Editorial The Fanatic and His RPG - Mark Yohalem on The Age of Decadence

[Infinitron]

 

[Irenaeus II]

I think if the main takeaway from the article is that I am saying that VD is a great artist

My main takeaway is that Drog Black Tooth failed as a poster.

 

[Lexxx20]

That's one of the most interesting and well written articles about games I've ever read. Thank you very much! And I'm not saying this because I'm a AoD fanboi I hope more people will take interest in this game thanks to your article. Also, I would like to read more of your stuff

 

[DwarvenFood]

That's one of the most interesting and well written articles about games I've ever read. Thank you very much! And I'm not saying this because I'm a AoD fanboi I hope more people will take interest in this game thanks to your article. Also, I would like to read more of your stuff

Buy & play Primordia then. It's -66% off now even.

 

[Elwro]

to everyone involved!

 

[thesheeep]

I was actually not here before 2002.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

I was here since 2007. RPG Codex is the best site, it's common knowledge.

edit: also, VD has become very soft, patient and non-combative since the days of the RPS interview

 

[Irenaeus II]

It's easy to trigger him by saying people could be good hearted and autruistic in a post-apocalypse/civilizational decadence environment.

By "could be", I mean surviving more than the first encounter with Militiades.

 

[Jasede]

Haha, people being normal in the post-apocalypse? RETARDED. Everyone knows a soon as the bombs fall, all humans lose all compassion and altruism and all become liars and cheats to survive. There could not possibly be good people after the end. Realistic writing, 10/10, Doritos.

 

[Vault Dweller]

edit: also, VD has become very soft, patient and non-combative since the days of the RPS interview

Do you look at game-related things the same way you did back in 2007? Same here.

There was a time when I expected more from gaming journalism, expected more from the gaming industry. Now I expect less (and as such don't give a fuck anymore). The concept of gaming journalists educating the readers seems almost ridiculous today. I remember when we complained that Morrowind was dumbed down compared to Daggerfall. Little did we know.

Haha, people being normal in the post-apocalypse? RETARDED. Everyone knows a soon as the bombs fall, all humans lose all compassion and altruism and all become liars and cheats to survive.

No, liars, cheats, and murderers would be the ones with the highest chance to survive and prosper. Look at things like honesty and honor. They are cultivated by society. When the pressure to behave in an honest and honorable way is the highest, we have more honest and honorable men. When it's low, like today, we have more weasels, liars, and politicians of all flavors. In a post-apocalyptic society that pressure disappears completely. Good people would still exist but they would be an outnumbered minority.

 

[Jasede]

I simply disagree and believe that's why your game's writing feels very unrealistic and almost childishly naive to me. That's a matter of taste. I do respect what you've done, it's just not my cup of tea. It's be interesting to write a review but I'd rather not weather the fallout.

I know you're not going to be offended but in the off chance some reader is, please remember that different opinions come about from different lives and experiences accumulated, so your lived experiences might be as valid as anyone else's.

 

[Vault Dweller]

I simply disagree and believe that's why your game's writing feels very unrealistic and almost childishly naive to me.

I would feel the same way about a game written according to your specifications (in the context of this conversation). No offense meant either.

I know you're not going to be offended but in the off chance some reader is, please remember that different opinions come about from different lives and experiences accumulated, so your lived experiences might be as valid as anyone else's.

Certainly. However, looking at what's happening in Europe now, for example, hardly creates an impression that Good People are in control of their own culture, cities, countries, etc.

 

[Gruncheon]

I simply disagree and believe that's why your game's writing feels very unrealistic and almost childishly naive to me. That's a matter of taste. I do respect what you've done, it's just not my cup of tea. It's be interesting to write a review but I'd rather not weather the fallout.

I know you're not going to be offended but in the off chance some reader is, please remember that different opinions come about from different lives and experiences accumulated, so your lived experiences might be as valid as anyone else's.

