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Penny Arcade - Comic - Itinerary
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Itinerary
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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Gabe's desire, by contrast, is straightforward and pure. There is no self-justifying narrative; he just wants to fuck robots. Stick his dick in something human-shaped and get off. That's it.
Those things have got to be like the sheets at a Motel 6
Not a regular Motel 6 in the middle of a city even, a Motel 6 that's right off the freeway
I would bang a fresh off the assembly line one only.
I'd be curious to see what anyone here who watches the show would have to say about this editorial on the Mary Sue blog on it.
based on the URL, i'll superfically say I agree. It's a very interesting show so far and I'm interested to see where it goes, but if Westworld were real or a videogame it seems like it would be terrible. Godmode is always on and you have to like, move using your own muscles?! and I'm paying 40 grand per day? I can run around GTA with cheat codes, thanks.
I'm sure the "interesting parts" are single use disposable. I mean with 3d printing and all that how hard would it be really....
oh wait.....
huh huh....I said "hard"
Mint in box, please.
No, pretty sure you're not supposed to put mints up there.
/runs
I came to this thread with the aim of gaining the knowledge to interpret said comic.
What I have found only confuses me moreso.
http://newnations.bandcamp.com
The is a show on HBO called Westworld.
Summary about the basic setting of the show, spoiled just in case.
Needless to say, since it's an HBO show, there's a lot of robot fucking.
I think this article reads a little too much into modern video games being a major influence on the show and it's themes. Yes the show runners play games and cite some favorites that no doubt have influenced them and somewhat the show. But the show isn't asking if games are good or bad or if the people who play them are good, bad or how coming to Westworld affects people in society. The show is looking at the birth of a nacent intelligence whose origin lies in being subjected to horrors and death on a daily basis. While in the background there is a sort of game or rather experience that isn't really the primary focus. I am also not sure how much the writer has watched the show as they mention wanting to see someone breaking the game. Well there is a character doing just that the man in Black, who believes that there is something beneath what is presented and he has found clues over the years and this time in he is determined to uncover this secret. Along the way he disrupts narratives and with his experience in the world is able to move forward faster than a normal visitor would. I mean I don't think draining the "blood" from one host into another to keep them functional was something the designers would foresee someone doing. Also Westworld is not a game, it's a theme park. There is nothing to win no endgame no leaderboard or scores, prizes or trophies, just experiences. You seem to take away as much as you are willing to put in. Some experiences and narratives seem to be harder to get to and have higher stakes but there is nothing to win. Which the man in Black has discovered and hence his quest this time out to find the maze. I love the show and the ideas it is putting forth regarding how an artificial intelligence might become sentient. The tropes in use are for the most part standard to storytelling which encompasses gaming storytelling as well as classic narratives. I think the author of that article is putting more stock that the show is heavily influenced or commentating on video games than it deserves really.
For the most part, these games don't really ask you to consider whether you really actually want any of the discrete choices they're offering you. Rejecting the whole paradigm as necessarily exploitative never enters consideration. I don't find this criticism very useful because games (and films/tv) must have a story of limited scope; the protagonist in skyrim can't just choose to become a haberdasher, get married and live out a life of relative contentment because that wouldn't be much of a story.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I think this is an interesting point, in particular because I'd love to be able to explore fantastic settings in the kind of intimate, detailed slice-of-life way that games just aren't equipped to deliver.
In the first TES game I played, Daggerfall, you were certainly always a mercenary adventurer who killed moops in thrilling battles, but there was certainly no sense that you were a particular bigshot. If you wanted to, your ambitions could be as simple as "be a thief and get rich". You could stay in a single city, until you got caught and kicked out and moved on somewhere else. You could be a great fighter or a noble knight without ever suddenly being treated as King Swinging Dick of Titfuck Mountain or put in charge of the guild. When I received a note after an assassination describing me as someone of note, it felt much more impressive because not being of note was such a clear possibility.
I saw someone play Skyrim as a new game today. They ran around a bit, failed to take down a bandit camp and took a swim to get away from some wolves. Then the Jarl of Falkreath sent them a note informing them that they're a notable citizen and would they like to be made a thane? It's not bad, but it's... not my cup of tea.
The problem is that there's really no such thing as unlimited choice, even in real life. You're always going to railroaded into a discrete path, whether there's dozens, or hundreds, or quadrillions of them. Adding more options will just make entirely different options that weren't included become more obvious.
What you say makes me think of Star Wars Galaxies. I really enjoyed that game because unlike most games and especially MMOs, you were just a regular person in the Star Wars universe. You might end up making weapons, armor, clothes, houses, or droids for other people. Maybe you end up taming some wild Banthas for people to buy. Maybe you were a highly skilled bounty hunter or a commando. But regardless, you were not the sole hero, savior of the galaxy. It felt cool to just be a fairly normal person in an alternate universe, free to just kind of do what you want. The "hero" or "villain" path was locked away with Jedi and Sith, and back in the old days when I played (Pre-NGE) it was stupidly hard to go that path so it made it a rare sight to behold.
Of course later on they updated the game and made Jedi/Sith a starting class and ruined everything. It just went downhill from there as it tried to become WoW. I'll always think fondly on that old game, just because it let you be a normal person and not always the hero. So few games these days actually let you be a normal person (Especially MMOs where one would kind of think calling every person hero is a bit cliche). They came out with SW:TOR which basically was the total opposite of SWG, "Great hero! You must save the galaxy! Blah blah blah use your awesome powers to help save us from the scruffy nerf herders!" It became the same generic kind of "Hero that saves everything" kind of game there were already tons of. Such a shame, I have never found another game that satisfied like SWG did before they patched in that garbage letting you start as a Jedi.
Tricornes are totally OP.
One toon in Ultima Online was didn't leave Britain until I had "grandmaster" baking skill or whatever the hell the 99(90?) point title was called, it took a while....
http://store.steampowered.com/app/70400/
Only I can't remember the name, and there seem to be a couple of games like that on Steam right now, none of which matches the exact thing I remember.
While not quite stocking, Stardew Valley is also similar, is a Farm sim, ( but Harvest moon style, not F2p nightmare nonsense) and the "villain" of the piece is basically Walmart, and you make a kick ass farm and such to drive the walmart away!
Adorable as hell too, and no real fail states, can whatever your pace, can motor go nuts, can relax and do whatever, has fishing, and a little dungeon to mess around in too.