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The other article on the front page about video games being boring and predictable should try this game. I think that works like these are the real future of ga
by adenozine 5y ago
The other article on the front page about video games being boring and predictable should try this game. I think that works like these are the real future of gaming. People can vote with their wallets at the end of the day. Eventually, people will wise up and start paying for better games that they actually enjoy and stop gambling. Or they won't, and they continue to hurt themselves financially and mentally. Either way, there will still be people making art-games like this, for people who think differently.
I really like the idea of social culture being "frozen" and injected into game experiences. I'd love to play a game about how the Cuban Missile Crisis felt, about how the Great Depression felt, about how the New Deal felt. Reading just doesn't put the mind in that same mode as trying to make moves that benefit my main character and seeing how the events that unfold bear witness to whether or not my decisions were good.
I'm sure there will be some good games soon about how insane it is that there's anti-vaxxers, or election deniers.
- verisimi 5y ago> I'm sure there will be some good games soon about how insane it is that there's anti-vaxxers, or election deniers. Or a game where people think they can make a difference by voting harder!
- adenozine 5y agoI'm not anti-voting, but I guess I'm resigned to the "voting futility" idea that I think you're talking about. That being said, I am a faithful supporter of DSAUSA and have invested (rather than voted for) significant means towards the cause of a more socialistic reality in America. Faced with the size and influence of corporations in the world, I suppose it's the logical end of things that the world revolve around money and the means of "making" more money. I still vote too, but I guess I roll my eyes a little bit each time.
- djbusby 5y agoVoting does make a difference. Also, you can contribute to any candidates campaign - so you can money-vote in many places (USA)
- indigochill 5y ago> Voting does make a difference. In a parliamentary system, votes have a substantial impact. You can vote for a minority party that's actually aligned with your views and get represented if they get enough votes to get a seat in Parliament. It's not "throwing your vote away" like it is in the US. In a two-party first-past-the-post system, the impact of each vote is substantially reduced by comparison since not only are there only two competitive parties to vote for, but the winner takes everything. A vote for the "wrong" party means that vote leads to no representation. > Also, you can contribute to any candidates campaign - so you can money-vote in many places (USA) This is part of the problem in the US, because it gives the wealthiest interests the means to back their preferred representatives at amounts minority representatives can never hope to reach.
- brimble 5y agoIt's fairly likely that, by the time I die, none of the voting I've done will have changed the outcome of a single election or ballot question. On the off chance it does, it'll almost certainly be at the county level or lower.
- kelseyfrog 5y agoI'm completely convinced that the voting in Redecor - Home Design Game[1] is completely random. What they've done is Skinner boxed their competitions in a way that more or less evenly distributes random rewards to maximize engagement rather than reward players based on merit. It has the veneer of a voting-based competition, but none of the real guts of one. 1. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.reworks.redecor&hl=en_US&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fi.reworks.red...
- ______-_-______ 5y agoPapers Please is in that genre. It's one of my favorite games
- nicolas_t 5y agoPapers please is really a great game. With the rise of indie games, there's quite a few games that tackle difficult problems - Papo y yo - alcoholism and child abuse - Little Kite - also alcoholism and abuse - Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons - mourning and loss - Orwell - Privacy (although I would not recommend it as much as the first two) - Valiant Hearts: The Great War - emotional toll of World War 1 - This war of mine - living in a war zone - To the moon - not going to spoil it - Rakuen By the way, Little Kite is free right now https://freebies.indiegala.com/little-kite https://freebies.indiegala.com/little-kite
- rgoulter 5y agoI can recommend "Spiritfarer" under "emotionally impactful", too.
- indigochill 5y agoI think Cart Life was the first game that hit me this way (shortly before Papers, Please). It really made me empathize with the desperate situations the characters were in, and in a way that felt more fully realized than in Papers, Please, though that's also a great game.
- bussierem 5y ago'Gris' is also another game about mourning and loss, and is an absolute audiovisual experience on its own.
- js8 5y agoThere is also "That Dragon, Cancer" but I haven't played it because emotional exhaustion is the last thing I want from a game.
- miketery 5y ago> I'm sure there will be some good games soon about how insane it is that there's anti-vaxxers, or election deniers. I think using the word insane isn’t warranted. Check out Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Rightous Mind. There are good reasons to be skeptical, it’s also evolutionary necessary. The majority can be wrong. To be specific it was misinformation to say it was a lab leak, now it’s generally accepted. As far as vaxx goes I took it, but the politics mixing with science has deteriorated a lot of trust. Also this is new technology, it’s not zero risk. Election wise, we have examples in history to show it happens. Why not here? What about democrats pushing out Bernie? Again I agree mostly all good. But it’s not insane to think something is not kosher. Rather it’s insane to be so certain of these things.
- throwaway684936 5y ago> To be specific it was misinformation to say it was a lab leak, now it’s generally accepted. Which is a case of some people happening to guess, one time, that an ultimately highly unlikely thing (based on available information) happened. To peddle such an unlikely, unconfirmed claim as fact before there's actual evidence still isn't/wasn't reasonable. They didn't know it was a lab leak. They wildly guessed. Yet they never treated it as speculation, they prematurely treated it as fact. Current evidence likewise strongly supports the idea that the 2020 election is legitimate.
- gadders 5y agoYou think the lab leak is the least likely theory of COVID origin?
- felixgallo 5y agononsense, it's not now 'generally accepted' that it was a lab leak. It's possible. We don't know. However, and this is critical, it was absolutely 100% misinformation when first claimed. Trump was desperate to deflect blame and not let COVID derail his reelection chances, so he immediately blamed China, well before we had any actual information, analysis, or intelligence to suggest that. Talk about your 'politics mixing with science' deteriorating trust.
