[X] My Assistant

Am at my cousin's and was finally playing syndicate.
A very good first person shooter.

Starting my SSPD tattoo in KoL. Which means I won't get to finish it since it will be taken out next time SSPD rolls around.

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG saint seiya senki is gonna be released in mexico in may!

*screams like flanders IRL*

Hit the "ending" of Asura's Wrath earlier tonight. I'm not sure, but I think Olga just kind of... disappeared. She walked out of Deus' throne room with her tail between her legs, and that was the last we saw of her. Kind of weird. I hope it's just setting up for the "real ending," because otherwise I'll want to know how one of the supporting characters can just mysteriously vanish for about a third of the story.

[www.newgrounds.com] Amazing.

I looked at this last night but wasn't sure what to say about it. I got a little hung-up on the disconnected nature of the "games." The overall message and flow was good, but I wonder if it needed to be interactive to get the message across.

I looked at this last night but wasn't sure what to say about it. I got a little hung-up on the disconnected nature of the "games." The overall message and flow was good, but I wonder if it needed to be interactive to get the message across.

The way I understood it, and that I've seen others discern, is that you wouldn't feel the same tension, frustration and connection to the afflicted narrator if it weren't interactive. Yeah, there's really no consequence for failure, but from what I gleaned from that mechanic is that the process isn't a failure, it's a frustrating, emotionally terse situation, and the simple action of making it interactive helps make that point more empathic than if you were passively watching the same actions taking place.

You might see the obstacle as not possible, and it may, in fact, not be, but you're still compelled to try, case in point, the first microgame that I remember noting how remarkable the interactivity was is the hole in the wall, I saw that the block I was controlling fit, but I couldn't make it fit from the way I was traveling, but I was still going to try because it looked just possible enough to work, now think about that for a second. Seeing that block moving on its own, you'd probably just dismiss it without even really caring.

The interactivity puts a control based emotional investiture into the whole thing. It assists the narrative, which is also compelling to me, personally, by allowing the user to feel the same emotional awkwardness, frustration, discomfort and tension the author went through.

This post has been edited by radixius: Mar 18 2012, 07:53

For some reason, I went into it expecting it to be a "game" in the traditional sense. Maybe because the description actually calls it a game. It's a compelling interactive animation, but I expect certain things out of a game that this didn't provide. Nonetheless, I was glad to have seen/played it.

I personally think that "Video Game" needs to be a more fluid term, because we've built this concrete, unmoving idea of what that means and it's like the definition cannot be changed or challenged which seems to be what's causing the incredible stagnation of the industry.

I'm an advocate of using the term Video Toy for some things. What traditionally defines a game (as I understand it) is that it has a set of rules, more than one possible outcome, and at least one desired outcome. Some so-called games we play are better defined as toys; they're just something you play with for amusement with no real set goal to pursue (a lot of flash games, or The Sims, for instance).

In the case of Dys4ia, I would say it's more like an Interactive Animation of some kind. We don't really have a catchy name for it, and more than being detrimental to the word game, I rather feel that holding the banner of Game over something like this is potentially detrimental to appreciating what it really is: a piece of art that can engage the viewer in ways previous media cannot. The word game elicits some notion of fun or pass-time, and that's not what this is.

This post has been edited by FourThirteen: Mar 18 2012, 08:26

Makes sense. Gentrify the term somewhat.

I actually kept playing it for a while... but the text scrolled a bit too quickly at times.

anyway, I came here to announce that my PS3 hath been repared and that I'll get it back in a few days! (IMG:[image1.masterfile.com] http://image1.masterfile.com/em_w/01/35/04/640-01350410w.jpg)

I actually kept playing it for a while... but the text scrolled a bit too quickly at times.

Kind of makes me wonder if that was intentional or not.

Diablo 3 will be released on May15 without PvP support. Someone's gonna get really pissed. Well Blizzard will eventually patch it though.

Didn't like to be PvP much in D2 because I always played hardcore and I've lost good toons to it. I think I'll either stay away from PvP in D3 OR I'll still PvP if I'm not playing hardcore, that way I don't have to worry about losing my characters.

How'd you snag a beta, by the way?

Its not mine. A friend who had a beta key since the beginning got tired of playing it (since they wipe everything with each patch and he got tired of grinding over and over and over) and when he found out I had pre-ordered D3 he said I could play on his account while the beta is still going to get a feel for the game before it comes out.

I'm actually pretty jealous :<

Well, the servers are down all the damn time (like right now), so don't be. I've had the key for three days now and I've gotten to play a grand total of like 3 hours...

I don't want to wait two months :<

My roommate and I have decided that we will stay awake all night long on the morning of the 15th, play through the night powering through with energy drinks and manliness, then go to school in the afternoon satisfied like a bawws. He's rocking a barb, I'm rocking a wiz, and we're gonna relive our old D2 days! Back then he was a barb and I was a sorceress, so it will be a familiar scenario.

Before the age of DotA & WoW, Blizzard unleashed Diablo. It trigged a global phenomena where people hack-n-slash thousands of demons and abominations for hours in the name of defeating evil.

The endings in Skyrim were dissapointingly anticlimactic, such as the fact that the final act of the "Reunification of Skyrim" quest-line doesn't involve you annihilating the faggot "Aldmeri Dominion" cult. Seriously, the game ends when you haven't freed the Empire? WTF?