Patrick R

I mean it's highly possible that I am conflating "one would not do" with "I would not do", and that a second playthrough will fix all my issues with Kaitlin's logic. But while I was playing I definitely felt more like I was searching for things that would activate journal entries and open up other areas than actually getting info about why Sam wasn't there.

I think video game logic is that this is an adventure game, and if you scour the environments more clues will turn up that will reward you with more journal entries, allowing you to piece together what has happened. I think real life logic would involve desperately trying to get that attic open and, upon failing that, making a plan to find your sister once the phone lines come back, the storm ends and you're able to actually do something. I don't think real life logic would assume that all the answers to your questions would literally be spelled out in a journal addressed to you in the attic which can only be opened after following a paper trail that's been scattered like bread crumbs throughout the entire environment of the house.

I really like the game a lot, it's not that I'm uncomfortable with the level of gaminess. It's just that the farther you get from typical tropes and genres of gameplay, the more those kinds of things stick out, especially upon reflection. I still think that Portal is the only game I've ever played that has a perfectly told video game narrative, that both feels inherent to the medium and doesn't have any cheats. And it's been a couple years since I last played through that, so I may be wrong there. Also, this story captures high school romance/friendship/awkwardness the best. The minute details of the courtship of Sam and Lonnie are easily the best part of the game. EDIT: I mentioned the 0451 thing, did anyone else automatically assume that was the combination for the filing cabinet? I guess the way I justified it narratively was that Farenheit 451 was Katie and her dad's favorite book and guessed it, before seeing the combination written elsewhere later on.

I think asking why people don't leave a haunted house in a horror movie is a valid question. And often, the reasoning is the same as why Katie doesn't go out and look for Sam: scary storm outside, no reliable transportation, safest place to keep warm is inside. My problem is that the narrative told in the diaries eventually put me at a distance with the protagonist, as the narrative arc felt more clearly to be a video game arc, and I saw myself reaching the end of the story. I guess I wonder what this same game would be like without the overt (to an extent) and hand-holding (to an extent) narrative arc. I feel like this is a hugely important game (like the other 0451 games it references), but one that we may look back at and see the seams a lot clearer, the way I felt going back and playing Bioshock 1 recently, or when I go back and play Deus Ex now. Again, I'd want to play it again to really be confident with how I feel.

This game has me torn because it is simultaneously some of the most breathtaking world building and storytelling I've ever seen in a game and yet I think it still has to cheat a fair amount in order to be narratively coherent. Beyond the fact that all this family's secrets are detailed and hidden in various letters in various drawers (which, while WAAAAAAY preferable to audio logs, still feels pretty damn video-gamey), we don't actually experience what Kaitlin experiences because she only actually finds the diary at the end. Given that the motivation to uncover all these secrets is primarily to find the next morsel of Sam's story, I don't know if Kaitlin would actually go through such lengths to explore every inch of the house in her situation, having so little to go on. But I guess a second playthrough, now knowing the full story, would be required to really judge that. I can't recall exactly what information in the story is given in what way, so it's hard for me to say. I'd love to see a mod or patch of this that removed all of the journal entries, see how playable that sort of playthrough would be. EDIT: Also, I'd love to see a playthrough someone who has not been prompted at all as to what kind of game it is. In mine I immediately started systematically opening and searching every drawer, knowing it was that kind of game. But in real life Kaitlin would first probably wander around the house, calling out to her parents, trying to figure out the lay of the house. I wonder at what point it would dawn on someone that an intricate domestic drama is there to unfold in letters and folders and newspaper clippings.

I think if Steve wanted to get back at the Thumbs' ghost-trolling, he could somehow find a way to keep Saints Row 4 in the podcast's conversation ad infinitum. The frustration that game causes here is fantastic.

Russian dressing, nonetheless. Exciting.

Is it explained why Sam took BOTH of the VCR's from the house, but none of the component cables?

Oh man, I must have missed so much. I didn't even know Sam came out to her parents. I know a "13 out of 35 notes seen" counter would be a total tone-breaking dumb video game thing, but I do wish I knew how much I missed, to know if it'd be worth it to go back and play through again once my chief enjoyment (the sense of discovery) is gone. Maybe I'll just keep reading message boards, or a wiki if one ever gets made. There's a lot about this game that is amazing and awesome. I felt the story was a bit simple. Maybe I missed significant parts of it, though. Outside of the constant comments that 0 ghosts were found, were there many Idle Thumbs easter eggs?

