new creative writing fedi instance
Starting a blog at howdoyouspell.cool is simple. Just visit howdoyouspell.cool and sign up — no email required. Please take a moment to r...
i started a new write freely instance. feel free to stat a blog there if you're interested. the community guidelines are outlined in pretty exact detail, so i encourage you to read through them to before joining. can have up to 2 blogs per user, no email required. focus on privacy and creative writing.
https://howdoyouspell.cool/cool/community-guidelines
we have a strong contender here! will anyone step up to challenge this dragon of definitions?!?!
ARBITRARY DEFINITIONS WRESTLING 1 ["role-playing game"]
it's that time of year again; time to let the semantics and the pedantics fly! because it's time for another round of ARBITRARY DEFINITIONS WRESTLING!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RULES:
- a word/phrase/genre/etc. is provided, participants "discuss" how that word/phrase/genre/etc. should be defined. (keeping in mind that definitions should have some utility, otherwise they're just meaningless tags that tell the reader nothing; or don't keep this in mind, maybe you have a better theory on how words should be used ~ if so, tell us about it!)
- try to be nice
this week's definition is, "role-playing game." (pictured is the world's best role-plying game according to some experts.)
how do you define a "role-playing game" in video game terms?
i present to you our starting point; the so-called authority: the dictionary:
per Oxford Languages: "a game in which players take on the roles of imaginary characters who engage in adventures, typically in a particular computerized fantasy setting overseen by a referee."
let the semantics and the pedantics fly, it's round one of ARBITRARY DEFINITIONS WRESTLING.
(note that participating in ARBITRARY DEFINITIONS WRESTLING is foolish and, as such: i will not be participating. however, i may step in as referee to break up any fighting.)
that sounds interesting. weapon breaking may work better for strategy games, as an extra level of strategic consideration; but it seems to be less than well-received for action/adventure games.
On Computer Games Monthly #2 (December 2000)
On Computer Games Monthly is a gaming magazine styled as if it were created in the early 2000s. Within its wistful pages, writer and editor forrest and a...
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17152252
> ! > > On Computer Games Monthly is back w/ the 2nd issue of the #fediverse’s only free unofficial gaming-slash-creative-writing magazine. > > Inside you will find articles written by some of Mastodon's wackiest residents; nostalgic ramblings, societal critiques, personal stories, and fictional tales using #videogames as the delivery mechanism. > > Issue #2 covers games released in and around December 2000 and features the following titles: > > Dark Cloud > > Pokemon Crystal > > The Bouncer > > Rollercoaster Tycoon > > Guilty Gear X > > Phantasy Star Online > > Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo > > > ----BONUS CHAO MINIGAME---- > There is a small minigame in this issue; 16 bonus chao (yes, chao from the Sonic series) have been placed throughout the magazine. If you find them all: send me an email/message and I'll place you on the illustrious BONUS CHAO CHAMPION list on the archive! > > https://archive.org/details/on-computer-games-monthly-december-2000-magazine
On Computer Games Monthly #2 (December 2000)
On Computer Games Monthly is a gaming magazine styled as if it were created in the early 2000s. Within its wistful pages, writer and editor forrest and a...
On Computer Games Monthly is back w/ the 2nd issue of the #fediverse’s only free unofficial gaming-slash-creative-writing magazine.
Inside you will find articles written by some of Mastodon's wackiest residents; nostalgic ramblings, societal critiques, personal stories, and fictional tales using #videogames as the delivery mechanism.
