JackKieser Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 0% effective, in practice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenogu Labz Posted January 25, 2011 Share Posted January 25, 2011 Actually, precisely ((100)/world-population) % effective. Which, while incredibly close to zero, is not a valid approximation for zero. I used to use the entitlement argument with myself quite frequently. It really is just selfish, though. Thank goodness for Steam, which gives great opportunity for buying things at a fairly low price, as long as you're patient. The only thing that's tough is watching all the console releases go by, and drooling over them. There's only so many things you can pirate as a PC gamer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I know no one wants to leave the whole 'Piracy' thing, but Sephfire has given us something new to argue abou... er, discuss. Amnesia and Story Structure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Damned Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Hmmm... I never did get Bioshock. I tried the demo when it came out, but I never actually finished it. /checks Steam for prices Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalcyonSpirit Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 And you've reminded me with this episode that I need to keep checking for sales on New Vegas, and hope that I have a cash infusion sometime before it comes up so I can get it. Good episode, too. It's something I've noticed with games, but never could quite put into words an explanation for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Hmmm... I never did get Bioshock. I tried the demo when it came out, but I never actually finished it./checks Steam for prices BioShock always goes on sale on Steam. Wait a bit for the next big sale. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BardicKnowledge Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 While I agree that amnesia is cliche, I'd like to put forth Amnesia: The Dark Descent as a great example of how to do it correctly. The game's story very interesting, and helps set the intensely creepy mood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenogu Labz Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Amnesia is useful when you're entering a world you know nothing about. In a sense, it helps you relate to the character right off the bat: neither of you have a clue what's going on. But great job at pointing out some alternatives! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imagist Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Yeah, when I saw the title and the first couple minutes, I thought that's what it would be about. Like, discovering details of your character and the story progressively as you went along. Then I realized very few games actually do this, they just kind of hit you all at once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackKieser Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 Well, part of the problem of amnesia is that it's a first-person storytelling device, as well. In most stories, the story is told from 3rd person omniscient, so the reader / player inherently has access to more data than the character has; this applies to video games, as well, especially ones that include cutscenes that play out independently from the player character (the Denerim scenes from DA:O, for instance). This factor draws the player out of the story, because the amnesia becomes less meaningful to a person who knows more than the character does. It also has a problem with diminishing returns; games are usually designed with lots of re-playability, meant to be run through multiple times. How does that work with an amnesia trope written into the story? The more times you play the game, the less effective the amnesia becomes as a storytelling element; granted, all forms of storytelling have this problematic relationship with amnesia, but gaming probably exemplifies it the most. An interesting design mechanic would be to see a game that can scale the amount of content that the character is amnesic about in relation to the number of playthroughs or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenogu Labz Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 A very good point, Jack, though any story that relies on mystery and hiding of the facts could be expected to have this problem, too. I wonder how it could be made more compelling. Resolving amnesia quickly, can help, too; for example, Terra, in Final Fantasy VI, resolves the worst of her identity crisis early on, and then proceeds to develop based on what is discovered after she remembers. Then again, amnesia strikes at several points to several characters in that game, all of which end up being fairly effective storytelling. Rachel and Strago, if I recall correctly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackKieser Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I don't know if it CAN be made more compelling in the context of video games; if anything, I think the most that can be done is refinement of application. Like Sephfire said, amnesia is used A LOT, whereas in film or novels it is used rarely and only inspecific instances, and almost NEVER in a 3rd person context. It may simply come down to the medium needing to invent another storytelling mechanic that allows the postponement of Act 1, because for games that aren't 1st person (in story, not camera perspective), it just doesn't make a lot of sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EC2151 Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 man why did I just go on a binge of watching about 9 of these in a row at 2 in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Souliarc Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 man why did I just go on a binge of watching about 9 of these in a row at 2 in the morning. Because you couldn't get enough of Dan's sexy chipmunk man voice? I know I can't. I like to imagine he's only looking at me mmmmmhhmmmmm. He knows what he's doing with that risque green shirt and tie... such a tease. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big giant circles Posted January 29, 2011 Author Share Posted January 29, 2011 Updated the list. One of these days when I'm not feeling quite so lazy, I'll update the list with links to any OCR songs that might be featured in the credits. When I'm not feeling quite so lazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Damned Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I don't know if it CAN be made more compelling in the context of video games; if anything, I think the most that can be done is refinement of application. Like Sephfire said, amnesia is used A LOT, whereas in film or novels it is used rarely and only inspecific instances, and almost NEVER in a 3rd person context. It may simply come down to the medium needing to invent another storytelling mechanic that allows the postponement of Act 1, because for games that aren't 1st person (in story, not camera perspective), it just doesn't make a lot of sense. What about instead of the character not knowing, he/she does know... but doesn't want the player to know. Most games already have some minor 4th wall breakage, or at least hinting at it. The character will talk out loud for no reason (but for the players benefit), or they will make comments about certain items or areas when they come across them. Instead, have the character know full well what their past is, but it almost like a struggle between the player and the character: the character doesn't want to confront or admit whatever the past is, while the player must resolve said past to complete the game. As for how to do so, I can think of writing in some sort of system where the character earns some sort of trust with the player, like the player must guide him through the game, and anything that happens to the character would raise or lower said trust. I guess that means something like a a "trust" meter that goes up and down. Or make it a hidden component of the game. I'm sure others could come up with a better way to implement it. But it could be a nice twist on the whole amnesia device. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 New episode. Go check it out. Playing like a Designer (Part 1) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Might be relevant to your interests Seph. http://ocremix.org/forums/showthread.php?t=33466 We're having a discussion about broad, baseline game features that should always be included in all video games. Sort of a standardization for things like volume controls, cutscene/movie playback controls, control customization, etc. Not sure if there's a topic here for a future show, but it might be interesting to put a call out to the gaming community at large, see what people have to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Jovian Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 So when you first moved to Escapist, I tried to check your videos and got an error message, figured it was a temporary glitch, and forgot all about it. Except that I just tried it again and I still can't watch any of the videos, even after following all of the instructions on their help page. The fact that they even have a detailed "help, I can't see your videos!" page suggests to me that they're doing something wonky on their backend. And it means I can't see any of their crap. Bah. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BardicKnowledge Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 The continuation of "Playing Like a Designer" went up late last week -- it's good stuff. Also, it features "Morning, Thinker" for the closing credits which earns it extra points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonAvenger Posted February 15, 2011 Share Posted February 15, 2011 Yay, 'Morning, Thinker'! Also, I've been watching all the episodes, and I enjoy every one of them. Nice work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Damned Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Hey, no one mentioned the new episode. Come on, people! http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2758-Achievements Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gario Posted February 19, 2011 Share Posted February 19, 2011 Alright, the little ditty with the Deus Ex remake was pretty fucked up. Yes, my spirits soared for about two seconds, only to come crashing down hard. Otherwise it was great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Derrit Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 http://shoryuken.com/content/only-problem-mvc3-you-3694/ you're referenced in this thread at shoryuken. nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackKieser Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 Good fucking SHOW, guys. WOW. Well done, well written, well researched, well argued... ...someone at EA better pay some damn attention to this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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