is this another rambling post about how the SaGa series is a masterpiece? yes, but hear me out: the series exemplifies the best game design principle that makes for interesting gameplay and we can see this in other games.
in fact, i talk about many different kinds of games! i barely talked about SaGa! What's Happening To Me. Has My Minor Head Injury Done Something Weird To Me.
( Read more... )
every time i play a game these days, i've often come to the realization that this smells like a tabletop game. the SaGa games are very obvious, but you'll also see this in titles like Disco Elysium and Citizen Sleeper that use the non-combat trpg systems out there to tell their stories. it gives it a more open-ended feeling for players to express themselves.
so i'm just gonna blog about it because i find it interesting and i like to solidify these thoughts before i post it on my real deal newsletter about player expression. this is just another dreamwidth wordvomit and should be read not as something systematic but as the aphoristic ramblings jotted down in some notebook.
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"So, what's the hiccup this time?"
This was how the fictive bartender of my imagination started his questioning. If I ever found myself hitting a writer's block, I would materialize into this dingy bar in the crooks of my subconscious. The only bar I've ever been was some gay bar in SF, so my current surroundings were a swirling of caricatured images from Hollywood and elsewhere.
I looked around and saw the usual denizens were there: my ex blog post drafts, YouTube playlists that's supposed to inspire me to write more, traumas of writing about LGBTQ+ fiction while living in a homophobic country, stashed away stories of a past that's now alien to me, and the dreams of being accepted as a white mainstream writer. They all looked gloomy as always and would watch me with envy. I could hear them mouth "please", "write", "about", "us".
Eh, maybe next time. If ever.
I turned back to the bartender who, by the way, had the same character portrait as The Silver Case's bartender. I swear, I usually write better when it comes to fiction; I take my time to research and look at photos. But for whatever reason, it's always that dude. I guess it's because his mustache amused me.
Anyway, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I don't get reviewing."
( Move forward )
i figure i should make up a list so i can remind myself what i should read more, though my bucket list has always been pretty dry anyway. and also, i just kinda do random stuff anyway. but i think this is the "important stuff" i want to do the most because they've been bugging me for a while.
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i've been playing and writing about niche titles for ages now and if there's one thing for certain, it's that no one knows what the hell they're talking about with game design, aesthetic choices, and media criticism in general.
for all i care, we've been winging it since the dinosaurs died out.
( Read more... )
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