Issue #2 covers games released in and around December 2000 and features the following titles:
Dark Cloud
Pokemon Crystal
The Bouncer
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Guilty Gear X
Phantasy Star Online
Mobile Suit Gundam: Journey to Jaburo
----BONUS CHAO MINIGAME---- There is a small minigame in this issue; 16 bonus chao (yes, chao from the Sonic series) have been placed throughout the magazine. If you find them all: send me an email/message and I'll place you on the illustrious BONUS CHAO CHAMPION list on the archive!
https://archive.org/details/on-computer-games-monthly-december-2000-magazine
The World's Greatest Theme Park - an essay about RollerCoaster Tycoon & capitalism
a four-part essay on building the best goddamn theme park ever
hot off the on computer games presses: a four chapter rant about capitalism with some personal stories mixed in
they're aimed at teens/young-adults but it's fun spotting the direct inspirations and differences. also, several Studio Ghibli films are based on books: Howl's Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, The Secret World Of Arietty (kind of), and maybe a few others.
weird mix, but Kiki's Delivery Service during the day and Infinite Jest before bed.
Weapon Breaking Done Well?
TLDR: which games do WEAPON BREAKING without making you want to tear your hair out?
i'm playing through Dark Cloud and had forgotten how tedious the weapon system is. weapons function as "leveling up" instead of using a traditional experience-based system. weapons need to be upgraded, fused, and repaired throughout the game. and a durability system dictates that once your weapon hits 0 durability, it breaks. broken weapons can cost you hours of gameplay if you're not careful. there's even the possibility of breaking all your weapons and starting from square one near the end of the game if you're not vigilant with repairs.
for Dark Cloud, this weapon system is a unique leveling system that differentiates itself from its action-rpg peers. it introduces a level of risk that keeps you alert while making weapons you've upgraded-and-maintained feel like valuable treasure. however, this system is also tedious to keep up with as weapon durability decreases quickly and repairs are time consuming.
after hours of playtime, i think i've isolated the reason why the weapon system is so annoying: menus. the entire system is menu-based. i often find myself pulling up the menu mid-battle to repair my weapon. there are automated repairs, but these require some setup. if Dark Cloud somehow incorporated more interactive ways (outside of a pause menu) to repair weapons or made weapon durability decrease at half the rate or made a broken weapon repairable (instead of gone for good), this would have gone a long way to reduce tedium.
games like Breath of the Wild are often criticised for similar weapon-breaking systems, and it got me thinking about the fact that i have NEVER seen a weapon-breaking system praised or even vaguely complimented.
are there any games that do weapon breaking especially well, and why?
Psycho Wand, My Beloved [short story on gaming addiction]
David was a normal middle-aged man with a wife, a mortgage, and some cats … until he got his hands on Phantasy Star Online.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14812704
> a short story / black comedy i wrote about gaming addiction and the value of digital treasures
if you read it, let me know what you think.
(written with over 70 footnotes that add context and flavor to the '90s-00s setting. some of the footnotes are paragraphs long. the footnotes are not necessary to understand the story as they function more as a way to break the third person perspective to provide context & personal stories around the various 90s-2000s things that pop up throughout the story. NOTE: if you read on the site, you can click a footnote number, then click the arrow after the actual footnote to take you back. you can also skip the footnotes entirely if breaking up the text takes you out of the story too much.)
agreed. i don't have much to add as my sentiment on this subject drips from the words i've already written. i think addiction is a complicated thing driven by many factors: boredom, lack of purpose, depression, and some even think there is a genetic component. it's definitely more complicated than just-turn-the-game-off. (love the footnote.)
Psycho Wand, My Beloved [short story on gaming addiction]
David was a normal middle-aged man with a wife, a mortgage, and some cats … until he got his hands on Phantasy Star Online.
a short story / black comedy about gaming addiction and the value of digital treasures
you have to engage with the first leg of the quest and kill a few goblins; eventually they ask you to go into the homes and kill the goblins inside, at this point you can refuse.
"Now on the ground, assist the other company members in killing all of the goblins around the settlement. You may notice that the "goblins" don't really behave as expected: they do not attack you and appear broadly harmless.
