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Sleepdance

[insert name here] writes....

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So probably there are 8 trillion mails that haven't been read on a podcast but are still worth reading......I hope.

Anyway here are mine:

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So recent discuisen about new social networks amarging every day got me thinking and got me to the conclusion that all those social games are in fact just social networks with bunch of statistics over them.

Fun story time: Years ago I played this game(Travian I belive) that I'm ashamed to talk about, but still had good time back then. So every player has it's town and tries to upgrade it while gating his army and then sending it to other players cities(traveling takes some time like in kings bounty). Game by itself is beefshit, belive me, but in that sucky game I had Probably one of my most enyoable gaming moments ever. At one point of a game I sended a spy unit to my friends town, while we were on skype talking about just some random stuff(Age of Empires 2 codes I belive) and then in middle of conversation I start talking about' O, I see you have [some number] of this horse unit. O, and that much of this artilery unit....'' And my friend went completly crazy, because he thought I somehow hecked into his computer. He literaly started shouting and eventualy broke my headphones. You can just imagine how ashamed he was when I told him(or did he figure it by himself?) that it was in fact just an in game unit.

So what I got out of this 'game' wasn't exactly game related, but only social interaction that game somehow made posible. You could say this for most of other multiplayer games(aka real games), but there you actualy can play without any comunicational interactions.

And yes, I sad beefshit (don't ask).

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Dear Chris, Jake, Nick and the world,

I have been recently playing Dragon age and got one specific compliment about character progression. The premise is that with ofering the player a deep character costumanisation with the goal to meka him more connected to the character (aka. fell how he progreses and evolves). The problem that I have with this is that the deeper the sistem is, less efective are individual actions that should efect your character.

Other example would be DoW2, in which suprisingly I felt more connected with the characters progression. Why? Well, it did have some of the character progresion that I don't like(which is that with every level, upgrade,... statistics just turn a little in you advantege) but with every so often it indroduced a new gameplay mecanic, which was till then new to me.

So what is the right line betwen this two ways you use character progression in a game?

Merry Christmas.

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Dear Chris, Jake and any of those silly new guys,

your resent discusions reminded me of one of the things I hated the most about Mass Effect's dialog sistem and what probably stands for many other games. Basicly any time you get some sort of moral choise you are given an god(paragon) option and a bad(renagade) option. The thing that makes it so unapealing to me is, that it doesn't acctually reflect you role playing the character, but you being the director. Example: You are talking to a guy that has pointed the gun at the prisoner. The way Mass Effect would do it is give you an option to save the guy and some other option(let him get killed). But if player chooses the option to save the prisoner iShepard will 100% save the prisoner and probably kill the hostile NPC. But wouldn' this tipe of action have some risk? No sorry, you are Shepard, a kick ass Space god.

Better way to do it would be that player should try to distract NPC, so when he would finally choose to TRY to save prisoner, he would have more chanse. Off course, deeper he goes into the dialog tree, more chanses are, that NPC would kill the prisoner(even it they were talking, lets say about hamsters), because it would get him more nervous.

Say hello to gaming department on Pentagon for me Chris,

Cheers

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I must have cleared my sent mail history, but I sent an email about a dream I had that involved Big Bird, a rising sperm floor room, Bioshock and Chris' apartment. Also, a Wizard.

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Both of my dreams were read, they were the really weird ones.

Also haha Sleepdance I just had a job review today and my supervisor knows how I want to get into games and he said he played Travian for like a year (he does play good games too though). I had never heard of it before then.

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Both of my dreams were read, they were the really weird ones.

Also haha Sleepdance I just had a job review today and my supervisor knows how I want to get into games and he said he played Travian for like a year (he does play good games too though). I had never heard of it before then.

Is yours the one where Neal Armstrong gets run over a Han Solo-piloted moon lander? Because that one was amazing.

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I was disappointed this wasn't read:

Concerning strategy macguffins

The Beyond the Sword expansion for Civilization 4 had a quest system, which was borderline wacky for a turn based strategy game. Do these return in Civilization V? Have you talked to any designers the initial role for quests and their possible future?

I saw exactly zero commentary on this, which is weird considering Civilization 4 became “more like world of civilization-craft 4, am I right?”

I guess The Idle Thumbs didn't like this subject as much as I did. Well I HATE YOU TOO. CHRIS REMO ISN'T MY REAL DAD.

Maybe I should have tied it into other strategy sub goals, like the achievements in Starcraft 2. These quests are selected randomly though, which makes them way weirder.

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I will say that watching Chris scroll through the reader mail on his phone, watching him be pleased by some and raise eyebrows at others, is very much like a father looking over the work of his children.

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I sent a bit more earlier on, but they didn't get read, so I stopped. I think I was asking the wrong questions. I'm not going to repost them here though, even though they are still in my sent folder.

Is this thread made in hopes they'll now answer your questions?

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Is this thread made in hopes they'll now answer your questions?

I didn't think that much before posting in this thread.

The questions of mine they did read I was pretty unhappy with, and maybe even regret sending. While questions that I really like are passed over. Maybe this thread is a method of fighting back against the machine! No offense to the machine.

watching Chris ... looking over the work of his children.

Chris Remo is the Hivemother of video games.

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Is yours the one where Neal Armstrong gets run over a Han Solo-piloted moon lander? Because that one was amazing.
I wish that was mine. The first one was it was like a reader meet-up in Chris's apartment and he was "being an asshole" and the other one was the one with mini pirate ships.

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Video Games Rodkin?

I had the same thought while typing that out.

It is unnerving how pavlovian these catch phrases have gotten. I'm not trying to be alarmist, but if the next fart-meme spliced between *WIZAAAARD* and *Baboo!* is *Kill the president of the United States* there might be problems.

Chris Remo is the Red Queen of video games.

Edited by Cult of Jared

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I sent this 'question' too late for it to be read.

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subject no question here, move along

Did you know Psycho has three sequels and a direct to TV movie? Psycho II, Psycho III, Psycho IV: The Beginning, and Bates Motel. They all start with a firm handshake and a "Congratulations Mr. Bates, you are cured".

While games and movies cost as much as they do, there will be cache-in sequels. This is ok, because those sequels will be promptly forgotten, and the original will regain its unblemished radness.

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I'm genuinely bummed. Where do I send my stockpile of questions now?

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