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[deathtotheweird]

Yeah well those 'lost sales' still bring more people onto their platform. And I don't think they're hurting much, plus they've pretty much got no choice in the matter.

[TomHunt]

I gave Cart Life a whirl to try and decipher what about it got it 3 IGF awards.

What I've managed to see about it so far:

- different angle on retail sims (i.e. cafe world, etc) in that it is intentionally nintendo-hard, even with the tutorials. getting the basic gameplay down took a few tries from the beginning.
- quite a few very noticeable gameplay-affecting as well as crashing bugs. can't help but wonder how these slid by the judges on the grand prize decision.
- the monotony is curiously addictive, maybe because the game is crammed into such a tight timespace, and also because each of the characters has their own unique addictions to deal with that work to break the monotony.
- the writing seems pretty nicely done. i found myself actually caring about the characters in the game.
- some good chiptunes
- lol'd at the river city ransom references

so my thinking about this game is this: a game that tries to replicate your hard realities is just boring, but a game that tries to replicate the hard realities of people you take for granted - the shop vendors you sell you your morning coffee/paper/etc - this is more interesting because you kind of want to empathize with these people who are a positive part of your day - maybe you make small talk with them or leave a nice tip, but, if you've never been in their shoes, you have no concept of what they're really going through. and this is something that games like cafe world completely miss when they focus purely on the retail operation.

[pixhead]

Played some DF after class today.

Needless to say, I got nothing done after class today.

[saturdaymorning]

aw, man! sonic and all stars racing transformed is really fun. holy crap. also still playing that monster hunter.

[Blademasterbobo]

ok i powered through to the end of little inferno

can someone please explain to me how this is a good game

please ? ?

i mean, it was a fucking finalist for the grand prize in the igf?

wat the fuk

there's some emperor's new clothes bullshit goin on here if i've ever seen it

[s0]

it's a satire of f2p games

[Blademasterbobo]

tacking a 5 minute long morality message onto the end of an otherwise shitty game doesn't make it good all of the sudden.

if anything, it makes it worse, cuz it's calling you a fucking moron for being duped into finishing something it labels as a waste of time.

the only reason i even bought this is because of how everyone said it's "so deep lol." it looked awful... and oh shit, turns out it is awful? how does them telling you that playing the game was pointless suddenly make it better or good somehow? i paid $10 to get called an idiot, when i only played it because hype created by people i trusted made me give it the benefit of the doubt. game of the year right here, people.

irony: people posting in message boards about how to obsessively 100% the game / beat it multiple times with certain things

it's not very effective satire if your work forces people to go through the exact shit you're satirizing, imo.

i'm not an idiot. i get what they're trying to do, but i still don't get why people think it's good or effective? especially when it's people who already realize f2p games aren't good? do they actually think that this is subversive enough to affect people who play other f2p games?

[s0]

@bobo:
oops my previous post looks kinda dum, sorry for assuming you didnt know what the gam was about.

but still, complaining that a game that satirizes f2p games imitates their mechanics is kinda like criticizing full metal jacket for being a war movie.

actually agree with the most of the rest of your post tho, the ending was pretty hamfisted and ruined the whole thing for me. also games that try to guilt trip you for playing them aren't anything new at this point lol.

the only reason i even bought this is because of how everyone said it's "so deep lol."

general rule: never trust gamers when they say that

[deathtotheweird]

I haven't played LIttle Inferno but I did watch Campster's video on it:



Thought it was interesting, as I thought the game was just a little iToy or something.

[gimymblert]

The irony is that the game got 1 on app store by people who didn't get the irony and praise the game really high. It's a cow clicker situation again, except the satire has surpassed many of its target. Also you get to burn the machine you are playing with in the game.

[s0]

that's a problem all satire has tho. plenty of people enjoy full metal jacket as a straight action movie. or hey, ever heard of starship troopers?

what i guess is sad is that little inferno is extremely blunt about this shit and ppl still dont get it so

[Tanner]

paid 99 cents for it on ipad so i wasn't too disappointed. that fire tech sure is purdy, though. charging ten doll hairs for it though is dum.

[Blademasterbobo]

quit being so fucking patronizing. don't assume i don't "understand" that it's fucking satire or whatever just cuz i'm saying it's a terrible game

i get that it's supposed to be satirical, but it's still a bad game  

if this is all you guys have to say in its defense, that pretty much confirms it being an emperor's new clothes thing as far as i'm concerned.

[Uykered]

Intentionally awful games are above all others.