Once all the goblins in the exterior are dead, one of the other Company members will tell you to clear out the houses as well. If you start to suspect what is really going on, you don't have carry out this order. If you instead run far enough from the settlement, you will be relocated to where Modryn is and may continue as described below." https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Infiltration
i immediately think of the inverse. spoilers for very old games.
spoiler
consider Shadow of the Colossus. admittedly, it's been a while so i may be misremembering some points. but, the premise of the game is you play as a young man intent on reviving a sacrificed girl; he is a mute named Wander. giants roam the land ('colossi') and, from the start, Wander is tasked by a disembodied voice to slay these colossi to revive the girl. as you ride horseback through the land slaying these colossi (who are just wandering around peacefully): the colossi fall with exaggerated groans of sadness, the land becomes a little darker, and your character's appearance changes somewhat. it's revealed that the disembodied voice is actually a demon who was ripped apart and scattered across the world (or something), and these colossi seal the demon's disparate parts. by the end of the game, Wander has slain all the colossi and revived the demon, and consequently Wander is seen a demon himself and sealed. the demon kept to their word and revived the girl, however.
a shorter example, in Oblivion there's a Fighter's Guild quest in which you're tasked with infiltrating a rival guild ("The Blackwood Company"), and during this quest The Blackwood Company drugs you up with the sap of a hist tree and tasks you with "slaying some goblins that have taken over a village." you slay the goblins as they request, but after the drugs wear off you it's revealed that you slayed an entire village of innocent people; the hist sap only made you see goblins during the act.
i like these examples of games subverting your expectations and turning you into the villain. it's a form of empathy -- either feeling "sorry" for the character, or inversely: thinking they're a fool and thereby feeling like a fool yourself -- but it's more visceral because even the player is not in on the joke until the computer game reveals it to them.
the use of the word "better" is always problematic because you then have to explain how you define "better," which you did; then you have to justify it, which you did; but it has become entirely subjective during this journey. the hurdle is truly justifying why "tactical gameplay" or "character interaction" has more value than original world building, which is nigh impossible.
considering this is computer games, you could make the argument that gameplay rules all, but doing shooty-shoots-at-bad-guy can happen regardless of setting, it's all about mechanical fidelity and input-response feedback at that point; the setting is not relevant. if someone plays a computer game primarily for its unique setting, then the uniqueness of the setting becomes the prominent value judgement for that individual; that person would be disappointed if the setting was just a DnD-rip, for example.
i do think there is merit in your viewpoint from a general perspective; to appeal to the masses, using familiar tropes helps ease the average player into a comfort zone. but too much reliance on this idea of "familiar is better" stifles creativity. you could argue that unique settings should be left for novels/etc, but i think computer games should push boundaries, and the idea of what constitutes a computer game changes every day. you could argue that a non-DnD setting falls into the realm of "scifi" as well, but this is a semantics game; genre labels are typically vacuous, functioning only to give a potential audience some general understanding of the material they're about to engage with.
that being said, i can't think of many "fantasy" settings that don't borrow from Tolkien on some level. even the example i was going to use to counter your point, Morrowind, has a setting heavily inspired by Tolkien; albeit, very far removed and unique with elements of Hinduism thrown in. i don't think this validates the theory that sword/sorcery settings are "better," only that it validates the theory that human beings have a hard time being truly unique. even Tolkien was heavily inspired by the Norse Volsunga Saga. it's like a long game of telephone.
good post.
Phantasy Star Online Ephinea [MEGATHREAD]
ANYONE PLAY ON THIS SERVER? i started a character a few weeks ago, named "Buru." i typically play on the Fodra Ship1 from 9pm - 1am et. i am in the midst of several projects and my attention span is less-than-stellar, but if you see me on, say: "HELLO IT IS [BLANK] FROM LEMMY - WOULD YOU CARE TO EXPLORE RAGOL WITH ME?"
From the about page: "Ephinea is a PSOBB server that aims to replicate the official SEGA experience, while also adding quality of life changes alongside extra features to spice up PSO and give it more of a modern feel. This means:
- Experience rates are default.
