{"id":53927,"date":"2022-02-28T06:00:21","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=53927"},"modified":"2022-02-28T06:21:51","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T11:21:51","slug":"diecast-373-tough-as-nails-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=53927","title":{"rendered":"Diecast #373: Tough as Nails Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a cynical guy, and even I never predicted anything this bad. The modern gaming industry is one where you use a privacy-invading storefront to buy a DRM locked game where you use an in-game storefront to buy lootboxes to gamble for NFTs. I love this hobby, but I would experience orgasmic levels of schadenfreude if we had another gaming crash like back in &#8217;83. <\/p>\n<p><br clear='all'><audio controls><source src='\/diecast\/diecast373.ogg' type='audio\/ogg'><source src='\/diecast\/diecast373.mp3' type='audio\/mpeg'>Your browser does not support the audio element.<\/audio><div><small><a href='\/diecast\/diecast373.mp3' download='diecast373.mp3'>Direct download<\/a> (MP3)<\/small><br\/><small><a href='\/diecast\/diecast373.ogg' download='diecast373.ogg'>Direct download<\/a> (ogg Vorbis)<\/small><br\/><small><a href='?cat=287&feed=rss2'>Podcast RSS feed.<\/a><\/small><\/div><br \/>\nHosts: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peripheralarbor.com\/\">Paul<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/\">Shamus<\/a>. Episode edited by <a href=\"http:\/\/steamcommunity.com\/profiles\/76561198087035658\/\">Issac<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/diecast\/diecast373.mp3\">Diecast373<\/a><\/p>\n<p><table class='nomargin' cellspacing='0' width='100%' cellpadding='0' align='center' border='0'><tr><td><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-JdXfPpOwE8\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen class=\"embed\"><\/iframe><br\/><small><a href='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-JdXfPpOwE8'>Link (YouTube)<\/a><\/small><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n<p>Show notes:<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>00:00 No Man&#8217;s Sky?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oh well. Maybe next update.<\/p>\n<p><strong>00:53 Tough as Nails Minecraft<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I really do think that &#8220;Don&#8217;t Starve, but in Minecraft&#8221; is a good idea. But I haven&#8217;t found it yet. Several mods have tried, but balancing Hunger \/ Thirst \/ Temp \/ Sleep systems is tricky. Make it too easy, and caring for your needs becomes routine busywork. Make it too hard, and it dissolves into comical nonsense. Stuff like, &#8220;I finally got some food, but then I starved to death because I fell asleep before I could eat it.&#8221;  Or &#8220;I ate ten grapefruit and then died of thirst because the fruit only fills your food meter, not hydration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Part of the problem is the reliance on the standard &#8220;fill the bar&#8221; style mechanics. When it comes to consuming stuff, you can&#8217;t just use a single bar. With just one bar, you can go from &#8220;starvation&#8221; to &#8220;fully nourished&#8221; in a single meal by just clicking on a lot of food. What you need is a sort of two-stage system where you have a cap on how much you can absorb at once. I think the biggest challenge is communicating all of this complex state<span class='snote' title='1'>The player needs to be able to tell the difference between &#8220;I&#8217;m hungry, but reasonably well-nourished&#8221; versus &#8220;I&#8217;m STUFFED, but also underweight and malnourished.&#8221;<\/span> clearly to the player without adding too much clutter to the HUD. <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sort of tempted to take a swing at it myself,<span class='snote' title='2'>I actually did a prototype a couple of years ago in C# that I was pretty happy with.<\/span> but I really don&#8217;t enjoy programming in Java. <\/p>\n<p><strong>11:14 The Mushroom Village and Paste Security<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/peripheralarbor.com\/mushroom\/shroom.html\">Here is the site<\/a>, if you want to try it yourself.<\/p>\n<p>I realize my take on this might be kind of controversial. &#8220;You can&#8217;t save ignorant people from falling for scams.&#8221;<span class='snote' title='3'>To be clear: The &#8220;you&#8221; in this sentence is the operating system. If &#8220;you&#8221; is instead a person, then you can indeed help people.<\/span> And yes, I realize that when one rube gets duped into installing malware, we all suffer because their machine joins a destructive botnet.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not saying that we shouldn&#8217;t try to help people make smarter choices, I&#8217;m just saying that that locking the user out of their own operating system and haranguing every user with endless warning messages is a lousy way of dealing with this problem. <\/p>\n<p><strong>17:59 Dreaming About Games<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I tried to make this as minimally cringe as I could. Still, we&#8217;re talking about dreams, so a little cringe is likely.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure I&#8217;m not the only one. Who else has dreams where the dreamworld seems to run on videogame logic?