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Video Games General

Content Disclaimer said:
As per Rule 8 Point 3: If in your Opinion my Post in any capacity, shape, and/or form Violates Rule 5, 8, or 9 then inform me so I may Delete the Post. Check Signature for further elaboration. Assistance is appreciated. Asking about the Content Disclaimer will be treated as being Informed of a Rule 5 Violation on my part.
Witcher III:
With the experience of Thronebreaker I have now come to appreciate Gwent (fucking hate Thronebreaker with a burning passion). It's also a lot more fun when you have a real Deck and enough cash to burn without a care. Also now down the Kaer Morhan and Skellige Gwent Quest cards. Turns out the last 12 required quests unrelated to Gwent that including several for Heart of Stone. I now am always putting shadows out first then flooding my enemies field with spies. The AI has learned to always have dummies out to steal them and medica to place them and I have gotten proficient in predicting those are going to happen. Except the one time where it chose the drag back Three Jackdaws (no, I am not going to use his other Name. I couldn't Spell it even if I was inclined to, damn thing is in Welsh. Appropriate for a dragon (at least I think it's a dragon? Unless someone is on the dragon?)), that was a weird one. I only have hero cards excluding my own copy for my close combat anyway so not like Jackdaws works on me.

I now have Gaunter O'dimm and three shadows. Speaking of Old Man Mirror I do find it annoying how the Game tells but doesn't show him as "Evil". It keeps insisting he's totally "Evil" and even pushes at the last second his real Name is "Evil Incarnate" (closest to "Evil" you get is when he gets fed up with some drunk who has been harassing everyone he was trying to talk to and murders him with a spoon and when he set up the philosopher to die by rube goldberg phenomenon after telling Geralt stuff otherwise he has been fair and does exactly as asked, not his fault people can't take responsibility for their own actions). Weirdly when I had Geralt ask what he was he acted like he was asked who he was so bit of Writing disconnect there. There's also Biscodis' house where I spent five minutes going "but... I just want the box?! Not... I don't give a fuck what's in the box! You can have it!" and chose the lower options. I didn't like that answer so I reloaded back for the upper one... And instead of saying any variation on the Text Geralt instead said the exact Words I said at my screen. Could've been more clear on the options, would've never reloaded.

Another instance of reloading was actually at the end of Heart of Stone. I initially let Gaunter finish his contract. Nice guy, very fair, fulfilled his side to the fullest and makes for damn sure you Know the price from the beginning. I especially like how he is aware of Time being the most important ingredient in recipes, everything including the individual ingredients themselves are dependent on it. Anyway, I even turned him down when he offered for granting Geralt a wish. Nothing he has to offer is worth the price of a soul nor worth my time and I do not make deals with the Fae unless forced to. Besides in my view I already fulfilled my end and he even paid out multiple times over with leading me to resources, crowns, and the viper school blueprints. The Experience is more valuable then what he had on offer. Which is where the reloading comes in. There is no steel sword blueprint for the viper school. Only the sword itself in Gaunter's shadow world. So I had to intervene. Could've at least had that as a consolation prize for turning down a wish instead he literally shrugs and walks off to go look for another idiot who thinks he can take a faery for a ride like Olgierd did. So now Geralt made an enemy of a faery. In my personal Canon Geralt turned him down on the wish after fulfilling this glorified Witcher contract (effectively "being rewarded with his own soul and freedom") and Gaunter decided to give him something for the trouble in the form of the blueprint itself. If they ever make a fourth game, include the simulation thing for it with this in it, and I end up getting it then that's what I'll choose.

While in Skellige I actually encountered an Interesting Event. Knew something was off with how the guy was describing the nekkers. Turned out it was an ambush by monsters. Likely I have been handling things in a way amicable to monsters. I of course had Johnny and Sarah as references. Sarah also now has the oneiromancer to keep her company. I had Selma and the doppler as well but it only wanted one more so I chose Selma. I wish I could've used the werewolf as one, I let him get his revenge and gave him the assisted suicide he asked for. Although Red Riding Hood would probably count against me but in my defense she was a literal bandit and I was expecting to need steel not silver as a result. But it was another instance of Geralt saying what I was thinking, something along the lines of "Humans? Monsters? They both die and I get paid but I'll be the final arbiter on if they deserve to die. As long as the monsters aren't monstrous I won't kill them. As long as they have reason for what they do beyond merely being hungry or angry". The doppler has kleptomania, he needs a therapist not a sword (although would think Geralt would use his friendship with the other doppler that he met on the hunt for Dandelion). Selma was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sarah is a godling and living in that house and probably should have been more clear and I like Johnny, quite loquacious and accommodating. Also stumbled into a cave a succubus is living in, she thought I had a contract on her. Hope I don't end up on a quest to kill her she was quite nice even if the interaction was short.

