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Disco Elysium Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

Joined
Dec 12, 2013
Messages
4,229
Failing triggers people the wrong way. While the game´s content remains the same, we decided to rephrase the tagline to give a better impression of what the game´s about - hence "police procedural" (or "cop show", if you will)

"Furies" and "procedural" complement each other at giving the wrong impression about the game :)

Also, being a total failure is fun. I have been all my life, so I know better :P
 

Kasparov

OH/NO
Developer
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
930
Location
ZA/UM
The common misunderstanding seems to be reading "procedural" and ignoring the "police" preceding it. As the internet is an ever-expanding web of first impressions - no amount of explaining or pointing this out could possibly help with this. Hence - "cop show". Which is interesting in its own right because a single glance at the game´s screenshots should be a major hint for veteran gamers of ages 12 and up that this is not a game with procedurally generated content. There are exceptions to this of course, but often that includes visual cues - like procedural levels (maps) ie. modular graphics like tiles etc.

The same goes for reading "furies" as "furries" - and then blaming the author and that dumb name for one´s own inattentiveness. The only good thing (???) that can come from this is a furry drama to outshine the fabled Fallout: Equestria
500

EDIT: PS have you heard? Overgrowth is out! https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/10/17/overgrowth-rabbit-fighter-released/
 
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Kasparov

OH/NO
Developer
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
930
Location
ZA/UM

Wok

Literate
Joined
Aug 16, 2017
Messages
6
Location
France
The common misunderstanding seems to be reading "procedural" and ignoring the "police" preceding it. As the internet is an ever-expanding web of first impressions - no amount of explaining or pointing this out could possibly help with this. Hence - "cop show". Which is interesting in its own right because a single glance at the game´s screenshots should be a major hint for veteran gamers of ages 12 and up that this is not a game with procedurally generated content. There are exceptions to this of course, but often that includes visual cues - like procedural levels (maps) ie. modular graphics like tiles etc.

I'm glad I affected the subtitle of your game. Somehow.

Regarding the age comment, I don't believe that there are necessarily visual cues for procedurally generated games. Take for instance, No Man's Sky, some planets are so beautiful that it is a joy to take screenshots, I would not have believed that a procedurally generated game could deliver such amazing landscapes. Moreover, with the advances of AI, I could totally see procedurally generated dialogues, or detective quests. There was a basic attempt at procedural dialogue with the game Event[0].
 
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Kasparov

OH/NO
Developer
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
930
Location
ZA/UM
The common misunderstanding seems to be reading "procedural" and ignoring the "police" preceding it. As the internet is an ever-expanding web of first impressions - no amount of explaining or pointing this out could possibly help with this. Hence - "cop show". Which is interesting in its own right because a single glance at the game´s screenshots should be a major hint for veteran gamers of ages 12 and up that this is not a game with procedurally generated content. There are exceptions to this of course, but often that includes visual cues - like procedural levels (maps) ie. modular graphics like tiles etc.

I'm glad I affected the subtitle of your game. Somehow.

Regarding the age comment, I don't believe that there are necessarily visual cues for procedurally generated games. Take for instance, No Man's Sky, some planets are so beautiful that it is a joy to take screenshots, I would not have believed that a procedurally generated game could deliver such amazing landscapes.

Procedurally generated 3D is pretty insane right now. But in NMS - once you've seen two-three planets and the bases on them - you've seen them all. The patterns become apparent very fast indeed. Same would happen with procedurally generated quests (or dialogues, God forbid!) Man is a pattern recognition machine - you'll see those mudcrabs for what they really are soon enough.
 

Kasparov

OH/NO
Developer
Joined
Jun 10, 2016
Messages
930
Location
ZA/UM
Man is a pattern recognition machine - you'll see those mudcrabs for what they really are soon enough

How would you explain the people who keep playing NMS with this hypothesis?
The same thing that keeps one scrolling through Instagram - your lizard brain is waiting for a glimpse of tits.

I put a few hours of playtime in there. I kept expecting something will happen.. ANY TIME NOW. That was even before major updates, first week after launch or so. Eventually I spoiled it for myself and read some reviews that stated what I'd been afraid of - that was it. Hope is the last thing to go, I guess.

Haven't played NMS after, though, so I cannot comment on whether the later updates changed anything.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
Dwarf Fortress has some really sophisticated and remarkably varied procedurally-generated quests and dialogues.

I don't think it has the existential depth of No Truce though, Unhappy Thoughts notwithstanding.
 

Fenix

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 18, 2015
Messages
6,458
Location
Russia atchoum!
While what I said was funny, it was joke only partially.
I think, the global reason is called Video Era Phenomenon.
I affect todays life SO MUCH - culture, art, sinema, literature, videogames and yet almost nobody talks and know about it.
If you inclined to know about it, I can thow in something later.
 

epeli

Arcane
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
719
Dwarf Fortress has some really sophisticated and remarkably varied procedurally-generated quests and dialogues.
What do you mean? I don't mean this as an insult, but have you ever actually played DF? I just can't see how anyone familiar with the game could hold that opinion.

All those nice DF stories on the internet are player-written fiction arising from with fortress mode gameplay, detailed world history and fluff text in character descriptions. Toady does a good job breathing life to what would be a character stat sheet in most other games, but actual quests and dialogues in adventure mode are nothing to write home about. There are long lists of things to say, but it's all very mechanical and basically every character has the exact same dialog tree. The current iteration of its rumor system can barely be called quests and the old quests weren't impressive either. There is vast (and mostly unrealized outside worldgen) potential for consequences, but that's due to complex world simulation rather than any procedurally generated "go kill x" quest by itself.

If anything, DF (being one of the best in the field) proves that procedural generation cannot create good quests and dialogues.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
What do you mean? I don't mean this as an insult, but have you ever actually played DF? I just can't see how anyone familiar with the game could hold that opinion.

I have, rather too much for my own good, although I went cold turkey a couple of years ago as it was kind of taking over my life.

I was quite impressed by the way the characters in the world know about stuff that's going on around them, where things are, what their relationships are to other characters, what problems their settlement is having, and so on and so forth.

I certainly agree that it's nowhere close to comparing with human-written dialogue.
 

Iznaliu

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 28, 2016
Messages
3,686
The same thing that keeps one scrolling through Instagram - your lizard brain is waiting for a glimpse of tits.

I put a few hours of playtime in there. I kept expecting something will happen.. ANY TIME NOW. That was even before major updates, first week after launch or so. Eventually I spoiled it for myself and read some reviews that stated what I'd been afraid of - that was it. Hope is the last thing to go, I guess.

Haven't played NMS after, though, so I cannot comment on whether the later updates changed anything.

That doesn't explain the people who've played 300 hours.
 

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