zircon
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Posts posted by zircon
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For me, it still has the same amount of cruft as SF4. Yeah, maybe the 1-frame links are gone. But there's still just too much extra stuff that, to me, takes away from the essence of spacing, footsies, poking, etc. I couldn't get into it at all. I can play SF2 all day without memorizing a single combo longer than 2 hits and actually win. But with 5 it's back to memorizing 4 normals into a special move, V-trigger cancels, and all that. I don't have time for that kind of thing anymore.
I REALLY went into this wanting to like it after hearing it hyped so much. I was crushed with disappointment when I had to return it. Just had 0 fun at all.
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Alright. I played this for about 2 hours tonight. I was really hype... tried it with my fightstick and controller. And honestly: I really didn't like it. So much so that I returned it on Steam. Everything about it feels 'wrong' to me, compared to any earlier SF. The fighting feels sluggish and floaty. The combo timings feel very awkward. It seems like every character has too many special moves and command normals (I tried about half of them, and couldn't get through the challenges.) It seemed like half the moves have additional move options just to complicate things further (especially Laura). Do we really need all that?
I did a bunch of single player and then played online and didn't win a single match. I don't know. Maybe I just suck that hard at it, but I do OK at SF2-4, especially 2. I'll try it out again in a year, maybe when it's on sale. But for now, definitely not a fan, and no plan to play it any further.
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Yeah I fell off the wagon big time with our move. I'm up to 180lbs or so but my waist is about the same. I don't think I lost much strength. But it's a new year and I've got a gym again, plus an elliptical in the basement. Shooting to get back to working out 4-5 times a week with resistance training ~3 days and cardio on other days (a solid 30 mins on the elliptical). Plus cutting again naturally.
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There's no mystery to him and I like that. It just kind of peeved me how despite being conditioned to be a Storm Trooper, presumably his whole life, he just doesn't want to do it anymore.
Maybe you missed some of his dialogue. He made the decision to get out after his first battle, which was the first one shown in the movie. He saw a friend / colleague killed in front of his eyes, and was then asked to kill innocent women and children. He hadn't done any fighting at all before - he was in sanitation. So as soon as he saw all that, he wanted to leave. Sounds perfectly human and natural to me.
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People don't care about cities being destroyed probably because the anime is satire... it's not meant to be taken seriously. I love it tho.
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I absolutely loved it. What an amazing return to form for the series, and in and of itself just a great movie.
- Nabeel Ansari and DarkeSword
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- timaeus222 and djpretzel
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It's a good club.
- Flexstyle and timaeus222
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Who says Final Fantasy can't be strategic though? That's a failure of game design, and not related at all to turn-based combat! There are so many ways to make things more interesting, many of which have been done very well in other turn-based non-tactical RPGs. Here are 5 off the top of my head.
1. Give different types of monsters properties that affect who can hit them and when. For example, flying monsters that can only be hit by certain weapons or abilities, elemental creatures, etc.
2. Re-position monsters and PCs throughout the fight, like in Chrono Trigger, affecting the hit box of various abilities.
3. Change battle conditions during combat forcing people to make tough choices on the fly. For example in FFX, there was a boss that could reliably one-shot you unless you had the zombie status. But if you had that status, you couldn't heal yourself. It was cool.
4. Don't have obvious ability scaling like Fire, Fira, Firaga, where there is no reason at all to use the lower-level spells. Make more powerful spells and abilities leave the PCs open to attack, take longer to cast, take longer to recover from, etc. Make it more of a tradeoff to use those powerful abilities.
5. Limit the resources of the player. Restrict the max # of potions, or make them harder to get. Space rest points out more. A lot of JRPGs become really easy because you can stock tons of tents and potions and just heal up after every fight. Roguelikes are turn-based too, but they are frequently way more challenging because you have very limited resources. If every lost hit point and magic point matters, that encourages players to think more about finishing battles quickly (while expending resources) vs. conserving resources but taking more damage etc.
- avaris, Garpocalypse and Wiesty
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Remake looks awesome, I can't wait. I do think it's hasty to judge the soundtrack based on music heard in the trailer. For AAA games, it's extremely common for trailers to be done with no input from the game's composer(s) whatsoever. Sometimes it's just licensed music from a library! Other times it's written by *another* composer who didn't work on the game proper. Also, for a game of this scale, it's very likely that the music is nowhere near done and might only be finished toward the very end of development. All the more reason why they would use some other track in the trailer.
