Twenty Sided

By Shamus Posted Thursday Nov 20, 2008

 Fallout 3:
Questions AnsweredPrevious Post

Reviewing something like Fallout 3 is like negotiating for peace in the middle east. It’s no fun, you can’t win, and everyone will hate you for trying.

It’s impossible to distill this game into a single opinion. As I play, my attitude towards the game oscillates wildly between delighted amusement and grave outrage. The game itself is a mix of the insipid and the inspired, of brilliance and bullshit. If I reviewed it solely as a Fallout game, my review would be a long, wretched screed. If I just reviewed it as a sandbox RPG, I could show up with nice things to say about it that would leave you ignorant of the wasted potential.

Just how important is wasted potential, anyway? If you’re playing a game, and you’re having fun, but it’s clear the game could have been ten times better for the same budget, do you celebrate the decent game you have, or lament the incredible one that might have been?

The game seems to have launched flame wars all over the internet as people divide themselves into the rabid love it / hate it factions. I can understand why. I’ve been taking notes as I play through the game, and going back and reading them later they sound like an argument.

I keep trying to calibrate myself against other reviewers I’m familiar with. Yahtzee gave it his coveted Branston Pickle Rating. Alex is having a good time with it.

Pretty much all of my thoughts on the game can be found in this No Mutants Allowed review. I threw up while reading the thing due to sea-sickness brought on by constantly nodding my head in agreement.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Fallout 3:
Questions AnsweredPrevious Post

Next PostCity of Heroes:
MMO Lemmings 

68 comments

GM Advice:
Culture

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Nov 19, 2008

Filed under: Tabletop Games 37 comments

 GM Advice: Scaring PlayersPrevious Post

Next PostWorst Rule Ever 

I’ve said before that one of my goals in designing a campaign setting is to add a few touches that makes the world seem larger or deeper than it really is. Giving the impression of a strong and robust setting can make the world come alive for players and encourage them to approach things in-character. If done right, those extra details can also serve as a starting point for additional detail when the players dive into the blank areas of the map or engage NPC’s you’ve never written or even envisioned.

The cornerstone of this approach is in coming up with plausible or interesting cultures. It’s also my favorite part of the process. It certainly gives the largest dividends in terms of how much time it takes versus how much (percieved) detail it adds. A few minutes spent adding cultural flavor can make a simple village seem almost Tolkienesque in scope. Culture is a faà§ade behind which the thrifty GM can hide his lazyness and lack of prep time.

And note here that when I say “culture” I’m mostly talking about the customs that surround basic life events like birth, marriage, and death, and daily habits that surround basic activities like eating, sleeping, bathing, and recreation.

Note that I don’t suggest using all of the things listed below. This is just a list of some cultural ingredients that amuse me, or that I didn’t get a chance to use in any of the games I’ve run. I suggest taking the standard off-the-shelf setting and adding a couple of these ideas for flavor. Obviously the more you change, the more strange and foreign the place will seem.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “GM Advice:
Culture”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 GM Advice: Scaring PlayersPrevious Post

Next PostWorst Rule Ever 

37 comments

World of Goo:
82% Pirated

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Nov 19, 2008

Filed under: Rants 71 comments

 John Riccitiello hates DRMPrevious Post

Next PostDvorak vs. QWERTY 

2D Boy – the team behind World of Goo – has reported that 82% to 90% of the people playing the game are playing pirated copies. (They actually get into the particulars of the numbers here, where they came from and how they arrived at these figures.) We’ve heard figures in this range before and some have cast doubt that it could possibly be that high, but I don’t doubt it now. In this case, it’s coming from two guys who deliberately put out an open game with no DRM. These guys have no reason to inflate the piracy rate. I count them among the good guys, and take them at their word.

That doesn’t make this news any less depressing, though. World of Goo is a fun, innovative game for all ages with no DRM and a low price tag. The people downloading this game aren’t “evaluating” it for purchase. (There is a robust demo available.) They aren’t protesting DRM. (There isn’t any.) They aren’t sticking it to some large publisher. (This was self-published by two guys.) They aren’t protesting “price-gouging”. (The game is $20.) The people pirating World of Goo are simply amoral assholes.

The guys from 2D Boy come to the same conclusion I’ve been fruitlessly evangelizing here for years: Pirates are multitude, but going after them with DRM is a waste of time and money. I think their reasoning is inescapable, and I long for a day when big publishers will grasp these simple concepts and we can go back to conducting commerce and playing games without this DRM business in the way.

I’ve bought the game twice, (once for PC and once for WiiWare) and don’t regret it for a moment. This is a deeply satisfying experience for gamers of all ages and backgrounds. Your mom will enjoy this game. Your kids will enjoy this game. Your Mountain Dew-amped, Halo-playing, tea-bagging, trash-talking college buddies will enjoy this game. (Even if they don’t pay for it.)

