@slag: I found them while recovering from a near-death situation. I can really relate to them being a lifeline... I'm still in tears but I know they are choosing what's best for them. I try not to be selfish but god, is it hard to accept OG GB is over...
My issue with the entire dream daddy thing is the assumption that it's somehow the first good VN. That genre has a lot of fans and presenting Daddy as this watershed moment for the genre is just wrong. Dream Daddy is another really well-written VN. I really enjoyed the writing but I still think that putting a VN on the list is kinda screwed up... In a year where we had narrative-only games that really pushed the envelope like Hell Blade or Edith Finch, this just feels like such a major misstep. Dream Daddy doesn't take advantage of the medium and that alone should knock it off. Also, quoting some guy on the internet that said Hellblade is offensive to the mentally ill was .... very disappointing. I almost died 2 years ago and suffered post-operative psychosis as a result of that. I cannot overstate the way in which Hellblade helped me to get over my demons. If Abby did some research on the matter, she'd know there are many people who share my opinion. It was very frustrating to see a game so close to my heart misrepresented in this awful way...
Having said that, she didn't "ruin" it, or anything like that. She just is the kinda person I am: when she really believes in something, she considers it an absolute and undeniable fact. I'm just not sure that's a healthy approach in deliberations like these...
IMO It's an impossible question to answer these days. Games mix and match so many different elements. For example, I love souls-likes but , on the other hand, I find a lot of modern Action RPGs to be boring and formulaic. Does it still mean that Action RPG is my favorite genre? I think a more fitting way to ask such a question would be: what elements do you value the most in your games?
That's the common thread for me. All games I love have: A) combat systems that let you express yourself as a player in ways that feel unique( this can be only an illusion if the illusion is good) and/or B) compelling well-written narrative.
Around 3 months ago I supported the SFANS adapter Indiegogo campaign. The device was reviewed by a number of legitimate sources(including DF), so I just assumed it's a trustworthy manufacturer making these. Today I got another e-mail citing a number of weird setbacks that caused another delay. This time it's the part suppliers and a faulty mold design... It might sound funny but I'm really hoping it's just incompetence on their part...
What struck me as weird is the fact that the only snippet of information on the company I could find suggests that SFANS is based in New York. Yet, the first e-mail was riddled with really bad English and was clearly not written by anyone even living in an English-speaking country(unless they moved recently or something like that). Again, I'm hoping against hope that this is just a really bad case of dyslexia....
All in all, I have that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'm being taken for a ride... What do you guys think? Does anyone know more about the company? I'm really worried at this point but maybe it's all in my head...
@bryson_shaw: I also discovered Firewatch in similar circumstances. I was recovering from an aneurysm and games like Firewatch and Bloodborne rekindled my love of video games. 1,5 years later I'm a game writer, I abandoned business bullshittery and I've never been happier. So yeah, Fiewatch is pretty special... :P
The common misconception about "walking simulators" is that they represent lazy game design. And while there are games that use the minimal input approach cynically (eg anything the Chinese Room has ever done) a lot of them use it to good effect. Firewatch is a very serene, contemplative experience. If they filled it with bs hiking minigames, Id like it much less. But yes, the not-a-game concept perpetuated by a certain British gentleman on Youtube is extremely misguided but sadly very pervasive and a lot of devs feel obligated to put "gamey" crap in their games just to appease the core audience.
So yes, I wish more people could judge games on their own merits, and not based on their preconceptions of what a game should be.
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