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Decline PC Gamer Presents: The Ultimate RPG Handbook

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
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Garbage like this is why I want to organize a proper round-table with some RPG devs... show PC Gamer how to do it right.
 

Jazz_

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Garbage like this is why I want to organize a proper round-table with some RPG devs... show PC Gamer how to do it right.

I was reading your book expecting like a compendium of all the pc rpgs that came out (I assumed that given the lenght of the book) but there are many rpgs I know that aren't there, so what are you going for?
 

V_K

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at a Nowhere near you
I was reading your book expecting like a compendium of all the pc rpgs that came out (I assumed that given the lenght of the book) but there are many rpgs I know that aren't there, so what are you going for?
CRPGAddicts master game list contains nearly 3000 entries, and it goes only up to 2007. Such a compedium would be completely unfeasible.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
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I was reading your book expecting like a compendium of all the pc rpgs that came out (I assumed that given the lenght of the book) but there are many rpgs I know that aren't there, so what are you going for?
Didn't you read all the "PREVIEW" and "WIP" bits? The book is still being written, that's why obvious stuff like Neverwinter Nights and Fallout 1 are missing.
 

Rahdulan

Omnibus
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I love how they featured artwork from Bioware and Bethesda games without inviting anyone from those respective studios. :shittydog:
 

Crooked Bee

(no longer) a wide-wandering bee
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Codex 2013 Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire MCA Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 BattleTech Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
“I feel like in spite of what some people have been saying, there’s been a lack of really amazing RPGs for a few years now,” says Katherine Holden, a Cumbria based manga artist and designer whose projects include the RPG series Vacant Sky.

A person with such high standards, surely must be a Codexer at heart.

“I’m sure that’ll be an unpopular opinion, but I feel like all these ‘create your own character, run around doing busywork in a sandbox and meet NPCs who all fall over themselves to give you power and authority’ games get a little tiresome after a while.” Holden points to 2015’s incredibly accomplished but slightly uninspiring Dragon Age: Inquisition as evidence of this stagnation. “Inquisition wasn’t bad, but it was such a shallow, toothless game compared to Dragon Age II, which featured deeply flawed, yet likeable characters and also a very timely story about refugees, prejudice and religious tension.”

Okay, I take that back.

Katherine Holden, a Cumbria based manga artist and designer whose projects include the RPG series Vacant Sky

vsa_3.png


.... Looks like a legit person to invite to a discussion about how RPGs need to evolve.
 

Prime Junta

Guest
The chosen-one-saving-the-world thing is stale though. There should be more RPGs with personal stories, even if the power fantasy thing is still part of it -- and the power curve is central to the genre that if you completely dump it, you might have made a fine game but it'll probably look more like an adventure game than a RPG.

The thing I liked best about the Twitchers was just that, Geralt doing his own thing, caught up in the middle of all these movers and shakers, kind of accidentally changing the course of events.
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
Kashyyyk written as "Kashykk":)
- Wookiee spelled as "Wookie"
- Tatooine spelled "Tattooine"
- Ebon Hawk being as popular as Millennium Falcon, HK-47 apparently being as popular as Luke, Leia, Han, Darth Vader etc.
- pretty much spoils the big plot twist for those who haven't played the game yet, or at least makes it impossible to not see it coming

And that's just one paragraph!

The first two are instant signs of a fucking retard. I'm always amused by people who claim they like Star Wars yet spell wookiee as 'wookie'.
 

newtmonkey

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I cannot understand how people who are paid to write about playing fuckin video games, cannot write about playing fuckin video games. It's like a fry cook who cannot cook fries.
 

tormund

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There should be more RPGs with personal stories
At this point, "personal story" is such a pointlessly charged, murky and overused term as far as video games and genre fiction go, that you can safely tuck it up with your saving-the-world trope.

