Twig

Well, I just sat down to play SimCity for the first time since the tutorial and it swallowed four hours of my time. So, I'm pretty pleased!!!!

I am like "does anyone want to play, ROOM FOR THREE" and three people leave the chat room. You guys!!!

UNNECESSARY SNARK NEVERMIND

See that's much more in line with what I originally got out of it, and that's when I didn't hate the narrative (although I didn't think it was particularly mind-blowing), and then literally every other interpretation I found on the internet (!) was about chasing the little girl and trying to save her and she's your sister and it's futile you'll never see her again oh no oh how tragic oh noooo. I guess I sorta let that get to me. U:

haha what just happened here guys i don't even like sotc at all but i was enjoying reading about you playing it DON'T RUIN THIS FOR ME

Limbo has zero explanation of who the girl is or why you're chasing her or why those other kids are trying to kill you or why you're in limbo or whatever. Any interpretation of the game that exists is completely up to the individual EXCEPT that you're in limbo, because that's the title of the game. I loved the game in spite of the "narrative", and not as a result of it. It felt like one of those artsy fartsy things that's just artsy fartsy to be artsy fartsy. I recognize that plenty of people feel differently, but well, I think you're all nuts!* Also, I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't for some random reason assume the girl is supposed to be your sister. I remember researching it a bit after I beat the game a year or so ago, and the developers explicitly avoid explaining anything. Why do people make this assumption? *Still, the fact that it's made me think about it this much despite me purporting to hate it... that's something? Man. Sorry for being such a weirdo downer.

I think the game straddles the line between Super Scripted Linear Action Movie Pulp and Freedom To Explore pretty well, if I'm honest. It may be that the juxtaposition of the two had just the right balance for me. I can understand wanting more exploration, but there exist plenty of other games to scratch that itch. For my money, this game is the best out of all games like it that I've played, in recent times. Of course, I've generally avoided games like this up until now - I still don't really know why I wanted to get this one - so I'm not the best judge!

Man the only thing I LIKED about Limbo was the gameplay. Well, it's pretty, too. I do love the art. But whatever.

It's pretty good, the rain. They also do some things with wind later on that are just super rad. U: The game is fucking beautiful.

Can't really blame you!

Haha, oh, Jake. Otacon's a dude! When I played it years ago, I didn't feel like it was supposed to be a twist, but that might just mean I had no expectation of women being helpless in video games by that point in time. Seriously, I was probably 13? Fuck I don't even know. Point is, I wasn't thinking about video games or women or men at a cognitive level by that age. I'm not a very deep person. All I really knew about Meryl was Dat Ass because Snake stared at it. Oh, also I got to see Meryl without pants on because I was good at video games, or something. (So, in that sense, it's probably sexist, but in the damsel-in-distress sense, I'm not so sure. She does eventually get captured, I think, but not in an "I can't help myself!" kind of way. More in an "I just got drugged and am now LITERALLY HELPLESS REGARDLESS OF MY GENDER!" kind of way. Except, you know. Probably not actually like that. What do I even know. Parentheticals!)

Oh, yeah, I think you're probably right on both counts. I think that's not a bad thing, though. I believe/hope that this will be The SimCity Game for a long time, with lots of updates and new content as time goes on. Hopefully some free, but probably not.

Friend of mine brought up a good point. Why didn't they make this game free to play? EA's been pretty gung-ho about that direction, I'm fairly certain? This seems like a perfect opportunity to experiment, and a perfect avenue to test the microtransactions-only waters. Plus, I think people may have been more forgiving of server issues, AND they could've more easily done invites in waves.Ppeople who buy expect to be able to play right away, but with a more fluid launch schedule, it's not as big of a deal. Or... well, something! to better see how the servers handle all their shit. I dunno. Not sure it's necessarily the best idea, but now I'm a bit curious why they didn't. (Not THAT curiou$.)

I don't really see how it's different than "people -- stay safe" in general. It's not bad advice to avoid shitty situations, whether we're talking about rape or muggings or whatever. I have warned people and been warned by people to avoid certain areas of this or that city, and I'm not sure why that's bad. I also don't feel like there's a lack of education in regards to telling people to Be Good, even in entertainment. When has a rapist ever been portrayed as a good guy? When has rape ever been portrayed as something that didn't completely devastate the victim? I mean, I'm sure it's happened, but it can't be that common, as I've never seen it - or at least, don't remember seeing it. Sure, no one has ever explicitly told me, "Don't rape!", but I would never even dream of doing it. I guess my parents raised me as a human being, and that's why? I don't know. On the other side of the coin, I have seen people change after being informed of their assholery (myself included), so there's that. But I feel like those people are inherently "good" (MYSELF INCLUDED!!!), and would never murder or rape or whatever, anyway. Telling a shitty human being to stop being shitty... has that ever really worked? Not sayin' it's not worth trying, but well. Don't hate me.

Yeah I finished it over the weekend and I loved it. Easily my favorite heavily-scripted action game in a long, long while. And those moments when it lets you just roam an area, explore, and collect shit? Great. So great. I won't say the game's perfect, though. Still, the fact that this game made me love a Tomb Raider game, and, even more impressively, love Lara Croft... I've never liked a Tomb Raider game. I've actively disliked them. And I found Lara to be annoying and shallow and pointless. This one was great. SO. GREAT.

I wouldn't go that far, but I would agree that video game sexism exists largely because sexism exists. That's a pretty obvious and useless statement to make, though, so I'll be crawling back into my corner now.

Hah! Best. When I play video games, I don't give a shit who I'm represented by, as long as it's either a mute or an interesting character. THERE IS NO IN BETWEEN. I really like the latest Lara Croft. (I've disliked every previous incarnation that I played.) U:

I just thought Zelda was a dude's name for years until I heard it in another context and my mind was blown.

Aw, that's the best!

I can only speak with confidence about my own experience in this thread, but basically, I said it was boring, and probably not for me, and would have left it there if people complaining at my and others' similar comments hadn't forced me to further explain my position. In other words, there might not necessarily be as much scrutiny if people didn't keep ASKING for it? But, well, I can't really say that. I can only speak for myself. If it's any consolation, people getting this dumb shit out of their system now will probably mean it won't happen for every future video. U:

Were you... were you talking to me? I'm legitimately confused. My post was sandwiched between two of yours, so I feel it's safe to assume you were talking to me, and yet what does that have to do with anything I said what what

Yeah, it's just a bit hilarious and/or sad!

I agree with everything in this post. Obviously, that doesn't mean I like it, but I do completely understand the reasoning behind it!

Yeah, the best professors are not the ones that impassionately deliver a bulletpoint list of facts.

i don't even know what's real anymore