"chicken concentration camps"

[jiduthie]

This is copypasta from a review of linear rpg on playthisthing.com, I'm interested in what the codex's reaction to this would be.

You just walk back and forth between dots that renew your health and save your game, losing HP and gaining EXP automatically. You are literally on the line, allowing eleven-year-olds the world over to concur that this game is totally linear. In the end, you will be strong enough to defeat the real bad guy, or will you?

I think this is the ultimate argument for putting RPGs to bed. The current crop of blockbuster RPGs in the tradition of Bioshock and Mass Effect are kind of like industrial chicken concentration camps, they sure put out a lot of meat, but they smell like shit and are disease hotbeds with slim profit margins. Did you know that playing too many contemporary RPGs can give you avian flu in the membrane? When your entire experience is a facade laced over a simple "+=" operation notching an exponential curve, you can do it in 48hrs. By exploring more interesting mathematical dynamics we can express more of the nuanced and seemingly paradoxical things that human beings experience when making decisions. Current RPGs offer few non-trivial decisions, a game made in 48hrs can give the same cognitive tug of games made in 48 months. Why not try making a game about non-commutative matrix transformations, to reflect how people can shift in their relationships with individuals and wider social groups. Lots of folks out there have taken vector geometry and non-linear algebra, why not try it? This game is not so much a satire as an endearing eulogy to a genre that made many young people over the years fat and more socially awkward, though sometimes more literary.

Original: http://playthisthing.com/linear-rpg

 

[Shemar]

Why not try making a game about non-commutative matrix transformations, to reflect how people can shift in their relationships with individuals and wider social groups.

Because, pretentious moron, I just want to have some fun playing through a good story, not write a fucking thesis. You don't like it, don't fucking buy it, useless whinger.

(adressed to the author of the quote not the OP)

 

[JarlFrank]

RPGs [...] Bioshock and Mass Effect

Does anything more have to be said?

Yeah, linear cinematic-filled corridor games are shit, news at 11. But Bioshock is an FPS with very light RPG elements, while Mass Effect is a third person shooter with RPG elements on rails focusing on cinematic cutscenes and a linear movie-like story.

And he uses those two games as examples why RPGs are shit as a genre.
Yeah right. Call me back when he's played a variety of 90's dungeon crawlers, RPG-shooter-hybrids like Deus Ex, Bloodlines and System Shock 2, and the Holy Trinity of Fallout, Arcanum and PST.

Heck, even if he just played New Vegas or any Bethesda game he'd see how wrong he is. What he's criticizing is linearity and on-rails gameplay, which is totally not the defining feature of RPGs.

 

[jiduthie]

I tend to agree that his argument about mechanics is overly reductionist and that he's forgetting story and dialogue, the things that the Codex tends to value about RPGs.

Pretentiousness, as well, is in no short supply. But I thought it was interesting to think about games like Diablo\oblivion\fable in terms of mathematics. The Codex certainly harps on about "trivial decisions" and I think his is a good way of explaining that a game with a mechanic like xp, while also lacking any real decision making, isn't so much a game but just "a simple "+=" operation notching an exponential curve."

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

That's why cRPGs need tastefully done rape.

 

[Zomg]

Whoa whoa whoa - in addition to obtaining XP fit to a balance curve there is also build sperging and AI exploits, this is a rich medium

 

[Excommunicator]

This is copypasta from a review of linear rpg on playthisthing.com, I'm interested in what the codex's reaction to this would be.

You just walk back and forth between dots that renew your health and save your game, losing HP and gaining EXP automatically. You are literally on the line, allowing eleven-year-olds the world over to concur that this game is totally linear. In the end, you will be strong enough to defeat the real bad guy, or will you?

I think this is the ultimate argument for putting RPGs to bed. The current crop of blockbuster RPGs in the tradition of Bioshock and Mass Effect are kind of like industrial chicken concentration camps, they sure put out a lot of meat, but they smell like shit and are disease hotbeds with slim profit margins. Did you know that playing too many contemporary RPGs can give you avian flu in the membrane? When your entire experience is a facade laced over a simple "+=" operation notching an exponential curve, you can do it in 48hrs. By exploring more interesting mathematical dynamics we can express more of the nuanced and seemingly paradoxical things that human beings experience when making decisions. Current RPGs offer few non-trivial decisions, a game made in 48hrs can give the same cognitive tug of games made in 48 months. Why not try making a game about non-commutative matrix transformations, to reflect how people can shift in their relationships with individuals and wider social groups. Lots of folks out there have taken vector geometry and non-linear algebra, why not try it? This game is not so much a satire as an endearing eulogy to a genre that made many young people over the years fat and more socially awkward, though sometimes more literary.

Original: http://playthisthing.com/linear-rpg

Only a complete imbecile would try so hard at sounding intelligent when the actual arguments are completely devoid of accuracy. There is nothing here that even suggests he has an understanding of the topic.
That's why I won't even bother to pick it apart. Not worth my time.

I am sure he is going to feel all warm and fuzzy inside when he realises that anyone with any understanding or authority on the subject is just going to smile and pass over his little commentary the same way as if they had just been approached by a 5yr old with some crumpled butcher paper smeared with crayon wax. At least the 5yr old can extract sincerity in the smile they receive.

