There's one note I wrote down yesterday that - well, it's on the other side of the Paper,
so ... it makes sense to do it now. Maybe I also shouldn't have sat down at 3 a.m. to
write something. But ... turns out it was to warm up.
The anger and the frustration ... may have been more than normal because I've also been
playing a game that ... stirred some of it up. And anger and frustration mixes in an odd
way with the matter of truth.
Truth ... . Truth is also an odd word to use when it comes to such things.
I mean, it applies. If I'm angry - the truth is that I'm angry and one may have to vent
it. Oh dang - here goes a tangent:
So, I was watching a Video ... well, it wasn't actually yesterday I suppose. Milo Rossi
(Miniminuteman) - I can recommend - did a video on ... what was it? Oh, I got it mixed
up. Anton Petrov made a video called "Human Language Gene Insterted Into Mice Led to Some
Bizarre Effects" - and I'm reminded of it because it has to do with expression. From a
religious standpoint it's probably not all that interesting, uhm, I might come back to
that later.
But anyhow. Honesty is a term that kind of lines up - though the term only applies since
there's dishonesty. Two Sides of a thing while in a primitive case it's just expression.
And expression probably starts out as honest. Like, there is no need to lie when you haven't
really developped the concept of communicating complex thought just yet. Or not even a
concept.
Hmm. Yea. Anyhow ...
So - I suppose the real estate for the intro was spent, so, time to dig into it.
So ... after playing some Minecraft I was overcome with a flight of fancy. That was however
triggered while watching a Video about a game called "7 Days to Die". So I downloaded it
(I owned it already) and ... I was confused. I mean, it's been a couple of years since I
last played it, it was probably even before my Surgery. The game I saw in the video looked
all new, but the game I downloaded looked like it was back when. Turns out ... they re-released
the game and charged again for it. So, the game was in Alpha - but the 1.0 Version was basically
a new game. Hence, arguably, a different game. And yea, it pretty much is.
I told myself no because I don't actually have the money. I technically had the money, but
... uhm. Anyhow. During a thoughtless moment I bought it anyway - played it a bit, and ...
the first impression was that they took a lot of stuff out of the game. I didn't like it, I
wanted a refund, but Sony isn't as generous as Valve when it comes to that. I downloaded the
game, hence no Refund.
And while figuring this out I read a few comments of some angry customers. And I felt that.
It's this ... "are you kidding me?!" kind of ... "Fuck You" situation. Which goes like both
ways. Like ... yea. I felt that. Once again building up my frustration. But then I sat down
with it, wondering if I missed something ... and kind of warmed up to it. A bit. I mean, for
what I wanted it's definitely better. That's ... playing in Creative Mode to just build stuff.
But then I somehow fancied Survival Mode. And that's ... where the actual story begins.
So ... the real topic is about Games. The topic that has come up - a topic that doesn't seem
to go away - the topic of: Aren't Videogames bad?
And to come back to the start here, the note pertains to the idea that right now, my actual
mission is to defend all that stuff. So yea. I may have mentioned it. But I felt like it needed
some emphasis but I kind of don't have the words. So, this should suffice.
But usually it comes up while I'm writing about games I enjoy and would wholeheartedly
recommend. Ignoring whatever would bar one from actually playing it. I mean ... when it
comes to ... that. Uhm. I know of a game called 'Crumble' - and, that's more like what
'normal' people might think of when talking of good or fun videogames. The casual stuff.
The thing you can let your kids play for an hour or two and then that's it. The Nintendo
kind of thing.
And that might also put the financial situation into perspective. Like, how much would one be
willing to pay for like ... a one or two hour game? In the bigger picture one also has to
consider the hardware cost.
But that's a topic about Economy and Industry ... which ... I might not have time for right
now.
And I want to ignore that side of things anyway. We have what we have - and we can be grateful
for it. Because ultimately: Yes! Entertainment is important. And not everyone has the luxury
of a fulfilling family or social life.
And that's where this game comes in. It's ... "one of those" games. ...
So, I could go in depth and let my anger flow through me, accusing people I don't know of
all sorts of stuff down to calling them fascists, because let's be real: The game is so
utterly US-fascist coded it's ... already a red flag. I mean ... there's not even a Sword
or a Katana in the game, just a Machete for that matter. And yea, it makes sense. Except
... well, it's uncool.