- Drop rates are default.
- Rare enemy rates are default.
- Class parameters are default.
- Item parameters are default, with some minor exceptions.
- There is no custom equipment.
The drop tables are changed from the original SEGA drop tables, mainly in Ultimate with some minor changes in other difficulties, due to balance concerns. “Iconic” drops, such as Sealed J-Sword and Handgun: Guld are still where you’d expect them, however. There are no plans to change the fundamentals of the game, as we wish to offer a server that players can always come back to and experience PSO as they remember it."
RESOURCES!
it's out of wedlock
ffxiv does a decent job at limiting this type of player behavior in that the director has publicly stated parsers/logging are prohibited, enshrined it in the code of conduct, and has been outspoken about his disapproval for parsing culture.
"it's a tool for bullying ... 100% confident in that ... if we implement a (parser) we know that there will be group invites like "prove you can do xxxx DPS" and we never want that to happen."
min-max ruins games & families
min-maxing in online games promotes an environment of elitism that forces anyone who plays with the min-maxer to conform to a very narrow play-style; this by-default limits gameplay options for other players, and often leads to ridicule and negative experiences when the non-min-maxer does not have the "perfect build for tanking Odin" or whatever.
min-maxers are boa constrictors wrapped around innocent little field mice. the mice just want some cheese but the snakes are eating them alive and i am the mongoose
stop min-maxing. start max-mining.
discuss.
are microbes having sex in your drinking water? [what do you drink while playing GAMES™?]
what do you drink while playing games?
personally, i drink water but i am concerned about microbes having sex in said water. i also drink coffee and, twilight: wine.
! I appreciate that! I'm glad someone is paying attention. Let me know what you think of the magazine, if you happen to read through it.
On Computer Games [free retro magazine]
On Computer Games Monthly is a gaming magazine styled as if it were created in the early 2000s. Within its wistful pages, writer and editor forrest and a...
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13971279
> On Computer Games Monthly #1 > > https://archive.org/details/OCGM-1-Nov-2000 > > > ! > > > I have been working on a passion project for the last two months; a retro games magazine, and it's finally completed! This #zine is a digital celebration of nostalgia; a collective of writers from the federated internet that strives to capture the subjective quality of gaming with stories about life-and-stuff told through the lens of video games. Issue#1 covers November2000 and features: Breath of Fire IV, Counter Strike, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, love letters to the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles, and much more.
not sure. didn't expect anyone would want to subscribe. i do plan on making more, but it will be awhile. you can always follow me on mastodon @[email protected] or follow the blog which i post some of the magazine articles in: oncomputer.games
took about two months. i have a full-time job and two kids as well, so would have taken less time if i didn't have Grown Up Stuff to do.
On Computer Games [free retro magazine]
On Computer Games Monthly is a gaming magazine styled as if it were created in the early 2000s. Within its wistful pages, writer and editor forrest and a...
On Computer Games Monthly #1
https://archive.org/details/OCGM-1-Nov-2000
I have been working on a passion project for the last two months; a retro games magazine, and it's finally completed! This #zine is a digital celebration of nostalgia; a collective of writers from the federated internet that strives to capture the subjective quality of gaming with stories about life-and-stuff told through the lens of video games. Issue#1 covers November2000 and features: Breath of Fire IV, Counter Strike, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, love letters to the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles, and much more.
On Computer Games Monthly #1
On Computer Games Monthly is a gaming magazine styled as if it were created in the early 2000s. Within its wistful pages, writer and editor forrest and a...
On Computer Games Monthly #1
https://archive.org/details/OCGM-1-Nov-2000
I have been working on a passion project for the last two months; a retro games magazine, and it's finally completed! This #zine is a digital celebration of nostalgia; a collective of writers from the federated internet that strives to capture the subjective quality of gaming with stories about life-and-stuff told through the lens of video games. Issue#1 covers November2000 and features: Breath of Fire IV, Counter Strike, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, love letters to the Dreamcast and PlayStation consoles, and much more.
