Elements of Meaning

If I could manage to post more than once per month...

2009-03-31T18:45:00.000-05:00

If I could manage to post more than once per month and before the last minute, I might have confidence that I'd have time to work through all that!

You see, it's the ability to allow the audience to...

2009-03-31T17:37:00.000-05:00

You see, it's the ability to allow the audience to fully explore all those possible meanings that so excites and challenges me expressly to consider how I'd present Hamlet via gameplay.

I see you've learned the art of the intro-panderin...

2009-03-30T14:33:00.000-05:00

I see you've learned the art of the intro-pandering paragraph (pandergraph?).

I see that you're right. I had a slightly constrained view on the central bildungstroman metaphor of learning to navigate our lives while torn between desires for gentility and our animal natures.

But then that relates to the March BotRT topic. Hopefully I post that soon!

I'm loving these Braid articles. I've looked, and ...

2009-03-26T12:04:00.000-05:00

I'm loving these Braid articles. I've looked, and it's very difficult to find people online who close-read Braid for every drop of its literary value.

Wandy here... Wow, you're blog is really growing ...

2009-03-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

Wandy here... Wow, you're blog is really growing here. You've got links galore, connections aplenty. See, aren't you glad you started this thing? Well done.

About Jekyll and Hyde, there is a fourth possible ending. Jekyll must destroy Hyde in order to save his immediate world, family, reputation. He must grapple with his demon and fling both he and it into the abyss. Only then can he be truly free.

Another good example of a "no winning moves" game ...

2009-02-28T20:18:00.000-06:00

Another good example of a "no winning moves" game is Execution: http://gmc.yoyogames.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=375097

This is utterly random, but I am finally making th...

2009-02-10T00:28:00.000-06:00

This is utterly random, but I am finally making the switch from PC to Mac... and just realized this will mean I will lose my beloved Master Of Orion II. I've noticed they sell some copies of it for Macs online... do you know if those will work on a modern mac? Or...am I being terribly antiquated and there is some download somewhere? Any advice would be amazing.

Glad to see you worked this one in at the last min...

2009-02-02T07:43:00.000-06:00

Glad to see you worked this one in at the last minute! I like the fact that you looked at a number of different sources, and even that you suggested some already created games as possible spiritual "predecessors."

It seems like most of the great game experiences I've had recently were very short and to the point (aside from Persona). I like the focus that form gives, like short stories. Games tend to ramble on and on far more often than other forms of entertainment.

MUAHAHAHAHA! I always pick out these personificati...

2008-11-11T12:56:00.000-06:00

MUAHAHAHAHA! I always pick out these personifications in people's writing. They don't normally bug me but i think it's an interesting insight into people's mental associations between the sexes and 'things'.

Curse you for calling attention to that bit of slo...

2008-11-06T22:45:00.000-06:00

Curse you for calling attention to that bit of sloppy sentence construction, Duoae! :)

Actually, I played a male the first time through. I just default to the feminine for pronouns.

"between the player to her world."I see you're pla...

2008-11-06T18:35:00.000-06:00

"between the player to her world."

I see you're playing a female character too?

I really love Fable 2 but it's fallen by the wayside since Fallout 3 came along, fluttered its eyelashes and flashed a little cleavage at me before taking my balls in hand and squeezing mercilessly.

That being said, i mean to go back and finish off the story before replaying as a more evil character. However i do believe that the choices in Fable 2 - while allowing you to play as a 'gray' character overall - are still too binary in their presentation. You always know when you're going to do something bad or good - unlike how i found The Witcher to be (damn, another game i need to go back and play!)

What I'm saying is that singing "Just a Job to Do"...

2008-10-31T16:34:00.000-05:00

What I'm saying is that singing "Just a Job to Do" while I run quests and mini-games isn't the only thing in common with my actual job.

So you're saying that the tears of those who cry d...

2008-10-31T15:30:00.000-05:00

So you're saying that the tears of those who cry during final fantasy games will provide the extra fresh water the world needs?

;)

Career paths come and go, but grinding--grinding n...

2008-10-31T09:35:00.000-05:00

Career paths come and go, but grinding--grinding never changes.

I predict that gaming will become a way of life an...

