clyde

I had no idea. THIS GAME!

I've done it.

Christopher Livingston re-imagines Spelunky as a text-adventure. http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/12/30/the-text-adventures-that-never-were-spelunky/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

A chat-bot that searches Twitter for global-warming deniers and then argues with them. This is the future. The social-media will soon consist of these algorithms fighting each other, the Bot-Wars. I suppose that it kinda already is that, only it's not automated yet and, though rare, people have the capability to change their minds. http://www.technologyreview.com/view/421519/chatbot-wears-down-proponents-of-anti-science-nonsense/

Why not look for those who also choose BioShock Infinite as their game of the year and then put them on your reading list? That's what IGN fans do, that's what most everyone does. There is some value to bolstering the mouth of a perspective you share. It allows cultures to develop ideas and then share the ideology they have grown for comparison and consideration with other communities that have done the same with different collective perspectives. I view GOTY picks as banners for recruitment.

I appreciate the reminder. I like to set absurdly high goals of social justice because if I don't I end up defining my goals as personal successes which typically contribute to these types systemic inequities.

I wrote a post on some fellow's Youtube video. He seemed to be honestly confused about the difference between promoting risk-management and victim-blaming. I also find the subject difficult to figure out, so I empathize with him. I read a few articles and tried to come up with a basic explanation of how I feel about the matter. I welcome criticism, because I am not confident on this issue. Here is my post, and I'll link his video afterwards. I imagine that it must feel terrible when you've been victimized and the response you get is "Didn't you get the memo? That's a dangerous area." This belief that there is a common sense tends to mix with just-world hypothesis, and becomes a subtle form of victim-blaming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis As fair as assessing risks and disseminating warning, consider where this leads. Let's suppose women listen to you and stop going to Central Park at night. I would expect that a sexual assault would end up happening elsewhere. At this point would you begin to compile a list of places women should not go? It may be more efficient to simply state that they should never allow themselves to be alone with men. This consideration for risk does nothing to reduce the actual threat; it may actually increase the threat by demarcating publicly accepted safe-zones and danger-zones. I would consider the mere existence of these zones as an institutional violence against women. When a woman strays from the protective instruction of those around her, she is told that she must accept the consequences. But it was the broader society which gave up on her freedom to roam wherever she sees fit. http://streetharassmentdisruption.blogspot.com/2011/06/victim-blaming-threats-and-risks.html For me, the solution seems to be in assessing the causes of sexual assault behaviors, and taking action to destroy them. Focusing on risk management seems to simply affirm the illusion that we live in a society in which anyone is safe if they chose to be safe. I imagine that you do not believe that this is the actual case. http://youtu.be/pVBLHGPByNQ

I see the Oculus Rift hype having a large effect on what I pay attention to this year. I expect the Oculus Rift to be the harbinger of 2015, year of the not-game.

Looks like some novel abilities are coming out of the Rift development kits; climbing, gun-play, spray-painting, examining bottles and bongs.

I don't believe you can.

I did an incomplete tutorial of the Pinball FX2/Zen Pinball Wolverine table.

NGOTY

Are you only playing dailies?

Flotilla does not require co-op. Single player is satisfying. It has massive difficulty curves though. Oh man, I would love an FTL with Flotilla's 3D/syncronous-turn combat-system. If Individual upgrades were damaged and I could tell my little animals to go fix specific stuff on my flotilla, that would be perfect.

Well said. It does seem like some positive feedback-loop is haunting us; roughly, "Which game this year reminds us most of the GOTY of yesteryears?" It's fun to have opinions. No need for self-inflicted smarm. Oh god, I just used the worst word ever.

That's what they said about automobiles and now it's super hard for people to walk to work.

This happened.

I do love the idea that conceptually, there could exist a Best-Game-Eva that no one would pick as their favorite game. Are critical reviews that ignore personal circumstances evidence that we anthropomorphize gamer-culture? Does GOTY only exists as an artifact of compromise?

If you already bought it, I would go ahead and play it. I don't remember being frustrated with bugs. You'll run into them, just don't go in expecting to only build a base once and to do so exactly the way you intend to. When I play, it's just something to do while I'm winding down. Discovering the current amount of features won't take you more than a few hours, but it diesn't ruin the experience to exhaust them.

DramaBeans has a scoring system of two numbers; how much they enjoyed it and how they rate it. http://www.dramabeans.com/about/ratings/ I think there is a certain honesty to the idea (if you go ahead and accept that numerical scores have a social value). It's nearly impossible for someone with a fan-base to not take a larger cultural relevance into account when publishing a numerical score. But that cultural perspective can conflict with personal experience. Having a rating system that incorporates both allows me to look through a list and get a rough idea of what someone thought about each series. I would prefer something more similar to Pandora's system, but this is an easy way to nuance an established system. This show is scored by two people; one is in black and the other blue. The first number is how much they enjoyed it, the second is how they rate it. Master’s Sun(2013) 주군의 태양 Smart use of ghost premise to drive the romance—a slow but steady burn, loaded with chemistry. Not quite crack-drama status, but satisfying and sweet. (9 / 8) A fantastic rom-com match-up in the leads. Everything else isn’t as sparkling as you want it to be, but there’s a lot to be said for a magnetic attraction. (8 / 8) –GF

Here's talk about designing text-games from Jon Ingold one of the co-founders of Inkle (also the script writer for the Sorcery! app). Unless you are completely unfamiliar with what text-games are, I would recommend skipping to the 15 minute mark (you can do this easily by clicking on "Reading can be hard" in the chapter select on the left). I had never thought about the advantages of making text appear in chunks. I also really enjoyed his description of making choice more "analogue" by branching narratives with the results of many smaller decisions rather than branching them with epic, one-time decisions. I'm convinced. http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1019346/A-World-from-Words-Highly

I often wonder if there is some Chinese person whose concision with game-criticism surpasses that of Chris Remo; and I'm just not able to partake because I don't know the language.

Fall Out: New Vegas is $2.49 right now. I can't wrap my head around why you would be willing to spend hours painting commissioned work for something you could pay $2.49 for. Is there a story behind this offer?

It's just cosmetic. Ta still needs a torch. mmm... I like using "ta" as a gender-neutral pronoun. I need to change my tag back to "hipster".