next »

[JWK5]

I had a spiel on gamesindustry about this already, and I will keep it "short" (hah), but if you don't understand or disagree let me know and I will elaborate/discuss.

Publishers rent-seek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent-seeking). They move wealth around without adding value to the world (though technically they add _some_ value in most cases, the wealth they move around and extract far exceeds the value they add, like if someone donated ten dollars at a charity dinner and ate one hundred dollars worth of food). Game developers are value-adding entities; they create intellectual property that increases the happiness of society (if done right). For every dollar that the teams in the EA Indie Bundle got, said dollar would have gone to another indie developer or another game or a movie or what have you - to another value adder. Now said dollar is going to be divided by these teams -- oh, and EA. So from one stance, EA is doing something good by supporting these indie developers. From another stance, they are simply helping one value-adding entity get noticed over other value-adding entities and taking a cut themselves (I assume, like I've said elsewhere if EA is taking no money from any of this then I would be shocked and would reevaluate my stance).

This is what the "independent" movement evolved to fight: a world in which people whose only talent is shifting and accumulating wealth controlling our destinies. This is older than video games of course, as the movie and music industries have had similar realizations and similar attempts to fight it. Unfortunately, it seems like even developers whose livelihoods depend on a healthy and fair game market don't understand the issues involved in this. The hatred of EA is trendy for many, but what they have done to developers (and they aren't alone), burning out talent that could have made wonderful games that bring a lot of joy to the world, helping to create a system with bloated parasites between developers and gamers, is worthy of much more than bandwagon hate. Likewise developers seem to think that "independent" is some malleable word that now means "maker of puzzle platformer with stylized pixel art" or "curator of open worlds with block building" or "purveyor of quirky experiences who spends time circle-jerking on tigsource" or what have you.

No. Sure, there are different facets to the "independent" moniker (was it independently developed? Independently published? OMG DID YOU TEACH YOURSELF EVERYTHING YOU KNOW? YOU LEARNED TRIG IN HIGH SCHOOL? NOT INDIE!!!), it is important to stay focused on the intent of the movement: to fight rent-seeking entities that exist to fatten their wallets at the expense of our freedom and the quality of the experience that ends up in the gamer's hands.

[ink.inc]

would you eat a retard

[Sakar]

starfish are actually pretty cool, as far as animals go

radial symmetry, mouth/asshole are the same thing, regenerating limbs

they are also the only other animals besides geese that derive sexual satisfaction out being bludgeoned to death by an ice pick

not true, there's also the philfish

[moi]

i skipped to the last page, unsure if i had posted here, and sure enough you were talking about the kkk, and burning crosses, so my work here is done

[Dragonmaw]

any tips for jungling as shyvana?

[Manuel Magalhães]

How do you get points in ring^-27?  I hope you read my section on Equations to know why I don't think a lot of later games had great scoring mechanisms.  To be clear, I never said my knowledge of "shooting games" only extends to Galaga.

Whoops, guess I should've brought the walls in the first place...

OK, so ring^-27. Basically, here's how scoring goes: First, you anchor onto an enemy. Next, you shoot other enemies without killing the first one. For each enemy you kill, the number of points each enemy is worth increases (omg arbitrary multipliers!) and they also drop some little medal items too (why not just count medals grabbed?). So, yeah, it kind of fails your criteria since it abstracts and it's not good to abstract and right now I wish I had never posted that first thing at all because I hate these arguments. Shit.

So I'm dry-heaving and it's time for paragraph 3. The thing is, when you talk about how completion made score irrelevant, it actually didn't make scoring irrelevant. It made that number at the top of the screen irrelevant, but come on. It is the 90s and you're sitting down with your friend and you're playing Sonic. Empty pouches of Capri-Sun litter the scene and your controller is stained with cheese powder. Sonic's eyes bulge out and he falls to the bottom of the screen. Game over. Time for your friend to give it a go.

The music to Green Hill Zone starts up.

Your friend's hands clutch the controller. Your hands clutch the cheese puffs.

In a matter of seconds, you hear the buzz of the end goal.

Sonic has passed Act 1.

Time: 0:29

God.

Daaaaaaaaammmmnnnnn.

As your mom washes your mouth out with soap, it gives you some time to reflect on the situation. 29 seconds. He cleared that level in twenty-nine seconds. Blew through it. Yeah, you don't really remember the score, except for the fact that the tally seemed to go on a while. But still. Anybody with limbs can clear Act 1 of Green Hill Zone, but to blow through it in 29 seconds...that takes some fuc-NO WAIT MOM I WAS GOING TO SAY FUDGING NO AAAAHH

A faint gargling sound emanates from the bathroom. Your friend slightly turns his head, concerned, but the sound of jingling rings captures his attention and you go ignored.

[ortoslon]

Finished the game, very nice! Perhaps a little short, but overall a nice amount of gameplay, closure, polish!

somewhere, icycalm wakes up in cold sweat, blood pumping. he goes to kitchen to get yourself a glass of water and falls back to sleep.

[moi]

I don't *Get 'it'*

[Ashkin]

[ink.inc]

i'm still in tears

[iffi]

You should make it your avatar.

[ink.inc]

done

[moi]

this is the new internet fad, right there, invest on this right now

[emacs]

o god what have i started

[Manuel Magalhães]

i Literally did a buildup ooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO as i read the first sentence and then when my eyes hit the word "kickstarter" i yelled out "kickstarter" and then some very sick sports graphics overlay displayed on my life, denoting the event of a goal, touchdown, or similar

[sigfarter]

this post is epic because i made it in this thread

[JWK5]

...you can't make history just by studying it...

[Squid Party]

some of these are not epic due to lack of context

[s0]

just click the links

[Capntastic]

this post is epic because i made it in this thread

You're full of yourself, dude.