tegan

I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

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220px-PC-NamelessOne.jpg

Is this guy in any way harmed by being lumped into the category of gams? Nope. But we are doing harm by excluding gam-like things from the category of gams, leaving them Nameless.

 

Therefore I propose that he is Gam. Everything is gams.

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How does one turn Moby Dick non-linear while still preserving it's original text?

 

Moby Dick, in the original text, is a fairly non-linear treatise on the fact that nature is an unknowable thing.

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Moby Dick, in the original text, is a fairly non-linear treatise on the fact that nature is an unknowable thing.

 

It is, however, on numbered pages that must be read in a certain order, yes? I think it was on an early episode of the new Idle Thumbs where they talked about how "non-linear" means something different in games than it does in other forms of fiction.

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I have long considered chopping up one of H. P. Lovecraft's shorter works into a twine game, preserving the text as written, but attempting to meld it into a non linear experience where you could get scenes in a different order or even miss some passages should you not choose to examine an object or go into a certain room. Obviously, it would require a little extra writing as glue to hold the bits together, and some cutting here and there, but I think it would be a fun project that would stretch the gray area that's being discussed here.

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Yeah, I think a lot of literature would do well being adapted to Twine. My only point is that it would be an adaptation, not preservation.

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Yeah, I think a lot of literature would do well being adapted to Twine. My only point is that it would be an adaptation, not preservation.

 

Not to open up another pedantic debate, but preservation is a matter of degree. A Lovecraft Twine that has most of the same text as the original is much a more preservation than say, a first person shooter would be.

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As someone who thinks audiobooks are not the same medium as written fiction, I will at least agree that this argument about what constitutes adaptation would get hella pedantic.

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I was thinking of making a thread about (re)playing great games. The idea would be that we'd all get a month-ish to play a suggested game, then report back and discuss. 

 

My main reasoning for this, is that after being recommended Super Metroid when I asked about playing some virtual console classics, I discovered that I absolutely adored the Metroid series. I think it'd be great to discover other things, and hopefully for other people to discover games they didn't know they'd like.

 

I think it'd have to lean towards games available on steam, since that generally cuts the cost down. Would anyone be interested in such a thread? Or are people generally too busy to play a prescribed game like a book club? I know right now I'm lucky if I even have time to turn on my PS4.

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I'd be interested in that. I'd stress low participation necessary maybe, like "don't worry about finishing the game, just try play some of it". I'd definitely be able to spend some time playing a game each month but I don't know if I'd have the time/interest to finish them all the time.

 

Also do you know how you'd pick them? I'm not sure what'd be the fairest way to keep most people invested.

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Yeah, I specifically avoided saying finish a game in a month. That's pretty rare for me even at the best of times! 

 

For picking them, I was either going to do a vote out of 3, or just have someone suggest something like the cooking thread. The thing I am most worried about ruining the fun is price and availability.

How do people see emulators? I'd be happy to use one if I can't access the game, especially if it's something I've bought in the past but have no idea where it is. For things I have easy access to through virtual console or by just owning the system, I think I'd rather just buy the game.

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I'll happily use an emulator for things where you can only buy the game on Ebay for $200. I agree that it would be wise to stick to Steam (or at least, digitally available PC games), anything else limits participation based on console-ownership and/or willingness to emulate.

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Ooh, I have a suggestion! A fun game which I haven't seen discussed here, and which doesn't cost the earth. Should I DM you Griddle?

Edit: scratch that, not sure Super House of Dead Ninjas is a good candidate. But still y'all should play it

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Yeah, I specifically avoided saying finish a game in a month. That's pretty rare for me even at the best of times! 

 

For picking them, I was either going to do a vote out of 3, or just have someone suggest something like the cooking thread. The thing I am most worried about ruining the fun is price and availability.

How do people see emulators? I'd be happy to use one if I can't access the game, especially if it's something I've bought in the past but have no idea where it is. For things I have easy access to through virtual console or by just owning the system, I think I'd rather just buy the game.

I have zero moral qualms about using emulators.

Also do you know how you'd pick them? I'm not sure what'd be the fairest way to keep most people invested.

That's always an issue. Maybe people could vote for what they want to play the most but also what they want to play the least?

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Does anyone listen to Video Games Hot Dog and follow along with the game assignment they do? This sounds a bit similar, so curious about anyone how participates finds doing that to be.

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I have no particular qualms with emulators since none of the current gen of stuff can actually be emulated, but it could be a good idea to encourage people to pay for legitimate sources of the games. Either just for the sake of it or as gifts to friends. For example the PSN store can be accessed and bought from just a browser, so you could buy PSOne classics without having a Sony console.

It might be good to suggest that people don't use emulator 'tricks' like speeding up the emulation to get through Pokémon faster. Stick with the original experience (unless there's some serious unusable aspect to it).

 

Voting is probably the best approach. I like the sound of veto/anti-votes in theory at least, might be fun to try that out (if it's not too much of an organisational headache).

 

I'd also like a semi official mandate that genres will be changed up from game to game. For variety and to avoid genre fatigue, since there's plenty of RPG or FPS classics but not everyone is particularly a fan of the genres.

 

...should this be its own thread now? Or do you want rules sorted first.

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We tried this a couple of times in the past with Killer 7 and Shadow of the Colossus. I had to tap out of K7 about three weeks in, and was one of 2 people who finished SotC. People tend to lost steam fairly quickly. I'd be down, but I'd say that shorter games may be the way to go.

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I just wanted to gauge the temperature before making the thread. For genres I was planning on choosing one genre each month and 4 games which loosely fit. if that doesn't work, then maybe 3 completely different genres.

I'd like to have rules down before starting, but I also don't want it to be too stilted, as that'll put people off.

For the first month I was thinking of doing 3 Megadrive games. Since they tend to be easily emulated and I've never owned a sea console in my life.

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We tried this a couple of times in the past with Killer 7 and Shadow of the Colossus. I had to tap out of K7 about three weeks in, and was one of 2 people who finished SotC. People tend to lost steam fairly quickly. I'd be down, but I'd say that shorter games may be the way to go.

Haha was it really just me and you?

 

I want to say it was just me and Sno who finished Killer 7 and even then I took way over the alotted time. Then I played it again right after on hard mode in a matter of two days. :o

 

As much as I'd like to do this again, I won't have time. Also I would be big on having everyone completing the game, even though we all mostly failed each time.

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Has anyone here tried learning a new language through a game? I decided to play Pokemon Y with the language set to German. I'm surprised at how much I can work out thanks to knowing pokemon pretty well, but I do have to rely heavily on google translate...

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