Anyway, what does everyone have against turn-based battles?! You make me so sad! It's possible to make turn-based combat tactical, fun, and fast-paced: FFX did a good job, I think. Action system are fun too (I loved Crisis Core) *but* you inevitably sacrifice some level of depth and control unless there's a system of totally pausing the action to assign commands and targets. The tradeoff is that it usually feels faster, more integrated, and responsive... which is not always better than the alternative.
So many JRPGs unfortunately fail at good turn-based combat, but that's less a failing of the combat system, and more a failing of game design, direction, and balance. In a bad turn-based system, animations take too long and break up the battle. In a good one, commands are executed almost instantly and with just enough flash to feel good, but not so much that it interrupts the flow of things. Even better is when multiple characters end up acting at once (or overlapping), like in Suikoden 2, which helps resolve things even faster.
If the optimal strategy for most battles is just 'mash X to win', that's definitely not fun, but a turn-based system doesn't necessitate that kind of design. Some of the very deepest, most tactical games out there are completely turn-based, stuff like Tales of Maj'Eyal for example.
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The show is about a detective who solves cases for people using her strength to intimidate, etc.. your points would be spot on if the show was about sexual conflicts.
If the show director(s), runners, producer(s), writers etc. decided to devote lots of time to sexual conflicts... wouldn't that make the show more about that? Maybe that's actually what they wanted to do? Maybe your expectation was off.
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My computer is all ssd now. No mechanicals; just 840 and 850 EVO/PROs and an M2 SSD for OS. Looove it.
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If someone uses bad reasoning, and (more critically) inflates & overstates the certitude of studies, but stops short of advocating censorship, they are in a sense endorsing those rhetorical methods, are they not? Lending them support? I agree that the conclusion matters, and might even agree that it matters the most, but you lose me on it being completely & totally okay to abuse science in the name of rhetoric in the exact same fashion that censors have, and that not being a problem that is RELATED to censorship, because I think it strengthens those weapons & perpetuates those misunderstandings...
I wouldn't say flawed rhetorical methods are "okay", since arguments and opinions should ideally be based on fact, reality, and logic. Their use should be called out and refuted. I think you've done a good job of that throughout the thread. BUT, and this is just my take on it, I think it's not a good use of time or effort to go after people using that kind of rhetoric who aren't prescribing anything harmful, when there are people & organizations out there doing much worse. Like university curricula being censored for 'triggering' material, leading to actual book bans. THAT stuff is really, really bad. Those organizations flat-out saying, "We want to ban this material" are far bigger problems.
I suspect also that a great many people AREN'T in such vehement disagreement with Anita (to the point of direct harssent) because of her rhetorical methods, but because they simply don't like her opinions. Imagine she didn't talk about the influence of media on culture at all, and just focused on videos about the tropes themselves and why she personally doesn't like them. I really, truly think that most of her detractors would hate her just as much. Obviously you're not in this category though.
I mean it comes down to the question of should a noble goal be carried out with crappy or shaky methods using things like bad rhetoric or logic?
My point is that if we're trying to stop a bad thing (in this case, censorship), going after people who aren't prescribing censorship seems so much less productive and useful than going after people who DO advocate censorship. Even if the first group is using bad rhetoric, they aren't calling for the bad thing itself, whereas the other group is.
Again I really have to compare this discussion to religion & fundamentalism. If someone wants to say that they think homosexuality is a sin because the Bible said so, BUT they believe gay marriage is fine, is it really worth arguing with them...? When there are people who are actively saying it's NOT fine, trying to change the law to discriminate against gay people, etc?
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Did you read the quote I provided? From http://feministfrequency.com/2014/06/16/women-as-background-decoration-tropes-vs-women/
I'm going to keep this simple:
- Talks about "profound impacts" without explaining why they're profound, or even what they are...
- Mentions "all the evidence" without explaining or citing what it is...
OK, wait wait wait. Maybe I didn't make it abundantly clear, though I did say it a few times already, but I agree with you here. She's not supporting bold statements like that, and not providing evidence, because perhaps none exists. We're on the same page in that regard.