<\/p>\n<p><strong>25:50 Mailbag: Hard to play games (for story reasons)<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>I hope this February finds you well.<\/p>\n<p>I find myself with a bit of a conundrum: I love the gameplay of Breath of Fire IV.<\/p>\n<p>Now, this may not seem like much of an issue, if I like the game, I can just play it, however&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t play Breath of Fire IV.<\/p>\n<p>There is a scene later into the game where (spoilers), the bad guys shoot a magic cannon at the emperor and it is the saddest, most heartbreaking event in any game*.<br \/>\nNot satisfied with that utter gut punch, from the time the emperor (he&#8217;s fine, by the way) reaches the imperial capital the game drags the player through one tragedy after another.<br \/>\nMerely thinking about it gives me a stomach ache.<\/p>\n<p>So I was wondering, are there games that you guys love playing but simply can&#8217;t bring yourself to play because something the story does?<br \/>\nThis can be something the game does very well that you simply don&#8217;t have the bearing to withstand, or something the game does very poorly that ruins the experience for you.<\/p>\n<p>Vale,<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; Tim<\/p>\n<p>P.S.<\/p>\n<p>Warning: tragedy lies ahead.<\/p>\n<p>* The way said magic cannon works is by drawing power from someone with strong loving feelings towards the target.<br \/>\nPreparing the&#8230; &#8220;ammunition&#8221; for the procedure involves torturing them to near-death. They tend not to survive the experience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>32:06 Mailbag: Video Game Worlds<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>What are some of your favourite fictional settings in video games, and why?<br \/>\nWhat distinguishes them from other ones in the medium that you do not look so favourably on?<br \/>\nAnd are we greedy or too demanding for wanting rich settings without a whole bunch of jank and inconsistencies souring the experience?<\/p>\n<p>Have a wonderful day.<br \/>\n&#8211; Andrew<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>37:12 Mailbag: Logic Artists<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Hi Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>There is this game company that I liked, Logic Artists. They are known for their Expeditions series (tactical RPGs) and have recently released the third title of that series: Rome (after Conquistador and Viking). When the game was released, they announced that they won&#8217;t be doing any RPGs anymore and instead will focus on creating NFT games. So here are my questions:<\/p>\n<p>1) What the hell?<br \/>\n2) Do you think there will be more companies that will do the same thing?<br \/>\n3) Could you make them stop? Thanks in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Cheers,<br \/>\nDarek<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Here is the video I mentioned in this segment:<br \/>\n<table class='nomargin' cellspacing='0' width='100%' cellpadding='0' align='center' border='0'><tr><td><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YQ_xWvX1n9g\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen class=\"embed\"><\/iframe><br\/><small><a href='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g'>Link (YouTube)<\/a><\/small><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n<p>Like we said on the show, Paul and I disagree with this video (at different points, and for different reasons, I think) but I think we both agree that Dan&#8217;s eventual breakdown of NFTs is pretty good.<\/p>\n<p>If he&#8217;s right, then this is a problem that should solve itself. Sooner or later the pyramid collapses. And once enough of them collapse, new ones won&#8217;t have any  way to get off the ground. <\/p>\n<p>I normally wouldn&#8217;t care. I don&#8217;t mind if wealthy folks devise bizarre new ways to try to hustle each other with new financial technologies. I can just not buy NFTs and it doesn&#8217;t really affect me. But now <a href=\"https:\/\/quartz.ubisoft.com\/welcome\/\">Ubisoft is putting NFTs into their games<\/a>, and suddenly it&#8217;s something I have to worry about. <\/p>\n<p><strong>49:00 Mailbag: Age Math<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n<p>I hope you&#8217;re doing well! Do you ever forget how old you are? I know, it sounds weird, but as I&#8217;ve gotten older I sometimes find myself in a position where when I tell someone my age, I have to quickly do the math in my head to make sure I didn&#8217;t lie to them. I&#8217;m embarrassed to admit that last year on my 28th birthday for a minute or two I thought I was actually turning 29, until I actually did the math!<\/p>\n<p>So, my question is &#8211; has this ever happened to you, or am I just really weird (I mean, people always tell me I have a great memory, but maybe I&#8217;m just surrounded by even bigger freaks)? And if it has happened to you, is it something you&#8217;ve grown out of?<\/p>\n<p>Keep Being Awesome,<br \/>\nLino<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m a cynical guy, and even I never predicted anything this bad. The modern gaming industry is one where you use a privacy-invading storefront to buy a DRM locked game where you use an in-game storefront to buy lootboxes to gamble for NFTs. 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