2008-10-31T04:22:00.000-05:00

I predict that gaming will become a way of life and that those who take that 'job' will be used to provide power for the rest of the human race - like in the matrix.... only with more choice and better minigames.

You're not wrong, Duoae, but when better than nine...

2008-10-30T08:26:00.000-05:00

You're not wrong, Duoae, but when better than nine in ten American teens play video games, it's easy to forecast a time when video games are every bit as common as movies.

Though I have a hard enough time keeping up with all the movies I want to see, even at only 90-13 minutes each. I can't imagine how bad it would be if they each lasted 8 hours, with the occasional 60+ hour epic.

Too true. Though don't forget that arts programmes...

2008-10-30T06:56:00.000-05:00

Too true. Though don't forget that arts programmes are usually focused on established and 'ancient' or 'archaic' forms of art rather than the newest, latest wave or form.

That boulevard showing of film and literature has been earned through mainstream acceptance of these forms. Despite its continued rise in popularity, gaming is still a minor past time rather than being ubiquitous and is treated as such.

Thanks for the comment, Wanderer, but Blow himself...

2008-09-25T22:02:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the comment, Wanderer, but Blow himself noted in that interview that he was willing to admit that, intentional or not, the opening "fire" can't be erased with authorial claims of "that's not what I meant." He said that he doesn't think it changes the overall meaning in any critical ways, but I think authorial intention is tangential to the meaning at best.

The 1up podcast, I think FM, about 2 episodes back...

2008-09-25T21:10:00.000-05:00

The 1up podcast, I think FM, about 2 episodes back, took the entire episode to go along with Jonathan Blow on a deconstruction, entirely spoiler free, of Braid. He specifically said that the city in the opening scene is not on fire. Just saying. TheWanderer

Hey, Words, thanks for the shout-out. The reason ...

2008-09-24T10:24:00.000-05:00

Hey, Words, thanks for the shout-out. The reason these problems became so glaring to me was that I've been playing with a creative, charasmatic custom race -- meaning that I tended towards science and diplomacy, just as you say. This seems to give the widest range of options (depending on what penalties the custom race has to offset these advantages). It's not hard to get in most other race's good graces, with gifts of tech followed by treaties. In short order, military tech well outpaces everyone else's. Good relations means I generally don't need to use it unless I want to. Trade treaties keep the coffers full. So with that setup, I can go for conquest or peaceful expansion (of course, either opens up the issue with micromanagement I talked about unless playing a smaller map).

On the last game I played, an absolute crushing (almost hollow) victory, the Klackons were my main rivals. These guys are ridiculous in their tech advancement! They even well outpaced me for most of the game, according to the info chart. And yet, I couldn't understand at first why their tech seemed so deficient. Even though for some reason the Exchange Tech option was disabled for me, I could still gift them tech -- there were many developments I had they were lacking -- and if I demanded tech, I had a number of possible choices. It was at this point I realized that while they were ahead of me in number of categories researched, they'd only managed to acquire a single tech from most of them. The info graph shows categories, not individual technologies. They were so far ahead of everyone else, they had no one to trade technologies with. When I finally got around to conquering them, they couldn't even build Titans because they went with a different choice for Astro Construction. I left him 1 system and then proceeded to kill the Antarans with a fleet of Doom Stars.

With all the games I've played, there's one thing I didn't realize until just recently (my used copy of MoO2 came with no instruction manual). I was never clear on the use of outpost ships and for a long time the limitations on ship travel distance confounded me. It was only in my last game that I discovered you can only travel to systems within a certain distance (determined by your fuel cells) of the nearest colony or outpost. Definitely useful information that makes winning much easier!

I'll see what I can do. I'm working my way throug...

2008-09-22T10:50:00.000-05:00

I'll see what I can do. I'm working my way through Prince of Persia: Sands of Time right now as well, so I'll probably want to deal with the difference in time-shift mechanics compared to Braid. Along with Spore, finishing Braid, and F2, that means I should be set for topics through October.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Fallout 2. K...

2008-09-22T10:27:00.000-05:00

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on Fallout 2. Keep in mind it's old-school and cruelly random at times, so ask for tips if you ever feel you're completely stuck.

You are pretentious and nerdy!Muahahaha!

2008-09-12T11:15:00.000-05:00

You are pretentious and nerdy!

Muahahaha!