would be an interesting mechanic if you look around an environment in the oculus and when you press a button it takes a screen shot. Then it puts that screen shot in your view as a low opacity image while you continue to look around (like the panoramic apps, or like that cloning game in Double Fine's Happy Action Theatre.; I think there might also be an indi game called Snapshot that does this, but I'm imagining the full frame of view being superimposed). When you press the button a second time, it melds the first image with what you are looking at now, but builds it all in the 3d environment so you can jump on a car that is now stuck in a wall. It would be even awesomer if when it built the juxtaposed world, it applied physics so some objects would topple. This seems like it would be a novel puzzle mechanic in the oculus. The risk reward would be that you can keep on juxtaposing upon juxtapositions, but you may accidentally obscure your objective. It could get very disorientating.

They did have an episode about East India Trading Company that kind of explained what some basic expectations they have for trading games. Apparently East india Trading company didn't have any of them. They kept referencing Railroad Tycoon as a high-water mark.

Oh dude. It would be so cool if the enemies you have a harder time killing have a chance to reproduce and bequeath their armored heads or tendency to run away from plasma weapons.

Seems like combat power-fantasy is often talked about in game criticism, but how about the power-fantasy of turning public opinion. One of my most satisfying narrative moments was in Dragon Age Orgins when I got to play as a whistleblower. I love that. Of course, we had to seal the deal with a violent duel (video games). if you've forgotten what happened or never plan on playing. Mass Effect has similar objectives in more than one case, your overall objective is to prove that you are speaking the truth while someone of superior ranking or reputation commits slander against you. I feel like a political outcast in real life, so this theme really resonates with me in games. I'm far more interested in exposing a government official's nefarious abuses than saving the universe from the reapers or the Blight. This is a power-fantasy that I am susceptible to; Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the Game. I've only seen it done in a scripted fashion slight'y permutated with player decisions, and it's always incredibly campy to the extent of embarrassing naivete. I eat that shit up. I would love to see it done well with systems instead of a script, but I can't imagine how that could be done in a satisfying manner. There's got to be that Matlock moment. My character has lined up a surprise witness whose testimony is irrefutable. I need DNA exoneration. That way I can feel politically effective for a moment rather than feeling like I'm a marginal doomsayer, bumming out the working class with complaints of expected government abuses. I don't know if these political power-fantasies are healthy or not. They certainly don't represent techniques for real change. These games lean heavily on good and evil, but Bioware, less than most. Martin Luther King Jr. should make a game, or Ghandi. But they would probably be MMO's. I don't enjoy playing MMO's, they remind me that I'm not special. No, those two would probably claim that games are a form of escapism and that I should be out in the streets. But eventually a game designer will approach the potential and show me how much fun it is to take on city hall with the grass-roots support I've managed to compromise.

I suppose that one of the things that having a micro and macro feedback layer could do is imply that the circumstance of the individual and the circumstance of the group, are both valuable. Maybe the circumstances of one NPC within the group is always a symptom of a larger circumstance. So if little Jonnie isn't getting her medication on time, then it's a sign that the pharmacy is under-supplied.

So are you saying that permadeath makes it hard to roleplay? If so, this could easily be solves for you if you just think of roguelikes having different player characters for each play session. I actually do this in FTL. I spend a little time naming my crew and my ship so I can start to roleplay a little bit. When I start a new game of FTL, my crew is saying to each other "None of the others have made it." Maybe they will beat the odds and be the one.

Perma-choice is largely dependent on having fail-states that you can continue to play after. Mount&Blade has this quality by stripping you of your army and your money, but not your rank or your life. You have to build it all back up and to make matters worse, friendly generals walk up to you and are like "I heard you got your ass kicked." Expeditions: Conquistadors does it in an interesting way. You are not a playable character in the combat, so you never seem to die. You just lose party members. From what I've heard, X-com seems to do that same thing. I was playing Far Cry 3 yesterday and it was some stupid story boss-battle thing and I kept dying and having to reload and I was like "C'mon! just take my guns away or something, I don't want to have to hit the boss in his weak spot three times over and over." I like it when I can just take the punishment in the game, replay it if I want to, but progress in the story with a failure.

That wasn't boring. It was interesting.

Last night I dreamt that I was walking through a rich neighborhood and into a cul de sac where I discovered a black, plastic trash can two stories tall at the end of a driveway, waiting to be picked up in the morning. Somehow, I got a bunch of pine sap on a $40,000 sedan in one of the driveways. The owner came out and expected me to pay for the car, but I was like "I can't" so he was nice enough to compromise and told me to come over for the next few days to clean it with a brush. I told him that usually when I do that type of thing, I rub it too hard and scratch it. Rust appeared on a small spot of the corner of the car's roof when I said this. The dream is affecting my interactions with people today. I have noticeably less patience. I'm not saying it's justified, I'm just saying that it'll be something I have to maintain awareness of for the rest of the day.