• Re: Prime Gaming 15 Jan 2024

    From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Mon Jan 15 17:30:14 2024
    On Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:23:32 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I really don't know why I even bother with these anymore. I guess it's
    just because the games are there. It's hard for me to resist free,
    even when it's obvious crap.

    Oh well. What do we have this month, Amazon? I'm sure you'll wow me
    with both the quality and quantity of your selection, right?*



    * APICO
    An Indie 'bee-keeping' simulator with Zelda-esque
    graphics. Not the worst thing in the world, but hardly
    the sort of idea that makes anyone rush out to play it.

    Love the "genres" on this: Simulator.

    Wait. What? Does anyone even know what a simulation is any more?

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Zaghadka on Mon Jan 15 18:25:49 2024
    On 1/15/2024 3:30 PM, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Mon, 15 Jan 2024 18:23:32 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    I really don't know why I even bother with these anymore. I guess it's
    just because the games are there. It's hard for me to resist free,
    even when it's obvious crap.

    Oh well. What do we have this month, Amazon? I'm sure you'll wow me
    with both the quality and quantity of your selection, right?*



    * APICO
    An Indie 'bee-keeping' simulator with Zelda-esque
    graphics. Not the worst thing in the world, but hardly
    the sort of idea that makes anyone rush out to play it.

    Love the "genres" on this: Simulator.

    Wait. What? Does anyone even know what a simulation is any more?

    What we're all living in now.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Werner P. on Wed Jan 17 09:40:21 2024
    On 1/17/24 09:36, Werner P. wrote:
    Am 16.01.24 um 16:35 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
    Genres have become so mis-applied these days that they're practically
    useless, but simulation is one of the worst.
    Adventure game is as well mishandled, every jump and run game nowadays
    is labeled as adventure game!

    Technically any game with a story is an "adventure" from point A to B.
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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  • From Werner P.@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 17 16:51:26 2024
    Am 17.01.24 um 16:40 schrieb candycanearter07:

    Technically any game with a story is an "adventure" from point A to B.

    By that definition the 8 bit strip poker game is also an adventure, the
    story is to get the opponend out of her cloths and it is explained by
    the remarks you are getting from your opponent!

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  • From Werner P.@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 17 16:36:20 2024
    Am 16.01.24 um 16:35 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
    Genres have become so mis-applied these days that they're practically useless, but simulation is one of the worst.
    Adventure game is as well mishandled, every jump and run game nowadays
    is labeled as adventure game!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Werner P. on Wed Jan 17 11:00:30 2024
    On 1/17/24 09:51, Werner P. wrote:
    Am 17.01.24 um 16:40 schrieb candycanearter07:

    Technically any game with a story is an "adventure" from point A to B.

    By that definition the 8 bit strip poker game is also an adventure, the
    story is to get the opponend out of her cloths and it is explained by
    the remarks you are getting from your opponent!

    That feels like it might actually be considered a Adventure game nowadays..
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Wed Jan 17 12:25:31 2024
    On Tue, 16 Jan 2024 10:35:29 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    On Mon, 15 Jan 2024 17:30:14 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
    wrote:


    Love the "genres" on this: Simulator.

    Wait. What? Does anyone even know what a simulation is any more?

    [snip]

    But too often a game gets assigned EVERY genre just because marketing
    hopes that will attract people who might otherwise overlook the game.
    It's become a tool of advertising rather than a useful qualifier.

    Bah. Not like it was in the old days. Now, get off my lawn! ;-)

    The "old days" had more ambition. It seems that the most terrible trend
    of modernity is lack of it, and the subsequent lowering of expectations
    ("the bar," if you will). The banal is now marketed as extraordinary.
    McBurger for everyone! (to paraphrase Woodruff and The Schnibble)

    <rant>

    I used to have this book as a kid:

    https://www.amazon.com/Star-Ship-Simulation-games-no/dp/091839810X

    _That's_ a simulation. Anything with cartoon graphics, that aren't that
    way due to technological limitations, is not.

    It has nothing to do with my lawn, which is actually a simulation of a
    lawn*, and the kids are always allowed on it. They make me smile. What
    they aren't allowed to do is call it a swimming pool, at least not in my presence or without a serious commitment of free labor.

    "The bar" has been lowered by, as you say, marketing. It's a keyword.
    It's exposure, and who cares about its actual meaning?

    The same goes for calling an LLM "AI."

    We used to demand more than this. We should demand more. If we dumb down progress to this level we will go exactly where we expect to: right here
    and now, IOW nowhere.

    A vision of the future is a requirement for a healthy society, not a
    quaint old idea. The lack of it is an indication of impending societal collapse. The inability to imagine is simple mental rigidity and comes
    with a corresponding inability to adjust to important changes.

