I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

[Merus]

de Quidt asked what would need to be added to Gone Home to make it a game in the eyes of those who maintain that it isn't. How about adding a collection mechanic - where you could, say, pick up VHS cassette tapes hidden around the house and get a score at the end of the game? 

 

Well, there are diary entries tied to specific interactions and an implicit challenge to find them all, and the game was built expecting speedruns. So that already exists.

 

I personally take Sid Meier's view that a game is a series of interesting choices. What counts as interesting is different for everyone; I strongly suspect that those people who call Proteus 'not a game' do not find 'ooh, what's over there?' to be interesting.

[SecretAsianMan]

My family got me one of those razer thingies for Father's Day this year, a keypad with like 16 keys and an analog stick.  I ended up having them return it after a week or so.  I appreciated the thought, but ultimately it wasn't something I could use.  The biggest thing was the analog stick, it was significantly worse than any stick on any controller I've ever used.  It also sat at a weird angle.

 

Maybe there are better ones out there, but my first experience with one didn't impress me.

 

I used to have a Razer Nostromo (which now in Teg's possession).  I currently have a Razer Orbweaver.  I really like it because I find it far more comfortable and usable for the types of games I frequently play, namely shooters.  It's an entirely personal preference and I can't state that it's objectively better than a normal keyboard.  I will say that calling it an analog stick is a misnomer because it's really a d-pad with a nub on it.  I don't use it as an analog stick/d-pad, I use it as additional buttons, similar to a hat switch on a joystick.

 

The Nostromo(blue) and Orbweaver(green)

 

[Denial]

Well, there are diary entries tied to specific interactions and an implicit challenge to find them all, and the game was built expecting speedruns. So that already exists.

 

Yeah, I left out the important (FSVO important) bit in the hypothetical, which is that the cassettes would need to have no or very little narrative function - they would simply be collectible objects, and would have no function other than to give you a numerical assessment at the end of the game of how good you had been at finding and collecting collectable objects.

[clyde]

"What is game" is truly the eternal question.

I don't really see the value in defining what is and isn't a game, does it really affect how we view "games" or games? I guess it would be more valuable to people who seek to exclude games like Gone Home from the "game" category and feel cheated spending money on that stuff. Aside from that value judgment, is there kind of substantive reason to pan out that definition?

Considering that Depression Quest is free, yet its prescence on Steam is so controversial for some, I don't think it is about a financial value. I'd like to see if the not-a-game obsessed contingent is using the same reasoning or if they are all just coming to the conclusion for different reasons and falsely believing that they agree with each other. Really it's a sociological curiosity for me.

[Bjorn]

I used to have a Razer Nostromo (which now in Teg's possession).  I currently have a Razer Orbweaver.  I really like it because I find it far more comfortable and usable for the types of games I frequently play, namely shooters.  It's an entirely personal preference and I can't state that it's objectively better than a normal keyboard.  I will say that calling it an analog stick is a misnomer because it's really a d-pad with a nub on it.  I don't use it as an analog stick/d-pad, I use it as additional buttons, similar to a hat switch on a joystick.

 

The Nostromo(blue) and Orbweaver(green)

 

 

The Orbweaver is the one they got me, and I tried it on a half dozen games and it just didn't feel right.  You're right about the directional-nub/analog stick.  What I really want out of something like this is movement on my left thumb with a quality analog stick, and that's not what this is designed to deliver.  But not having ever used one, I didn't realize that. 

[tegan]

The Orbweaver is the one they got me, and I tried it on a half dozen games and it just didn't feel right.  You're right about the directional-nub/analog stick.  What I really want out of something like this is movement on my left thumb with a quality analog stick, and that's not what this is designed to deliver.  But not having ever used one, I didn't realize that. 

 

I use the stick on the Nostromo for movement when I'm playing something like Portal or Bioshock and love it, but I think it's because those games don't really care about speed of movement. Also because the sticks on the Nostromo and Orbweaver seem totally different.

[SecretAsianMan]

I use the stick on the Nostromo for movement when I'm playing something like Portal or Bioshock and love it, but I think it's because those games don't really care about speed of movement. Also because the sticks on the Nostromo and Orbweaver seem totally different.

 

They look different but the stick on the Orbweaver is still an 8-way d-pad.  It even clicks in each direction (at least the one with mechanical switches does, there's another version called the Orbweaver "stealth" that I guess eliminates the sound).

[Zeusthecat]

It's so weird that when it comes to shooters, consoles have better left-hand movement controls and PCs have better right-hand aiming controls.

 

You would think someone would have combined those in a more elegant manner by now.

 

Has anybody made a controller that ditches the dual sticks and instead gives you a stick for your left thumb and a trackball for your right thumb? I have to assume that exists and if it does it seems like that would be the best of both worlds.

[Dewar]

Considering that Depression Quest is free, yet its prescence on Steam is so controversial for some, I don't think it is about a financial value. I'd like to see if the not-a-game obsessed contingent is using the same reasoning or if they are all just coming to the conclusion for different reasons and falsely believing that they agree with each other. Really it's a sociological curiosity for me.