I cannot understand how people who are paid to write about playing fuckin video games, cannot write about playing fuckin video games. It's like a fry cook who cannot cook fries.
Precisely because they are doing what they are doing solely because they are paid for it, not because they find any fun or intellectual satisfaction in it.
This field, as it is, is filled with nerds with useless degrees, nearing or well into middle age, who are doing this solely because they already wasted good chunk of their life on it and because this is the only safe money-earning opportunity open to them.
 
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newtmonkey

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Precisely because they are doing what they are doing solely because they are paid for it, not because they find any fun or intellectual satisfaction in it.
This field, as it is, is filled with nerds with useless degrees, nearing or well into middle age, who are doing this solely because they already wasted good chunk of their life on it and because this is the only safe money-earning opportunity open to them.

That is a good point and I get that. But, do they not have any professional standards or integrity? I mean, I have worked jobs that were fucking horrible (slight exaggeration, I have not worked in a coal mine or forced prostitution in a third world country), but I was getting paid a living wage, and I did the best I could (I also have a totally useless degree). I would not have been able to sleep at night if I half-assed a job while I was getting paid for it. I just really do not understand the mindset of these video game reviewers.
 

eXalted

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Dec 16, 2014
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Thinking how much Dragon Age II and II are RPGs, the correct question should be:

Is banana less vegetable than an apple?




The codex should have RPG-O-Meter, so we know how much a game is an RPG.
 

Invictus

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Divinity: Original Sin 2
Meh PC gamer was always mainstream media bit at least they had some real RPG connoisseurs like Steve Klett and Desslock back in the old days... they jumped the shark a long time ago
 

Rahdulan

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That is a good point and I get that. But, do they not have any professional standards or integrity? I mean, I have worked jobs that were fucking horrible (slight exaggeration, I have not worked in a coal mine or forced prostitution in a third world country), but I was getting paid a living wage, and I did the best I could (I also have a totally useless degree). I would not have been able to sleep at night if I half-assed a job while I was getting paid for it. I just really do not understand the mindset of these video game reviewers.

Professionals? What professionalism? Only difference between a random [monetized] Youtuber who covers games and someone playing/writing for a site or magazine is that latter has a fixed income. There are no qualifications for this and god knows entire "video game journalism" is a joke when it comes to transparency, collusion and corruption. But tormund is correct - it's resentment and jaded realization they fucked up and need this job to pay the bills. Passion that may have lead some of them to the industry is long gone, but I imagine most never had in the first place and simply signed up because no one else in serious journalism would have them. Well, as serious as journalism is these days.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
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Professionals? What professionalism? Only difference between a random [monetized] Youtuber who covers games and someone playing/writing for a site or magazine is that latter has a fixed income.
Not even that. Take someone like Rowan Kaiser - he's a freelancer, he has no fixed income. Apparently he doesn't even have a journalist degree, so there's really no difference between him and a random dude on Youtube.

The real issue is that these people go "I've been playing since before PCs were called PCs" and think they are grand-masters of gaming that have nothing to learn or study. I've said this many times, but they are like someone saying he's a movie critic because he's "been watching movies since Lion King". That's a joke in any field, but in gaming is the norm.

And this only gets worse with time... Soon we'll see people who "been playing games since the Xbox (THE FIRST ONE!)"... and they'll "teach" others about the history of games.
 

Zetor

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Budapest, Hungary
Ah, it's good to see a target that brings the codex together. Reminds me of the good old days of 2003-4 and the ragemeltdown over IGN's "Top 100 Games Of All Time" list, or generic seething hate at the consoletards of GameFAQs.

e: aww yeah

Juffo-Wup fills in my fibers and I grow turgid. Violent action ensues.
 
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lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
Highlights include:
Saying 2003-Today is when RPGs "grew up",

Cover includes a pic of an absolutely non-RPG, glorified walking simulator that sucks dicks and can be "played" for free at Youtube.

That tells you everything you need to know about this handbook.



Shitty art? Check.
Shitty dialogues? Check.
RPGMaker*? Check.

As expected.


* Not that RPGMaker games have to be necessarily bad, there are good games of course, but sadly it's not the norm.
 

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