Idle Weekend August 5, 2016: The World Ends (and Begins) With You

[Chris]

Idle Weekend August 5, 2016:



The World Ends (and Begins) With You
This weekend, we take a trip to our favorite game worlds: places we want to go back to, places that opened our eyes, places that might have been "better" than the games they supported. Elsewhere, Danielle reads about a radical future and Rob goes back to Arrow. Plus: how is Mass Effect like Bernie and Hillary?

Discussed: Psychonauts,The Napoleon of Notting Hill, Anodyne, Donkey Kong Country series, Grim Fandango, BioShock, Studs Terkel's The Good War, Mass Effect series, the games of Kitty Horrorshow, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, The Last Express, Crazy Taxi, Deus Ex, The Darkness, The Gabriel Knight series, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, Civilization series, Free! (anime series), Arrow, 2312 (novel)

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[Ninja Dodo]

Great discussion on worlds versus games.

I do think you guys were being a little unfair to Mass Effect 3 though. While you can debate the merits of the game as a whole (personally, love it), it certainly doesn't lack heart in its highpoints as it closes out some of the major storylines of the series: the Genophage and the Krogans, the war between the Geth and the Quarians, not to mention the wonderful epilogue that is Citadel...

Some other worlds I love visiting: the islands of

1 & 2,

's Hyllis,

's alien deserts and marshes, Santa Monica and Downtown LA in Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines (also a good one for what Rob was talking about with seeing other sides of society), Brutal Legend's

, Longest Journey/Dreamfall's

, Okami's

, the

of Red Dead Redemption, Gothic 1's prison colony, the

of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag... also I'm kinda surprised you guys didn't mention The Witcher 3 this one time.

 

Also the historical accuracy & strategy discussion continues to be really interesting.

 

[edit: added some links for extra nostalgia]

[feelthedarkness]

i also agree that ME3 gets a slightly worse rap than needed. though i also agree that the main beef, the final choice and the singular outcome is exactly as sad as everyone said.

 

for worlds: ULTIMA. 

 

This one is something else, since 7 games took place in the exact same world, with the same playable companions, that only grew a bit over time. i like that they didn't add landmass, but  evolved the fidelity of same cities over time, including some historical facts that might elevate one city in particular, such as gargoyles being "just monsters" in early games, to subject of segregation narratives, to another race (still with some problems) living in cities . They also include a central conceit that the player is the same person from another dimension who's returns can be decades apart.

[SL128]

My short thoughts on the Mass Effect series

 

1 is mid-series TNG

2 is First Contact

3 is The Final Frontier

[Valorian Endymion]

Rob comment during the discussion on historical accuracy, about how a thing that would be realistic might be seen as unreal, remind me, there is a certain troope, the "Aluminum Christmas Tree" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AluminumChristmasTrees), used to refer when a thing that exist in real life is thought to be too unreal or fantasy by audiences when it appear in a work of fiction. A example would be a work which portraits, a Middle Ages that is more colorful, detailed our happy, might be seen as too unreal by a audience which thinks that everything in middle ages was "dark, gritty, detailess, colorless and covered in mud". Better one, Squall´s Gunblade? (FF 7) too unreal? maybe not.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol_sword

 

Or in that movie Excalibur, people often complain that the armor look unrealistic and was made by some one which didn´t knew anything, except that while not time accurate (which was intentional and made sense in the movie), was designed by a historical armor expert...

Now on the subject of worlds - Shining Force II (this was maybe my first jrpg, also this was maybe the first game that made me realize that I love games and stories where a bunch of cool characters go around in a adventure, while having some slice of life moments, I know this kind of stories often anime have), Danganronpa,  FF XIII/XIII-2, Might and Magic I-VI (the early part of the Might and Magic franchise had a curious mix of fantasy and sci-fi, that is rare for a western rpg), BlazBlue, and maybe other, but I can´t remember now.

[Nappi]

It's crazy how many of my absolute favorite game worlds are from adventure games, specifically Lucasarts Adventure games: Grim Fandango, Monkey Islands 1-3 (The Curse of Monkey Island being my favorite world-wise), Sam and Max Hit the Road (I liked the world of the game more than that of the comics), with honorable mention to Day of the Tentacle. I also loved the worlds of Psychonauts and The Last Express, and I spent so much of my time in my childhood with The Link to the Past and Final Fantasy 7 that I couldn't help but grow to love them.