Found I quite enjoy interactions with medical professionals and coroners. Geralt and them doing investigative work is always a treat with them bouncing theories on what monster could've done whatever based on the wounds. Lot more pleasant and less dismissive then anyone else. Which makes sense given their job is in the thick of the magical in this world.

Keep seeing the tip against theft and I am just going "but owned stuff is always worthless trash or literal ashes. Why would you want to steal twine? Finding more from buying it or exploring ruins".

Aside from that I am just wandering around Skellige filling out the map.
 
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i think the spirit of red dead online was more authentic in the beta. when you actually had the same animations as single player. skinning. drawing weapons. (now you just stoop and game literally does a fade-to-black)

rockstar sped everything up, and the consequence made the game feel phony as heckorino. inauthentic. weak. lame. they should have literally stuck to their guns.

ach. i'm just coping i can't stand under a waterfall and farm fish that die falling down it.

i'm sorry. did you want a little game with your grind?
 
So, on one of my recent pleythroughs of Pathfinder: WotR, I tried out the Nine-Tailed Hair, it's a Kitsune specific sorcerer variant. And since in my previous sorcerer runs I built for DPS, I decided to go for control as a change of pace. My main workhorse spell is hideous laughter, which with the right feats and mythic abilities can disable every enemy round one. I also went for other debuff spells, like mortal terror, confusion, and haze of dreams.

I bring this up, cause I just realized that from the enemies perspective, my happy-go-lucky, cute foxgirl, is an unholy combination of the joker and scarecrow. And I find that too funny not to share.
 
Was going through my backlog of games this weekend.

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a cowboy fps with a fun framing device of it being a series of increasingly outlandish stories told by an old man in a bar about how he's this legendary bounty hunter who took on all these famous outlaws of the old West. And by that, I mean at one point the old guy gets up to take a leak and you, the player, are left running in a loop of train cars while the people he's telling the story to complain while the story's on pause.

"Oh come on, he's clearly making all this shit up as he goes. He's just an old drunk trying to get free drinks."

Wraps up like I thought it would.
He claimed to have been hunting a group of guys who'd killed his brothers and the last one he was after had supposedly joined damn near every gang of outlaws hence him telling tales about killing his way through all these gangs near single handedly. The guy turned out to be the barkeeper, foreshadowed from early on by Silas growing noticeably more hostile and pointedly saying the bartender's assumed name whenever he spoke up. It turns out the guy hung up his guns ages ago and had done his best to live an honest life. The game gives you a choice to either kill or spare the barkeep cuz Silas had long since concluded that his bounty hunting and all the killing he'd done had made him a worse person than almost anyone he'd ever taken down.

It's a pretty neat story for what it is. Plays with the perceptions of cowboy shenanigans by having collectables with more truthful accounts of what the time was like and what the various figures of legend actually were like and points out how much what we think about the stories of the old west was just that: stories. A lot of it being made the fuck up even back then for Wild West styled circuses or sometimes written by folks like the Pinkertons to demonize the folks they were after. I'd recommend checking it out for that and also becuz fun cowboy game where you shoot guys and they occasionally die like a guy in a Western hamming it up.
 
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I mentioned getting into KotOR on the Star Wars thread, while I plan on doing a Dark Side run at some point, I've finally figured out why I have trouble with that. After a quick search and reading a thread on one of the Steam boards, it was pointed out to the thread (and by extension me) that the reason gaming companies don't generally give 'subtly evil' choices is because players tend to react negatively to situations of true moral ambiguity and it's easier for them to have fun with going the Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain route. Naturally this isn't universal, but it's also one of those things that makes it easier to avoid the 'obviously evil' choices if you don't want to do them. For me, it's hard for me to choose those because I'll I can think when I see some of them is "What, do you want me to kick a puppy too while I'm at it?"