 

The part of it all that I don't get is what makes not being a game so bad? I'm willing to have a real honest discussion about what is a game (in my case I generally rely on it providing a choice that changes the naritive in some way, even if that way is missing a diary entry or something) but that doesn't necessarily mean that those non-games are bad any more than Guardians of the Galaxy is bad because it's not a game.

[tegan]

Has anybody made a controller that ditches the dual sticks and instead gives you a stick for your left thumb and a trackball for your right thumb? I have to assume that exists and if it does it seems like that would be the best of both worlds.

 

There's definitely a prototype PS2 controller out there with exactly this, but I don't think anyone's ever produced one for public consumption.

[JonCole]

The Playstation Move Navigation Controller has an Analog stick, d-pad, and buttons. I wonder if it can be BT paired to a PC and then used with X-input along with a keyboard mouse.

[Bjorn]

The Playstation Move Navigation Controller has an Analog stick, d-pad, and buttons. I wonder if it can be BT paired to a PC and then used with X-input along with a keyboard.

 

My brain just made the MGS Spotted sound at you saying this.  A quick google makes it look like it is possible.  Will have to research more. Seems like it would be a more elegant solution than many I've seen.

[JonCole]

Dang, I'm kinda surprised that it works. Brb buying a move nav controller

[tegan]

Video games are art.

 

 

[JonCole]

This is just what Garden Warfare needed to appeal to this generation of core gamers.

[Bjorn]

Dang, I'm kinda surprised that it works. Brb buying a move nav controller

 

I literally just did.  Had a $20 credit on eBay, ordered a Nav controller for $10.50 (shipped, new in box, these things are dirt cheap now) and a Bluetooth receiver for $7.  For no real cost to me, definitely worth trying.  Also slightly amazed I don't already own a bt receiver amongst my drawer-o-random-usb-shit.

[Apelsin]

please let us know how your experiment fares.

[Bjorn]

Definitely will, the bit of reading I did on it today made it sound easy to set up, and I watched a few youtube videos of people playing various games, and it looked like it worked well.  I'm also curious if it might just make a good input for lots of non-FPS games.  Like right now I'm playing a fair amount of Torchlight 2.  I only use about 6 keys with my left hand, as anymore than that and I start making mistakes.  The Nav has 8(?) buttons plus the analog stick on it.  I can see me finding it more comfortable to hold something like that rather than have my hand hovering over a keyboard. 

[Ucantalas]

My random thought of the day... There are a LOT of Pokemon. Like... I knew it was in the hundreds, nearing 1,000... but it never hit until now just how many that really is.

(This thought is a product of me finally trying to fill out my Pokedex... 81 hours dumped into Y, with a National Pokedex of 256... seems like a lot written down, but looking at the actual entries its just a little drop in the bucket...)

[tegan]

719 officially (721 really), plus alternate forms. Only 706 of them count toward completion though, since fifteen of them are eternally locked up in limited-time-only distribution events. You're 35.5% of the way there! Happy hunting!

[Merus]

I used to have a 1st generation Mew when I was a kid, and gave it away because you can't pass Mew through to the later generations. Doesn't look like you can really get Mew these days except through passing it up through the generations.

[SecretAsianMan]

Definitely will, the bit of reading I did on it today made it sound easy to set up, and I watched a few youtube videos of people playing various games, and it looked like it worked well.  I'm also curious if it might just make a good input for lots of non-FPS games.  Like right now I'm playing a fair amount of Torchlight 2.  I only use about 6 keys with my left hand, as anymore than that and I start making mistakes.  The Nav has 8(?) buttons plus the analog stick on it.  I can see me finding it more comfortable to hold something like that rather than have my hand hovering over a keyboard. 

 

Actually the Razer keypads are really good for games like Torchlight.  I remember Torchlight 1 didn't let you rebind keys so it was very convenient to be able to make a custom keymap and I just carried over the same keymap to Torchlight 2.

[N1njaSquirrel]

As this also is kinda the pokemon thread, and I don't think it'll get much traction as a separate topic, Pokken Tournament has been announced. The previously un-wanted crossover of Tekken and Pokemon.

 

I'm not sure if I want it, or if I just want more information on how it'll work and the fighter roster. Check out the video:

 

 

Either way, it looks like Tekken x Street Fighter is shelved for another year.

[Twig]

fighter roster

Given that it's a fighting game, and the three critters revealed so far are all fighting types, if it doesn't have only fighting types and ALL of the fighting types, I will be very disappointed.

[tegan]

Oh man, they finally officially announced it!

 

Weird that it's an arcade exclusive. Lately I'm becoming worried that Game Freak might be jumping ship on Nintendo, between the (admittedly kind of terrible) online version of the TCG coming to iOS and the fact that Pokémon's backwards-compatability is now all run server-side and runs independently of hardware.

 

 

It looks like Pokkén will live up to my earlier prediction of being nothing but Fighting-types. If there's a Wii U version and Heracross is in it, I might have to give it a shot even though I suck at fighting games.