I think it makes a lot of sense in the context of where the world is at in the time where Age of Decadence is set. I don't think it's meant to be a be all and end all statement on human nature, it's just that the game is set at a tipping point where several powerful factions are all locked into a conflict with one another and nobody can take up the role of being the Leviathan providing unconditional authority. There are good and normal people in the game, but they all act with a wary eye and very cautious, tentative optimism because that's absolutely the rational thing to do in a world like that. You as the PC are allowed to be as altrusitic as you like, it's just that you have to possess the skills to back that up. It's probably one of the best examples of speech design in RPGs, where talky characters have to follow the rules and incentives of the world, rather than having a magic silver-tongue artifact that can cause perfectly intelligent people to act completely against their self-interest because of Speech 100.

 

[Irenaeus II]

I think one of the best things in the game is abusing more naive NPCs' good faith and murder them or otherwise take advantage of them.

Did I say that out loud?

 

[Neanderthal]

I have a legit copy of The Age of Decadence for only $3. Meet me up in that dark alley if you are interested.

Cheers for offer matey, but i've already bought, from what i've seen so far man deserves his pound of flesh. All different intros, and actual gameplay outside combat, think i'm gonna like this.

 

[Neanderthal]

No, liars, cheats, and murderers would be the ones with the highest chance to survive and prosper. Look at things like honesty and honor. They are cultivated by society. When the pressure to behave in an honest and honorable way is the highest, we have more honest and honorable men. When it's low, like today, we have more weasels, liars, and politicians of all flavors. In a post-apocalyptic society that pressure disappears completely. Good people would still exist but they would be an outnumbered minority.

Bounced doors for ten years on and off, didn't need an apocalyse for folk to rut, fight, drink and drug emselves into barbarity. Folk are animals, barely restrained by society and tradition. Granted these were clubs in working class towns, not southern posh dens but still it let me know what folk are really like. And it were dealers, criminals and scum who floated to top and were admired in them cesspits, and coppers who had to herd all drunks and idiots (wi'out guns or tasers) who were seen as enemy.

Sorry for doubler lads.

 

[MRY]

It's the end of your snippet which either means you are terrible at cropping things in a way that gives them credibility or you want the author to look bad by making his writing end with a phrase that is used only sarcastically these days. Fuck off. Your job is to make me want to read more; you failed.

He did a good job of revealing my overwrought exuberance. It's like a disclaimer. He spared you 15 minutes of unpleasantness.

My main takeaway is that Drog Black Tooth failed as a poster.

Meh, his patching accumulated him enough good karma to justify misreading a hundred of my articles.

That's one of the most interesting and well written articles about games I've ever read. Thank you very much! And I'm not saying this because I'm a AoD fanboi I hope more people will take interest in this game thanks to your article. Also, I would like to read more of your stuff

Speaking of exuberance!

I wrote an account of the Wasteland 2 launch party, along with an artist I'm working with (Daniell Miller).

I wrote a bunch of articles about game design back in the '06/'07 era. I'm not sure how well they hold up, but I know some of them were well-received on the Codex back in the day: Killjoy (about the problems with narrative-based games allowing the player character to regularly die); A Childhood in Hyrule (about the importance of game designers drawing on influences outside of gaming); The Four Virtues of FreeCell (about structuring goals and interaction); Who’s in the Driver’s Seat (about the difficulty of reconciling player choice with a strongly define protagonist); Go Virtual Young Man (not really design oriented; more just musings about online gaming). I think Killjoy is the best of the bunch, and amusingly enough it makes reference to AOD as a game that is close on the horizon. I basically much of what's in here to rambling 'Dex conversations back in the day.

Here's a sad post about my failed follow-up to Primordia.

Then there's Primordia itself (66% off on Steam!), and down the line there'll be TTON (or a tiny sliver of it) and Fallen Gods.

 

[Irenaeus II]

A Childhood in Hyrule (about the importance of game designers drawing on influences outside of gaming)

This is actually a very important topic in gaming and designers should really pay attention to it. MCA's last panel here in RPG news has a part about his influences, for instance.

