I usually have comics done a couple of weeks ahead of time, but when I get an idea for a strip to be inserted within the current week, I have to choose between letting the idea slide, or postponing a strip and making the comic during the week. As we approach the end, I’m increasingly reluctant to skip material, so I’m going to push the comic to Friday.
Perhaps the following silly image will appease you:
 |
Here are a bunch of links. I’d wanted to do a post about each of these, but I am falling further behind and just don’t have time to do some of this stuff justice. So let me just point to some posts and say, “That’s cool.”
 |
Speaking of old games, Mark has a great series of posts on old Commodore 64 games. It looks like he was able to grab some great screenshots using his emulator. I never had a C64 (alas) but I saw variants of these games on other systems and I enjoyed seeing them again.
Steven has moved his long-standing anime site over to mee.nu. The new site just has new content, but it sure is nice to have permalinks to work with. Now I can link to a particlar post that stikes my fancy, as in this case where he foretells the future using only numbers as his source of divining power. (I’ll bet he’s right. I’ll bet 148 million bucks he’s right.)
Cineris has a great post up on some anti-nerdist advertising. Er. Nerdisim? Nerdaphobia? He also has a post on his first impressions of Final Fantasy XII. His thoughs on the game are similar to mine, although thankfully he wasn’t baffled by the plot the way I was at first.
Some people had great responses to my earlier post on railroading, although a lot of the controversy arose from different interpretations of my hypothetical situations. I think many people were not seeing the heart of the difficulty I was trying to present, perhaps because my examples was too poorly defined. So let’s try to tighten up the definition and see how that changes things.
Then the players go to see him as part of their investigation. A fight breaks out for whatever reason, initiated by the players. They have no idea this is the bad guy, they just know they’re dealing with a bit of a jerk and the conversation gets out of hand. Perhaps they try to threaten information out of him, and he calls what he thinks is a bluff. Perhaps he catches them doing something illegal while conducting their investigation, like spying or swiping documents. Whatever the reason, a fight ensues.
There are only three outcomes I can see:
For those who dislike my style of railroading: How would you approach the given situation? Would you let things fizzle or would you make changes to keep the game going? Is there another option I’m missing?
Fear the Boot has a great bonus episode up where they talk about attending Anime Central. The hosts are a lot like me, in that they enjoy anime while at the same time are a little apprehensive about some of the truly insane stuff (NSFW) that escapes Japan. They talk about drunken fans, hentai, furries, and the various strata of Otaku sub-cultures.
In the past I’ve expressed my affinity for railroading a D&D game with the goal of creating an epic tale. My thinking has been that I want to create a thrilling story with the players as the central characters, and any subtle railroading that furthers that goal is highly desirable.
Great stories tend to have three acts, where we 1) introduce the challenge or threat 2) raise the stakes,and then 3) bring everything to a thrilling climax. Imagine a movie where the villain is defeated in the first half hour, and the hero spends the rest of the film goofing off. Or perhaps one where, in the middle of the film, the heroes forget about defeating the Big Bad and wander off because they can’t figure out how to beat him. Or maybe they join him, indulge in a bunch of senseless killing, and the story grinds to a halt when they run out of stupid ways to abuse the innocent. These are not interesting stories. This sort of gaming can appeal to some players, but it gets old quick. I think it is my duty as the DM to guide the story so that it remains as true to the three act ideal as possible, as long as my manipulations are subtle.
But let’s make clear what I mean by subtle railroading. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Case for Railroading”
When you’re in your twenties and you go to the doctor because your body stops behaving according to the understood specifications, the usual approach is for the doctor to give you a prescription and a few hints on the value of sobriety and regular sleep.
But once you reach A Certain Age, the same malfunction leads the doctor to conclude that you’re probably nearly dead and your only hope is to undergo a battery of tests so bizarre that they border on practical jokes. This is how I spent my Monday night.
I was sent to the hospital, where they bombarded me with x-rays. Then, as if I was some fraternity pledge, they made me chug a half gallon of nasty liquid. In this case, it was “orange” flavored barium sulfate, which they thoughtfully keep in a refrigerator at one or two degerees Kelvin. I could use many words to describe that drink, none of which are synonymous with “tasty”. Ingesting that much freezing goo pretty much robbed my body of the capacity to generate heat. I made sure to keep moving regularly so that none of the hospital staff would mistake me for a cadaver and have me wheeled off to the morgue.
Once my body temperature climbed high enough to match that of the room, they made me take my pants off for another round of x-rays. After that came an iodine injection, and the technician retreated behind a screen (to laugh at me in secret, I’m sure) while I dealt with the consequences of that. This was followed by another blast of radiation, which seemed sort of tame by this point. After that I guess they were out of ideas for weird stuff they could do to me, since they gave me back my pants and let me go.
The hazing is over now, I’m home, and I’m wearing pants again, but I could think of many ways I’d rather spend an evening. I expect the doctor to call in a few days and tell me to stop being such a sissy.
I don’t really begrudge them zapping me and filling me with strange substances, but I do miss the lost time. A whole evening! With NO INTERNET! I nearly died. Sheesh.
 |
Only in the context of an RPG is it possible for someone to need the Cliff Notes version of their own biography.
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2015.
An attempt to make a good looking cityscape with nothing but simple tricks and a few rectangles of light.
What is a skinner box, how does it interact with neurotransmitters, and what does it have to do with shooting people in the face for rare loot?
C++ is a wonderful language for making horrible code.
My first REAL published book, about a guy who comes back from the dead due to a misunderstanding.
A video discussing Megatexture technology. Why we needed it, what it was supposed to do, and why it maybe didn't totally work.
People fault EA for being greedy, but their real sin is just how terrible they are at it.
This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
Denuvo videogame DRM didn't actually kill piracy, but it did stop it for several months. Here's what we learned from that.
Let's do some scripting to make the Starcraft AI fight itself, and see how smart it is. Or isn't.
T w e n t y S i d e d
