StaceyPowers

In Bioshock 1, there is a point where Fontaine says something to you about “nothing down here deserves to be saved.” From a moral standpoint, I think it’s fairly obvious the Little Sisters deserve to be saved. But do you think anything else in Rapture deserves to be saved? It’s easy for me to lean toward his misanthropy regarding the place. But judging from some interactions and recordings lying around the place, to me it seems like most of the populace were foolish albeit ordinary people who invested into a concept that wasn’t going to pan out. I suspect that at least some of them must have survived (I haven’t played Bioshock 2 yet) after the city went insane, and like Tannenbaum, may have evolved as human beings (in the way that truly matters). So I reckon Rapture might be worth saving. Plus, the place itself is a marvel, and surely such vision deserves to be spared and redirected toward something positive if possible. Did you feel Rapture had any redeeming qualities or possibilities?

If you could have any ability the Dragonborn has in Skyrim in real life, what would it be? Sticking strictly with abilities in the actual skills lists, I’d either pick healing (the dull but practical answer) or Clear Skies (particularly if auroras consistently result). In terms of abilities the Dragonborn has which aren’t mentioned in the skills, I’d definitely love the same uncanny ability the Dragonborn has to apparently find money laying around everywhere (judging from the poverty throughout Skyrim, nobody else has that ability!).

Who here enjoys cooking systems in video games? I feel an odd sense of satisfaction in cooking in Skyrim which goes well beyond the health and other benefits of the foods I make, which let’s be honest, are pretty marginal next to potions. But for some reason, I feel all excited when I make something that looks tasty, even though it’s not like I’ll be eating it. I also like eating foods in video games that I hate in real life and imagining that they have a nicer flavor and texture. Like in my mind, Skyrim tomatoes are more like … balls of tomato soup =D

As a subset to our discussion about difficulty settings, @Executor Akamia got me thinking about qualities which irritate me in enemy NPCs from a "difficulty" standpoint. Here are two things which drive me crazy when I select a "harder" difficulty setting: 1- It’s annoying when the only thing and makes an enemy more difficult is the fact that it has simply turned into a bullet sponge. This doesn't actually add any nuance to the game. It makes it harder, but it doesn't make it more interesting. 2-I like an increase in enemy intelligence, but I get equally irritated when the intelligence seems outright unnatural. A good example is the bots in UT 2004. On a harder difficulty setting (and in general), they are unnaturally bright. You can climb to an incredibly remote and unexpected sniper nest, and they will instantly pinpoint your position and shoot you down, even though most real players would never think to look for you in such a spot in the first place. I think the bots in Quake III behave much more naturally. Their intelligence increases at higher difficulties, but they do not become seemingly godlike in their perception. What are your pet peeves when it comes to the impact of difficulty settings (and programming in general) on enemy NPCs? @UleTheVee @DylanC @killamch89 @kingpotato @jonbones @The Blackangel @LadyDay

@The Blackangel Hahah, I would never be able to get through any single player game with a "you're dead, you're dead," type of setting (both for lack of skill and because of performance anxiety). Though that does remind me of a MUD I played once where if you died, you died, and had to start a new character. I actually liked that concept a lot, because in a multiplayer environment, it forces people to be much more cautious and rational in how they deal with conflict. @Executor Akamia I love your detailed responses. It's a good point to bring up not just how difficult different settings are, but what makes them that way in terms of enemy AI, bullet sponge qualities, etc.

Same here. Thus I do not want it to succeed.

I never thought about it like that before. I suppose I feel that way a bit about the challenges in RDR like "kill 5 wolves with 5 knives" or whatever.There's no in-game reason to be doing that, but it's fun.

I think that I just picked "normal" or whatever. Usually, that's my default with a game I haven't played before.I think that I've been doing things in a strange order--more random exploring and encounters than the game expected me to do initially--because I finally completed that task for the snake oil salesmen, and now have the targeting active in Dead Eye. It made the game instantly so much easier.

Lots of tragic irony in that story. I can see why it'd stick with you. Sometimes when watching what characters in video games are willing to do for each other, I'm like, "why can't I find that IRL?"

