Hey everyone. So I basically quite Tumblr a while ago, as the people who still follow me for some reason have no doubt noticed. But I did want to pop back in and mention that I have a podcast now, and it’s really good and you should listen to it.
Video Games Cover to Cover is a podcast I’m doing with my longtime friend. We’re going to choose a game and work our way through it and discuss it each week - we’re going to cover the interesting and less interesting bits and make sure that these games get the attention they deserve. We’re covering a few hours each week so that we can cover it all, and you can follow along with us and join the discussion! Think of it like your local book club, but online and for video games.
We just started up this week, and we’re opening up with Final Fantasy X-2, in honor of the HD collection coming out on Switch recently. It’s the unloved child of the FFX family and we’re hoping to discuss why that is and whether it deserves its reputation.
And hey, don’t just take my word for it - so far people seem to be enjoying it!
Currently VGCTC is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher, with more to come as soon as we get approval. We’re adding a new episode every Monday and we’re really excited about this.If you’re into podcasts and this idea sounds interesting, please give us a listen, and subscribe or rate us! These first few weeks are critically important for the success of any podcast and we have a personal goal to make the New and Noteworthy lists on Apple, which we can only manage with your help!
Just use the links below for your podcast app of choice, and thank you for any attention you’re able to give us.
this literally just went down at the biggest North American fighting games tournament this weekend y'all I don’t think you understand
its pretty hard to convey how big of a deal this is
he’s selling himself short by just saying he’s the best “dbfz” player. he has a real claim for the title of best overall fighting game player in the world. he just won the biggest game in the world right now, and has been winning tournaments flawlessly for years, and he’s still so young.
he basically just won ten superbowls and cemented his legacy as one of the all time greats, as if it fuckin wasnt cemented enough. in the pantheon of great players, the Mount Rushmore of legendary competitors, he just carved himself out a second head
Studying 3rd Person Shooting Mechanics and thought I’d share something interesting I found with y'all.
It is easy to read this as HZD being lazy but the choice (do arrows fire from the bow or the player’s view) is a trade off and I think both games made the choice in the way that fits them.
The arrow firing from the bow is more logical and doing so makes the game more immersive by sticking to the logic of the game world. This rarely comes up but it is the details that really sell a game’s world and this is a good one. On the other hand it makes hitting targets with arrows harder sometimes. The arrow’s actual trajectory is going to be slightly different then the shot the player is actually trying to make but this difference is only really noticeable when you are making close range shots.
Link’s primary weapon is a sword, he uses a bow for ranged attacks but most combat is done in melee range with melee weapons. Aloy uses a bow as her primary weapon and you are often asked to make close ranged attacks on small targets (vulnerable pieces of enemy bodies). In the context of a game that expects you to use the bow up close firing from the player’s view makes perfect sense; otherwise player’s would just kinda miss up close shots sometimes without them realizing why which would be frustrating.
Choices don’t exist in a vacuum, whether they work or not depends on the rest of the game.
I want to briefly (joke) talk about the structural incentives of different forms of game monetization. Basically, how does the way a game charges players change what kind of game the developer wants to make?
I will say upfront I’m presenting these as categories with clear boundaries but in practice they aren’t so clear. A game will often have to be purchased, and then have a subscription fee, and the game might be selling ad space or have product placement within it. You might buy a subscription which gets you discounts to games that you purchase which have micro-transactions in them. There might be various tiers of subscription, or various tiers of purchase. And so on…
Regardless of how complex it is in practice though simplifying it in order to talk about these things in general is useful as it gives us a tool kit for understanding the more complex real world cases. I will also say that this is not an exhaustive list, this is just a couple common forms of monetization.
