Tag: gaming

Who’d have thought? 

@morganmpage: Ten years ago I would not have predicted that geek culture would plunge the world into political chaos.

I stopped feeling like one of these people long ago… Not because I grew out of gaming culture, but because I noticed those tendencies and could not put a name to them.

That and the simple lack of available time for gaming. Work is how you afford to have gaming time. The entire thread is so worth consideration. 

Malware you willingly decide to put on your devices, for their benefit

Time passed, Free to Play became a thing. I went from company to company. Each time, every new project became less and less about how we can do cool things, and more about how we can track and target users to get the most whales possible, boost chart position and retain users to shove as many ads on them as possible.

Source: “We Own You” – Confessions of an Anonymous Free to Play Producer | TouchArcade

On Saving Zelda

Congratulations, Mr. Aonuma – you never have. Instead, you’ve taken the teeth out of a hardcore series. There’s no real danger now, no risk, nothing to lose. You’ve redefined game designers as the ultimate helicopter parents.

tevis thompson.

My first Zelda game was Link’s Awakening; it is to this day my favorite game ever. Years later I sank hours upon hours on Ocarina of Time, and I compared it favorably to Link’s Awakening; they were the same game, with characters I knew, the item hunting I knew, the same steady acquisition of weapons I knew.

The only difference being that in Link’s Awakening, victory over the Nightmares meant the destruction of an entire world. Ocarina of Time can’t really compare with destruction on that scale. You could pick to keep playing… but that would mean never leaving Koholint Island.

I never got the chance to play The Legend of Zelda well into adulthood — and via emulators at that. The first time I played it I was astonished. Where was the Owl? Where were the people needing help? Setting out on my adventure, I got killed. Then killed again. Then killed some more. I didn’t get frustrated per se, but I couldn’t relate to dying again and again. I thought I had left those days behind me.

I left the game behind, but all this time it still beckons with the same intensity one gets from playing any Mario game, Prince of Persia (the original), Doom, Quake, Fallout, Homeworld, Diablo, Castlevania, Contra, Beyond Good and Evil, and many, many, many more. Those games make me go back to them using the same argument Mr. Thompson makes. The argument they sweetly whisper into everyone’s ears as well.

Here is a world. Survive.