Q&A: November 29th, 2023

Ze Nightman Asks
Popular gaming isn't really gaming in the sense of creating an unique experience. I feel that it follows in the footsteps of, and without a better example, social media -- instant or immediate gratification.

Aside from your regular culprits of Formula One, Call of Duty, Far Cry, something similar to the first time you played the Blood and Wine DLC emotion kind of thing, could be a turning point, don't you think?

There certainly is a market bracket for a great AAA game that would have in mind people which steered away from gaming due to its incessant push for immediate reward.

Am I just wishful thinking?

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking?

Though maybe its because the Blood and Wine DLC example is immediatley making me think of Phantom Liberty. That 2023 is serving that Blood and Wine emotion through a lot of great games for the sort of people disintersted by the usual array of social-media like service games.

Alan Wake, Hi-Fi, Phantom Liberty, Baldur's Gate, Amnesia, Street Fighter, Dead Space, RE4R, Tears of the Kingdom, Lies of P, Remant, Jedi Survivor, Spiderman II, System Shock.

None of these games (to my knowledge) are built purely around holding your attention in five second bursts of dopemine forever.

Watching a friend today play Mass Effect 2, and seeing how much I'm appreciating it mostly through retrospect, rather than being fully immersed; realizing just how many things Cyberpunk has improved about that style of Action RPG, really reminded me how far games have come in the last twenty years.

Now, what for sure is happening, instant gratification is now at the forefront. What previously was mostly kept to MMOs, and Mobile Games, has been fully intergrated into mainstream titles, and they're being consistently rewarded for it financially.

However, this was always the goal.

Games weren't about being unique experiences, and then that changed. 

Games were about making money. 

When I grew up, the main method of doing that was by pumping out a lot of games in a franchise that out of necessity, had to do something to stand out, Most Wanted's art-style, Call of Duty's time period, etc.

But then a more effective means of profit was discovered, and now that's taken over, and no matter how many COD4's, MWs, FEARs, STALKERs, and Blood and Wine's get made, that's not going to change.

All you can do is not participate, and thankfully, in years like this one, not partipating, is pretty god damn awesome when there's so many awesome games to play.

Mastiffio Asks
What musical act would kill to see live, even though they don’t play live anymore/disbanded/retired?

Tons.

Arcane Roots sound like an epic on their studio albums, so I can only imagine how grand they would've sounded live.

The Celldweller/Blue Stahli concerts looked and sounded awesome, making bespoke mixes of old songs for the live shows.

Fever 333's energy was apparently insane enough to make even Bring Me The Horizon go "shit, we have to follow that up?"

Linkin Park, Portishead, Rage Against the Machine, InnerPartySystem.

I mainly just hope I get to see NIN at some point in my life.

DizzyDwarf Asks
what would be your ideal rpg thats not a mass effect sequel or spin off

And not an Alpha Protocol sequel/spin off.

...or a Cyberpunk sequel/spin-off.

I've said previously that I want a John Wick Max Payne game, but what I didn't mention, is that I'm envisioning it going full Action RPG in-terms of builds. I wouldn't want crafting or even damage numbers, but I would want you to construct any contractor you wanted.

Beefcake who only uses Hammers, a twink with duel-revolvers, a bog-standard Ninja, or Max Payne and John Wick. The closest I've witnessed is Cyberpunk's build variety, but even then, I think that can be expanded upon.

Now, for something more like an "RPG" (this genre label seriously fucking sucks), Arcane made me really want one in that universe, I even tried Ruined King for that reason, though the game's combat got spammed way too much, I think I even wrote a Randomly Mine talking about the nature of many Turn Based RPGs to spam their encounters, so what would be a 30 second fight in an FPS becomes five goddamn minutes in Ruined King just to leave a basement.

That was tangent, but yeah, being a rando running over Rooftops in Piltover with the goal of pickpocketing some rich people?

Sign me up!