Viewtiful Joe made me feel bad about myself. I've probably played 1000 video games in my life, and VJ made all that experience feel worthless.
Game is hard, man. Not in a rewarding way at all.
One of you dudes was logged into Steam I think. I checked my steam messages about 9 times during listening because I kept hearing message notifications
If you talk to Kelli again, I'd love to hear her take on Ninja Theory's upcoming PS4 exclsuive Hellblade (I don't think you all talked about it unless I zoned out and missed it?). The Devs seem to make mental health/illness the focal point of their creative intent and the marketing campaign as well.
Obviously the game isn't out yet, but it is pretty unusual to see a AAA game attempt to tackle something like this. And I guess that would also mean she would need join #teamrothgar in the Playstation ecosystem.
Ah sounds like we play these games differently. I tend to remember most spots on the map that I suspect need a powerup etc to navigate and occasionally I'll take notes or draw a map IRL. Everytime I enter a room for a first time I tend to do a methodical sweep, poking and prodding everything. A bad habit I picked up in NES games like Legend of Zelda (bomb every wall) and Final fantasy (talk to every NPC multiple times, go the opposite way you suspect the exit is first because there may be treasure).
You know what's odd, I generally despise backtracking in games, but in "metroidvanis" I never do. Maybe it's because of the implied reward for doing so, or maybe because I generally know exactly where I need to go when I get "x" powerup that it doesn't generally take me very long to do it. Not sure why, it doesn't have the usual carrot that gets me excited to busywork (Lore &/or backstory).
I don't think I'm a tourist or a traveler IRL, I tend to like to see everything and learn a lot of stuff. I'll hit the touristy stuff first and then start branching out into more local everyday things if I see something that grabs me. If I'm staying in an area for a while, I tend to do jogs on a grid checking out all the city stresst around where I'm staying. It's kinda the same approach I take with wikis, I might go to a wiki and if I'm interested I'll follow the links and the follow the links' links etc before you know it I've read a good portion of the wiki.
Which makes sense since I have a collector/compelitionist mindset with a lot of things in life. Which isn't always good, but it's how I roll.
I know the feeling all too well of having seen too much. It seems lot easier to appreciate something, despite its flaws if you don't have a lot of other choices (and perhaps more crucially are unaware of them). We're spoiled today by our luxury of choice, Games have never been more plentiful or more affordable.
btw I feel like our TT conversation was semi-prophetic. Dunno if you've seen screenshots of the new Batman telltale game but it looks like a big leap forward graphically over what we've seen from TT so far. Hopefully it looks good in motion!
My thoughts are with you and your family. Take care of yourself.
I'm sorry for your loss.
I was fortunately able to read an earlier version of this piece to him the day before he passed. I don't know if he heard it, but I hope he felt it. At the least, I let him know I was working on a thing about him while he was still mostly able-bodied.
Aw man, me too @thatpinguino. I'm embarrassed I made that mistake, I didn't realize he was already gone. I'm so sorry for your loss.
I'm sure he did hear you, maybe not the details but I'm sure he got the heart behind it. Or felt it as you said.
fwiw I don't know if this is any solace, but when I was bedside, the nurses and such always instructed us to talk to the ill like we would if they were well and to not say anything in front of them we wouldn't if they were able to communicate. Partly because you never know what someone can perceive in that state and that hearing is one sense that tends to be more resilient than the others at the end.
I guess that's just my long winded way of saying I really do think he heard you.
Truly sorry for your loss Janine. It's nice you have that shared experience where you can still have a connection with your mother. I'm sure it's tough too to see it too without her.
@moonlightmoth: Moth, I had some overwrought long winded replay half written a while ago because lord knows I don't know how to be pithy but I lost it. I apologize for the super delayed response.
Anyway I happened to see this article about the effect of hype on developers and thought of your comments about Pillars etc.
Expectations are a funny thing, it's a thing I constantly try to watch in myself to make sure I don't get too close minded about a game (or anything in life if I can help it). I'll learn what the basic functions, conceit and artstyle of a game probably are before release and if it appeals to me I'll start studiously avoiding spoilers etc until I play it.
I think I have the opposite bias you described in yourself last year. I tend to like things I expect to like, it's something I've tried to temper a bit so I don't limit myself to things I'm already comfortable with. I often ponder how prior expectations/hype play into community rankings, I imagine it's a bigger factor for a lot of people than they admit to themselves.
You know, the email about the cultural suits in Overwatch and the talk the crew had got me thinking about how cultures and minorities come across in videogames, and media in general, and how sometimes there's no "winning", so to speak. I think about Delsin, from the last inFamous game, and how I enjoyed that he was Native American character who was portrayed as your average young American, with a Punk/ Anti-establishment edge to him. Now, I liked that because his heritage and his cultural background didn't define him. It was a major part of him, if you followed the storytelling in the game. But, I identified with the angle they took in approaching Delsin as an American minority. Speaking as Latino-American born and raised in New York I can appreciate a character like Delsin seeming more or less the same as your average American who happens to have this diverse background rather than taking his cultural background and making it this major aspect of him that clearly defines him, to the point where when you see said character you immediately know he's a person of color.
And, to be fair, I saw enough people who were bothered by Delsin's Native American background not being more noticeable, as if they were hiding it or something. People who felt that because there aren't many characters like him (with his background) that they needed to call attention to it more visibly. But, that sentiment bothered me because it winds up feeling that if you have someone who's non-white, that their culture needs to therefore be useful to the storytelling or his characterization. And if it's not, then what's the point? He/she might as well be white if you're not going to use their cultural background. I think my background as a storyteller and my cultural background gives me a different view on this, but it feels counterproductive to what most people want, which is the normalcy of having a diverse cast of characters.
I think The Witcher also got me thinking more and more about how diversity in America is only seen as a matter of skin color, when it's more nuanced than that. I've found myself thinking more and more about what that really means.
hey man I really liked your post and the even handed nuance with how you approached the issue. I think you are right that societal demands that rigidly limit minority characters into certain archetypes is not helpful. People are complex, it doesn't help to basically create new stereotypes.
fwiw to me the only way I suspect to truly "win" this issue, is to have people of all sorts of backgrounds making games. If that were to happen , I think we will would see characters of diverse backgrounds, lifestyles and viewpoints happen more organically to where it becomes second nature. That normalcy you mentioned.
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