T w e n t y S i d e d
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I wasn’t involved in the making of this episode. I didn’t know they would be playing this game. In fact, I haven’t even watched the episode yet. So we’ll be watching it together.
I am so afraid.
Robots Are People Too, Except Not Really
We went to the Carnegie Science Center last week and visited their “Robot Exhibit”. This was one of the most deeply offensive and blatantly anti-robot exhibits I’ve ever seen. As a long-time advocate for the differently-brained, I was shocked at how backward and bio-centric the whole thing was.
It began with the predictable reinforcing of old, outdated stereotypes:
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Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Robots Are People Too, Except Not Really”
Diecast #19: Scribblenauts, Skyrim
Some behind-the-scenes info: We generally forward news stories to each other all week. When Sunday rolls around, we take the headlines for the week, sort them out, and figure out which ones we want to talk about and which ones we don’t. Then we record the show.
This week we had nothing. Not one news story. I don’t know if we weren’t following the news or we didn’t care, but we had no stories and nothing to say. We just got together for our once-a-week blather session and Josh began recording halfway through. That means this podcast is even less structured than last week. Just so you know what you’re getting into. In any case, the choice was between this and nothing.
We’ve got a good slate of stories now, so the Diecast should return to normal next week. In the meantime, you’ve been warned:
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Hosts: Shamus, Josh, Rutskarn, Mumbles, Chris
Show notes:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Diecast #19: Scribblenauts, Skyrim”
Experienced Points: Tutorial Torture
Last week I mentioned BioShock’s thick-headed approach to tutorial popups. I decided to talk about the idea a bit more in this week’s column.
A lot of people have praised Half-Life 2, and while I don’t disagree that HL2 had a really awesome tutorial (it helps that the time is spent worldbuilding and setting a mood and not just bossing the player around) I wonder how much of the slack we give to HL2 is due to the fact that you can pick a chapter of the game. Just about every other game insists that you start over from the beginning. The train station is awesome, but I’d be a lot less patient with it if I had to do it every time I wanted to fool around with the gravity gun or mow down some metro cops.
A Note from UPlay
I have written about the horribleness of Ubisoft’s UPlay system in the past. It’s pretty much the worst of the major digital “platforms” out right now. Even Origin pretends to have features and a digital storefront, but UPlay is nothing more than naked DRM with no sugar coating.
I last dealt with UPlay back in January, when I tried to play Far Cry 3. Here is that saga as I related on Twitter:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “A Note from UPlay”
The Twelve-Year Mistake Part 8: The Island
It’s February of 2013. The temperature is a bone-shattering 15°F today. (About -10°C.) It’s so cold my eyes are watering. Now, this actually isn’t that cold by the standards of a Pennsylvania winter, but context has a way of changing how we perceive temperature. In this case, I’m standing in the kitchen, and I don’t normally expect kitchens to be this cold.
“Aren’t you worried about the pipes freezing?” I ask the owner. All the utilities are off, which is why it’s so cold in here.
“Nah,” she shrugs. “It should be okay. It hasn’t been cold enough to worry about that.”
I nod. I’ve been sort of nervous about freezing pipes since January of 2008.
She’s named Jenny. She’s got her daughter with her today, showing us prospective tenants this apartment. I take another walk through the place. It doesn’t take long. It’s small.
“We’ll have all this stuff fixed before you move in,” she assures me.
I shake my head. The damage is extensive.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Twelve-Year Mistake Part 8: The Island”
Tomb Raider EP9: Tree’ed!
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Wherein Campster reveals that he’s never actually watched Homestar Runner or anything related to Homestar Runner. I invite you all to throw rocks at him. Also: Pun wars, arrows, and making fun of my mom offscreen!
From The Archives:
The Best of 2011
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2011.
The Gameplay is the Story
Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
Another PC Golden Age?
Is it real? Is PC gaming returning to its former glory? Sort of. It's complicated.
Quakecon 2011 Keynote Annotated
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
Twelve Years
Even allegedly smart people can make life-changing blunders that seem very, very obvious in retrospect.
In Defense of Crunch
Crunch-mode game development isn't good, but sometimes it happens for good reasons.
Crash Dot Com
Back in 1999, I rode the dot-com bubble. Got rich. Worked hard. Went crazy. Turned poor. It was fun.
Marvel's Civil War
Team Cap or Team Iron Man? More importantly, what basis would you use for making that decision?
The Gradient of Plot Holes
Most stories have plot holes. The failure isn't that they exist, it's when you notice them while immersed in the story.
Self-Balancing Gameplay
There's a wonderful way to balance difficulty in RPGs, and designers try to prevent it. For some reason.