Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[circ]

You bought into that?

It's funny how many years ago in a diminished sense, studios had the same numbers, the same priorities, smaller budgets even if counting for inflation. And yet.

Do you seriously think Fallout 4 would have been a good game had they had an extra year to work on it? Of course you don't. I hope. They would have added in more art assets - maybe.

Emil is a good writer I swear! He's just overworked! Get the fuck outta here.

 

[Roguey]

There are no role playing games in existence where you have eight options in each dialogue node.

If one were to take on such a task, it's likely the majority of those would end up Bioware-style, leading to the same result.

 

[circ]

It's just a quick, rough idea. If I were to refine it; have it become more and more slanted towards a certain alignment until you're only left with a few choices. Keeping track of previous answers - not a difficult task at all, and have the game react should the player end up too mercurial in their dialogue, though with a chance to influence the system with stat so and so. Just finishing up here.

 

[DosBuster]

lolwut.

Many years ago games were easier to make, less people were required and the technology was less complex.

Also, it's hard to tell what Fallout 4 would like with an additional year, a lot can change in a single year; you don't just "add in art assets" though (lol).

 

[Irenaeus III]

I liked the alignment dialogue choices. Brilliant idea, circ

eight options

You know it's nine. Who forgot Neutral Evil.

 

[Roguey]

Many years ago games were easier to make, less people were required and the technology was less complex.

With the tools available today that weren't available back then, it should be easier in many ways to recreate games as they were in the 90s.

Not so much when it comes to scripting reactivity though, as Avellone has lamented.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Many years ago games were easier to make, less people were required and the technology was less complex.

lolwut

Then why wasn't there the amount of shovelware like there's today? Besides Steam allowing it to flourish, that is.
What's difficult is getting a game to the technological standards (graphics mostly) and that difficulty comes from the costs involved.

 

[DosBuster]

I'm not sure if you've heard of the video game crash? There was so much shovelware out there people just stopped buying games, you're exposed to it directly via steam nowadays hence why it may seem like it's increased over the years.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Talking about how it was easer to make games in the past... Sure thing buddy, without modern frameworks and APIs to get in your way. It was a piece of cake.

What I find fascinating is how people keep producing far inferior products today, even with all the modern tools and processing power that was unavailable in the 90s.

It's easy to make both good and shitty games today. The source of confusion is that developers are not thinking in terms of good and shitty, they are thinking in terms of what's more maintainable and optimized for the hardware. Designers are thinking about how to display their percieved creativity, which they hopefully possess, and the publisher/investment stakeholder is thinking in terms of what would sell best. If these conflicting aims are negotiated successfully, the game ends up good.

 

[DosBuster]

Yeah, technically, it is much easier to get into. However, the advancement of technology has come to a point where you can't rely on the player's imagination to take up some of the creative work.

 

[Irenaeus III]

Past game developers had much better ideas for games than current ones, that's my perception. Or maybe the audience for games before the popularization of PCs was more monocled and current developers drop good ideas because they don't resonate with the largely retarded modern audience. Yeah, that's it.

 

[StrongBelwas]

When the games take more people to make in a reasonable timeframe, and as such are more expensive to make, and you get less money per copy due to inflation, there is only one thing you can do: Increase the net of the audience you can capture, and that means the aforementioned largely retarded audience.

Indie games are another question entirely. Reactivity to dialogue and choices has always been a bitch to do, your workload increases exponentially with each meaningful decision (A workload being split up between a very tiny group of people) and it isn't really something you can automate if you want to do it right.

 

[GrainWetski]

You forgot the part where they spend most of the budgets on marketing these days.

 

[Irenaeus III]

Reactivity to dialogue and choices has always been a bitch to do, your workload increases exponentially with each meaningful decision (A workload being split up between a very tiny group of people) and it isn't really something you can automate or use procedural generation for if you want to do it right.

Yeah, I believe that. That's why I value so much games like AoD.

 

[Xor]

I'm not sure if you've heard of the video game crash? There was so much shovelware out there people just stopped buying games, you're exposed to it directly via steam nowadays hence why it may seem like it's increased over the years.

The 80s crash occurred because of an over-saturation of platforms, not software. Hardware was expensive as fuck back then and over the course of a few years there were suddenly 10+ consoles competing with each other. The market simply wasn't big enough to handle all those platforms and several of them failed, leading to several companies leaving the video game business or going bankrupt, consumers losing confidence in console manufacturers (because you could shell out hundreds of dollars for a product that might be gone next week), and software makers not knowing where to put their games. The situation today is entirely different.

 

[Fairfax]

Overall (the game MCA wrote the guide for) is out on Early Access. It doesn't look particularly interesting and I hate the art style, so I'll wait for some Codexian impressions (if there are any).


Fargo and Vávra as "RPG masters" is a joke, but there's no schedule yet, so we don't know if they're in the same panel or anything.
By the way, Split is gorgeous, in case there's any european codexer interested in attending. The city alone is worth the trip.


Apparently the GaymerX panel was streamed, but no sign of it on YouTube or Twitch.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Who's Wonder Woman?

 

[Lacrymas]

I think the real question here is why do the gays have their own convention? They are ostracizing themselves and completely missing the point if they are going for "inclusivity".

 

[Irenaeus III]

I think the real question here is why do the gays have their own convention?

Because they are anti-social freaks.

 

[Lhynn]

I think the real question here is why do the gays have their own convention? They are ostracizing themselves and completely missing the point if they are going for "inclusivity".

Its because they want to fuck eachother with no room for misunderstandings, buncha degenerates.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

I think the real question here is why do the gays have their own convention? They are ostracizing themselves and completely missing the point if they are going for "inclusivity".

The same thing could be said about anime or comic book or game conventions. It's a place where people can be whoever they are without having to worry about discrimination, being harmed, being killed, or other things. This one just happens to be a gaming convention that has an open attitude towards LGBT people.

 

[Neanderthal]

MCA givin it large I see, good man, industry needs some fire in its gut.

 

[Kron]

So does this confirm that MCA has finally come out of the closet?

It's past time.

 

[Roguey]

So does this confirm that MCA has finally come out of the closet?

It's past time.

He has a girlfriend. I think he was there just to be there.

The evolution of LGBT issues in games over the years
Tim Cain (Obsidian Entertainment)
David Gaider (Beamdog)
and others TBA

Over the last twenty years, LGBTQI+ representation in both game content and the games industry has changed drastically. Hear from some of the industry's queer titans about the journeys they've faced, how things have changed, and where things might go in the future.

Queer Titan Tim "Wolfman" Cain

 

[Kron]

Watching him speak and laugh is cringe inducing and very uncomfortable. It's like he's just a little push away from becoming a full blown fairy.