 

The world of original Mafia will always have a special place in my heart. It was the first time I actually felt sort of transported to different time and place. I think this was thanks in large part to some of the design decision many players absolutely detested: The ultra slow regular guy start, the even slower, shitty cars, the even shittier guns, the fact that you had to obey speed limits and traffic lights or risk getting fined. Just thinking about the ridiculously slow ride up Oak Hill, with Django Reinhardt barely emanating from my speakers, to burglarize a villa, makes me smile to this day.

[plasticflesh]

As far as video game worlds I want to live in:

 

"Zelda Link to the Past" Hyrule village always enamored me. That ending cutscene showing the happy villagers, that is when the game should begin.

 

Also "Zelda: Links Awakening" I played over and over again as a youth.

 

Like Ninja Dodo, I also replayed "Twinsens' Oddysey" many times as a youth. That is a very pleasant world.

 

"Myst" introduced the entire concept of world-building to me. The characters in that game are deliberately building their puzzle-worlds with their magic-books. Compelling stuff. I was already "world building" as a kid by copying level layouts from Nintendo Power. But Myst introduced a fictional layer over that, now I'm a wizard constructing a world.

 

"Minecraft" continues to fill this niche for me. Short asides into things like Stardewvalley or Rimworld. But Minecraft takes the cake for me, in creative mode, on a friendly server. Great alternative to realty.

[eRonin]

Xenoblade Chronicles X is a game world that I love and would revisit just for the chance to run and fly around in it. I love all the different alien characters in it too; even though they're not voiced, they have a lot of personality. There are still areas I haven't fully explored, and secondary characters I haven't gotten to meet properly. It's honestly one of those games that does like to pad out its content and sell itself on how many hours of gameplay is involved, but I really just want any excuse to revisit that alien planet.

[Arathain]

I'm glad you mentioned Civilisation during the talk about gaming addictions- that was the game that was in my head before you mentioned it. Addiction is a loaded word, and perhaps misused here. My point of view is that there are two reasons you might be engaging in extended play sessions, or playing a game to the exclusion of other games or activities. The positive reason is that it is compelling, the negative that it is compulsive.

 

A compelling experience holds you because you are excited about what comes next. Perhaps a story beat, or another vista to explore. Maybe you want the satisfaction of completing a difficult challenge, or you are driving yourself to improve your ability to compete online. 

 

A compulsive experience taps into the lizard brain that likes to see numbers go up. Grinding to an arbitrary level cap, so that you can improve your ability to grind some more. Gambling elements, like loot crates. 

 

This is all very personal, of course. What's compulsive for you might be compelling for me. Compulsive gaming can be its own treat if it doesn't squeeze out important things- I love me some Diablo 3 once in a while. Still, we know from the mobile market that developers willing to forgo compelling experiences for purely compulsive ones can go to pretty dark places, such as developing titles to milk whales.

 

Civ is such a good example of the complexity. Why are you hitting next turn at 1 AM? Is it because you're three turns away from getting knights onto the field to crush Montezuma and firm up your relationship with Catherine the Great? Or is it because you're comfortably playing out a familiar victory track? When you start playing, Barracks or Granary can seem like a fascinating decision, but 50 hours later you know what the right answer is for this and 90 % of the choices you'll make. 

[lizzyinthesky]

Just wanted to chime in on the subject of Gravure Models. Here's the thing: some of them are as young as preteens posing for horny men and the entire thing is about playing up innocence. IMO its creepy as fuck and Atlus/Nintendo/whoever were right to remove it.

[Berzee]

I haven't listened to an Idle Weekend episode yet, but I guess I have to now because The Napoleon of Notting Hill was discussed!

[Vulpes Absurda]

Just wanted to chime in on the subject of Gravure Models. Here's the thing: some of them are as young as preteens posing for horny men and the entire thing is about playing up innocence. IMO its creepy as fuck and Atlus/Nintendo/whoever were right to remove it.

Hah I come here to post more or less the same thing! I will however add that it prolly shouldn't have been there to begin with in my view.