    Usually, that happens to the old. It is disturbing to see it happening to people younger than me.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten


    * It is green. That's about it. Lawn implies to me a preponderance of
    grass. Mine has none of that.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to Werner P. on Wed Jan 17 12:46:43 2024
    On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 16:36:20 +0100, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Werner P. wrote:

    Am 16.01.24 um 16:35 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
    Genres have become so mis-applied these days that they're practically
    useless, but simulation is one of the worst.
    Adventure game is as well mishandled, every jump and run game nowadays
    is labeled as adventure game!

    You should see how many edits I have to make to Steam's "dynamic
    categories." I had to build "adventure/puzzle" from scratch. It literally
    could not do it.

    And I call The Talos Principle adventure. You explore a locale where
    there are puzzles, solve the puzzles, and when you do that you are given
    access to new locales. It's not a Sierra point-and-click, but it follows
    the same basic "principle" (see what I did there?)

    Guess what genre isn't associated with it? Adventure. At least it has "action-adventure" on its list, which it definitely isn't. It also has
    "walking simulator" associated, which apparently has been foist upon it
    by people with untreated ADHD.

    Oh well. Can we have a "what makes an RPG" discussion? It's more
    entertaining. I'll start...

    "Bioshock, despite adding RPG elements, is not an RPG. It's an FPS."

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike S.@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jan 17 13:57:12 2024
    On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 12:46:43 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    Oh well. Can we have a "what makes an RPG" discussion? It's more >entertaining. I'll start...

    "Bioshock, despite adding RPG elements, is not an RPG. It's an FPS."

    I never played Bioshock but I did play both System Shocks. I always
    called them 'FPS games with RPG elements.'' So based on that, I am
    going to guess that I would agree with you about Bioshock.

    Well, there goes our flame war....

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  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Mike S. on Wed Jan 17 12:19:18 2024
    On 1/17/2024 10:57 AM, Mike S. wrote:
    On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 12:46:43 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
    wrote:

    Oh well. Can we have a "what makes an RPG" discussion? It's more
    entertaining. I'll start...

    "Bioshock, despite adding RPG elements, is not an RPG. It's an FPS."

    I never played Bioshock but I did play both System Shocks. I always
    called them 'FPS games with RPG elements.'' So based on that, I am
    going to guess that I would agree with you about Bioshock.

    Well, there goes our flame war....

    And I just bought marshmallows!

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Justisaur@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Wed Jan 17 15:35:21 2024
    On 1/15/2024 3:23 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    And that's it. Remember the days when Amazon would drop a dozen games
    on us a month, which - while many of them were older titles - they
    were at least games you'd have heard of? It seems those days are long
    gone.


    I think they mostly moved the good ones to a free month on Luna with
    prime as they're pushing that. The one this month is

    Control: Ultimate Edition

    There's some other games but they're about as interesting as the cruft
    they have in the free prime games.

    I might give that a go after my PS+ sub expires on the 27th I think it
    was. I'm somewhat tempted to keep it up, as it would be considerably
    cheaper on the couple games I like I did try on PS+ than buying them
    outright, though who knows how long it'd take me to finish them - even
    though they're supposedly short, I seem to take far far longer on most
    games than your average gamer.

    --
    -Justisaur

    ø-ø
    (\_/)\
    `-'\ `--.___,
    ¶¬'\( ,_.-'
    \\
    ^'

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  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Zaghadka on Thu Jan 18 11:32:00 2024
    On 17/01/2024 18:46, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 16:36:20 +0100, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Werner P. wrote:

    Am 16.01.24 um 16:35 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
    Genres have become so mis-applied these days that they're practically
    useless, but simulation is one of the worst.
    Adventure game is as well mishandled, every jump and run game nowadays
    is labeled as adventure game!

    You should see how many edits I have to make to Steam's "dynamic
    categories." I had to build "adventure/puzzle" from scratch. It literally could not do it.

    And I call The Talos Principle adventure. You explore a locale where
    there are puzzles, solve the puzzles, and when you do that you are given access to new locales. It's not a Sierra point-and-click, but it follows
    the same basic "principle" (see what I did there?)

    Guess what genre isn't associated with it? Adventure. At least it has "action-adventure" on its list, which it definitely isn't. It also has "walking simulator" associated, which apparently has been foist upon it
    by people with untreated ADHD.

    Oh well. Can we have a "what makes an RPG" discussion? It's more entertaining. I'll start...

    "Bioshock, despite adding RPG elements, is not an RPG. It's an FPS."


    I think that's the problem I have, if you start making categories so
    broad then they become useless and Steam will start giving me silly
    results. My example is Shadow Gambit were the vast majority of user tags
    are either just wrong (IMHO), are stretching definitions almost to
    breaking point or are technically correct but basically irrelevant.