Check it out for yourself, if you’re curious.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 John Riccitiello hates DRMPrevious Post

Next PostDvorak vs. QWERTY 

71 comments

Fallout 3:
Questions Answered

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Nov 18, 2008

Filed under: Game Reviews 127 comments

 Silent Hill SeriesPrevious Post

Next PostFallout 3 Reviews 

In the aftermath of E3, when people were still nursing their post-convention hangovers and writing about how E3 was destined to be the BEST GAEM EVAR, I was a big mean spoilsport and fired off a few questions in the general direction of Bethesda.

Now I’ve sunk a weekend into the game and had a nice deep draught from the well of first-hand experience. So I want to go back and answer those questions with the help of my newfound knowledge.

Here are the original questions, along with my take on how well it turned out in the final product: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Fallout 3:
Questions Answered”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Silent Hill SeriesPrevious Post

Next PostFallout 3 Reviews 

127 comments

Stolen Pixels #39:
Not a People Person

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Nov 18, 2008

Filed under: Column 9 comments

 Stolen Pixels #37:
Part One of InfinityPrevious Post

Next PostStolen Pixels #40:
I Know a Shortcut 

I neglected to link to Stolen Pixels #38 last Friday, which was about the classic “War Never Changes” intro to the Fallout games. Allow me to do so now. And no, I’d never seen that particular Perry Bible Fellowship and this was not a reference to that. I was just trying to throw in some quasi-50’s lingo, in keeping with the style of the game.

Now, moving on to current events: Today we have yet another Fallout comic. This is more fantasy than parody, I’m afraid.

Comments are open for this one. Knock yourselves out.

(Also, for what it’s worth: This is post #2000. Yay base ten.)

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 Stolen Pixels #37:
Part One of InfinityPrevious Post

Next PostStolen Pixels #40:
I Know a Shortcut 

9 comments

Silent Hill Series

By Shamus Posted Monday Nov 17, 2008

Filed under: Game Reviews 45 comments

 World of GooPrevious Post

Next PostFallout 3:
Questions Answered 

I think one of the major mistakes they keep making with the Silent Hill series is that they keep trying to tell stories about the town itself and the cult that got things started. I don’t think the story of Silent Hill is what we’re here for. We’re here for the premise, which is a spooky town that can pull people into the otherword. Once we have that, we don’t need an ongoing tale. Grafting new people and events onto the established narrative doesn’t make the setting more interesting or compelling.

This graph depicts the highly accurate and scientific readings of several games in the Silent Hill franchise, using equipment to measure the freakishness (using the standard Lovecraft logarithmic scale) against the innate wackyness (as measured in kilostooges) of the content. All devices were calibrated against solitaire prior to measurements.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Silent Hill Series”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 World of GooPrevious Post

Next PostFallout 3:
Questions Answered 

45 comments

Weezer Keep Fishin on Ukulele

By Shamus Posted Saturday Nov 15, 2008

Filed under: Movies 65 comments

 A Capella Tribute to John WilliamsPrevious Post

Next PostThe Escapist Film Festival: Unskippable 

It’s pretty hard to justify this as geek culture, but this kid has talent and I want to link her and this is my website so I will:

Link (YouTube)

This is Julia Nunes, a YouTube celebrity musician. Which means many of us have probably never heard of her. Internet fame is so strange because it’s so compartmentalized. What I like about this video is how she messes up the start but keeps going, instead of starting over or editing her mistake. There is a certain self-confidence in that. I suppose in this context we should call it showmanship.

She’s got a lot of videos, most of which are done using the format above: She plays ukulele and does multiple voice tracks so she can harmonize with herself, and sometimes she plays rhythm with her hands.

Also noteworthy is her cover of It’s The End Of The World As We Know It, which is an incredibly challenging song. She and a friend conquer it with skill and a dash of teenage silliness. That song was big when I was 16 and Julia was minus two. It’s nice to know our music is still hip enough for the young people. This is not always the case.

Additional trivia: She sometimes refers to her friend “Shamus” in her videos, (like in this one at the 4:20 mark) and it never fails to freak me the heck out. In my 37 years (I’m not old!) I’ve never heard that name spoken except in reference to me, and it’s really hard to get my brain to not think of it as me. Imagine if you bumped into a stranger on the street who blurted out your first, middle, and last name. That’s what this feels like. I imagine people named “John” and “Dave” get over this really early in life, but it’s just not something I ever encounter.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

 A Capella Tribute to John WilliamsPrevious Post

Next PostThe Escapist Film Festival: Unskippable 

65 comments

OLDER POSTS

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From The Archives:

Secret of Good Secrets

Dead Island

The Best of 2011

Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3

Stolen Pixels

Diablo III Retrospective

Crash Dot Com

The Mistakes DOOM Didn't Make

Spec Ops: The Line

Punishing The Internet for Sharing