-
18 votes
-
Meet Raspberry Silicon: Raspberry Pi Pico
21 votes -
Why do we assume extraterrestrials might want to visit us? It is presumptuous to assume that we are worthy of special attention from advanced species in the Milky Way.
5 votes -
Efforts are under way to designate the site of a 60,000 year old submerged forest off the Alabama coast a marine sanctuary
11 votes -
How should we evaluate narrative tension in videogames?
I recently played through 2013's Tomb Raider and it was a delight -- a wonderful reboot that modernized a series whose originals I loved but that are quite dated by today's standards. In the game,...
I recently played through 2013's Tomb Raider and it was a delight -- a wonderful reboot that modernized a series whose originals I loved but that are quite dated by today's standards.
In the game, Lara, the main character, is in peril constantly, and she is driven into worse and worse situations in an effort to save her crewmates and friend. The narrative of the game demands immediate action -- any dawdling risks all of the characters' lives.
Of course, we know that games' timelines aren't necessarily time-driven but character-driven, so it is trivial for Lara to stop at any point in the game and not advance the story. The killers who are prepared to murder your friends will patiently wait around as long as necessary. Furthermore, the game gives you plenty of reason to do so! There are collectibles to find and story and lore bits scattered about the levels that you have to go out of your way to encounter. Finding these gets you more XP and resources which unlock skills and weapons that make the game easier. The game lets you fast travel back and forth to different areas as needed, and I spent a good amount of time at the story's height of tension not resolving that tension by advancing to the climax but by ignoring it and scouring the island for all the things I missed instead.
I use Tomb Raider as an example here, but I'm sure you can think of plenty of other examples where the game directly incentivize actions that outright subvert its story. What I find interesting is that, on paper, I should care about this discrepancy, but in practice I really don't. In fact it's customary for me to do this in nearly every game I play, as I find that I like "checklisting" and cleaning things up rather than advancing the plot (of course -- do I actually like that, or do I merely like that I get rewards for doing so?).
I don't have a singular question to ask but instead have some jumping off points for discussion:
- Is this undermining of narrative tension an actual issue, or is it just part of the suspension of disbelief embedded into the medium of gaming?
- Have you felt that particular games were made worse due to this issue? If so, why? If not, why not?
- What games are counterexamples -- games whose narrative tension is not undercut by their gameplay? What makes them work? Does that aspect benefit the game, or would the game be roughly the same (or better) without it?
- If you consider this an issue, does the "responsibility" for it lie with the developer of the game for incentivizing gameplay counter to narrative, or does the "responsibility" lie with the player for ruining their enjoyment of the narrative by pursuing other goals?
Also, don't feel limited by these questions or my choice of game and feel free to address anything else relevant to this idea that you feel is important or relevant.
15 votes -
Microsoft killed the Zune, but Zune-Heads are still here
9 votes -
TV Tuesdays Free Talk
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here. Please just try to provide fair warning of...
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
7 votes -
US President Donald Trump revokes rule preventing White House staff from lobbying
11 votes -
Richard Feynman and the bomb
8 votes -
Space Launch System green run hot fire test
4 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 20
This thread is posted daily - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic,...
This thread is posted daily - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
23 votes -
Dub Revolution - The story of King Tubby
5 votes -
Hitman 3 - Critical consensus
7 votes -
Power struggle: The most quietly innovative thing that emerged from the latter half of the 1990s was the on-battery power meter. It was the subject of a complex patent battle.
9 votes -
Automatic redaction of user data from logs and crash reports in CockroachDB
5 votes -
One in eight California households is past due on their water bill, and the total debt is over $1 billion
11 votes -
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declares China's treatment of Uighurs 'genocide'
15 votes -
What Parler saw during the attack on the Capitol: Curated videos, arranged on a timeline
23 votes -
How 19th century activists ditched corsets for one-piece long underwear: Before it was embraced by men, the union suit, or "emancipation suit," was worn by women pushing for dress reform
4 votes -
Three dead, several injured in Madrid as explosion rocks Spanish capital
11 votes -
How the most hyped US oil merger in a decade went bust
4 votes -
Why does Russia have the best maps of Britain? | Map Men
12 votes -
Antitrust: EU Commission fines Valve and five publishers of PC video games €7.8 million for “geo-blocking” practices
8 votes -
Add option to tip/promote posts
I have an idea for Tildes. You can give people the option to promote their own posts ,using either real money or cryptocurrency, so their posts can appear on the homepage, they get exposure and...
I have an idea for Tildes.
You can give people the option to promote their own posts ,using either real money or cryptocurrency, so their posts can appear on the homepage, they get exposure and they support Tildes whilst doing it! Other people can also tip posts, both Tildes and the OP get a share of the revenue! The money Tildes makes from this will be able to support the site!Please add this. I don't want annoying Google ads.
4 votes -
Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman on her career-defining US address and paying homage to Maya Angelou
10 votes -
Hege Riise will lead the England women's football team on a temporary basis after Phil Neville's early departure as manager
6 votes -
For the first time in NFL history, a woman will officiate at the Super Bowl
6 votes -
In 1978, to emulate the exuberant and stylistic luxury of the Lincoln Continental, Volvo launched its own facsimile of the traditional American land yacht, the 262C
5 votes -
Are there any viable alternatives for Facebook?
A lot of people are currently switching over from WhatsApp to Signal right now, and the two are comparable enough that Signal can pretty much act as a drop-in replacement for WhatsApp. They have...
A lot of people are currently switching over from WhatsApp to Signal right now, and the two are comparable enough that Signal can pretty much act as a drop-in replacement for WhatsApp. They have very comparable features, and Signal is easy enough to use that it's adoptable by non-techy people.
Does something similar exist for Facebook? I'm fully aware of the network effects that keep people on Facebook, but let's pretend a lot of people wanted to leave that platform and migrate elsewhere. Is there anything that has a similar featureset and that is usable by the general population?
22 votes -
Zlatan sets new personal best as AC Milan eye Scudetto run – Ibrahimovic now has twelve goals through just eight Serie A games
8 votes -
Colombia's "cocaine hippos" must be culled, scientists say - but not everyone agrees
10 votes -
Anna Leone – Once (2021)
4 votes -
Brave adds IPFS support
9 votes -
Trying To Create an AI Tom Scott (on a $100 budget)
8 votes -
What type of message board is this?
4 votes -
I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea (in medicine)
13 votes -
What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
8 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 19
This thread is posted daily - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic,...
This thread is posted daily - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
15 votes -
Daily thread - United States 2021 transition of power - January 18
This thread is posted daily - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic,...
This thread is posted daily - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
18 votes -
Lenna's Inception post-mortem
13 votes -
Revisiting Poptropica a decade later
4 votes -
Stupid times call for stupid jokes
4 votes -
Annika Sörenstam defends accepting award from Donald Trump – Swede received medal for freedom the day after US Capitol riot
6 votes -
What did you do this weekend?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at...
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
10 votes -
Hyperbolica devlog #5: Non-euclidean 3D modeling
5 votes -
Finding vulnerabilities in the calling state machines of video/audio messaging platforms
3 votes -
Derek Yu's top ten games of 2020
5 votes -
Zalgo Text generator
3 votes -
Six transgender people talk about how the pandemic has affected their bodies
9 votes -
When I injured my vocal cords, I was forced to change the way I spoke – and discovered how much our voices reveal who we are
6 votes