tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.comments2024-03-18T19:38:53.390-04:00Parallel ContextRedbeardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comBlogger3971125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-68206929664007482212024-03-18T19:38:53.390-04:002024-03-18T19:38:53.390-04:00Given that BioWare pretty much hung their collecti...Given that BioWare pretty much hung their collective hat on romance in RPGs with Baldur's Gate 2 (and it's admittedly tame text based conversations), you're not too far off the mark, I believe. BioWare having failed badly in Mass Effect: Andromeda and Anthem left the door open to have another company swoop in and take their title from them, and Larian pretty much ran with it. The thing is, I certainly didn't see it coming, as I played about half of Divinity: Original Sin 1 and there wasn't a single whiff of romance in it. Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity 1 and Tyranny both don't have romance either, but boy howdy does horniness exist in The Witcher games.<br /><br />So... Maybe it's a bit of both CD Projekt Red and BioWare both collectively priming the pump a bit for games such as Baldur's Gate 3 reaping the rewards of injecting romance, so to speak.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-65386771189037454102024-03-18T15:04:52.349-04:002024-03-18T15:04:52.349-04:00Besides the obvious "sex sells", I wonde...Besides the obvious "sex sells", I wonder how much of the thirst is due to Bioware's romances? There's a vocal subset of their players who wear the badge "will bang all the NPCs" with quite vocally. Then again, Larian is a European company so there's a cultural difference there, too.<br /><br />I haven't tried BG3 as I haven't been a fan of Larian's Divine Divinity series. I didn't get into BG1 or 2, either, but I did really enjoy Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2. Maybe I should expand my RPG horizons...Pallaishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01052537793722183657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-82633072391611163542024-03-18T11:27:45.771-04:002024-03-18T11:27:45.771-04:00I'm sure you're not the first, and won'...I'm sure you're not the first, and won't be the last, Syl. As much as I can see BG3 continuing the Baldur's Gate tradition, there are parts of the game that make me raise my eyebrows in disbelief. Such as the backstories of the characters; those were the sort of backstories that if I were DM I'd tell the PCs to "come back with something more realistic".<br /><br />The funny thing is, I know for a fact that my son does not go in for romance in his video games, unless something drastically has changed in the past few years. When he played through Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the Switch, I never even knew there <i>were</i> romance options in the game based on the way he played it. It was only when I mentioned Three Houses to some of my fellow raiders back in early TBC Classic did I discover that the game's reputation was that of a dating sim first and an RPG second.<br /><br />That being said, every tabletop group has their own boundaries and limitations, and those need to be reset periodically to make sure everybody is still onboard. I'm not big on romance in my tabletop games, but others are. And still others want a straight on romance novel style RPG experience. Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-12355558296109803512024-03-18T07:14:12.647-04:002024-03-18T07:14:12.647-04:00Not sure I should publicly admit that BG3 is the o...Not sure I should publicly admit that BG3 is the one game I refunded in 2023 :P Sylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04473554645340972749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-67894947499704430092024-03-15T09:53:56.434-04:002024-03-15T09:53:56.434-04:00Civ IV was my own introduction to the series, thro...Civ IV was my own introduction to the series, through one of my ex-boyfriends whom I watched play for hours and hours. Haven't played in ages though. Still, Baba Yetu remains a banger.Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-49436157252283542882024-03-14T12:06:58.930-04:002024-03-14T12:06:58.930-04:00Monty is just great! Quite a big boy now actually,...Monty is just great! Quite a big boy now actually, no longer a pup haha, although we will always call him that. :D <br />I shall include a current pic of him in one of my next few posts!<br />Glad you're doing well - I look forward to catch up on some blog reading!Sylhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04473554645340972749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-58977094710650491502024-03-14T10:24:49.634-04:002024-03-14T10:24:49.634-04:00Syl!!! Great to see you again!!!
