Roderick

I'm not going to respond to everything there because holy shit, it's a whole paper you've written. Instead, let me focus on this point: I don't think you are using the term 'unscripted game' in the right way. There is nothing unscripted about Half-Life 2 or Bioshock, these games are completely scripted and linear, they just don't have cutscenes (well, not really) where you exit the first person perspective. Make no mistake, these games are very much about an 'auteur' telling a story. The story is however being told to you by characters in the game and what you see. There's no reeeeeal difference between what they say and what a cutscene would do or say. In HL2 you see television screens with people giving exposition, but it serves the same purpose as any cutscene with dialogue in it. That's not to say these games aren't doing incredible things with storytelling, but I would never call them unscripted, that's just wrong. So what is it you're really talking about? Storytelling through emergent gameplay à la Elder Scrolls or Farcry 2?

Thanks Gwardinen. Encouraging to know I won't have to lose all my stuff - though frankly I don't find it that important. When I replay games I want to start at the beginning anyway and achievements aren't important to me. I like them while I play, but apart from that I couldn't care less. Pirate, good luck with being done with moving!

Funny, my Xbox 360 just had a stroke as well. I thought I was pretty safe with a later version, but today a red ringed dawn finally arrived. I'm of two minds whether to purchase the new model or just wait until the sequel to the console arrives. Who am I kidding - that will take a year and half at least! Can I import all my savegames and cheevos onto a new console, could I even use the existing hard drive?

There are now three topics worth of Tim Schafer excitement at the top of this forum. It is truly a good day.

I don't have an amazon account =( I can't even give my money to Double Fine as a credit card-less European bum.

Because I'm an unreasonable man! Sigh, OK, I'll sign up... But what's this about payment shit? What are the payment options? If it's only credit card and no PayPal, it's useless anyway.

No, before that. You either create a Kickstarter account, or you can sign in with Facebook. Neither are acceptable.

Since I'm exceptionally averse to signing up to anything, is there any way beyond Facebook (which I don't have) to give money to this project?

Congrestlevania!

It's a good sign the other informal investor dude, the one who made Psychonauts for the Mac happen, is now interested as well. Notch doesn't have to put up all the money: even if he were to invest a moderate sum, it would get a party like Microsoft or EA interested to bear the rest of the burden. These things have a way of snowballing. I can't interpret this in any other way than happiness. (And yes, it's amazing that a bunch of absolute nincompoops take this joyous news as a pretext to start armchair-philosophizing about how much of a 'one-hit wonder' Mojang is and how Notch will inevitably be ruined and a joke. The fact of the matter is, there is zero reason to assume any of this either way, and it's infuriating internet idiocy at it's finest by a bunch of meretricious nimrods!)

Skyrim perhaps maybe just roasted my Xbox. Maybe. I was dropping some excess potions and jewelry into the Whiterun canals, and suddenly my world was white with black particles flying around the edges of objects. Back on the Dashboard, my avatar didn't seem too great either. No rings of red though, so I turned the thing off and will have a look-see to-morrow.

Well, the over-arching lesson of this thread seems simple enough to distill: KAPOEHMrL5U

I'm sitting on the sofa, even with the heating blasting away it's cold, I've got a blanket wrapped around me and boy, could I use a Wizard Snuggie right now! the wizaaaaaard

Stevan and Rusalka!! Boot up the ol' Cult of Tim again! And someone get Remo into those test chambers - Psychonauts has returned!

I think it's the sheer numbers required. Something like Kickstarter, which crowdfunds projects including games, is great for projects ranging anywhere from 1,000-100,000 Dollars, but if you need millions I doubt you'd ever get there. That sort of cash requires private investors, or, you know, benefit concerts.

HOLY FUCK! Minecraft's millions put to great use! This keeps getting better and better.

I loved that review - if only because it's one of the rare instances where someone uses the term 'begging the question' correctly and knowledgeably!

(Good to hear! Don't ever feel bad about posting stuff here, we love it (and love hearing everyone's troubles!) )

Boy, do I understand the feeling of life not going anywere and being stuck in muddy water (actually most of us will feel this or have felt it). Perhaps it's a good idea to define what it is you actually want from life at this point, and then take real steps towards that. Exempli gratia, I want to boost my career and move to a proper independent home. To that end, I'm now actively seeking employment abroad, forcing me out of the rut I've worked myself into here. A complete paradigm shift is sometimes just what the doctor ordered - though one should take care you're not doing it to run away from problems or responsibility.

I can't resist posting this. Possibly the finest piece of tapdancing ever in the history of ever, by Fred Astaire. IFabjc6mFk4

That's not Tanu-ing, that's Speedy Desiato-ing! Anyway, joking aside (we love you, Speedy! And also you, Tanu!), why the fuck don't you post this in the perfectly appropriate Life-topic every now and again? In the time you've been here you've been such a good sport, a great gagster and you deserve the full brunt of our combined therapeutic experience. OK, we're all dilettants here. The point is that it just won't do to have you go to pieces, because your MLSHK won't be updated anymore and we'd miss you terribly. So open up and get that load off your chest.

I guess, when you have a collection of fountain pens, you need a reason to use them, right? I'd love to sign up - but I'm not sure I won't be moving within a month. I'll wait until I know where that's going!

I just saw The Artist, but it was a bad rip, it had no color and the audio codec filtered out the voices. Anyway, it was delightful! What struck me about The Artist was how much more leeway actors (and acting) have when it's a silent movie. We wouldn't take any of their acting in a modern, talking, full-color film. But here, the wild grimaces and exuberant emotions are totally believable.

Sorry about your marital problems, Subbes. Unpacking and arranging things into a new apartment is fun! The worst part of moving is packing things in and transporting them. Once you get to the point of unpacking and appreciating all the crap you have, that's fun. The most fun, though, is before you move and you can throw away half of the useless junk that you have. I've actually been doing that all year now - despite not moving at all. I've been sifting through all my belongings regularly and chucking whatever wasn't relevant to me anymore. This weekend alone I threw away a full trashbag of junk, sold 25 books, 2 games and put a truckload of goods on the internet. It feels so good to get rid of stuff!