This is shit you'd lambaste people like Rush Limbaugh for doing - conjuring incontrovertible, "profound" evidence out of thin air. The double standard is painfully palpable.
... but this is where, again, I have to draw the distinction between making a flawed analysis or using flawed reasoning, and prescribing a bad course of action. Fallacious arguments are one thing, it's when you use them to support and justify real-world action that it becomes a much bigger problem.
Maybe you and I just differ on this point of view. If someone thinks abortion is wrong using religious justification, I'd disagree with them, and I'd say their reasoning is flawed. But as long as they don't support banning abortion, I'm fine with them saying that. Not worth arguing with them, because they're not actually trying to infringe on anyone's rights. They're not a threat to freedom. It's the people who DO want to ban abortion that are the big problem.
Actually, Ben Carson would be a great example here. When he says that homosexuality is a choice, that's dumb. But then he followed it by saying same-sex marriage is the law. Great! I don't care about his thoughts on homosexuality, as long as he supports equal rights. When he says that abortion is wrong, and then follows it by saying abortion should be illegal... not great. Two very different things.
When you start wildly overstating the body of scientific evidence & its certitude, sans citation, for the effect of the consumption of media on viewers, you're a heartbeat away from censorship. That's EXACTLY the trick that's been used in the past.
Regardless of whether it's the same 'trick' or not, again, it's the conclusion that matters more than anything, and the conclusion here is benign.
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OK. I'll address specifics.
I wasn't just talking about rights & freedom, I was talking about criticism vs. advocacy
I agree it's a continuum, I don't agree that criticism which moves more toward "advocacy" is any less valid, problematic, or bad in any way.
and then also the problem with saying that X art causes Y behavior, i.e. infantilizing the audience for art & turning artists into programmers who are simply feeding deterministic code into the minds of automatons who will do their bidding, without question.
I think this is a big exaggeration and distortion of what is actually said in the videos. More accurate (and taken directly from the first video): "These tropes help to normalize certain negative attitudes toward women." That's not the same as proclaiming "X causes Y" - and the semantics here do matter.
Nor do I agree that making that argument ("these tropes help to normalize certain negative attitudes about women") is itself problematic.
SPECIFICALLY, I am opposing rhetoric that attempts to draw direct causal lines between art and behavior. You've ignored that point almost entirely by rewriting it into "reinforces negative cultural attitudes"... all you need to do is add a "potentially" before the "reinforces" and you've arrived at the type of reasonable, relatively unobjectionable language that I wish Anita actually used. The problem is that she doesn't; she instead isolates aspects of games and - with zeal & certitude - maps them onto real-world behaviors. This isn't good. It's bad. It's a flawed argument commonly employed by censors; even if she is not advocating for censorship, she is using the same toolbox. Yes, it's still an important distinction to make - I'm not saying it's the same exact thing, only that it is still bad in & of itself.
My giant issue with your points is that you're saying these videos are not just "flawed argument(s)" - which I don't disagree with - you're calling them bad, and constantly linking them to actual censorship. I find that to be way too much of a 'slippery slope' fallacy, using fear of censorship to try and discredit someone who, again, has never so much as suggested it in any videos.
Here's how the very first tropes video concluded:
"... it's still important to recognize and think critically about the more problematic aspects especially considering many of these franchises are as popular as ever and the characters have become worldwide icons... The good news is that there is nothing stopping developers from evolving their gender representations and making more women heroes in future games."
I don't see ANYTHING in that conclusion to justify the fear or link to censorship and nothing you've said has budged me even an inch on that. If you want to debate the merits of the arguments themselves, fine. Like I said, you've contributed to changing my views there over the course of the thread.
But everyone using censorship as a sort of bogeyman to discredit the videos and Anita herself... I don't know. Those kind of arguments and attitudes are the ones that really have led to so much real-world misery and harassment. People get this idea that "Anita is trying to take away our games!!!" and use that as direct justification of (and motivation for) despicable actions.
That's why I think the distinction between advocating censorship, and merely advocating critical thinking and careful consideration, is so important. Twisting one into the other is in PART what has led to so much harassment, doxxing, death threats... etc.
