Warren Spector on Human Revolution: "I screamed at the television as I played"

Muzman on 30/3/2012 at 09:43

I could dig universal ammo if you got, say, cans of generic nanite substrate "3d printer ink" and had to then tell it what to make. That would of course be a permanent choice.
Has a certain craft-y fun to it.

That wasn't their logic though. It was more of a "how do we cope with a streamlined interface where you can't fit everything plus ten kinds of ammo on the screen?" Plus this was the era when everything games had been doing for 20 years was being declared NotFun, especially fiddly things that DX and System Shock 2 did a lot of.

Quote Posted by faetal

I'll never truly understand these conversations. Person A dislikes and aspect of a game (a recreational piece of software with no functional purpose other than to entertain). Person B tells them why they are wrong to dislike it, as though person A should be able to go back and enjoy it after gleaning this useful insight.

Well that does actually happen though.

faetal on 30/3/2012 at 09:58

Really?
I can understand if someone is on the fence and a person is reasoning them to give something another go, they may go back to it and enjoy it, but I'd need convincing in order to believe that it was the person's words that changed the experience and not just the probability that someone might like something better with subsequent plays through generally.

Muzman on 30/3/2012 at 10:17

I'm afraid I can't produce an FMRI based study where people hold gaming arguments on the internet and we watch their brain states change.
The thing is, people expressing clearly why they hated something aren't necessarily not on the fence or immovable in their position.

DDL on 30/3/2012 at 10:44

I'm not above admitting that some games have been more enjoyable to me after I've had elements (that perhaps initially perplexed me) justified by well reasoned-arguments in their favour, but as I noted I'm pretty easily amused, so that's usually "game I like becomes game I really like", rather than "game I dislike becomes game I like". A game generally needs to be fucking terrible before I dislike it, and then no amount of post hoc justification will save it.

Though I'm not sure what kind of argument would work here, anyway. "Universal ammo is a reflection of the homogenisation of conventional culture and a representation of the sterility, stagnation and lack of imagination that this leads to. Also, pistols are best."

:D