Citizen Kane gets an 11, and therefore so does Killzone 2.

I think if it's sold as used, they are forcing Nintendo out of their rightful cut of the sale of a new game, right?

There are a lot of stars and space is much bigger than you, you little speck.

Do the rope throwing physics work better in the XBLA version than the free version? I feel like I always have a 50/50 chance for my rope to actually go where I am trying to get it.

People who don't drink have so little to live for.

New Boob Jam game is about two trans people and their relationship with their boobs or lack thereof. S'alright. Barely interactive, though.

I apologize for that, I was just in the car for 14 hours previously, and too cranky to be posting on a forum. But I really do hate the John Lasseter "For bugs, a pu pu platter would be a POO POO platter!" sense of humor, and an awful lot of Finding Nemo are those kinds of dumb jokes.

I don't think we're going to agree on much film stuff, you and I. But if you think honest portrayals of dashed hopes and the oppression of mortality are more common than dads who are trying to save their kids...well, you maybe exist in a different world than I. I'd like to be there, in your world, where the most conventional thing you could do is explore the human condition and the least conventional thing you could do is have a bunch of horrible fish jokes ("WHAT IF A SCHOOL OF FISH WERE ACTUALLY A SCHOOL, IF SEAGULLS SPOKE ENGLISH WHAT KINDS OF THINGS WOULD THEY SAY, HEY ARE HORRIBLE SURFER CARICATURES STILL THE MOST FUNNY THING EVER, OH THEY ARE, GOOD, LET'S DO SEA TURTLE VERSIONS OF THAT FOR A WHILE TOO."). Because that'd mean there'd be a lot of beautiful and meaningful films about life, and very few that are just a series of lame jokes and visual puns.

I agree with pretty much everything you've said.

You guys are nuts. Up and Ratatouille are far and away Pixar's best movies*, BECAUSE they are so weird. I feel like most every other American animated film in the past ten years are mostly just beautiful and shitty comedies. Pixar's "It's like Toy Story, but they're..." movies (Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., Cars) do not hold up at all for me, and Toy Story 1 & 2 have also fallen in my opinion (never been a fan of the disingenuous Toy Story 3 and Wall-E). Up and Ratatouille are the Pixar films that have boundless imagination AND are brutally honest in their approach to their themes (mortality and the horrible mediocre taste of the masses, respectively) which I can't really say about Pixar's other movies. *Hyperbolic statements of objective quality are to demonstrate how emphatic I am, not an actual belief that your opinions are objectively wrong.

As far as the concept of getting people to make bad choices, I actually did that a LOT in Telltale's The Walking Dead. I felt like Lee's history clearly indicated a tendency to, in intense situations, react emotionally and irrationally so I would occasionally have him lose his temper or blow-up at someone even when I knew intellectually that it wasn't the best thing for him to do. In giving me a certain level of authorial control, TWD motivated me to act not necessarily in anyone's best interest, but in the best interest of Lee's story. It's why I It felt like the right choice for that moment of the story. And I kind of like Chris' instant distrust of most things mainstream and wacky.

The speed at which you work is incredible.

Oh wow, the XBLA version is HARDER than the free PC version? I don't think I'll pick it up once it hits Steam. I enjoy the free version, but regularly get my ass totally handed to me. I'm right on the edge of frustration and reward, I imagine any more tweaks that make the world harder would push me right over into the "hate it" camp.

Yeah, or Etsy. There's a lot of video game artwork on Etsy.

I am working on my own (because men can also have and have a complicated relationship with their breasts) and I ran into this as well, especially because I don't want it to come across as "See, men have body image issues that are just as bad!". A lot of the rewriting I'm doing is about trying to inject humor and a lighter tone. But I think Twine games can be especially good tools for empathy, and Jenn Frank's posts about the jam seem to encourage honest and heartfelt work, so I wouldn't be too worried about not matching the goofier tone of other premises that have been thrown around. Unless you just think the writing is of a poor quality in general. In that case, I'd just defer to your favorite author, Ernest Hemingway: "The first draft of anything is shit."