Hucasarts fans are dreaming on: “PS3/Xbox 360/Revolution: Who knows what may come of our favourite Star Wars titles for the new console war. Already Nintendo’s Revolution controller has people thinking of many original ideas, while the power of Sony and Microsoft’s entries will always be interesting to follow.”
EDIT: One original idea. Lightsaber duels.
“I think there’s something seriously wrong with the video game industry. It’s so obsessed with its own young hipster propaganda that it’s turning away anyone who isn’t youthful or a hipster. You don’t need an MBA from Stanford to figure out that’s a stupid business strategy.” >Kotaku on rising DS sales
The “niche market” Nintendo is known for tends to be the overwhelming majority of the population.
“Get the word out that T&J - as well as a host of other games previously undistributed through the distro-retailer system - are becoming available.” – Chad U. on Truth & Justice being distro’d to local gaming outlets via RPGNow’s retail store.
More means of distro x the Right Stores = More love. Yay for small-press love!
“And yet even the undead have room for more diverse motivations.”—comment by Yrro on the “Horde is Evil” thread.
Also check out Arcady’s thoughts on “racism in fantasy”, specifically looking at WoW and D&D.
“When you tie into real world desires, you strengthen the power of your risk / reward schedules dramatically. Guitar Hero is an addictive game, far more than its Simon-style mechanics suggest. The title fills a real psychological need and that gives the design impressive power over its audience.” – Lost Garden’s review of Guitar Hero.
The author point out how this game is designed for major appeal to the casual gamer. (Of couse. Who doesn’t like to rock?)
“The game world [of World of Warcraft] benefits from the ambiguity. What it lacks, unfortunately, is a way for players to make meaningful moral choices.” — Lydia Leong’s comment on Terra Nova, “The Horde is Evil”.
While I think that the Horde is not accurately “evil” (not moreso than the Alliance), there’s still a good point about the moral consequences of simply playing “evil” acts without taking some responsibility for what’s going on. There can be a mature gaming allowing for depiction of “evil” choices, but only within a framework that allows players to adequately separate themselves from what’s going on, and also be reflective about what’s happening. In other words, you need to play the rise of Darth Vader as the fall of a flawed hero into moral wrong, and not as a fun opportunity for griefing Alderaan.
‘So summing up “a scene, plus some conflict” as “bickety-bam, narrativism” seems to me like summing up “you have a plant, it grows” as “bickety-bam, salad.”’ —the arguably vegetarian Ben Lehman on Clinton’s story thread.
My first actual play report from a game I wrote! I wrote this over a year ago, and it’s interesting to take another look at it now.
Interestingly, my thoughts on gaming now are different from my thoughts when I first wrote this. The scenario I outline is more than a bit linear / predetermined, with lots of use of the GM fiat to keep things tense. That was a style I don’t do as much now, but seeing the successful play report, I’m reminded of how much fun that style can be, if the GM has the skills to execute and everyone understands the SOP for being in a scenario that’s basically a horror movie. (Which is: bad things will happen, and you’ll probably die.)
Maybe I’ll run this on some Halloween, see what comes of it.
“In order to keep Ball from devolving into pure chaos, each game is assigned a Ball King (or Queen, these folks aren’t barbaric, you know).”—Chris describes a Strange Place, and takes that metaphor to NEW HEIGHTS.