But the easy read is to just get into the facts. For that, I have noted down the following -
to make my case with numbers:
Level: 12
Game Level: 14
Kills: 398
Day: 11
Deaths: 11 (5 after day 7)
So, quick note: Every 7 days a Zombie Horde appears. So, that's the name of the game. It's
like Minecraft but more realistic. Basically Walking Dead inspired, like, they also did the
thing where you can pull arrows back out of dead Zombies - but yea. Derryl is the cool white
Guy but Michone is the ... yea.
And that's ... a nonsensical point of criticism. Sure. But for some reason it has me dip into
the same kind of ... "anger well". That's a new concept now - probably deals with Astair and
so I maybe have to expand on that a little.
The way I imagine (yes, imagine. As in: Imaginary problems. As in: The thing I didn't want
to do/get into) it ... there are some good and talented people working there, but the person
calling the shots is an asshole. That's how it feels. I mean, it's technically an awesome game.
The improvements to the new version are notable and there are a lot of improvements I enjoy.
But that enjoyment is broken by some decisions that ... don't make sense. It's like ... an
utter moron that should absolutely not be in game design made them. Therefore the numbers.
So, what is this about?
Perk and Skill Level are terms I made up. There are two "tabs" - one for perks that have been
gained from reading magazines (an in game mechanic), and one for skills that have been
gained that way. So, in total, I read 159 magazines by the time I took those notes.
You get magazines by looting stuff. So, go into a house, kill the Zombies, open everything
in hopes to find some useful stuff. So yea, Walking Dead the Videogame. On occasion you'll
find crates or stashes of books and such - sometimes there's more than one magazine in there,
so ... yea. OK. I liked the Blueprint mechanic that was there originally, and this ... well,
I also kind of like the idea but ... here's the thing:
Med. Level is pointed out because Level 30 is required to craft antibiotics. And Food is
the next problem. But uhm ... so. When fighting Zombies, it feels like ever hit taken has
like ... a 1 in 5 chance to cause an infection. And that shit is building up rapidly. Relatively.
The way to fight an infection is either to drink Honey or to take Antibiotics. So, at this stage
in the game - my options are: Find more Magazines to get Medicine to Level 30, or find tree
stumps for the Honey. But ... there definitely are more Zombies than tree-stumps, and saying
there's a 1 in 10 chance to find honey in there is a generous estimate.
And as the infection gets worse, stamina regenerates more slowly, then there's the rising hunger
and thirst - while all the food one can make early on pretty much solves that, but it drains
hydration. To counter that, well, obviously, one has to drink. But building a dew-catcher is
difficult (Level and Resource requirements) - glasses don't exist anymore so you can't just
take a glass and fill it with murky water to cook it and have something to drink. No - you
either drink directly from murky water, or you need to loot Toilets (Funny! Haha! (Angry emoji))
or be otherwise lucky to get 'a' (singular) glass of murky water you might not even be able to
purify. So you get diarrhea, which also increases hunger and thirst. And as said, the early
game food almost exclusively increases thirst. And gives like ... . Here, get this: To cook
meat that doesn't increase thirst, you have to be food Level 4, need 5 cuts of meat I think,
and it gives a whole FIFTEEN (I suppose out of a hundred) saturation. Which is as much as you
can get out of some canned food you find. Admittedly that's the high end stuff ... but uh.
If this is too much gamer-talk:
So, to get to this point I had to kill around 400 Zombies. Around every fifth hit taken causes
an infection. By the time you find honey - it's probably already above 5% and that means ...
the infection won't go away, as honey only removes 5%. So - I spent a whole day for instance,
looking for tree-stumps ... used a trick I saw on YouTube to essencially get a radar until
you found 5 glasses of honey - and it would have worked. Except ... after I finally found the
5th glass ... I was still at like 0.1% ... - while also starving and dehydrating - so ...
no stamina ... slow death ... . But I didn't want to give up. I want to play a survival game.
So ... I tried. Eventually I died a silly death because yea ... sometimes this game is just
Bullshit. So, I was looting a Supermarket. I cleared the room, only heard one Zombie hitting
away at some iron outside - so, I felt save. I opened a box and then bam. A Zombie. What I
think happened is that I entered a location that caused a Zombie to spawn. Yea ... stuff like
that. Eventually I just gave up. When infected ... Suicide. Or ... at least ... don't care.