[gimymblert]

Come on we get you found it a bad game but it's still a good satire!
It's like expecting a rom com to be full pack of action on par with rambo, they can but it's not the focus, and you don't complain about it.
Appreciation is not unidimensional!

[s0]

Come on we get you found it a bad game but it's still a good satire!
It's like expecting a rom com to be full pack of action on par with rambo, they can but it's not the focus, and you don't complain about it.
Appreciation is not unidimensional!

it's a good ATTEMPT at satire but the ending is bad

[Blademasterbobo]

a game that calls you an idiot for buying and playing it (especially when half of the people paying for it are going to be duped into it because of all the praise the game got) isn't good satire. making a casual f2p game, stripping out the parts where you're forced to pay real money, and then tacking on a morality message isn't good satire. they made a real version of the games they're mocking, which you are forced to wade through in order to see what their message is. good satire is not just a wholesale copy of something bad with a sticker on the packaging that says "lol u stupid, this bad." it's like the people who praise this shit don't ever read or watch movies. (which is sorta surprising since it's gotten a lot of critical acclaim from otherwise seemingly sane people?)

this isn't even a good attempt at satire. it's not remotely subtle. imagine if full metal jacket was just like windtalkers or pearl harbor or something, but every 10 minutes, "WAR IS BAD" flashed on the screen, in bold green letters. then, at the end of the movie, it zooms out, and "YOU SHOULD FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING THIS YOU HORRIBLE PEOPLE" scrolls across the screen. is that still a good satire ? ? ? ? ?

forcing the player to engage with an exact replica of the acts you're attempting to satirize shits on whatever message you're hoping to convey. it just comes off as some asshole laughing at you, cuz he managed to dupe you into participating in something he deems beneath himself.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MarkFilipowich/20121208/183139/The_Inelegance_of_the_Video_Game_Satire.php

this blog brings up hotline miami as another example. one big difference there, however, is that at least hotline miami is still a fun game when you strip away the pathetic attempts at "satire."

can games even satirize boring experiences? surely there's a more creative way of doing it than forcing the player to wade through said experiences in some ham-fisted attempt at making them realize exactly how boring it really is.

another example: the giant hamster wheel bit in super paper mario. "lets attempt to satirize grinding by forcing the player to run in a giant hamster wheel before they can progress any further!" what if the player already gets it? welp, too bad! if they wanna get anything else out of the rest of the game, they still have to participate in that bs. it's like the little inferno devs saw that and thought "lets turn that into a 3 hour game! we can make it about f2p games instead of grinding, though. genius!"

it is not like expecting a rom com to be an action movie, it is like expecting a critically acclaimed game to have some subtlety and depth warranting the amount of praise it has received. it's like watching a rom com expecting it to satirize rom coms, and then realizing that it's just a typical, completely average rom com.

i don't know how many other ways i can describe how this is shitty and that i "get" what it's trying to do. if someone else replies with "you don't get it, it's saaaatiiiiiire," i just might fly into a murderous rage.

[s0]

this isn't even a good attempt at satire. it's not remotely subtle. imagine if full metal jacket was just like windtalkers or pearl harbor or something, but every 10 minutes, "WAR IS BAD" flashed on the screen, in bold green letters. then, at the end of the movie, it zooms out, and "YOU SHOULD FEEL GUILTY FOR ENJOYING THIS YOU HORRIBLE PEOPLE" scrolls across the screen. is that still a good satire ? ? ? ?

we're actually largely on the same page lol. i said "good attempt" because the basic concept is decent and i don't agree that making a game with f2p-like mechanics to satirize f2p games is in itself bad it's just this particular execution that sucks.

i sorta agree with the article you linked to but imo the biggest problem with most "satirical games" and the "guilt trip" variant of satire in general isn't so much that it becomes what it tries to criticize but that it's usually

a)navel gazing bullshit where we all momentarily jerk ourselves off over how miserable and empty our lives are and then move on w/o having gained a deeper understanding of anything.

b)preaching to the converted, i.e. an opportunity for people who aren't the target of the satire to feel superior to those who are. "look at all those ignorant sheeple and their farmvilles, i'm so much smarter than them because i get the DEEP SATIRE in little inferno"

here's another good article btw: http://nightmaremode.net/2013/01/would-you-kindly-24451/

[Udderdude]

So they unintentionally made an intentionally bad game?

That's pretty fucking meta.

[mono]

Started playing The Binding of Isaac today. Had it on my steam account forever but never gotten to it. I was sooo close beating Mother! I had her down to about 25% and I had one heart left and was just about to pop a full regen pill when her hand smashes me from nowhere killing me instantly. Such a good run.