I appreciate you taking the time to read the peice and your sincere feedback! I won't make any changes to the piece now, as I consider it finished (even if flawed), although I will incorporate your feedback into my future writing; especially the bit around tenses and perspectives, something I need to work on across all my writing.
I can see how the references to Arcadia may be perceived as pretentious, was a risk. The original reference comes from the title of the painting "Et in Arcadia ego," which is the first chapter's title. Specifically, the second popular interpretation regarding nostalgia.
"...this second version shifted the focus from a warning about the inevitability of death to a contemplation of the past and a sense of nostalgia."
Plus, yes, it sounds like Arcade (lol) and it's used in a similar fashion in a manga/anime I enjoy titled "Space Captain Harlock: Arcadia of my Youth." In the essay's sense, we view our youth as Arcadia -- the golden age of splendor when everything was grand and intoxicating; a place in our mind we try to get back to.
The second chapter is a reference to 'unaware' (or maybe 'ignorant'), and refers specifically to Jake living in my (or maybe his own) Arcadia but being unaware of it (considering his condition), the third chapter title simply continues the Latin naming convention with "My Golden Years." So, yes, maybe a bit pretentious.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11845835
> i run a gaming blog that is more like a creative writing blog. i just published this essay. the essay's main theme is nostalgia and living-in-the-past told personal stories. > > if you read it, let me know what you think. thanks.
i run a gaming blog that is more like a creative writing blog. i just published this essay. the essay's main theme is nostalgia and living-in-the-past told through personal stories.
if you read it, let me know what you think. thanks.
Final Fantasy Legend II or: SAVE THE WORLD [video essay]
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9692286
> created this video essay thing based on an essay i wrote for my website. > > https://youtu.be/OBFZtIQYiiI?si=LDxjp-lfoh5cJ47s > > ! > > if you happen to watch, let me know what you think > > could post this in the SaGa forum as well but figured this would be a better spot. > > covers some of the following: > > 0:00 (Introduction & Justification) > > 2:26 (CHAPTER I: History of Final Fantasy Legend II or: Richard Dean Anderson's Haircut in Season 6 of MacGyver) > > 5:11 (CHAPTER II: Presentation, Setting & Plot or: Smoke Dope, Go Bananas) > > 7:57 (CHAPTER III: Music or: Is this Emerson, Lake & Palmer?) > > 11:34 (INTERLUDE or: Artistic Gentrification) > > 13:15 (CHAPTER IV: Gameplay or: Nintendo Power Nominee for Hardest Game Boy Game of 1990) > > 20:58 (CONCLUSION or: SAVE THE WORLD or: If Richard Dean Anderson is the Peak 90s Action Celebrity ...) >
Final Fantasy Legend II or: SAVE THE WORLD [video essay]
created this video essay thing based on an essay i wrote for my website.
https://youtu.be/OBFZtIQYiiI?si=LDxjp-lfoh5cJ47s
if you happen to watch, let me know what you think
could post this in the SaGa forum as well but figured this would be a better spot.
covers some of the following:
0:00 (Introduction & Justification)
2:26 (CHAPTER I: History of Final Fantasy Legend II or: Richard Dean Anderson's Haircut in Season 6 of MacGyver)
5:11 (CHAPTER II: Presentation, Setting & Plot or: Smoke Dope, Go Bananas)
7:57 (CHAPTER III: Music or: Is this Emerson, Lake & Palmer?)
11:34 (INTERLUDE or: Artistic Gentrification)
13:15 (CHAPTER IV: Gameplay or: Nintendo Power Nominee for Hardest Game Boy Game of 1990)
20:58 (CONCLUSION or: SAVE THE WORLD or: If Richard Dean Anderson is the Peak 90s Action Celebrity ...)