tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post203771970018387866..comments2024-03-21T19:59:49.407-04:00Comments on KoopaTV: Open World PerilsLudwig Von Koopahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-66658252553681217752015-05-08T19:48:36.252-04:002015-05-08T19:48:36.252-04:00Yeah.
Golden Sun immediately comes to mind for wha...Yeah.<br />Golden Sun immediately comes to mind for whatever reason.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-66542306322272811152015-05-08T19:23:21.109-04:002015-05-08T19:23:21.109-04:00Yes. :D Those JRPG overworld maps are the best!Yes. :D Those JRPG overworld maps are the best!Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-74964381517183833602015-05-07T22:35:47.856-04:002015-05-07T22:35:47.856-04:00Yeah, that's fine and is like every JRPG with ...Yeah, that's fine and is like every JRPG with an overworld map anyway.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-33754587842319790322015-05-07T19:08:30.396-04:002015-05-07T19:08:30.396-04:00Pretty much, although I tend to think of it more i...Pretty much, although I tend to think of it more in terms of the map: "I can visit Point A, B, or C now, but other areas are still locked."Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-72578622277561736072015-05-07T13:58:13.136-04:002015-05-07T13:58:13.136-04:00Semi-linear being, "Oh hey I can do the main ...Semi-linear being, "Oh hey I can do the main story now if I want, or I can explore a bit/do a side-quest instead"?<br />Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-31755398149944702015-05-07T12:56:26.469-04:002015-05-07T12:56:26.469-04:00Hmm, I see what you mean... but I'm not sure t...Hmm, I see what you mean... but I'm not sure the experiences for games like this are as different as you make it seem. Although discussions of games like ME and DA definitely have a focus on, "So what did you choose when...."<br /><br />When it comes to linearity, I strongly prefer games that are "semi-linear" in terms of world exploration. When it comes to choices and whatnot, I'm good with either.Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-37176215619856855342015-05-05T21:26:07.655-04:002015-05-05T21:26:07.655-04:00My praise of Telltale was just to praise Telltale....My praise of Telltale was just to praise Telltale. :p<br /><br />I think that the player's interaction with their protagonist is very important and can affect their whole playing experience.<br /><br />For example, as you've read, I'm addicted to Pokémon Rumble World. The way the Rumble series works, is that your playable Pokémon don't level up, so they have a static strength. You are always collecting new Pokémon, and the more Pokémon you collect, the higher your Rank. With a higher Rank, the game scales the strength of the enemies higher. So in time, the Pokémon you've been playing with for a while will be too weak to be useful and you'll use someone else.<br /><br />This results in a constantly revolving "cast", but it also means that the game discourages you to be attached to any given Pokémon for too long (well, I guess when you're at end-game and cap out your rank it's different).<br /><br />So the game forces every player to have very different experiences at every point of the game based on their decisions of who to use and for how long and... y'know, the RNG.<br /><br />(I should just write a review of the game shouldn't I?)<br /><br />So the areas players go through are all the same (though the frequency they are played is player-dependent) and the "story" progression is the same, but my experience with Pokémon Rumble World would be wildly different than yours if you played it. The "infrastructure" is the same for everyone, but the experience is decentralised (player-controlled, not developer-controlled).<br /><br />And if it's player-controlled and players are different, then the way to share experiences about the game are different. In other words, the way that a Tales of Symphonia board would discuss Tales of Symphonia would be different than how a Skyrim board would discuss Skyrim.<br /><br />On that note, since I mentioned RNG here: Going back to wotever garbage I wrote in the article, if the game is designed by RNG, you're not having a player-to-developer dialogue, you're really talking to a Skinner Box.<br /><br />Hm, I guess by linear RPG I guess you could say linearity is a spectrum that takes into account all kinds of player choices. So on one end we have, like, Ace Attorney as totally linear, and the other we have... No Man's Sky or some shit. I get the feeling I should explore, say, where Pokémon Mystery Dungeon falls on that spectrum, since all the environments are randomly generated and your character choice is pseudo-RNG too, yet people all have similar experiences with PMD in discussions. Probably because people don't talk about PMD for its gameplay.