Yes, I'm sti...Syl!!! Great to see you again!!!<br /><br />Yes, I'm still here. My heart hasn't killed me yet, and neither has allergies from guinea pigs. How's your pupper doing?Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-60397425919500056422024-03-14T04:45:24.737-04:002024-03-14T04:45:24.737-04:00Forget BG3, get Dragon's Dogma 2 next week! :P...Forget BG3, get Dragon's Dogma 2 next week! :P<br />Haha, I'm glad to see you're still up and running this place and hope everyone is well at home! I hope to return to more regular blogging myself, for now just /wave from me!Sylhttps://www.mmogypsy.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-38299492516214702912024-03-13T18:25:47.781-04:002024-03-13T18:25:47.781-04:00Right now, that's my plan with WoW. And if I g...Right now, that's my plan with WoW. And if I get pushed into going harder, I tend to push back.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-3366977631579345472024-03-13T18:22:20.618-04:002024-03-13T18:22:20.618-04:00Yay, wow. That's what I thought it would be li...Yay, wow. That's what I thought it would be like. I'm just in Azeroth to enjoy the scenery with Cat. Kind of like visiting the Grand Canyon for 18 years!<br /><br />I was in I think two guilds briefly but never got to the dungeon let alone raid stage. Not sure I ever would have, there seems to have cliques and I wasn't in one. I was invited to make their food though while they were at work at one guild lol. Yeah no.<br /><br />I guess there are many playstyles and mine is to not work hard at wow, it's to get away from working hard! TotA<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-59441689545819453692024-03-10T15:21:48.081-04:002024-03-10T15:21:48.081-04:00Ooof.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since...Ooof.<br /><br />I guess I shouldn't be surprised, since when I attend Gen Con there are a couple of artists in Artists' Alley that make me raise my eyebrows a bit. I'd say that 90% of the artists there do fantastic work and I'd love to purchase some of it (except for the money thing and the lack of space on walls thing), but that 10%... Hoo boy.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-4582187779258761192024-03-07T16:28:40.714-05:002024-03-07T16:28:40.714-05:00In my cynical moments, I start to think people com...In my cynical moments, I start to think people complain about the Dracthyr because they don't have boobs. I used to think the fans commissioning art were the sweat ones, until I saw artists state they weren't going to draw dragon-form dracthyr without breasts. :sigh:Pallaishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01052537793722183657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-12075411836474172862024-03-06T09:48:04.677-05:002024-03-06T09:48:04.677-05:00I don't believe it's strictly an MMO playe...I don't believe it's strictly an MMO player thing, but rather something in human nature. If there's a way to figure out "the best" in anything, people will migrate in that direction. Hence the proliferation of "manage by spreadsheet" Business degree graduates.<br /><br />I personally would live with others having BiS everything and being able to wipe the floor with it than having an entire game tuned to said weapons. If you tailor the game toward the elite few, you eventually have a game that only contains the elite few and you have to milk them for as much money as you can. Much better to tune the game toward the vast majority of your players and let the elite few complain that things are too easy rather than depend upon the fickle nature of the elite few.<br /><br />Game companies get in trouble when they try to tailor a game toward both sets of players, because I believe you're correct: the elitism will win out because Math is on their side.<br /><br />Funny how humanity self-selects toward Feudalism or Oligarchy rather than equality.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-18863657323961041372024-03-06T05:35:09.912-05:002024-03-06T05:35:09.912-05:00That album cover reminds me I saw the Kinks twice,...That album cover reminds me I saw the Kinks twice, although not for that tour. I'd completely forgotten. They used to tour each new album and play it pretty much in full in the first half of the show, then take a break and come back and do an hour of "the hits". Only band I ever saw do that as a normal routine rather than a special event. It had the benefit of keeping the audience largely acceptant while the band went through the new stuff but it was very obvious most had only come to hear the second half of the show. <br /><br />On the Legendary thing, it's impossible. As soon as you put any item in a game that allows for competive behavior OR requires teamwork, i.e. all MMOs, the best in slot items become mandatory for a significant number of players and developers have to balance content around the expectation that players will have those items. It locks everyone else out of that content, which then leads to stratified versions of that content, which leads to hierarchical behavior. <br /><br />Either you accept the game is goinf to be inherently exclusionary and elitist or you take steps to nullify the effects of putting those powerful items in game in the first place. It's a circle that cannot be squared. Better not to put the extremely powerful items in the game in the firt place, in my opinion. I prefer games that have a lot of very good items, none of which anyone can easily agree on being "the best". It still leaves room for aspiration but doen't automatically exclude anyone who doesn't have the "right" item. Of course, MMO players hate genuine ambiguity and will always try to define "best" in some way or another, so it's a very difficult task for developers. Much easier just to put in a few OP items and let players fight among themselves over them.<br /><br />Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-13254252601791391662024-02-29T20:58:00.052-05:002024-02-29T20:58:00.052-05:00Thanks, Ancient!