Now I finally get why I hate those choices, hopefully that understanding makes it easier for me to successfully play as the bad guy every now and then.
 
that the reason gaming companies don't generally give 'subtly evil' choices is because players tend to react negatively to situations of true moral ambiguity and it's easier for them to have fun with going the Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain route.
Remember Jade Empire? They claimed to have made a Karma system than wasn't Goodie Goodshoes vs Puppykicker McBabyEater, and then they gave up not even half an hour into the game and made it that anyway.

They never bothered ask what would happen to people when the hero leaves and they still can't fight...
 
Remember Jade Empire? They claimed to have made a Karma system than wasn't Goodie Goodshoes vs Puppykicker McBabyEater, and then they gave up not even half an hour into the game and made it that anyway.

They never bothered ask what would happen to people when the hero leaves and they still can't fight...
Yeah Jade Empire had some interesting ideas in the morality system but mostly failed to utilize them. Although there was that one mission at a pirate fortress where you can refuse to free a little slave girl but also hand her a knife and point her at the slave trader, so clearly someone on the writing team was trying to stick to the spirit of the thing.
 
I mentioned getting into KotOR on the Star Wars thread, while I plan on doing a Dark Side run at some point, I've finally figured out why I have trouble with that. After a quick search and reading a thread on one of the Steam boards, it was pointed out to the thread (and by extension me) that the reason gaming companies don't generally give 'subtly evil' choices is because players tend to react negatively to situations of true moral ambiguity and it's easier for them to have fun with going the Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain route. Naturally this isn't universal, but it's also one of those things that makes it easier to avoid the 'obviously evil' choices if you don't want to do them. For me, it's hard for me to choose those because I'll I can think when I see some of them is "What, do you want me to kick a puppy too while I'm at it?"

Now I finally get why I hate those choices, hopefully that understanding makes it easier for me to successfully play as the bad guy every now and then.
... I mean, how often have you ever actually seen something in fiction that someone did something "subtly evil"?

Especially for Star Wars! A setting with what amounts to a god marking what is good and what is evil by making the evil people completely insane.
 
The game that I'm told is about how easy it is for a completely normal person to become a cog in a dystopian machine. That kind of subtle evil. The banality of evil as I've heard it called.
Which isn't making subtly evil choices. Every choice you make in that game is very obviously either good, bad, or neutral in terms of morality. Most moral choices in general are, IRL included.

Evil isn't exactly subtle in terms of affects. Now, what is said to be evil can change by moral system, but even with that taken into account...

Let's say there is a demon that requires human suffering, not even killing them just their suffering, to survive. You have them at blade point and they are begging to be spared.

An argument could be made that sparing them is the right thing to do, I'd call that person wrong but the argument could be made.

Is the choice and its direct consequences subtle, even with that moral ambiguity?
 
Let's say there is a demon that requires human suffering, not even killing them just their suffering, to survive. You have them at blade point and they are begging to be spared.

It depends on the amount and how, but... Couldn't you just stick this guy in the penal system? Or a high school? Plenty of suffering there without his intervention. And a lot of other places for that matter. If it's gotta be severe suffering, then he's a predator and has to go, sure, but just regular ambient suffering? Plenty of places. Assuming he hasn't already done something atrocious, of course.
 
Content Disclaimer said:
As per Rule 8 Point 3: If in your Opinion my Post in any capacity, shape, and/or form Violates Rule 5, 8, or 9 then inform me so I may Delete the Post. Check Signature for further elaboration. Assistance is appreciated. Asking about the Content Disclaimer will be treated as being Informed of a Rule 5 Violation on my part.
Witcher III:
Apparently they're planning on releasing another DLC, Song of the Past. 2027

Gwent: Moo
I also finished my collection. Now my tactic involves showing my fat udders and shoving out the shadows while flooding spies to get my throbbing Deck out into my Hand and spray my Cards all over the Field like a farmer seeding crops. Got an chievo for 200+ score at the end of one game that way. It's hilarious seeing the AI not know how to handle that.

Also I think Future Dandelion might be embellishing again, Geralt cold clocked a grizzly bear and a rock troll at one point as part of the fisting tournament. Didn't have to do Uma dirty like that either, roasted him to a cinder.

A quest bugged out and I couldn't talk to one guy at all, even his Name didn't come up. Another Bug that kept happening repeatedly was if something attacks you while getting in the boat you stay perpetually swimming till you're killed by that thing. Also the Troll Errant wouldn't fight.