And a lot of the frustration and anger went away. But ... what's the point now?
The game taught me that antibiotics are pointless. Now when I'm infected and I have honey or
antibiotics - I don't even care. Maybe I want the convenience later ... but for the time being
I suppose I'll just die.
Good for me because I can be a bit more brave, be stupid, and ... yea, "great".
So, here's the thing: For once, this is the kind of game - through these mechanics - that
will have you or your kid want to put in an extra hour that can easily become 3 because all
they need is to find one honey to cure that infection. By the time they found it, they'll need another
one, or two - plus food and something to drink. Double or Tripple when accounting for the
shitty stuff they can get.
Beyond that, some of the numbers are just large (like ... 20 rotten meat for a (singular) block
to plant 'a' (singular) plant in. So, to grow crops. Rotten meat usually is easy to come by -
but they changed that. It's not all that difficult - but anyhow. Also: I don't know everything
about the game. If you want to go nitty gritty ... go nitty gritty in your asshole! And no,
adding a Katana won't fix it!).
And on the other hand - adding to "the Katana Scandal" - it's a game like ... balanced for
assholes. A lot of games are balanced for assholes. What I mean by that is ... often games
will do the thing where the cool stuff is basically useless while YouTube is flooded with
"this is the GOD BUILD" videos. I could bet the argument against putting in something like the
Katana was that it's either too weak or too Overpowered - but the same argument won't hold if
asshole wants something in the game. That shit has to be OP - because asshole likes to play
it and feel like they have a big dick.
In other terms: There seems to be a drive to make games ... seem "manly". Like yea, playing
Videogames - the manliest thing there is (sarcasm).
And having a Katana is "cringe" or whatever.
"Fun for me but not for thee".
In essence, creating a videogame is more than just art. Because of the engineering. And art
... has a tendency to divide people. Not the bad kind of division, but more like the blonde
versus brunette kind of division. What I mean is - the whole concept of rating games into
good and bad is ... technically silly because of that. Then there's the engineering aspect
which adds a technical side to it which ... is fair. But because of money and stuff ...
there's another factor. We could call them leeches although they actually have a job.
But, in a way I ... . So yea, when it comes to art - this has the potential to be a great
game, but ... it's absolutely not! Fun is a niche here - and that niche only matters if you
really have too much time on your hands. Sotospeak.
And for folks in that niche ... you know what I'm on about. Like ... there are a few things
that are consistent when it comes to games that get praised versus games that get criticized.
And - it's usually a matter of common sense versus "why?" - like ... "what were they thinking?".
Like ... "Multiclassing" in D&D exists for a reason. "And what reason is that?". Because
people like to play around, experiment, express themselves. So, why ... after all these years,
do we still have these narrow class concepts? And even more so - why take the more flexible
system ... and bend it into a less flexible one?
I mean ... games may have like a million different currencies to buy stuff, but having two
different types of skill points is like yet unheard of! I mean ... "think Mark, think!".
Well. No. "Know!".
And so I suppose I can come to a point. Art is art and people with good intentions try their
best. So, good game - around whatever axis - or bad ... it shouldn't be a problem. Like,
yea: "One person's paradise is another person's Hell" - sure, but ... I don't like it if I have
no choice what world I live in. And that's why we have wars! Wars that make sense - sadly.
Except ... we don't need them. But so, there's no negotiating with assholes. Either way you
put it!
And so ... I have a hunch. When we check ... what games which types of people play ... all
the people we'd deem "useless" are stuck in these "asshole" games. It may be a way of escapism.
Oh, which reminds me - a word has emerged to describe "these" types of gamers. 'Gooners'.
"To Goon" seems to be shorthand for masturbating. Or simping, but not for real people. It
surely sounds better than 'incel'. What these asshole games do - I assume based on my big
brain and stuff - is they create a divide. Logically. Naturally. By design. There are "Gods"
and there are "Peasants". The Gods probably cheat in some way - and the Peasants loose interest
in gaming all together, still bearing that "Gamer Label" like it's real for some reason while
actually just being an obnoxious person (online, because they never go out or something)
while jacking off to "Manly Men" that teach them that women need to be treated like shit for them
to want or respect you thus voting for Trump because they want to make men rapists again while the
"females" think they're voting "pro life". Yea. Sigh ...