    Well as you mentioned RPG's I'll give it a go, no flames wars plaease :-)

    Possibly my annoyance is being a TT RPG player you kinda know what
    you're getting if something is described as a RPG. Pop on Steam and XCom
    is listed under the RPG category. I happen to like XCom but I'd rather
    it didn't clutter up the RPG category.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike S.@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Jan 18 09:49:02 2024
    On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:32:00 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

    Well as you mentioned RPG's I'll give it a go, no flames wars plaease :-)

    Possibly my annoyance is being a TT RPG player you kinda know what
    you're getting if something is described as a RPG. Pop on Steam and XCom
    is listed under the RPG category. I happen to like XCom but I'd rather
    it didn't clutter up the RPG category.

    X-COM is a game I put in the strategy game category. I can define it
    further by calling it a squad level tactical war game. I put it in the
    same category as Jagged Alliance. JA has also been called an RPG,
    though never by me.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to JAB on Thu Jan 18 10:49:46 2024
    On 1/18/24 05:32, JAB wrote:
    On 17/01/2024 18:46, Zaghadka wrote:
    On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 16:36:20 +0100, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
    Werner P. wrote:

    Am 16.01.24 um 16:35 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
    Genres have become so mis-applied these days that they're practically
    useless, but simulation is one of the worst.
    Adventure game is as well mishandled, every jump and run game nowadays
    is labeled as adventure game!

    You should see how many edits I have to make to Steam's "dynamic
    categories." I had to build "adventure/puzzle" from scratch. It literally
    could not do it.

    And I call The Talos Principle adventure. You explore a locale where
    there are puzzles, solve the puzzles, and when you do that you are given
    access to new locales. It's not a Sierra point-and-click, but it follows
    the same basic "principle" (see what I did there?)

    Guess what genre isn't associated with it? Adventure. At least it has
    "action-adventure" on its list, which it definitely isn't. It also has
    "walking simulator" associated, which apparently has been foist upon it
    by people with untreated ADHD.

    Oh well. Can we have a "what makes an RPG" discussion? It's more
    entertaining. I'll start...

    "Bioshock, despite adding RPG elements, is not an RPG. It's an FPS."


    I think that's the problem I have, if you start making categories so
    broad then they become useless and Steam will start giving me silly
    results. My example is Shadow Gambit were the vast majority of user tags
    are either just wrong (IMHO), are stretching definitions almost to
    breaking point or are technically correct but basically irrelevant.

    Well as you mentioned RPG's I'll give it a go, no flames wars plaease :-)

    Possibly my annoyance is being a TT RPG player you kinda know what
    you're getting if something is described as a RPG. Pop on Steam and XCom
    is listed under the RPG category. I happen to like XCom but I'd rather
    it didn't clutter up the RPG category.

    I do find it silly you can't define your own tags on steam.
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ross Ridge@21:1/5 to no@thanks.net on Thu Jan 18 18:33:26 2024
    candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote:
    I do find it silly you can't define your own tags on steam.

    Well, you can. If you mean for categorizing the games in your library,
    you can add them to "collections" with whatever names you want. If you
    think XCOM should be show up in your library listed in the "Turn-Based Tactical" or "Play The Original Instead" categories, you have that choice.

    For actual tags of games listed in the store then you can select whatever
    tags you think the game should have including new ones you've made up.
    If enough other people agree that the game should have those tags, it'll
    be indexed with those tags. Which is the whole problem here, people are
    bad a tagging games and seem to think its a popularity contest where their favourite games should show up in the store with as many tags as possible.

    Note that you can also vote against tags, so I suggest using that feature
    if you see a game with tags you think it shouldn't have. Be sure to
    vote for the tags you think it should have at the same time.

    --
    l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU
    [oo][oo] rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca
    -()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca:11068/
    db //

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  • From Zaghadka@21:1/5 to All on Thu Jan 18 15:06:06 2024
    On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:49:02 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, Mike
    S. wrote:

    On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:32:00 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

    Well as you mentioned RPG's I'll give it a go, no flames wars plaease :-)

    Possibly my annoyance is being a TT RPG player you kinda know what
    you're getting if something is described as a RPG. Pop on Steam and XCom
    is listed under the RPG category. I happen to like XCom but I'd rather
    it didn't clutter up the RPG category.

    X-COM is a game I put in the strategy game category. I can define it
    further by calling it a squad level tactical war game. I put it in the
    same category as Jagged Alliance. JA has also been called an RPG,
    though never by me.

    Absolutely. Tactical, isometric, cover-based, turn-based firefight game.
    Some base building. No story, other than bad things are here that need
    killin.

    This sort of game actually plays very much like a puzzle game, but I give
    them their own category because it's less abstract and scratches a
    different puzzle itch. Definitely strategy, though there is a difference between strategy and tactics.