 

[denizsi]

Codex... SO EDGY!!!!!!!111111111

 

[Excommunicator]

Actually the Codex is responding in a pretty reasonable way, it is the guy talking of "non-commutative matrix transformations" that is the one trying to be edgy.

 

[denizsi]

The guy is perhaps pretentious and surely slightly misled but the Codexian critique is equally superficial. Regardless, he got the idea right.

Maybe I'm just jaded.

 

[Excommunicator]

Well you are here now, so how about going into more detail about how the Codex critique is "superficial" and how this guy is right?

 

[DraQ]

Looks like typical jPG, alright.

Then you have completely different stuff like Daggerfall, Morrowind, Fallouts and such, to which this oh-so-witty critique simply doesn't apply.

Also, the author of the article is a pretentious faggot, but that's hardly unexpected from someone who apparently managed to stay completely oblivous to RPGs other than wapanese crap and ass-defects.

 

[Ion Flux]

All I want to know is, wtf does "avian flu in the membrane" mean? Can someone please explain this to me?

 

[Kortalh]

I'm confused... he's making fun of the games that the Codex always makes fun of, pointing out the same flaws in those games that the Codex always points out... and the Codex hates him for it?

 

[JarlFrank]

Yes because he believes that these games define the RPG genre.

 

[Ion Flux]

avian

flu

in

the

membrane

I couldn't read past this part because my head exploded inside my space suit.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Yes because he believes that these games define the RPG genre.

Ah...no. He explicitly lauds the crpgs of previous generations and is complaining that the CURRENT (explicitly saying 'current') crpg market has gone to shit.

Codex 'must show everyone my anger NOW so don't have time to read the article!!' strikes again.

 

[Kortalh]

Yes because he believes that these games define the RPG genre.

Azrael nailed what I was going to say, but just to drive the point home...

The current crop of blockbuster RPGs in the tradition of Bioshock and Mass Effect

contemporary RPGs ... [are] a facade laced over a simple "+=" operation notching an exponential curve

Current RPGs offer few non-trivial decisions

I mean, this is practically word-for-word the exact narrative that I've been reading (and agree with) on the Codex over the last 8 years.

So either you're all just raging for the sake of raging, or you're just upset that a non-Codex person dared to have a Codex-style opinion?

 

[DraQ]

So either you're all just raging for the sake of raging, or you're just upset that a non-Codex person dared to have a Codex-style opinion?

:/

Me?
I'm just posting drunk on the Codex.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Aside from being pretentious term-dropping and gaudy writing, the review is correct on a lot of things.

Since you are largely confined to a line, better at least make it an line inside which things can move sideways as well. I am of course, talking about Ass Brototurds.

 

[denizsi]

Well you are here now, so how about going into more detail about how the Codex critique is "superficial" and how this guy is right?

:yawn:

This is why I try to steer clear of participating in book threads and only take notes from select few posters. With as low a reading comprehension as this, you gotta be suspicious of every suggestion you see flying in there.

 

[Excommunicator]

Don't worry Deniszi old girl, I wasn't expecting anything intelligent from you anyway. The lack of is blatantly obvious in all of your posts.

His thesis in that article is to put RPGs to bed because of the way they have ended up.
He uses games that barely touch on RPG mechanics as justification for why RPGs should be put to bed.
He uses Bioshock and Mass Effect as examples in the context of RPGs that "put out a lot of meat".
He makes a general statement like "a game made in 48hrs can give the same cognitive tug of games made in 48 months" like it is a flaw of the genre and not of the people commissioning these games.
His attempts to "strip down" the RPG genre consist of taking the most clinical and stereotypical attributes in isolation to the point where what he is left with has no possible merit so that he can illustrate his point.
He then goes on about irrelevant details trying to claim some inherent equivalency between mathematical programs and RPGs, and like it is an idea worth listening to no less.

There can be no doubt that he has no idea what he is talking about, and if you think he does then you are probably no more intelligent than he is.

 

[denizsi]

Living on a razor's edge
Balancing on a ledge
Living on a razor's edge
Balancing on a ledge
Balancing on a ledge
Living on a razor's edge
Balancing on a ledge
You know, you know

 

[Excommunicator]

Maybe you need a holiday away from all the newfags and their silly topical discussions

 

[DraQ]

Don't worry Deniszi old girl, I wasn't expecting anything intelligent from you anyway. The lack of is blatantly obvious in all of your posts.

His thesis in that article is to put RPGs to bed because of the way they have ended up.
He uses games that barely touch on RPG mechanics as justification for why RPGs should be put to bed.
He uses Bioshock and Mass Effect as examples in the context of RPGs that "put out a lot of meat".
He makes a general statement like "a game made in 48hrs can give the same cognitive tug of games made in 48 months" like it is a flaw of the genre and not of the people commissioning these games.
His attempts to "strip down" the RPG genre consist of taking the most clinical and stereotypical attributes in isolation to the point where what he is left with has no possible merit so that he can illustrate his point.
He then goes on about irrelevant details trying to claim some inherent equivalency between mathematical programs and RPGs, and like it is an idea worth listening to no less.

There can be no doubt that he has no idea what he is talking about, and if you think he does then you are probably no more intelligent than he is.

of newfags.