A Gauntlet of Mortal Danger (AKA Life)

By Shamus Posted Monday Dec 22, 2008

Filed under: Rants 38 comments

Doctors warn of an “Epidemic” of Wii injuries. Wasn’t it just five minutes ago they were warning us about the epidemic of corpulent drooling television-watchers. I distinctly remember dire predictions that we were rocketing towards a grim reality where we’re all too fat to fit in the booth at Denny’s and we drop dead of a heart attack at 27. Now a few of us have tried to get up and move gently in place, which is placing us in a new and equally horrifying peril.

Truly we are hemmed in on all sides by relentless danger from which there can be no escape. We have no choice but to be afraid of everything, at all times.

 


 

Twitting

By Shamus Posted Sunday Dec 21, 2008

Filed under: Personal 23 comments

My Twitter feed:

(Deleted, moved to sidebar.)

Don’t get too attached. I’m sure I’ll get bored and quit any minute now.

If, by some miracle, I decide to keep doing this, I’ll figure out how to tuck this thing into the sidebar.

 


 

Cyth Guitar Hero Cult of Personality

By Shamus Posted Saturday Dec 20, 2008

Filed under: Movies 34 comments

What to do if you don’t have time to play videogames? Build a robot to play them for you:


Link (YouTube)

I think I’m the only guy in the world that hates that song, but I love the robot.

 


 

Friday Notes

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 19, 2008

Filed under: Personal 47 comments

I didn’t have time to finish up the final post in the Fallout series, so we’ll have to wait until Monday to have that conversation. Actually, it’s not that it’s not “done” as much as I realized I was beating a long-dead horse and it would have made for a laborious read.

In other news, today’s Stolen Pixels launched, and promptly landed again with a dull, wet thud. A sound not unlike that of a body striking the ground in the desert, right beside a freshly-dug hole. I’ve been excited about this one for a while and I think it’s thought is was my best work so far. And it’s garnered what might be generously referred to as a halfhearted “meh”. At first this stunned me like a blow to the forehead. I was prepared for rejection. Or confusion. But apathy?

Then I looked at my logs here on this site, and realized the internet (or at least my corner of it) is a ghost town today. It’s the Friday before Christmas. I think school is out, college kids are home, and people just aren’t around right now. Still, 2 comments? Merry Christmas Shamus! Santa has brought you a box of FAIL.

At the risk of ruining a joke by explaining it, Travis Taylor is just a character I’ve added to the comic. I don’t know how often he’ll show up, but it will be handy to have an ongoing personality aside from the EA Guy. I like the EA Guy, but I’m just about out of usable pictures of him. I’m explaining this because people keep telling me this new guy isn’t as funny as I am, which is either a very polite insult or a painful compliment. It’s a bit like someone sharing an ice cream cone with you by launching it at your head with a baseball pitcher. Delicious and painful.

Also, in response to about a thousand (give or take 995) requests, I started one of those twitter things. I expect to amuse myself with it for a few days and then lose interest, as most people do. But there it is, while it lasts.

Right. Back to work.

 


 

Stolen Pixels #48:
2008 Awards, Part 1

By Shamus Posted Friday Dec 19, 2008

Filed under: Column 0 comments

I’m taking Christmas off from Stolen Pixels. Travis Taylor will be filling in for me. Yes, THE Travis Taylor. He’s difficult to work with, but nobody else was willing to do it on such short notice.

Edit: And please don’t be shy about leaving comments. I don’t know what the deal is. There have been less comments than ever, even as traffic for the comic has grown. What the heck?

 


 

Fallout 3: Tenpenny Tower

By Shamus Posted Thursday Dec 18, 2008

Filed under: Game Reviews 172 comments

So a few people have complained that the quests in Fallout 3 are shallow or nonsensical. Other people really dig them. Two common responses are:

  1. The quests in Fallout 3 are stupid compared to the earlier Fallout games.
  2. The quests in Fallout 3 are so much better than in Oblivion.

Let’s look at one of these quests.

Allow me to set the stage: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Fallout 3: Tenpenny Tower”

 


 

Worst Campaign Train Wreck

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Dec 17, 2008

Filed under: Tabletop Games 128 comments

No GM advice this week. The Big Project continues to bear down like an unbearably overbearing… bear. I don’t have time for the fancy writing and whatnot, which is why the previous sentence was so appallingly lame. Seriously, I don’t even have time to highlight it and hit “delete”, that’s how amazingly busy I am. So let’s have a topic for discussion instead:

This won’t apply to people who run or play freestyle off-the-cuff games, but for those who strive for some sort of specific plot:

Players

What is the worst derailment you’ve ever perpetrated? Usually player cleverness leads to more interesting situations, but sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it just wrecks an NPC / location / dungeon / conversation that promised to be fun. Maybe you killed the bad guy without even realizing it. Or you alienated a key ally. Or caused a cave-in of a dungeon before you even set foot inside. What is the one thing you did that put the GM off his script, and which you later regretted? (As opposed to all the other times you put him off his script, just because that’s half the fun.)

Game Masters

What is the worst railroading you’ve ever perpetrated? Maybe one time when you manipulated things so that they went according to some overarching scheme, and afterwords you realized your plans sucked compared to what the players had in mind, or you realized that things would have been more fun if you’d let the players have their way.

If you want to answer both, go for it. You can even do so in two different posts, if that helps. I know it sucks trying to write long comments in that little box.

 


 
From The Archives:

Lost Laughs in Leisure Suit Larry

Why was this classic adventure game so funny in the 80's, and why did it stop being funny?

 

Project Octant

A programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.

 

What is Piracy?

It seems like a simple question, but it turns out everyone has a different idea of right and wrong in the digital world.

 

I Was Wrong About Borderlands 3

I really thought one thing, but then something else. There's a bunch more to it, but you'll have to read the article.

 

Who Broke the In-Game Economy?

Why are RPG economies so bad? Why are shopkeepers so mercenary, why are the prices so crazy, and why do you always end up a gazillionaire by the end of the game? Can't we just have a sensible balanced economy?

 

Grand Theft Auto Retrospective

This series began as a cheap little 2D overhead game and grew into the most profitable entertainment product ever made. I have a love / hate relationship with the series.

 

Another PC Golden Age?

Is it real? Is PC gaming returning to its former glory? Sort of. It's complicated.

 

TitleWhat’s Inside Skinner’s Box?

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?

 

D&D Campaign

WAY back in 2005, I wrote about a D&D campaign I was running. The campaign is still there, in the bottom-most strata of the archives.

 

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.