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Yep, I do use lazarus so I haven't lost the post. Maybe something with lots of quotes and formatting? In any case, it encourages me to keep the post brief! So here we go.
My viewpoint is that there is a really big, black-and-white distinction between prescribing censorship and anything else. Even if the reasoning is in part the same as people that WOULD advocate censorship, I still don't think it's problematic until that line is crossed. It's the difference between:
"Alcohol can cause impaired judgment and lead to drunk driving. People can die! Therefore, we encourage you to drink responsibly."
and
"Alcohol can cause impaired judgment and lead to drunk driving. People can die! Therefore, alcohol should be banned."
There is such an enormous difference between these two statements. And likewise, there is an equally enormous difference between:
"The use of certain tropes about women reinforces negative cultural attitudes. Therefore, we encourage game developers to not use these tropes."
and"The use of certain tropes about women reinforces negative cultural attitudes. Therefore, games which use these tropes should be banned."
One statement encourages infringement upon rights and freedom. The other does not.
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Huh. I can't post in this thread anymore. I don't mean "I don't want to", but I've tried making the same post ~6 times from two different browsers and it just won't go through.
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But since you're asking, how about all of the games banned in Australia or other countries? They aren't banned by people making YouTube videos, they're banned by people with, and encourage others to have, the same mentality though.
I'm talking about the United States. I can't speak for other countries, where freedom of speech is not nearly as legally protected as it is here.
Do you think that Anita, or any of her legions of followers convinced that her idea of what is or isn't "problematic" disagree with the idea of banning such games?
I agree with her on some things being problematic, and I don't agree with government banning or censorship. Nobody in this thread, including those supporting Anita, have advocated that. This is a straw man, plain and simple.
, no doubt to please all the SJWs complaining about stupid camera angles. You seem to be right on board with critics "encouraging removal" of content they disagree with, but somehow seem to doubt the reality that developers and governments have caved to "politically correct" demands to remove or ban "offensive" material.Do you understand the meaning of the word "censor"? Does anyone in this thread? The actual, dictionary definition refers to an official examining & removing/altering/banning material for objectionable content. If the artist/creator themselves decide, with no government influence, to change their content, that IS NOT censorship. At all.
So what if developers have caved to "politically correct" demands? Isn't that just capitalism and the free market at work? Consumers want X, so business delivers X? Why is this such a difficult concept to understand?
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No, but it does essentially, by proxy, result in the ban or death of certain games. If you recall, Anita is about 20 years late to the party of "video game violence" and yet still was appalled at the violence in DOOM. They'd obviously have no problem with this being removed entirely.
Really? What are some examples of games that have been banned, or that have died, as a result of people making internet videos, opinion pieces, and tweets? I'd love to know.
Do you think every movie critic who wrote an incredible critical review of Pixels thinks it should be "removed entirely" by force (i.e. actual censorship)?
Take a step back and really think about this. Expressing a negative opinion about something, no matter WHAT your reasoning for that opinion, is not the same as advocating that thing be banned or censored. Unless you actually SAY that's what you want or believe.
But Andy, as I've repeatedly pointed out, their rhetoric & "reasoning" are the SAME as those who've advocated for banning games (books/movies/etc.) in the past...It doesn't matter if the reasoning is the same, because what they're ultimately advocating or prescribing is not at all the same. We could flip this around and say that the reasoning of, say, evolutionary biologists is the same reasoning used by eugenicists to advocate racial superiority or something equal abhorrent.
At a high level, the Tropes videos are more or less making the statement:
"I think oversexualized women in games are dumb and bad because X/Y/Z, therefore..."
Now finish the sentence. Which of the following, paraphrased, do the videos conclude with?
"...people should be banned from making games with oversexualized women." - Nope.
"...the government should ban games with oversexualized women." - Nope.
"...people who play games with oversexualized women are misogynists." - Nope.
"...game developers should aspire to be more inclusive by not oversexualizing women as much." - Ding ding!
Over the course of the thread, partially through our discussions, I've come to disagree with a good bit of the rationale behind the "...because X/Y/Z" part, but let's not kid ourselves and say that making YouTube videos is the same thing as book banning and literal censorship.