And yes, I've been writing a...Thanks, Ancient!<br /><br />And yes, I've been writing a bit of fiction. I'm just pushing to get a draft done so I can start revisions. It's, um, a bit long....Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-21490469918397989082024-02-29T18:27:21.524-05:002024-02-29T18:27:21.524-05:00I really don't mind much what you talk about, ...I really don't mind much what you talk about, just that you do. I enjoy lots of your posts even though I'm unfamiliar with other games you play. <br /><br />Your fiction is fantastic, any time you feel a story I'm ready!Tome of the Ancienthttps://tomeoftheancient.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-24144666530535334732024-02-28T09:18:36.021-05:002024-02-28T09:18:36.021-05:00Well, now that you prodded me about it, I went bac...Well, now that you prodded me about it, I went back to look at what the About section actually says about PC. (Yes, I'd forgotten.)<br /><br />Luckily, we'd specified about primarily MMO gaming topics --although we've leeway to cover geekdom and other games/gaming-- so I think that commentary and whatnot about gaming still fits within our current About statement.<br /><br />(I am not going to call it a Mission Statement. I'm trying to keep work away, not embrace work language.)<br /><br />I don't think I'm going to abandon "what's going on in gaming" posts entirely, but I don't want to make it a focus of the blog. If I don't talk about something enough, PLEASE go ahead and poke me to post more. Feedback is always welcome!Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-6666157304796981452024-02-28T05:43:38.386-05:002024-02-28T05:43:38.386-05:00Well, thank you for indulging me!
I can understan...Well, thank you for indulging me!<br /><br />I can understand not wanting to get into too much detail about your personal life, but not wanting to write about your gaming is a new one to me to be honest. For me that's a big part of my blog's raison d'etre! What do you consider your blog's purpose then? What are the topics you <i>want</i> to write about? And do you still consider PC a gaming blog?Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-51418828032800203822024-02-14T22:02:13.704-05:002024-02-14T22:02:13.704-05:00I can agree with the "with someone" as o...I can agree with the "with someone" as opposed to "as someone" comment. In a very real sense, I've been able to slip into "RPG mode" more easily in an MMO than in a video game version of an RPG --Baldur's Gate series included-- because the latter feel more like a story I'm watching whereas an MMO has more freedom to just basically screw around as you wish.<br /><br />Alas that my wife isn't interested in RPGs (video game or pencil and paper), and prefers to play some board games and Mario Kart. I blame her lack of interest on one of her exes, who when she was interested in playing he brought her into his campaign, only to try to force her to play "his way" rather than letting her explore the possibilities more freely.<br /><br />I have created "older" characters in some games, but SWTOR was the only one that actually let me put gray hair on and look a bit more aged than just a 20-ish young and fit variety.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-90027475181691027572024-02-14T10:36:45.977-05:002024-02-14T10:36:45.977-05:00I originally played all of my CRPGs as a male char...I originally played all of my CRPGs as a male characters, except for games such as Kotor 1 & 2 where I wanted to see the female romance options during a subsequent playthrough. Basically, I was trying to play as some form of 'me'.<br /><br />My first Wow character was a male paladin, but when I went to make a second character I decided to try a female character to see if people really did react to me differently. One or two did -- usually being more polite -- but for the most part I received the same reactions as before. However, for me, it started to feel like I was playing with someone, not as someone. <br /><br />Part of that I think was that I was missing playing games with my late wife. We used to play the same single player games together and talk about what each of us did and how we approached things. (Think pre- to early-UO days.) Since then my characters have been female unless I wanted to see the male side of things (*cough*Swtor romances*cough*). <br /><br />Another part is the realization that character creation systems seldom allow me to create a male character that would feel like my avatar. Not only in body shapes, but also age. Too many overly muscular male figures that were in the prime of life for me to relate to. If I couldn't immerse myself in those characters, playing 'alongside' a female character wasn't much of a stretch either.