My ROB are there a lot of Sex Scenes. If I want Porn I would just come here or AO3 or EH or HF. Or Play Corruption of Champions 2. Or Breeders of the Nephelim. Or Latex Dungeon. Or Last Evil. Or go back to Champion of Venus. Or go back to Parasite Infestation. Yes I have a lot of Porn Games.

Did the Forest Spirit. Had a choice between two very bad decisions. Either kill the leshen's unknowing retainer or exile her. Exiling wouldn't stop the leshen AFAIK. It would simply come back and make the retainer vindictive. Its two equally bad choices so I chose to kill her, lesser of two evils. Also chose the youth over the elders, they're the future of the village and aren't actively trying to protect a murderous monster because they treat it as a god for some reason. What I didn't expect was for them to go off and slaughter all the elders.

Also while doing some things in Novigrad ended up passing a stake burning. Apparently they caught a noble that was at the masquerade and he recognized Geralt. Neat consistency of detail. Reminded me of other times that happens like my choosing to help the Baron rescue his wife (he got to deal with a botchling right in his stupid drunkard face and now has its ghost haunting his fat ass alongside the trauma of causing a miscarriage, I say he is on a path of redemption. I'm keeping his daughter away from him though, she's a grown adult. It was also to be minor vengeance against the Crones for trying to eat Ciri while cursing Geralt and failing to uphold decorum for guests with their open invitation to partake of their home and further weakening of their powers on top of freeing the spirit (and needing to reload multiple times whenever Geralt decides to gloat about it randomly) before even meeting them) and taking her to a witchdoctor leads the populous to start sarcastically asking Geralt if they should beat their wives once a day or twice. Also his men put in charge start raping and pillaging their own town. I hope the Baron puts them to the sword once he gets back. If he gets back.

I really like Taussaint, land of faerytales and funny knights. Also hunting the Slenderman. Leshen bastich thinks he can hide. Funny Easter Egg right at the beginning with a handkerchief labeled "De La Croix" aka "D.L.C.". Literal foret thing at arriving in Taussaint was a Don Quixote Reference with Golyat the giant.

Really need to get around to Steam World Dig 2, have had it on my Computer since January.

Which isn't making subtly evil choices. Every choice you make in that game is very obviously either good, bad, or neutral in terms of morality. Most moral choices in general are, IRL included.

Evil isn't exactly subtle in terms of affects. Now, what is said to be evil can change by moral system, but even with that taken into account...

Let's say there is a demon that requires human suffering, not even killing them just their suffering, to survive. You have them at blade point and they are begging to be spared.

An argument could be made that sparing them is the right thing to do, I'd call that person wrong but the argument could be made.

Is the choice and its direct consequences subtle, even with that moral ambiguity?
[Trolley Problems Has Entered The Chat]
[Unintended Consequences Has Entered The Chat]
[The Population of Omelas Has Entered The Chat]
[Necessary Evils Has Entered The Chat]
 
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... I mean, how often have you ever actually seen something in fiction that someone did something "subtly evil"?

Especially for Star Wars! A setting with what amounts to a god marking what is good and what is evil by making the evil people completely insane.
Very, very rarely.

I can't speak for all of the Fall Out games, but New Vegas wasn't much better about the puppy kicking, and that didn't have the in universe excuse of having the darkside making people into puppy kickers.
 
Which isn't making subtly evil choices. Every choice you make in that game is very obviously either good, bad, or neutral in terms of morality. Most moral choices in general are, IRL included.

Evil isn't exactly subtle in terms of affects. Now, what is said to be evil can change by moral system, but even with that taken into account...

Let's say there is a demon that requires human suffering, not even killing them just their suffering, to survive. You have them at blade point and they are begging to be spared.

An argument could be made that sparing them is the right thing to do, I'd call that person wrong but the argument could be made.

Is the choice and its direct consequences subtle, even with that moral ambiguity?
I think the issue you're encountering is that depending on the person a "subtle evil" choice might seem obviously evil or not even slightly evil at all. Your example with the demon could be any of them depending entirely on context. How about a specific example from a specific game?
 
Cyberpunk '77 question here, is it possible to knock Anna Hamill out without the game treating it like you killed her? The wiki says it is, but I've tried, like, three or four times and each time the game acts like I exploded her all over her hotel room or something.
 

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