GWJ Conference Call Episode 757

I listened to most of this GWJCC while playing Cozy Grove. I'm really enjoying it. The game being designed to be played in short sessions really works for me as a game to wind down in the evening. The only problem is that I have only played while it's the middle of the night in the game. I guess I should fire it up during the day so see what's different. Lunch Grove may not be as exciting as Lunch Souls, but it'll do. I also really like that the game is deliberately design for you not to hoard things and go crazy about productivity and maximizing yields because there is very little farming and you have fairly limited inventory space. It's definitely a great podcast game as long as your podcast is also relatively short.

Risk of Rain 2 is also great. I'm not sure I can play with many people here because I only own it on PS4 but one thing I'd add is that it is a game that has done early access and post-launch updates the right way. Ever since early access they've kept a very tidy development roadmap in their Steam page, they've had well-functioning console builds before v1.0, and they have continued to add content to the game after version 1.0. They also continue to port the patches to the console versions in larger batches. That's probably not easy for an indie studio so I think they deserve credit for it.

On the topic of taboos, a theme I'd be curious to see more of in videogames is the issue of beliefs in science, scientific evidence, and pseudosciences. I feel like it is a problem underlying a lot of issues in the real world today, and it's certainly been brought up by the advent of coronavirus vaccines and other "treatments" like hydroxycholoroquine, equine serum, etc. The challenge I see is that it's perhaps a more subtle topic than what most videogames typically deal with. It's easy to make a game where the story revolves around a conspiracy theory, but it's harder to make a fame about why people believe in conspiracy theories in the first place. One game that I feel touches on the subject is Astrologaster, which is loosely based on real life events, and where the protagonist practices a very unscientific approach to medicine. This is put forward in the mechanics of the game, where you have to "read the stars" in a minigame where you are actually doing nothing. At he same time, the game tells you that the protagonist was a pioneer in medical recordkeeping, which is an important part of scientific medicine to this day. And the game delivers this with a sensational sense of humor.

The deeper I'm getting into Trials of Fire, the more I'm appreciating the tactical combat. Particularly as I'm playing it alongside a new run through XCOM: Chimera Squad.

The difference is marked - Chimera Squad quickly descends into a rote cycling through of everyone's powers, and at that point, I'm not making interesting decisions anymore, I'm just deploying my pre-developed optimum approach, which only changes when I unlock a new power. Trials of Fire keeps it interesting - there's almost never an "obvious path forward", and every turn benefits from some thought and analysis.

I have played both Risk of Rains, but found 2 to be a LOT harder for me personally and less enjoyable. They are both wonderfully designed games, and I love the first one.

On the taboo thing. The discussion of men playing women reminded me of some vague gamer research and interviews of women who played MU*s, the text-based internet games of yore, that were basically chat rooms with game mechanics. One of the interesting things in that research was that some women not only played tough, strong, hard women because they felt like society didn't allow them to be in real life, but there were also women who played mild, demure, submissive characters because they felt that society constantly pressured them to be the opposite and they wanted a break from it. Unfortunately, I forget what the rough percentages of those women were of the interviews. I find that phenomenon fascinating.

For me it's the 2d aiming. If I am on the same horizontal level, I always hit. It's basically auto-aim. Aiming in 3d is harder for me with a controller (Xbox), and I am only getting older.

OMG, why am I only learning about random buttons now?

I mildly hate character creators - they get between me and the hot new shininess of a game, but I hate-create a character because I have to. Gonna be rando-spam from now on!