    --
    Zag

    No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
    spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From JAB@21:1/5 to Mike S. on Fri Jan 19 11:14:09 2024
    On 18/01/2024 14:49, Mike S. wrote:
    On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:32:00 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

    Well as you mentioned RPG's I'll give it a go, no flames wars plaease :-)

    Possibly my annoyance is being a TT RPG player you kinda know what
    you're getting if something is described as a RPG. Pop on Steam and XCom
    is listed under the RPG category. I happen to like XCom but I'd rather
    it didn't clutter up the RPG category.

    X-COM is a game I put in the strategy game category. I can define it
    further by calling it a squad level tactical war game. I put it in the
    same category as Jagged Alliance. JA has also been called an RPG,
    though never by me.

    That's roughly were I'd put it with a slice of resource management
    although I don't think that's part of the core gameplay. I've never
    played any of the JA games but yeh, not an RPG or an RTS which JA:3 has
    a tag for.

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  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Fri Jan 19 08:28:50 2024
    On 1/19/2024 7:14 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Wed, 17 Jan 2024 15:35:21 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
    wrote:

    On 1/15/2024 3:23 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    And that's it. Remember the days when Amazon would drop a dozen games
    on us a month, which - while many of them were older titles - they
    were at least games you'd have heard of? It seems those days are long
    gone.


    I think they mostly moved the good ones to a free month on Luna with
    prime as they're pushing that. The one this month is
    Control: Ultimate Edition


    That's not a free game. That's an extended demo period. Therefore, not eligible to be included in my 'free games' posts.

    Maybe I'll announce them if I ever do "games now temporarily available
    so long as the provider is in a good mood" posts.

    ;-)

    That's a bit long for a subject line. "GNTASLATPIIAGM"? Bleh.

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mike S.@21:1/5 to spallshurgenson@gmail.com on Fri Jan 19 14:12:39 2024
    On Fri, 19 Jan 2024 10:08:34 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

    Bioshock has role-playing elements? Where? It has no stats. It has no >experience levels. You don't get to pick your dialogue choices. You
    don't get to pick your character. The hero's effectiveness in battle
    is completely based on the player's skill (if you're good at FPS
    games, you can drop the enemies quite easily. If not, every battle
    leaves the hero a battered mess. But the character's skill is never
    taken into account in determining the outcome). Is Bioshock considered
    an RPG because you get to select your magic powers? Doesn't that mean
    "Call of Duty" has RPG elements too, because in one game I choose to
    use an MP5 and in the next session my loadout is a AR-15? Of course
    not. Bioshock is a shooter, an action game. At most, it's reliance on
    story might push it into the 'action-adventure' category. But an RPG?
    I think not.

    As I said, I never played Bioshock so I was unaware of this. If your description is accurate, then I have to ask the same basic question.
    Where is the RPG in this game? Sounds like a FPS to me.

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  • From Dimensional Traveler@21:1/5 to Spalls Hurgenson on Fri Jan 19 11:17:33 2024
    On 1/19/2024 10:29 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
    On Fri, 19 Jan 2024 08:28:50 -0800, Dimensional Traveler
    <dtravel@sonic.net> wrote:
    On 1/19/2024 7:14 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

    Maybe I'll announce them if I ever do "games now temporarily available
    so long as the provider is in a good mood" posts.

    That's a bit long for a subject line. "GNTASLATPIIAGM"? Bleh.

    C'mon, let's be fair. Is it any longer (or more gibberishy) than most
    of what I write? ;-)

    That actual bodies of the posts? No. But you are the one who thought
    up "CRAP Posts" so I expect more from your subject lines.

    :P

    --
    I've done good in this world. Now I'm tired and just want to be a cranky
    dirty old man.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From candycanearter07@21:1/5 to Ross Ridge on Sat Jan 20 11:18:10 2024
    On 1/18/24 12:33, Ross Ridge wrote:
    candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote:
    I do find it silly you can't define your own tags on steam.

    Well, you can. If you mean for categorizing the games in your library,
    you can add them to "collections" with whatever names you want. If you
    think XCOM should be show up in your library listed in the "Turn-Based Tactical" or "Play The Original Instead" categories, you have that choice.

    For actual tags of games listed in the store then you can select whatever tags you think the game should have including new ones you've made up.
    If enough other people agree that the game should have those tags, it'll
    be indexed with those tags. Which is the whole problem here, people are
    bad a tagging games and seem to think its a popularity contest where their favourite games should show up in the store with as many tags as possible.

    Note that you can also vote against tags, so I suggest using that feature
    if you see a game with tags you think it shouldn't have. Be sure to
    vote for the tags you think it should have at the same time.


    I mean as a developer.
    --
    user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom

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