As I've repeatedly pointed out, they assert direct causal lines between games and negative behaviors, with the type of overzealous certitude that, even if it's careful enough to avoid directly advocating censorship, leaves one very little ideological breathing room for alternatives...I can't possibly disagree with you more here. The alternatives are that game developers consider any criticism levied toward them, and choose whether to act on it or not. That's about one million steps away from censorship.
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I'm sure he'll pull up some example from somewhere. This is the Internet; you can find someone saying anything. But based on everything I've seen, read, and watched, I'm not seeing anything resembling a 'movement' to ban or censor games. Nothing resembling broad support or any sort of trend. Regardless of that, nobody is disagreeing that actual censorship and banning of games is bad.
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Show me the legions of game critics who are actually, literally trying to ban games. I'm sure some people - somewhere - are saying that, but that's on the ultra-extreme part of the spectrum. For example, I've watched all of Anita's videos and she never, repeat never, says that games should be banned in any of them. I've read Leigh Alexander's work, I read Polygon, Kotaku, r/games, r/gaming every day... I'm not seeing this narrative of critics trying to ban games. That's simply fearmongering at it's worst (the kind Shadowe has bought into, hook line and sinker).
Critics "encouraging removal" of ELEMENTS in games? Sure, but that's not the same thing as calling or supporting for literal, actual government censorship or bans of games. That's not happening. Opinion pieces should never be equated to actual censorship.
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We got on to this subject because I thought it was hypocritical for someone to say that indie game developers should be open to criticism of their games, while simultaneously complaining about, say, feminist criticism of AAA games. My argument is simply that people are free to make whatever critiques they'd like, of whatever media they'd like, period.
Sure, I agree that some criticism falls way more on the side of advocacy than analysis. But I don't agree that any criticism has an "obligation" to anything at all. All criticism is ultimately subjective and affected by our conscious and unconscious biases. It's fine to strive for pure objectivity and I respect that. I also think there's nothing inherently wrong with writing critique through an explicitly-stated 'lens' (like feminist issues, racial issues).
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Ha. It's funny when you put them side by side, but to be fair, if you actually read the article -
They're taking issue with the fact that Nintendo made this a new character, instead of simply a different incarnation of Link. It's the difference between making a version of Thor that happens to be female, vs. making a character called Thorina. Now, is that a dumb distinction? Personally, I think so. Though I think the name "Linkle" is dumber still.
- djpretzel and timaeus222
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The issue here is that's not what's happening. Critique is critique. It is not critique when someone holds themselves up as having a divine mandate to declare things objectively sexist, racist, and the cause of everything from rape to mass shootings.It is not critique when almost the entirety of someone's claims are provably misrepresentations if not outright fabrications, it is not critique when someone is simply saying "This is evil and must be banned", and it is most assuredly not critique when all of this is held as an objective truth that only racists and misogynists would dare disagree with.
Even those strawman examples are simply freedom of speech being exercised. It's hypocritical to say that game developers should be able to put whatever content they want in their games, and then take such issue with people talking about said games. And those strawman examples aside, there's certainly been plenty of meaningful academic and journalistic critique of games. Just because you disagree with it doesn't make it not critique.
Claiming that depression quest is an inaccurate or even patronizing misrepresentation of depression and practically a non-game is simply incomparable to an entire industry of people zealously enforcing a single narrative from a single person that "X makes you a misogynist, and if you disagree you're part of the reason women are raped and abused and mass shootings happen".An entire industry? A single narrative? Again, straw man and hyperbole much?
Street Fighter V
in General Discussion
Posted
You're talking about difficulty of inputs... I'm talking about cruft. Stuff that, to me, takes away from the experience, and forces you to memorize more 'things' to be effective.
For example... in SF2, I play a lot of Fei Long. No command normals. He has 3 special moves and one super. That's it. You learn his normals, those 3 moves, and the super, and you can pretty much do anything with him. Now when I tried to play Rashid in 5, he also has 3 special moves (plus 1 airborne special), but each one has an EX version too that behaves a little differently. He has 5 command normals. Then he has a unique V-Skill, which itself has several moves attached to it, plus a V-Trigger which changes even more of his move list. Plus a super.
Maybe 10 or even 5 years ago I would have had the patience for all of that but I don't anymore. I look forward to the new games by Seth K. and Sirlin that bring the focus back entirely to reading + spacing.