<br /><br />Yeah I wouldn't play Skyrim for its story.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-37041868870960717832015-05-05T16:25:43.183-04:002015-05-05T16:25:43.183-04:00Sorry, since my previous examples were Bioware gam...Sorry, since my previous examples were Bioware games, I thought your praise of Telltale was in contrast to Bioware.<br /><br />What do you mean by a centralized experience? Everyone still has the same basic story and overarching plot. Everyone still meets the same characters and encounters the same choices. The decisions, the protagonist's personality, and the protagonist's backstory may differ from game to game--are those things what you mean by a centralized experience, or am I missing something?<br /><br />And when you say "linear RPG," do you mean in terms of character and choices, or in terms of the world? I mean, you can have an open world game with a fixed protagonist, or a linear game with a customized protagonist.<br /><br />I have no idea how it works in Skyrim, though. I've never played an Elder Scrolls game, there's a good chance I never will, and I know next to nothing about its plot. Don't people say you shouldn't play those games for their stories anyway, though? xDSamantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-8818195338420270362015-05-04T19:02:12.601-04:002015-05-04T19:02:12.601-04:00I... didn't name-drop BioWare, did I? :o (I...I... didn't name-drop BioWare, did I? :o (I'm sure some people might think that way with Mass Effect 3, though!)<br /><br />I guess when I'm thinking of custom characters, I'm thinking of, yeah, Shepard and Xenoblade Chronicles X where you can total freedom with design choices. The whole criticism here is that comes at the expense of having a centralised experience that all your players enjoy and can refer to when talking to one another. In other words, a shared base of... memories, I guess, and a shared reference pool that you do in good ol' linear RPGs.<br /><br />You simply can't have that in, say, Skyrim or whatever. You get other things in place of that, but not that.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-40148071785036623362015-05-04T18:38:18.146-04:002015-05-04T18:38:18.146-04:00Are you saying the choices are a secondary thought...Are you saying the choices are a secondary thought for Bioware's games?<br /><br />But you determine a great deal of their personalities through your actions. (And for that matter, my Bioware examples--Shepard and the Warden--also have predetermined backstories, just more than one that you get to pick from before you start playing.)Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-68176106741461184302015-05-04T16:28:03.061-04:002015-05-04T16:28:03.061-04:00I'd say that Telltale implemented the moral ch...I'd say that Telltale implemented the moral choice decisions well, since the entire game was built around players making those dilemma choices. In other words, that was the centrepiece of the game, and not some secondary thought.<br /><br />That said, I wouldn't call Lee or Clementine to be "custom characters". Their backstories are predetermined.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-24879174001257040332015-05-04T12:04:35.283-04:002015-05-04T12:04:35.283-04:00Edit: should have included the Witcher series alon...Edit: should have included the Witcher series along with Telltale's games as an example of one where there's a defined character, but the player makes the moral decisions.Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-62751258876793270032015-05-04T12:03:19.316-04:002015-05-04T12:03:19.316-04:00Hmm. So what would you say about Telltale's ga...Hmm. So what would you say about Telltale's games? Lee, Clementine, and Bigby are set faces or icons for their respective games, but their personalities are different depending on the player.<br /><br />Either the game just has a default option it uses, or you get to pick one. For example, when I started Dragon Age 2, it gave me three pre-set options I could pick if I didn't want to import data from the previous game.Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-90179602978415239202015-05-03T12:07:44.400-04:002015-05-03T12:07:44.400-04:00Again, moral choices are delicious for players, bu...Again, moral choices are delicious for players, but it means there's no one "true" character to work with! (The popular consensus?)<br /><br />So wot happens if you buy the sequel without playing the original? Wot's the established canon theeere?Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-17574425233484261092015-05-03T09:53:33.039-04:002015-05-03T09:53:33.039-04:00The sequels all manage to do it by having your gam...The sequels all manage to do it by having your game reflect the choices you made in the previous game. The KotOR games did it in a simple way, by having a character talk about the previous game and you could correct them. