Sims 4 Overthinking: Where’s the Plumbing?

By Bay Posted Saturday Nov 19, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, The Sims Overthinking 26 comments

Years ago, I saw a YouTube video of real-life architects reacting to Sims 4 builds.  They mainly had little issues with the builds, IE: You can’t put windows to the east because you’ll be blind in the morning, or, you can’t have a vast open space like that without support beams, etc etc. But the other issue they had really stuck out to me.

Why were these digital builders sticking in the realm of possibility? The individuals reacting to these builds were architects. Building stuff that makes sense in the realm of possibility was their full-time jobs. Why the hell are these gaming dumbasses doing the same crap they have to do for work? At work, they can’t just ignore zoning laws, but these ‘simmers’ can! Why are they building normal stuff?

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Sims 4 Overthinking: Where’s the Plumbing?”

 


 

Inheriting an Audience is Weird

By Bay Posted Friday Nov 11, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Personal 48 comments

These last few weeks I’ve had Peter posting to the site, and before that, I was doing some lighter content. The podcast, some venting about VR, but nothing really substantial. The long and short of it is: it’s the holidays, and I really, really miss my dad.

Pumpkin carving was enough to leave me out for an entire day, recovering from the smell of fresh-cut pumpkin; a smell I associate with my dad. He used to do the pumpkin carving for us every year. We kids would draw out our designs, and he’d do his best to cut them out. It’s been a really long time since any of us carved a pumpkin with Dad, I suspect however many years it’s been since I’ve been old enough to hold a knife on my own. But still, the memory sticks as ‘how it’s done’ and leaves Halloween feeling wrong and unfinished.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Inheriting an Audience is Weird”

 


 

The Death of Digital Ownership

By Peter T Parker Posted Friday Nov 4, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Video Games 49 comments

 

On November 22nd, 2019. Blizzard announced the development of ‘Overwatch 2’, the sequel to their highly praised multiplayer game ‘Overwatch’. 

As far as I’m aware, The idea was pretty well-received; I personally was pretty excited about the news. I had been given Overwatch as a gift from my parents sometime in mid-2016. I had loved the game through my teens and was excited about the potential of a sequel. I then promptly forgot about the concept until I moved home three years later, and abruptly gained a large amount of free time to waste playing online games with my friends. 

Once again, I was excited, and even more excited to hear it would be free-to-play. That meant more chances for people to experience a game I’d enjoyed since my teens.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Death of Digital Ownership”

 


 

Deus-Ex Pitch Final Thoughts (Post-Mortem Post)

By Heather Posted Wednesday Nov 2, 2022

Filed under: Projects 22 comments

Obviously this outline is missing a ton of detail. Miami is the most developed location in the game, and even that one needs more characters, more points of interest, and more potential routes and interactions. The other missions are positively threadbare, and a couple are missing entirely. A lot of the ending missions boil down to “the player goes to an industrial location and kills someone important”, which feels more like Hitman than Deus Ex. Again, you’d fix this by adding more stuff to do and giving the player interesting reasons to spare various conspirators.

Alex needs more development. She’s a composite of three different characters from the first game: Alex your tech guy, Jock your pilot, and Paul your brother. She’s your guide, your transport, and your conscience. Which means she really ought to have a strong personality, a backstory, and even a bit of a character arc that points her towards ending #5. 

I think the idea of “The Illuminati are the reason people are mean to each other on social media” is cute and just the right kind of stupid. Having said that, the entire idea needs a lot more meat on its bones.   Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Deus-Ex Pitch Final Thoughts (Post-Mortem Post)”

 


 

Roll for Podcast #2: Rat King

By Bay Posted Friday Oct 28, 2022

Filed under: Epilogue, Roll For Podcast 10 comments


Hosts: Bay, Issac, and Elliot. Episode edited by Bay
RollforPodcast2

Show notes: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Roll for Podcast #2: Rat King”

 


 

Deus Ex Pitch Part 8: Resolution (Post-Mortem Post)

By Heather Posted Wednesday Oct 26, 2022

Filed under: Projects 36 comments

And speaking of missions, let’s get back to the job at hand…

Mission 9: TBD

This stretch of the game is really light on details. I don’t have a setting for this mission, except that it should probably be some sort of industrial facility owned by South African industrialist Samkelo Mensah.

We need to take care of Mensah. Also here is fellow board member Camila Ferreira, a Brazilian Environmentalist / Politician. We should find these two together, plotting. Camila is evidently an environmental crusader, and here we learn she doesn’t actually care about the environment and it’s all part of the game to her.  Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Deus Ex Pitch Part 8: Resolution (Post-Mortem Post)”

 


 

Town of the Dead: When You Have a Hammer

By Peter T Parker Posted Sunday Oct 23, 2022

Filed under: D&D Campaign, Epilogue 28 comments

 

A few weeks ago, I introduced myself as ‘the D&D guy’. And in the wake of that, I have to preface this with an official confession; I have until recently spent a lot more time daydreaming about planning and listening to other people play D&D than I have spent playing or DMing.

This is mainly to note that I’m not by any means experienced. I could rattle off about TTRPGs for hours, but knowing and actually experiencing are very, very different things. DMing specifically is a practical skill. It needs hands-on experience unless you’re some kind of savant. Some people are, just not me. My unique social deficiencies, short and long-term memory issues, and obsession with rules that ‘make sense’ have produced some particular hurdles in my journey to run a game of my own without the years some of you fine folks might have under your belt. So, it’s been trial and error thus far to balance these issues and the actual goal of a DM, which is ‘make sure everyone, even you, is having fun’.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Town of the Dead: When You Have a Hammer”