<br /><br />So I'm a bit weird ^_^, but that's ok. I'm having fun.Pallaishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01052537793722183657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-29793624495259747542024-02-12T16:58:41.181-05:002024-02-12T16:58:41.181-05:00I'm still not exactly sure why my mains are al...I'm still not exactly sure why my mains are all female either, although I think the switchover happened when I started using a female Night Elf Rogue in WoW's Mists expansion. After that, I mained a female Nightblade in Elder Scrolls Online, and then when I switched to WoW Classic my main leveling toons were female as well. <br /><br />I mean, I still have male toons out there, most recently a Troll Mage in WoW's Season of Discovery, but the females get the most game time. <br /><br />I do believe that I've seen less and less harassment playing as a female toon over the past couple of years, although the longer I play on an RP server with the RP third party apps turned on, that might change. The worst came about in early-mid 2010s on Retail WoW (and occasionally on ESO), but I still got some shenanigans thrown my way after the release of WoW Classic. <br /><br />It's kind of funny, since I know the well worn meme of Night Elves dancing in various stages of undress on the Stormwind fountain for tips, and I even created a toon specifically to test that urban legend out, but I've chickened out each time I figured I'd go ahead and actually do it. So yeah, even when nobody would know it's me up there fooling around as it were, I still can't do it. Too embarrassed.<br />Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-4011406282605182932024-02-12T13:49:15.312-05:002024-02-12T13:49:15.312-05:00It is a really interesting topic, gendered charact...It is a really interesting topic, gendered character play in MMORPGs. I've always played a mix of genders although in later years I mostly play females for reasons that are unclear even to me, although I think the prevalence of voice acting has something to do with it. It's probably no coincidence that I also mostly listen to music with female or female-sounding singers.<br /><br />In all that time, I've hardly ever had anyone hit on any of my characters, give them stuff, flirt with them or any of the other things that supposedly happen all the time. All of those things certainly has happened but very rarely. Mostly my characters get equally ignored regardless of gender. <br /><br />Back when I grouped regularly I did occasionally feel the need to make it clear when joining a party with people I didn't know that I was a male playing a female, just to avoid any awkwardness back when people were a lot more sensitive about that kind of thing than they are now. Usually no-one really seemed to care. Very early on, around 2001, I did lose an in-game friend in EQ when he discovered, after we'd been hanging out for a few weeks, that I wasn't the same gender as my character. He didn't specifically say anything but he was clearly uncomfortable about it and after a couple more meetings I never saw or heard from him again. I think in nearly 25 years that remains the only significant issue I can recall that arose directly out of a clash between in-game and real-life gender.<br /><br /> Bhagpusshttps://bhagpuss.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-84944885951957463662024-02-07T17:23:07.956-05:002024-02-07T17:23:07.956-05:00I wonder if the lack of a Newcomer Chat channel is...I wonder if the lack of a Newcomer Chat channel is why I see it so often in Era. Although to be fair, I didn't see it much at all in the 2019 Classic servers through Wrath Classic. As I alluded to above, I figured it was because returning players made the bulk of that Classic contingent.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-86457138764953164312024-02-07T14:17:35.625-05:002024-02-07T14:17:35.625-05:00I suspect that since MMOs are no longer popular in...I suspect that since MMOs are no longer popular in the same way they once were that we have written them off as being for old people.<br /><br />It's the same sort of conventional wisdom that gets turned on its head when a Baldur's Gate 3 comes out and disproves the "everybody knows" wisdom that turn based RPGs are dead.<br /><br />While I think MMOs' time in the sun has come and gone, MMOs have made themselves deliberately obscure by becoming insular in approach and understanding what it means to attract new players in 2024.<br /><br />I had a neighbor's kid try WoW back when Cataclysm first came out, and they gave up because they couldn't understand a thing about the story in game. That speaks to me of major problems with how the story is presented, and that the people doing the writing don't look at things from the standpoint of someone brand new to the genre and the story.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-12851503992035903692024-02-07T13:43:17.833-05:002024-02-07T13:43:17.833-05:00Oops! Hadn't read Pallais' comment before ...Oops! Hadn't read Pallais' comment before I added my reply above. What Pallais said!Bhagpusshttps://bhagpuss.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com