@skyfire Do you use a vacuum cleaner on yours? I'm wondering how you avoid problems with static cling. It's simply hard for me not to imagine it being an issue, but maybe I just don't know what I'm talking about (probably not). @xXInfectedXx @killamch89 i usually just pick it up at the local Fred Meyer or Walmart or such. Sometimes, they sell it in bulk, and you can get a cheap deal on it. I haven't really found any particular brand to be superior so far.

That sounds really cool. If you have anything posted online, I'd love to check it out. Totally understandable. I'm the same way about my writing.

Hey there, welcome to the forum! I'm sure you're going to like it here. My favorite Fallout game is NV. What's yours?

Well,I trust your opinion on it, especially since I haven't heard anything decent about it yet. It's really depressing to hear in any case.

Alas, not my platform (PS3), but thanks for calling it to my attention. It's definitely on my list of games to try!

Have you ever been the target of bullying in an MMO? If so, how did you deal with it? Also, if you are open to admitting it, have you ever been a bully in an MMO? If so, do you have anything to share from those experiences? When I was a teen, I played an MMO quite extensively. During that time, I was at the receiving end of a lot of bullying, but I also was at times (however unintentionally) a bully myself. I grew up being bullied in school for being the “nerd,” and in the MMO, the same skills which were scorned IRL were useful. So naturally I teamed up with other angry nerd kids in the game, and we did our best to rule the roost. I expect this is common in gaming.

We've been discussing whether or not all games should have an "easy" mode on this thread. Separately, I wanted to ask those of you who have been participating in that discussion another question. What games have you played which you feel have done a particularly good job handling the structuring of difficulty modes or levels? @UleTheVee @DylanC @The Blackangel @LadyDay @killamch89 @Executor Akamia @skyfire @kingpotato (I hope I didn't miss anyone, but I probably did)

@kingpotato Lol, that's great. @skyfire Like side quests, or like totally different activities from what you usually do in the game?

What do you mean? (can you please rephrase?)

This reminds me of an old DOS game which I played as a kid which I thought handled difficulty in a great way. It was a puzzle game called Heaven and Earth. I think it had like ... thousands of puzzles in it in a number of innovative categories. They started out absurdly easy, and then gradually increased in difficulty in every category until they were ludicrously hard. I never did beat the game because you had to beat every puzzle to do it, but it never angered me because: 1-I could do the puzzles in literally any order I wished, at any time I wanted. 2-The learning curve was gradual and logical. 3-Rather than having to puzzle out what the puzzles actually were, they had clear tutorials, and most of them were designed to help improve particular skills (i.e. there was a whole set involving motor skills with mirror movement, where your mouse would behave as if it were flipped). Even though beating it would be quite challenging, I really felt like it offered something at every skill level. And this is coming from a person who usually detests puzzles in video games.

Actually, I wasn't thinking of multiplayer at all, since I also don't play online games. I mean accessibility features that would make the types of games you usually play easier. Like for example, when talking to an NPC in pretty much any game at all (i.e. Skyrim, Fallout, RDR, whatever), I usually miss whole portions of their dialogue because my brain is busy making connections or hasn't task-switched yet. I always wish that every game recorded all of this in a readable log format so I can just look up what I missed.

I never heard anyone mention open source in relation to this before. That's an interesting suggestion. Where do you think that might lead?

Rofl. Thank you. Yes. That's just it. I get confused about why video games and reality would be so easy to confuse, because context-wise, well, it seems unlikely that I will run into any Thalmor or Vigilants of Stendarr in town today who just need to die. @skyfire You're right I suspect about today's kids needing to rely on government aid and social support systems which currently do not even exist. Technically, the Millennial generation already has been pretty majorly screwed economically. Our parents didn't lay much of a groundwork for us to succeed in the world, so our generation's children are going to inherit an even shitter situation.

@LadyDay What is parchment craft? @The Blackangel I write too. Do you have any of your work online? For me, writing is the opposite. I am obsessed with control (because I feel I have so little of it) in most of my life, but with writing, I can release the tiller and just put down on the page what comes to me.

@LadyDay It's interesting you talk about time commitment. I too notice I rarely get invested in something from the moment I start it (one exception being TLOU, which has a particularly gripping first act). It's more like I play for a while, and then something grabs me, and it's like the game "comes to life" for me. But it doesn't seem to involve a particular amount of time--it's more the qualitative nature of the moment that matters. It can take a while to find it though!

@SpaceExplorer Thanks for the clarification, and for sharing that trailer ... that does look cool!