Edit: You changed your name since 2007, from Marty O'Hale to Mark Yohalem? o.O

 

[Tigranes]

I'm waiting for Vince D. Weller to become Vincent Dwellier, and launch an angry version of the Colbert bid for political power.

 

[Viata]

That RPS interview is gold. It makes me wants to play XCOM again. But I guess I should finally start AoD. So here I go.

 

[MRY]

Edit: You changed your name since 2007, from Marty O'Hale to Mark Yohalem? o.O

It was a pen name to avoid professional overspillage.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Bounced doors for ten years on and off, didn't need an apocalyse for folk to rut, fight, drink and drug emselves into barbarity. Folk are animals, barely restrained by society and tradition. Granted these were clubs in working class towns, not southern posh dens but still it let me know what folk are really like. And it were dealers, criminals and scum who floated to top and were admired in them cesspits, and coppers who had to herd all drunks and idiots (wi'out guns or tasers) who were seen as enemy.

Working class here. Just surveying the carnage that goes on in the towns are enough. Smashed shop windows, rampant drug use and brawls in the pub/cubs and streets made me never to go out on the town. Too much hassle. Did you encounter any incidents that sick out in your mind while bouncing, Neanderthal?

Sorry about the thread derail.

 

[Western]

Haha, people being normal in the post-apocalypse? RETARDED. Everyone knows a soon as the bombs fall, all humans lose all compassion and altruism and all become liars and cheats to survive. There could not possibly be good people after the end. Realistic writing, 10/10, Doritos.

I always felt that a society where people could basically trust each other would go further when faced with adversity. There is certainly an advantage to honest pragmatism, if someone has value to the group and it's survival and is injured, you would save them rather than leave them to die, if they're a worthless parasite on the society you would leave them to die.

If someone who lies and cheats leads a group, people will tolerate them if they provide and lead the group. However if a charlatan is only providing smoke and mirrors, hungry stomachs will see their days numbered.

Acts of cruelty need to be seen in a context of human tribalism, the mistrusted outsider is dehumanised in the eyes of the tribe and is therefore subject to bestial behaviour, inside the tribe the standard of behaviour is better as community survival links to individual survival.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Haha, people being normal in the post-apocalypse? RETARDED. Everyone knows a soon as the bombs fall, all humans lose all compassion and altruism and all become liars and cheats to survive. There could not possibly be good people after the end. Realistic writing, 10/10, Doritos.

I always felt that a society where people could basically trust each other would go further when faced with adversity. There is certainly an advantage to honest pragmatism, if someone has value to the group and it's survival and is injured, you would save them rather than leave them to die, if they're a worthless parasite on the society you would leave them to die.

If someone who lies and cheats leads a group, people will tolerate them if they provide and lead the group. However if a charlatan is only providing smoke and mirrors, hungry stomachs will see their days numbered.

The same principle should be universal (due to its simplicity) but it's not. We elect leaders who promise much but deliver little. We've accepted that the politicians will lie, cheat, and steal. News of some politician being corrupted won't surprise anyone (in fact such news aren't even worth watching/reading anymore). We tolerate all that shit because no matter the choice we make when electing the new leaders, the outcome is the same.

So if our society were to end and we'll have to transition into a post-apocalyptic one, we won't enter it as equal. Some people will always have more power (those who are ready to seize it and have men and weapons), some less, others none. Much like today, those who have power will call the shots, only without any laws, rights, and such. Basically, the glory days of feudalism, serfdom, and such.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I was talking about the "arena". The siege fight could be harder too but I can understand that not being too hard since it is critical path for some chars who may not be 100% combat oriented.

Yeah that arena is the Arena of Scrubbery. My Kingslayer IG Legatus hoplite pwned these losers and scrubs like the worms they were.

Can you access it without being Arena Champion? Because it is a bit odd for such a weaksauce fights being only offered to the Arena Champion.