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1. Embed this notice
   tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Thursday, 28-Mar-2024 06:36:18 JST tech? no! man, see...

   I have a memory of a game where in the intro you're getting a mission briefing and the guy is like "how many missions have you flown anyway?" and your character is like "twenty-seven sir. all simulated of course", and he's like "great; why do I always get the kids"

   and I always think about this regarding my relationship with Dungeons and Dragons

   for the longest time I thought that this was from Descent, but I rewatched the intro to Descent and it's basically the opposite where your character is sarcastic and jaded and the briefing guy plays it straight

   so now I have no idea what game it was from; does that ring a bell for anyone?

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Thursday, 28-Mar-2024 06:38:45 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     "how many D&D campaigns have you played anyway?"

     "uh... like... 8 maybe? all simulated of course."

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Sunday, 07-Apr-2024 09:54:02 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     after making it about halfway thru Neverwinter Nights I am coming to the conclusion that maybe I just don't like computerized D&D

     I can see this being fun in person, but on a solo campaign the game gives you no reason to care about any of the characters, so you're just sliding thru the most cliche-ridden script wishing the combat was interesting enough to carry the game

     this is roughly the same way I felt playing the first Baldur's Gate, but A) I didn't value my time as much then and B) the 2D graphics are legitimately much better than NN's 3D, not to mention the font is more readable

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Sunday, 07-Apr-2024 09:56:46 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     I suspect there was a time during which "what if D&D, but on the computer!" was enough to bring massive acclaim and sales simply because it reminded people of the fun they had around a tabletop without the hassle of organizing a whole weekly get together; the game's writing and characters themselves didn't actually have to be any good to be a big success

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Sunday, 07-Apr-2024 09:59:00 JST tech? no! man, see...

     • Matthew Lyon

     @mattly yeah, I played the first three back when they were still called Exile

     I have fond memories, but I was like twelve at the time so I have no idea if they'd actually hold up today, but I'm pretty sure there was some decent writing and storytelling there, at least better than Neverwinter Nights' campaign

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Sunday, 07-Apr-2024 10:01:17 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     • clayote

     @clayote ohhhh that makes so much more sense, haha

     it would be a completely different game

   • Embed this notice
     clayote (clayote@peoplemaking.games)'s status on Sunday, 07-Apr-2024 10:01:18 JST clayote

     in reply to

     @technomancy Neverwinter Nights in particular was sold on the strength of its co op multiplayer, with a game master mode

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Sunday, 07-Apr-2024 10:59:11 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     speaking of fonts, I think that while of course the improved graphical fidelity is part of what makes Skyrim feel smoother and more professional than Morrowind, a larger part of the improvement than you would expect comes solely from the fact that Skyrim finally just went with a font that has great readability instead of trying to look "extremely fantasy"

   • Embed this notice
     tech? no! man, see... (technomancy@icosahedron.website)'s status on Monday, 08-Apr-2024 00:53:44 JST tech? no! man, see...

     in reply to

     • ɗ𐐩ʃƕρʋ

     @deshipu yeah, I haven't played any tabletop personally but I enjoy JRPGs much more

     the only played-straight western ones I've liked have been Morrowind and Skyrim, and I've liked Disco Elysium and Planescape Torment because of how they go to great lengths to subvert the genre

   • Embed this notice
     ɗ𐐩ʃƕρʋ (deshipu@fosstodon.org)'s status on Monday, 08-Apr-2024 00:53:45 JST ɗ𐐩ʃƕρʋ

     in reply to

     @technomancy I think that despite the surface similarity of mechanics, computer role playing games are completely different from pen and paper role playing games. I'm on the other side of the fence, though – I enjoy the computer ones (except the western style ones not so much, I like the Japanese ones more), but not the pen and paper. I find that dungeon exploration board games are more like the computer role playing games.