the "pick on the escapist" thread

[dhex]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_213/6347-Roleplaying-Evolved

i get where he's coming from (academically) regarding p&p campaigns and all, but beyond the whole "numbers go up" attraction, there's plenty of good reasons for stats in rpgs. it's a way of conveying skills and abilities to the player, who obviously doesn't actually know what his avatar(s) skills and abilities really are. most of what he's describing is far more applicable to adventure games or even muds, perhaps.

obviously, as someone who wishes the old school was ascendant in arenas other than the niche market being electrified by AoD and other games of that vein, numbers are a perfectly good thing. i don't want seemlessness so much as competency (though achievements can choke on it for forsaking both).

[Llydis]

I think the problem is, he's comparing videogame RPGs to the pen and paper realm.

While I think one can get away with a stat-less RPG with pen and paper since it requires participation from a few friends taking on specific roles with another friend taking on the role of the referee and story teller, I don't think there is any way right now for RPGs on game systems and computers to have a system as dynamic as human interaction. Unless it's an online mode.

Stats and their growth in video game RPGs tend to give you a measure on if you can do a certain action or not. Like how the Fallout series reacts to having a character that is skilled in some areas by including extra dialogue options, or other options on how to solve a situation. Without those stats, you wouldn't have an idea of what you, yourself, could do in the game.

Then again, it's not like some games don't hide certain stats from you that you'd never know of if you didn't know how to read the code,or get information from someone else. Like some of Pokemon's hidden stats.

When we do come to this wonderful utopia of seamless stat attainment, I think that game would probably be widely hailed as the defining moment of RPGs and it will be placed on a high pedestal for all to see. That's going to take a while.

[FortNinety]

This is still easily the fave article from them...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_88/497-Fei-Long-and-Justin-Wong

... at the very least, it's a lot funnier than any Zero Punctuation I've ever seen.

[dhex]

you have the worst taste in everything, dude.

seriously though, was that supposed to be a parody of academic language, or an actual attempt to "unpack" the racial stereotypes involved? (for the premier wtf is going on version of this, i recommend my tgq piece on far cry and homoeroticism)

[FortNinety]

seriously though, was that supposed to be a parody of academic language, or an actual attempt to "unpack" the racial stereotypes involved?

I'm pretty damn sure that supposed to be completely serious. Hence the funny.

[Llydis]

So descriptions of 2 particular individuals play styles were made of adjectives and verbs relating to a mechanical tone= RACISM?!

Well, that was a waste of 3 pages.

[FortNinety]

I also have to take pretty much everything they write with a heavy grain of salt ever since I did a public speaking thing alongside an editor from there and apparently got on her nerves with my blase "game journalism, while still a respectable field, is certainly not curing cancer and those who take themselves too seriously need a good, long look in the mirror" attitude and stance.

[ryan]

It’s tiring being pretentious. She might have just needed a few winks.

[Llydis]

If there is one thing that needs a cure, it's pretentiousness.

[dmauro]

you have the worst taste in everything, dude.

seriously though, was that supposed to be a parody of academic language, or an actual attempt to "unpack" the racial stereotypes involved? (for the premier wtf is going on version of this, i recommend my tgq piece on far cry and homoeroticism)

What's this? Was there a new TGQ? I thought that thing had just died away.

edit: just realized that you didn't say "far cry 2" so this is probably an old piece.

[dhex]

http://www.gamersquarter.com/issues/TheGamersQuarter7.zip

"Effeminaphobia and Male Intimacy: Far Cry Only Worries when the Jungle Drums Stop" - M. O'Connor

[Llydis]

You know, I picked up a copy of Farcry Instincts Predator a few years back on the cheap and still haven't played past like... The first level. Most of the enemies do look like the idealized male from classical terms though. So it's more like playing with action figures with an 8 year old mind than anything else.

What's also interesting, on the GLAAD panel that Gay Gamer's Flynn DeMarco someone in the questions section of the panel mentioned that in the newish Turok game, there was storyboard art of Turok kissing(on the mouth) another soldier in the game. That scene was cut but it probably plays into what you're saying.

http://gaygamer.net/2009/07/videos_glaads_panel_on_homopho.html#more Theres the panel. Some of what they go over is painfully obvious and some of the questions to the panel at the end are very groan-worthy(like seriously, did that girl ever play Dragon Quest VIII or did she just watch youtube videos since she got bored of it?)

The specific video where DQ VIII was involved. http://glaadblog.org/wp-content/uploads/video-uploads/Part%2017%20-%20QandA%205%20-%20Selling%20an%20LGBT%20Character.mov

I hate to sound terribly defensive of the game, but seriously the princess herself pretty much tells you she's interested in you(in so many words) and has had a previous friendship with the character before the game started.

[ryan]

pew pew pewpewpew SEX

[FortNinety]

This piece on the woes of digital distribution would be awesome...

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/6452-Experienced-Points-Online-Activation-Is-a-Ripoff

... if he wasn't such a whiny bitch. Jesus.

[dhex]

i'd generally agree about online activation, but he's kinda melodramatic about it. and left out some background on the backlash against it, and the amount of activations most publishers give someone.