We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

I don't see why it's a problem though.

If something takes a good amount of inspiration from one game and builds upon that, you'll have something fantastic. Why would that be a problem?

I agree, but the trailer doesn't show anything new that's what i'm saying.

I'm not saying it doesn't look good or i that i'll not enjoy it because it is too similar. I know everything has been done a million times already, but Erynis Hand like you said it's Kirby + Megaman, not just "Kirby with a different character and different graphics", it also has it's own thing. I dunno i just find it sort of boring that they're bringing absolutely nothing new to the table, not even something extremely simple like bouncing backwards off the walls like Super Bat Puncher.

Or maybe even that was done before but i don't know because i don't know every single obscure NES game.

Also there's the fact that, just because you're retreading the ground, doesn't mean you're stepping on the same footsteps. A game can literally jack every single mechanic from another game, but by delivering it to you in a new and different way than the original, you would stand there with a new experience.

And what if the complete and utter retread improves upon the original by simply executing it BETTER? Are we so afraid of the boogeyman of monotony that you'd allow a game the exclusive right to its mechanics without ever seeing if it can't be improved upon by someone with an outsider's mindset? What if we did that with literally every other idea and medium in human history? How do we climb upon the shoulders of giants if we place them in a cave and say that nobody can touch them?

Or perhaps its a general fear of intellectual theft? Which is a perfectly legitimate fear when there's an encroachment upon style or specific characters or original locations or anything that allows the viewing party to figure out who is the guy doing the thing that they are viewing, or when someone steals the idea before the creator is given the chance to use it for himself/herself (Which the internet tells me is called "Edisoning"). But when it comes to things that can and should be improved upon for the sake of creating better experiences, like the mechanics of gameplay, its really just another misplaced boogeyman, one that can and is thrown up to protect mediocrity. Things like "Namco owns the patent on mini-games on loading screens" makes my blood boil to no end (Even though I'd bet money that its rather unenforcable to someone who wants to fight about it).

I played that Fallen London thing for a little while, mostly because of TheBoyd. Who also played it. Or still plays it. Or something.
Roughly half the Twitter posts I have ever made come from there. The other half are from Sword & Sworcery.

Nintendo's first party application software does have loading screens

they're really adorable loading screens though

the news thing on the wii has these cats and you can poke them to make meow noises

Their games was more what I was on about, considering loading time/latency for online content is unavoidable.

Speaking of, you believe this shit? My best friend lives out in the boonies and all he can get is satellite internet that barely works, to the extent that online gaming is basically impossible. If this is really the direction Microsoft wants to go, it's a really ignorant assumption that everyone has access to decent internet, even in highly developed countries. Unlike me, he is not loud and obnoxiously opinionated, but he told me this is the one console he wouldn't buy if it is true that the next Xbox is going to have always-on DRM. And he buys like every console.

Well obviously protecting one's IP is more important than actually having a wide consumer base to exploit it. That's just common sense really. [/sarcasm]

Later he said he was joking but like, that just sounds like something he was ordered to say rather than the truth
those weren't jokes

Nobody would believe it.

My favorite part is that he compared always-online to a vacuum cleaner that needs electricity and cell phone that needs reception.

Despite the fact that both of those things require those things, and consoles don't require online.

EDIT:

"Namco owns the patent on mini-games on loading screens"

Not a distinction worth having; Nintendo's first party games do not have loading screens. I still firmly believe everyone should follow suit.

This reminds me that Nintendo owns the patent over sanity meters that actually fuck with you and they haven't done anything with that patent since Eternal Darkness.

if fallen london doesn't let me romance a squid monster then so help me

my anaconda don't want none unless it got f'thagns, hun

The only play-a-day browser game I have any experience with is Kingdom of Loathing, and not much. A friend tried to get me into it a few months ago, but it only held my interest for about a week.

Amnesia would be able to make a case that they aren't infringing considering the only thing it does is create hallucinations. Most of the things that actually affect gameplay (like the player character being forced to crawl) are a result of events rather than sanity. Eternal Darkness does a lot to the player.

if fallen london doesn't let me romance a squid monster then so help me

my anaconda don't want none unless it got f'thagns, hun

There is indeed an option of romance with someone of the rubbery persuasion :P

I have a feeling I'm going to have to make a few alt accounts if I want any chance at all of Finding the Name alas.

For the record, I should be findable as Gnauga on Fallen London. Still trying to figure out how to do interplayer shenanigans.

When it comes to interplayer stuff, you have to add people to your friends list on your account page (Right hand side of the top bar) You can also invite people to join your clique via their fallen london profile page (Unfortunately you can only do this if they are a friend on either twitter or facebook)

I myself am findable here, and if anyone would like to start seeking the name (Ignore this. Seeking the name can only end in disaster), I am in need of someone to send Name invites to. (30 Watchful to be a valid target(Don't listen. Doom will come))

Wait hold up you can literally own patents on gameplay mechanics? I thought you guys were just making dumb jokes. Wow. That's incredibly fucked up.

