slatz_grobnik

ME: One of the things I wish Bioware did more of was the "it's the method" sorts of quests. A lot of the sidequests on the Citadel in ME1 had this. It wasn't a binary "X is good, Y is bad," it was "accomplish X through good or bad means, or accomplish Y through good or bad means." That was when the Paragon/Renegade system shined the most. It was very good cop/bad cop, with the real question of what is the actual grand good being suitably vague. IN GENERAL: The alignment system that I think is one of the best is - and this is left field - Galactic Civilizations. Evil is the easy route. Evil always provides a quick, big payoff. Good has long, slow, costly payoffs, but more subtle ones in term of reputation.

Uhh...why is there corn syrup in my artisinal pepperoni?

Throughout the Gawker universe, stars are generally not that hard to come by. The "made decent Photoshop contest entry" is about at par for other sites. Generally, Kotaku and Jez were the two that were the hardest to get stars on. While the cliquiness of Deadspin and Jal can make it hard, I think that people have been starred on Gawker main and Lifehacker for writing in grammatical English. So, whether conscious or not, I think there's some trend to get in line with the other sites on the list.

Ding, ding, ding. Alternatively, you can increase your calorie uptake, but that can be a harder road to walk. People come up with all manner of rules, mentalities, and restrictions, but, really, it's just a numbers game. It's only a numbers game c.f. the junk food diets (which, notably, people who did improved their blood panels as well in doing). We are gamers. We are comfortable with juggling numbers to affect goals. Well, at least those of us who are PC gamers. It's fairly easy to figure out what sort of numbers in terms of calories you should be taking in. The harder part is assessing the calories you are taking in, especially when even the labels that are supposed to be helpful are pretty darn obfuscatory. But that's what makes a kitchen scale a good investment. The rest is patience.

I mean in the sense of "Minecraft? Pshaw. Only people in the 10th tank play Minecraft."

Which is different from capitalism how exactly? Or a free market or whatever. But I stick with capitalism, not only because it allows for Recettear references, but there's always a very Marxist - in the social science sense, not in the political movement or cultural manifesto sense - look at things. That, somewhere out there, there's an actual absolute value for a video game that represents an accurate and specific return on investment based upon the specific material apportionments that went into the creation of the game, and that's the real price. And, lo and behold, that appropriate price is almost invariably what price people were paying, rather than what people are asking now. The equally wonderful counterpoint to this is how swiftly it all gets tossed out the window as soon as questions of piracy arise. Because we all know from piracy justifications that there's no harm to anyone's rights because a game is such an insubstantial concept that its mere copy is practically a benefit to the makers of the game.

In this thread, we complain about capitalism. Look at it this way: the $60 AAA title makes that $30 indie title seem like a terrific bargain in comparison, and sows the seeds of the Dev's own demise by creating a commercially viable market where there previously was none.

X-Com: Alliance. No, wait, stop laughing and hear me out. People generally just heard about it as a FPS X-Com, but it had some ambitiously interesting ideas behind it. Think like a squad-based Bioshock with a tech tree and better fulfilled "moral choices that matter." I'm also reserving a spot for I am Alive.

The soldiers playing a FPS is almost cliche, but I always wonder about the popularity and perception of Strategy & 4X (Civ, EU, et al) games amongst the soldiery. Actually, as an extension on that, are there any intra-military gaming stereotypes?

I recently read someone - I think it was Christopher Hitchens - who did something of a survey in review on this topic, and his conclusion was that the best writers would drink in the idea phase; refrain in the execution.

Maybe it's time for a change of gift? And perhaps something not so destructive on the wallet. Which brings me to this quote about the girl: Shallow, yes? I'm still trying to figure out how you can quote Goldman right after Forbes and not cause some sort of violent explosion.

Because GTA has a habit of implementing them poorly. It's frequently less racing and more a mixture of course memory and screwing with the AI. GTA 3 had a race that was best won using a fire truck. Vice City had a plot justification that was so flimsy I think I actually quit the game over it. RDR was all about horse selection and drugs. That's not interesting. I don't even know if it's racing, strictly speaking. And that tends to be the problem in many games. It doesn't feel like an application of the skills you've spent your time mastering, it feels like something abstract.

I disagree with that. I see where you're coming from, but I find that local differences shine through pretty bright and clean when it comes to different regions or areas. The beans, however, are only the first step, and you need someone who's going to respect and work with those differences. Additionally, the emphasis on blends will mean that frequently people aren't going in a direction to make those differences evident, as opposed to come up with a composite that's ideally greater than the whole. A problem you will run into is undistinguished coffee. There's a weird place where slacktivism, post-colonialism, and elitism collide when it comes to coffee. The top producing coffee regions are generally that way for a good reason. On more than one occasion, I've drank something with a truly unusual history, which someone took great lengths to procure and develop, that was anything but unusual.

You send flowers to your facebook? I think I'm not understanding something. You know, me and Zuckerberg, we got a thing. {/deadpan} Substitute preferred euphemism for "person(s) with whom one has both emotional ties and sexy fun time, but without the formalities, duties, or privileges of a capital-R Relationship, or specific commercial arrangement."

Send unusual flowers (think florst-grade kale) to my FB at her work, just to keep her off-guard and any interlopers wary...

If that box art is real, the only possible justification is that it's a plot on the part of Big Game to prove the commercial inviability of small development shops.

My friends banned me from ever using the Pkunk Fury in Star Control II's Super Melee.

So, Zombie Apocalypse with Type:O (stupid) zombies? Outside of pointing out the bandwagon, it's relevant that the original cites were of Oblivion and Just Cause. This is an idea that needs lotsa sandbox. You need NPCs with big, complex routines that frequently go awry, often with one another. Part of the fun is watching and asking "what the hell just happened?" Now, that may need a degree of the "right things" for all the NPCs to do (the NPCs otherwise acting smart) with a really hilarious stupid that can spread. And, again with the examples, stupid isn't just stupid or so it seems, but disregarding health to hilarious effect. That's more sophisticated than just "the car now only turns left." I'm not familiar with UDK, but that need for a better sandbox for it all to be set in may limit its viability for this project.

Damn. While I agree with much of his sentiment - specifically that it's not the crime, but the rationalization that's so bad - anyone who uses the phrase "eye-shagger" in earnest deserves to be left on the Moon.

you should bring me some coffee. cos it's really hard to find in new england. all we have are dunkin donutses and starbucks. DD's coffee is pretty good, all things considered. Better than SB. Of course, the problem with any franchise as regards something as temperamental as coffee is that quality is going to vary between sites depending on how much the staff care or don't care. I used to roast for a small shop in Chicago. Nowadays, I most order my beans from a place in Milwaukee, which always confuses the hell out of me. I shouldn't have to resort to getting coffee from Milwaukee.