- 5y ago
- bobthechef 5y agoThis is rather worrying. A game isn't an argument. It's not even evidence! Movies suffer the same problem in that we can couple causes with effects in ways that bear no relationship to reality. Just look at how Hollywood has contributed to deforming how people understand relationships. That's just one domain. It doesn't even need to be intentional, as Chomsky has argued, so no conspiracy is required as long as interests converge. Rather, the corporate-media-education complex is a self-reinforcing system where most of its actors do not even realize they are reinforcing the presuppositions of the system by excluding and punishing that which would threaten the existence of the system, regardless of whether the presuppositions are themselves good or correct. Most people even believe they're doing good (not that malicious actors don't exist, but most people don't give any of these presuppositions any consideration). Arguments may be bloodless, but they have substance. Theater, interactive or not, is capable of deceiving. Your emotional response is not fact. What you would be presented with in a game about some historical event is a recasting of historical events in terms of our modern sensibilities. Movies do this all the time, this subtle anachronistic and theatrical re-presentation of history. This can be an impediment to understanding, not an aid. Besides, while recreation has its place, we waste too much time on entertainment. Movies, games, and so on. These are like the cave in Plato's allegory. Instead of leaving the cave, we have doubled down. Enter THE METAVERSE.
- jpindar 5y agoThis War of Mine is said to be realistic as to what living in a war zone feels like.
- salicideblock 5y agoI've never been in a war zone. I could not play more than 10 minutes of that game, as I was becoming so stressed. Having a quit button is the best part of these video game experiences.
- input_sh 5y agoI was drawn to it because it's based on surviving the siege of city I've been living in for the good part of the last decade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sarajevo) and playing it is just a painful experience that matches what I've been told and read from those that lived through it. It's been a while since I've last played it, but from what I remember I always ended up in an absolutely inescapable situation regardless of what I tried. If you want to actually feel something while playing a game, 10/10, would recommend.
- alasdair_ 5y agoStrongly agree. A big part of me wanted to find out if the game was ever winnable or even if it ended at all. Then I realized that was kind of the point - the hope that it will end some day and so I avoided finding out if it did or not. I, too, set out with noble aims but eventually was faced with the prospect of stealing from the nice old couple down the street or starving to death. At that point, I stopped playing. I didn't want to know which one I'd choose.
- lstodd 5y agoHm. I managed to "win" it several times, that is to survive to the end without stealing or such stuff. It is hard, but possible.
- banannaise 5y agoI happened to start playing that game a week before Russia invaded Ukraine. It made everything much weirder.
- stavros 5y ago> The other article on the front page about video games being boring and predictable should try this game. How though? It's in Mandarin.
- mattbrewsbytes 5y agoI saw a headline somewhere that Tesla was going to build robots. I just started playing "Detroit: Become Human", setting in 2038, Russia is attacking neighbor countries, US unemployment is at 35% because robots/androids are employed in many jobs and are cheap. You play various androids and your choices impact game outcomes (there's a flowchart of decisions). I like games with moral/ethical questions and player choices, it really presents the questions in a way where you are making decisions that have impact - at least as how the game developer gives you options. This is very different than reading about it in a book. Don't get me wrong though, I also like silly action/adventure/puzzle/whatever games too. There is a place for all kinds of artwork.
- runeblaze 5y agoNot to diminish your point, but I do think that the idea of Shechu has been so imbued in contemporary Chinese popular culture that for many Chinese this is not that serious or artsy a game (think any Netflix popular show that touches some serious social issues -- it can be well-made but usually not that artsy). It will be harder for a general audience to explore a past social culture (e.g. cold war, great depression) than to explore a present, popular culture. Also not disagreeing with you -- it will be awesome to play some serious game about the new deal/anti-vaxxers. In general, seeing discussions on game design across HN, I think we (HN as a whole) can be more exploratory in our games, going beyond "being serious, well researched, and non-predatory". The sense of ambiguous loss brought by To the Moon is one direction in this. Some other random examples pioneered by films that I think we should explore include more subtle ambiguity in narratives (e.g. Burning (2018)) or delicacy in depicting the adolescent female experience (e.g. Marie Antoinette (2006)).
- alisonatwork 5y agoThere are many games like this already. Not including ones already mentioned, here are a few more off the top of my head... 1979 Revolution: Black Friday[0], Iranian revolution 21 Days[1], Syrian refugee crisis A Golden Wake[2], Florida property boom Bury Me, My Love[3], Syrian refugee crisis Through the Darkest of Times [4], German resistance under the Nazis Way of Defector[5], North Korean defection There are a bunch more historical narrative games you can find, if you're into that sort of thing. I don't really have time for these conversations about how modern games are boring and predictable, that just shows the person hasn't bothered looking outside of the AAA bubble. There has never been a better time for computer games than right now. [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/388320/1979_Revolution_Black_Friday/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/388320/1979_Revolution_Bl... [1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/607660/21_Days/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/607660/21_Days/ [2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/307570/A_Golden_Wake/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/307570/A_Golden_Wake/ [3] https://store.steampowered.com/app/808090/Bury_Me_My_Love/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/808090/Bury_Me_My_Love/ [4] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1003090/Through_the_Darkest_of_Times/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/1003090/Through_the_Darke... [5] https://store.steampowered.com/app/658660/Way_of_Defector/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/658660/Way_of_Defector/
- selimthegrim 5y agoYou might want to try Norco. It got written up in the New Yorker a couple months ago.