Wait hold up you can literally own patents on gameplay mechanics? I thought you guys were just making dumb jokes. Wow. That's incredibly fucked up.

Only fucked up in some cases. In Nintendo's case it really is, because it's a pretty neat-ass mechanic to have in horror games and considering they pretty much never make horror games that aren't goofy horror like Luigi's Mansion.

There are patents over some stupid shit like that of which tends to be a gameplay standard sure, but stuff like Crazy Taxi's gameplay is patented and then The Simpsons: Road Rage rips off the gameplay and they get into a lawsuit because of it. That's when it's worth it.

But for an example of a really stupid patent that never went through because of how stupid it was, Wizards of the Coast tried patenting "tapping" where you turn a card to show it's used or depleted. That pissed a lot of people off.

patents are the reason we don't have a standardised button layout for game controllers so if you've been playing the 3DS for a while and then swap to an Xbox controller you'll suddenly be cancelling when you want to accept

patents are the reason we don't have a standardised button layout for game controllers so if you've been playing the 3DS for a while and then swap to an Xbox controller you'll suddenly be cancelling when you want to accept

also why the wiiu pro controller has the analog sticks above instead of just making a wiiu version of the gamecube controller (???) because the other two possible analog stick positions are taken up by PS3 and 360

These changes to the next Xbox (Xbox Durango or something?) are making me kinda pissed and also scared at the same time. Primarily, the always-online thing and the install only mechanic for games. This article in particular (on SimCity) just makes me sad.

Considering that such a great game was blatantly meddled into unplayability by the DRM, I truly fear for the future of video games. Could online piracy laws force video games to go out of business?

e: post most likely misinformed, checking articles and doing research might be recommended?

what's strange is that we already watched diablo 3 go through with the issues of both trying to shoehorn real world trading into a game that wasn't originally designed with the concept, and then basing the decision to go ultra online to da maxx with that BASED ON AN ALREADY BAD DECISION as if somehow making more bad decisions makes the original decision more legit

and that tanks

and then, watching this whole mess from the sidelines, maxis is thinking to themselves "well, sure, a game that lent itself more to multiplayer functionality requiring always online gameplay so that the monetization wouldn't be compromised was utterly ruined by both underestimating its server capacity and screwing up the monetization, but our game, which has never done multiplayer before and was completely built on the concept of single player, will totally succeed in both implementing always online gameplay and paid advertisements because our situation is different and we won't make those mistakes! the addition of these multiplayer features, which we had to sacrifice such luxuries as player control, game balancing, and game functions actually working like they should, was totally worth it, not like diablo 3, where they undermined their game's mechanics by introducing a market which removed all incentive to play the game, which isn't similar to what we're doing here at all with multiplayer features that are both necessary and useful."

and then they made all of those mistakes anyway because nobody spent like, five minutes during lunch to rub enough brain cells together to make any of these connections

and NOW we're taking that as a warning sign?

actually, it could be more likely that everybody on the team was well aware of the increasing amount of issues, but because of perhaps contractual obligation or wanting to keep their jobs, they forged ahead anyway full well knowing that they were driving a turd IED into the marketplace dolled up as the next best thing

"eh, we'll fix it in post, and if that's not enough, we'll hand out free copies of the previous simcity, which will unintentionally both serve to underscore how badly this game compares to it, while befitting of the most ironic gesture of our hubris"

I don't think it did tank though, despite a lot of complaining it was a commercial success
that is another problem

They made /Maxis/ apologize? What, too afraid to attach their own name to a fuckup franchise driven more heavily into the ground than a city under the foot of a giant robot? They'd besmirch the name and memory of Maxis? As if these problems weren't all just caused by EA's own ridiculous bureaucracy shoehorning in their end-user requirements...

I just find it offensive that EA would purge all trace of Maxis from Maxis games and then just bring the name back out when things go bad ;^;

There are patents over some stupid shit like that of which tends to be a gameplay standard sure, but stuff like Crazy Taxi's gameplay is patented and then The Simpsons: Road Rage rips off the gameplay and they get into a lawsuit because of it. That's when it's worth it.

Shut up Road Rage is the best videogame.

I've been wary of the video game industry for a while, it's really really going downhill, fast. I've discussed it before, but what bothers me the most is how quickly Capcom turned into one of the best to one of the worst, from making great fighting and action games to stuffing all their products with shady business practices and nickle-and-diming their customers. It's frightening.

What there is a lack of in the industry is simply listening to consumers, which goes hand in hand with the video game journalism industry's favoring over the businesses than the consumer. While large companies will continue to listen to only sales numbers, it really shows when the third largest business in the industry gets voted for Worst Company In America over Bank of America for the second time in a row. As much as they can attempt to blame it on conservative issues over LGBT characters and ME3's ending, it won't work. Because that's not what the consumer is voting them for, and the consumer knows that.

i still don't know which party is responsible, so i'm considering them the same entity as they've basically been fused together like a conjoined borg thing whose sole purpose is to protect the queen