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and others let you import your game so all of your decisions are taken into account.<br /><br />Sure, that means more work for the developers to take all options into account... but I'm not here to make things easy for developers, I'm here to enjoy a good story. And moral choices. Gotta love those tricky moral choices. :DSamantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-92072754636654928672015-05-02T17:30:29.735-04:002015-05-02T17:30:29.735-04:00Yeah, it's better if there is an established c...Yeah, it's better if there is an established canon official storyline that franchises can refer to when they want to make a sequel or license the franchise.<br /><br />...And it needs to be clear exactly what that established canon official storyline IS.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-33770716235179705842015-05-02T17:23:59.865-04:002015-05-02T17:23:59.865-04:00I was on my iPad when I sent you the link. That...I was on my iPad when I sent you the link. That's why it was a mobile link.<br /><br />XDD Well, yeah, people will argue over characters like this. But people still like Shepard, or at least THEIR Shepard.<br /><br />And regardless, didn't this start out about storytelling? I love Mass Effect's story. And Dragon Age's. And Knight of the Old Republic's. (Now, there's an interesting example: even though the KotOR games have custom protagonists, one version is canon.... well, canon to the Star Wars Extended Universe, which itself isn't canon anymore. boo... But still, there is an official version of those characters that other materials acknowledge.)Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-52698027563186617642015-05-02T16:46:31.470-04:002015-05-02T16:46:31.470-04:00Wot's this mobile YouTube stuff?
Well look at...Wot's this mobile YouTube stuff?<br /><br />Well look at the comments in there: People arguing about how Shepard was represented.<br /><br />And you see dumbasses like this comment:<br /><br />"Look I really don't want to a white guy to be a Shepard, nothing agaist white Shepard, but the thing I love more about the Shepard is that they can be anyone, male/female, black/white, gay/hetero"Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-6185538280425226242015-05-02T08:56:09.868-04:002015-05-02T08:56:09.868-04:00I've seen Shepard cosplays. XD I think they us...I've seen Shepard cosplays. XD I think they usually go with the default appearances used for marketing and stuff.<br /><br />And you CAN celebrate a character like that, because there are four basic types of Shepard: male Paragon Shepard, male Renegade Shepard, female Paragon Shepard, and female Renegade Shepard. And if you're just talking personality, you'll find fans of Paragon Shepard and Renegade Shepard.<br /><br />Really, Shepard may not be a defined person, but fans celebrate him/her: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HiRDJLcYua0Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-13605767840699024692015-04-30T22:17:56.701-04:002015-04-30T22:17:56.701-04:00'Anonymous' is a slab of horse manure from...'Anonymous' is a slab of horse manure from the devil's own satanic herd.<br /><br />(Or Skyrim's.) Rawkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03378119442050732269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-46743493825784853282015-04-30T22:10:29.159-04:002015-04-30T22:10:29.159-04:00People can't even decide if Shepard is a dude ...People can't even decide if Shepard is a dude or a dudette. You can't celebrate a character from that!<br /><br />Seriously, how do you go and, say, cosplay your favourite character if it's custom-made?<br /><br />"Oh, I'm cosplaying my custom character!"Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-15965866029660426192015-04-30T22:01:23.208-04:002015-04-30T22:01:23.208-04:00Rawk is gay.Rawk is gay.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-39696340636093198572015-04-30T22:01:01.839-04:002015-04-30T22:01:01.839-04:00People like Shepard and the Warden, too. Especiall...People like Shepard and the Warden, too. Especially Shepard. xD<br /><br />Although my examples might not be the best for this article, since while those games have custom protagonists, they aren't open world.Samantha Lienhardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00050896759185927270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-65818586100404925252015-04-30T21:48:15.208-04:002015-04-30T21:48:15.208-04:00'kay.'kay.Ludwig Von Koopahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07286894104423855927noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7803482805925136251.post-52467313204931577452015-04-30T21:40:37.449-04:002015-04-30T21:40:37.449-04:00I love games like this so you (white) idiots can g...I love games like this so you (white) idiots can go fuck yourselvesSamnoreply@blogger.com