(no subject)

[egypturnash]

As a side note, since some people seem to want to convince me that Bioshock is actually a really good game - an opinion you're welcome to have; it's clearly a finely-crafted instance of an experience I simply don't care to have - I would like to note that so far, the only FPS I've actually enjoyed as a game is Thief, which I've been playing on and off the past week via Rik's machine. I had fun with System Shock 2 a couple years back but by the end, I was sick and tired of the basic game mechanics and just wanted to find out what happened to SHODAN. I really don't like FPSs.

As I've gotten older, I've slowly learnt how to see people as, well, people. I'm not very good at it; I never was. As video-game technology marches on, the creatures the games pit you against have gotten more like people. When I play some games made in the last decade or so, I can feel them training me to see people as just things. I'm still working out what factors make this happen; it's only a handful of games that do this so far.

I really think that the increasing drive for 'realism' in video games means that the game industry has a big moral quandry coming up. The forty-year-long focus on the hurt button as the core mechanic becomes creepier as the things you hurt become more and more like people. What happens when the project lead on a game focused on killing and blood plays his game and feels that weird sense that it's gnawing away at something in his soul? What happens when this is a regular occurrence?

A few major choice-points over, there's another me who went into video games. Is she (or he; I might never have transitioned in that life-path) getting ever more uncomfortable with these themes, or has it been completely burnt out of her by this point?

Comments

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

Derailing slightly from original intent - how do you get through the doors in Elebits? I had a great time with it, until I got seven or eight levels in and found myself having problems opening doors consistently enough to make it through the levels. I've been figuring I never quite got the trick, and I got distracted - but it's such a pretty, charming little game, and I'd love to play more!

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Zap the door knob, twist your controller clockwise or anti-clockwise as indicated by the arrows on the screen, and pull the controller toward your body.

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

When you say "twist the controller," do you mean "rotate the controller in-hand" (i.e. so that the top of the controller is perpendicular to the floor, or entirely upside-down), or do you mean "describe a circle with the tip of the controller" (i.e. so that the top of the controller remains upright but the cursor travels in a circle around the objective on screen)?

Because I've been doing the latter, and it works, but is hideously hard to do consistently - and if they expected the former, I'm going to feel very foolish for making things far too hard on myself.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Erm, okay, imagine yourself holding the controller, your thumb is on the A button and the A button is facing up toward the ceiling. When I say twist the controller I mean rotate the controller such that the A button faces a wall, and then so it faces the floor, it's an action very much like turning an actual doorknob.

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Which is to say that your radius and ulna bones in your forearm should be pivoting around one another... in fact, forget the controller is in your hand, just hold out your hand with your palm facing the ceiling. Then rotate it such that your palm is facing the floor. At the same time you will pull the controller in toward your body.

I ... I could make a flash animation if I'm not making myself clear.

[aprivatefox.livejournal.com]

Damn. That's my "first" case. The one that's easier and more sensible than the one I thought they wanted. I need to try this game again.

(Sorry for the deleted post; accidentally posted this out-of-thread first.)