I Had a Random Thought (About Video Games)

[Bjorn]

This at least got a good chuckle out of me this morning.

 

The beautiful story of one slice of bread's epic and emotional journey as it embarks upon a quest to become toasted. As you delve deeper and deeper into the story of 'I am Bread', you'll notice that things aren't quite what they seem....

[SuperBiasedMan]

This is probably where I can put this... has anyone else used Tinder? Me and my girlfriend got it out of curiosity to see what it's like and it has a weirdly nice game feel and system design. It's a meeting people app (seems like it's mostly for dating (seems like it's mostly for hook ups)) where you're presented with a picture of them and limited information. You can tap in to look at some more photos and more information (if they chose to provide it) before deciding if you want to either swipe left to reject them or swipe right to choose them. If you choose them AND they choose you, you get a match and you can start talking in a chat app, but that's a much less interesting part.

 

I really like* the loop of taking in information, rapidly judging it and making a concrete binary decision and seeing if you successfully get a match later. It makes me want to emulate it in some bizarre game where maybe you can skim through a bunch of profiles to recruit soldiers for an upcoming battle, hoping the scant peek was enough for you to make a good judgement call when the recruitment and battle simulations run.

 

* I also think it's a kind of terrible thing because you're judging people's worth on a tiny impression... ok actually maybe that's what most people do but I'm the opposite in dating so this feels weird.

[Reyturner]

Or you just swipe right on all those soldiers and just feed them into the grinder.

Just like Tinder.

Disclaimer: I don't use Tinder and haven't dated since 2001.

[Apelsin]

Could work for some kind of sports game where you draft in players as well

[SuperBiasedMan]

Yeah I'd rather go for sports or some corporate thing, something less war-y...

 

 

Or you just swipe right on all those soldiers and just feed them into the grinder.

Just like Tinder.

Disclaimer: I don't use Tinder and haven't dated since 2001.

 

I did experiment by doing this on tinder. Swiped almost every female profile and only the occasional dude. I am still matching with more dudes than women.

[tegan]

Or you just swipe right on all those soldiers and just feed them into the grinder.

 

Or into the grindr, as it were.

[tegan]

I refuse to apologize for that joke.

[Reyturner]

NOR SHOULD YOU

[Bjorn]

Realistic simulators are WEIRD.

[Patrick R]

I've been playing The Swapper and at first the obvious touchstones were Moon and Super Metroid, but now that I think about it, it actually reminds me a lot of Echo the Dolphin. Especially with the mysterious glyphs you keep encountering.

[tberton]

The Swapper is so good.

[Bjorn]

I don't think I've ever seen a dev have the audacity to cite IGN reviews twice in the same ad:

[Twig]

My new life goal is to make an awful game, but somehow get IGN, Gamespot, etc. to review it, and I'll cherry-pick a single word that implies something good, and put it on the box or store page or whatever, and I'll make millions.

[N1njaSquirrel]

I'm also confused as to why IGN spain and Italy are writing their reviews in Italian/Spanish.

 

Also Isn't that the Talos Principle? I played the test beta thing and it was pretty good.

[Bjorn]

It is the Talos Principle. It does look pretty interesting. I was just amused by their current Steam advertisement.

[chummer]

...and I'll make millions.

With you on every part of your plan until this one. Do site/publication endorsements carry this kind of weight? Genuinely curious b/c I have no idea how that correlates- if at all- to game sales.

[Twig]

um no i don't think so i was just being silly dang ):

[Sno]

I think it is amusing and wonderful that Talos Principle is coming from the studio that has only ever made Serious Sam games, it seems like such a 180 for them. I'm verious curious to check it out, it's getting quite a lot of praise.

[eot]

I'm so bad.

I've been meaning to buy a 2nd copy of Portal two so my sis could play it co-op with a friend when she comes to visit, but I keep forgetting to do it when it's on sale. So she comes to visit, I buy it not on sale (with GMG coupon though), add it to a useless Steam account (my dad's) and then her friend already had a copy of Portal 2. Maximum waste.

[Sno]

So i've been fairly resistant to the emergence of the Minecraft genre, the handful i've played around with never clicked, the idea of digital legos built up on a kind of bad survival game framework doesn't really do anything for me. Somebody will say "You can make a sweet castle!" and i would respond "Why? Does it serve a purpose in the game?" I will then, almost immediately, feel like an asshole for so aggressively missing the point, but i kind of can't help it. Building a sweet ten story tall castle in a video game doesn't feel interesting to me when it's essentially an entirely superfluous construct in relation to the sandbox of mechanics underlying the whole experience. It just kind of owes to why i play games and what i want out of games.

Anyways, yeah, Minecraft stuff isn't really my thing.

I've been coerced into playing Terraria though, which seems like a game i probably should have tried earlier on with regards to this whole phenomenon, but nevertheless, it turns out Terraria's kind of cool. For me, it works as kind of a huge, open-ended cooperative metroidvania. The character progression, the mobility options, the emphasis on combat, the enormous boss fights, and the way the whole digital legos thing actually kind of neatly serves several clear purposes in that game.

Maybe all Minecraft clones are like that now and i've just been super out of the loop, but whatever.

[SecretAsianMan]

I know exactly what you mean.  I think Minecraft is cool and I marvel at the things people like to make/do in it, but I'm never compelled to do any of it myself.  Having a big open sandbox is neat to me in theory, but in reality I like structure and defined goals.  I played a lot of Terraria when it first came out (even ran a server for another forum) but I haven't gone back to it in a long time.  I like that Terraria had a clearer sense of progression but the combat felt clunky to me, especially the platforming.

[Bjorn]

I'm with you on that.  I'm actively disinterested in Minecraft, but Terraria clicked with me hardcore, especially playing it in co-op. 

[Trip Hazard]

I played a bit of Terraria, about 50 hours or so I think, and it's a decent game. However, the combat and platforming, both of which you do loads of, are both pretty weak. I don't know if they ever sorted it, but if there was a little "staircase" arrangement of bricks, you couldn't just walk into them and hop up automatically, but had to keep on jumping again and again. Maddening.

 

Now I come to think about it, I may have played so much of it because I was addicted to the overworld tune. 

[Sno]

I don't know if they ever sorted it, but if there was a little "staircase" arrangement of bricks, you couldn't just walk into them and hop up automatically, but had to keep on jumping again and again. Maddening.

You mean arrangements that are just one tile up each step? You run straight up those in the version i'm playing.

I was told there's been some fairly significant additions made to the game in the last year or so, though i have no idea what has changed or when exactly those things changed, if they happened even before that.

[SecretAsianMan]

You mean arrangements that are just one tile up each step? You run straight up those in the version i'm playing.

I was told there's been some fairly significant additions made to the game in the last year or so, though i have no idea what has changed or when exactly those things changed, if they happened even before that.

 

I actually did mess around with Terraria super briefly a couple weeks ago.  Automatically running up a one block high tile wasn't present in the original release.  They added a ton of stuff in like biomes, bosses, enemies, weapons, gear, NPCs, etc.  Seeing it after such a long break, it feels like a completely different game.