What else would you need it for?

I think they get a bad wrap due to how frequently they are used as a crutch to scale up content quantity without quality. Which isn’t an unfair opinion to have given the fact that this is the case more often than not.

But at the end of the day ProcGen is a design tool like any other that, when in the hands of a passionate team using it with intent and creativity, can be an effective way to bring elements of surprise/randomness/chaos and/or remove tedious work from development to allow for more time to handcraft content where it can best be utilized.

Some games that show off how it can be an effective tool (not all specifically ProcGen Dungeons), Dwarf Fortress, Noita, Caves of Qud, Minecraft, Elite Dangerous, Deep Rock Galactic, a lot of 4x games (Civ, HoMM3, etc), also a lot of indie rougelike/lites (Rougle Legacy, Splunky, FTL, etc)

The important part, imho, is that the developers are investing the time to make it “good”. Either by treating it like a core design mechanic with it’s own unique/engaging qualities, or by treating it like a “quick rough draft” and going back to curate and hand craft quality content on top of it.

people who say they don’t like politics in videogames actually like politics even more, they just wish they were seeing different politics

-HBomberguy in his Fallout New Vegas video

I’ll take “broad questions that can only be answered in context” for $200 Alex.

Seriously, ask me this question on 10 different days in 10 different ways and I’ll never give the same answer.

Even in the context of your vanilla perfume hypothetical I don’t have enough information to answer. How severe a reaction, what percentage of the population is affected, where is the perfume wearer at the time, why hasn’t it been banned and/or what makes me an expert who’s opinion is worth a damn, etc etc etc?

From what little info I have on the hypothetical (either directly stated or assumed via omission), no, I wouldn’t be upset. I didn’t see anyone being harmed, the perfume wearer wasn’t doing anything illegal, I am personally unbothered by the perfume, and I’ve got my own shit to deal with.

Eta: To make this more clear, I am an ex smoker, who fully agrees that bans on smoking in public areas make sense, but am in no way personally bothered by cigarettes. I also think smoking is more apropos to the question than a mystery perfume, as the harm of smoking and 2nd hand smoke is well established.

If you are smoking on a crowded street, I’ll be upset. But in an alleyway to get away from the crowded street, good on ya, you did what you could.

Smoking near children, get fucked. Smoking while walking home from the pub when only other pub goers are around, you do you. Context is key.

derogatory slang

What did you call me!?

It’s actually refreshing to see so many people supporting TotK—that’s not always the common opinion.

Honestly, both games have a lot to offer, and they’re both spectacular in their own right. But given your concerns about time, I’d actually recommend BotW. Both games are designed in a way that lets you “play at your own pace” and then wrap up the main quest whenever you feel like it—or not.

But TotK takes that concept to another level. There’s so much more to explore, the mechanics offer an incredible variety of possibilities and skill expression, and if you’re planning to dive into a game for months, TotK is definitely the one to go for. The game constantly encourages you to think, “What if I tried it this way?” or “Would this crazy idea even work?” And you can easily lose yourself for hours trying out different things, which is a ton of fun!

That said, this also means TotK can feel more “padded,” which is saying something since BotW already had its fair share of “filler content”. But frankly a lot of TotK’s content is just there to give you more opportunities to play around with the sandboxy elements.

And while these new mechanics give you fresh ways to approach the game, their freedom also opens the game up to repetitive strategies and exploits that can become tempting to use just to “get through” a puzzle anytime you get stuck for longer than you find fun. Which can start to happen more and more the longer you play.

Frankly, TotK is the kind of game I wish I had when I was 12 on summer break. But as an adult with limited time, it just makes me wish I had more time, much more. It’s kind of like Minecraft in that way.

BotW has similar issues, but to a much lesser extent. It’s a more focused game with fewer opportunities to “cheese” puzzles, and it doesn’t have as much content purely designed for messing around with mechanics. Most of BotW is made up of puzzles, events, or dungeons that you can complete in one go, giving you a satisfying sense of progress in a shorter time.

Nah, the Republiklan got Trump elected twice by rejecting reality and substituting it with their own. Reality isn’t winning elections anymore (hell, maybe it never was). People who inspire passion are. I would back AOC before another milquetoast Dem any day.

Plus, it wasn’t just “women candidates” who lost. Hillary had decades in politics for the Right Wing Propaganda machine to attack. And Kamala had literally no time to build up support. AOC on the otherhand is honestly quite popular amongst her constituency and progressives nationwide. She is someone people vote for.

I placed my votes for Kamala, Biden, and Hillary, but they were all votes cast because of Trump. It would be so fucking nice to cast a vote for the candidate I want to win again.

…but you can’t make it think

“Here at Zohran Grocers, we’re chopping prices down to size! Don’t lose your heads over these great deals!”

Was gonna say, I was playing Morrowind earlier today.

Hell, every time Bethesda releases a game, I know it wont be two weeks until Im going back to Morrowind.

Your point more or less comes up a lot in discussions around Lord of the Rings compared to modern fantasy novels. There are a lot of people who, while they can appreciate what it did for the genre, find the novels dated and feel like they have seen the ideas too many times and/or done better elsewhere.

Though on the flip side, I personally find sometimes it just takes a few hours to “see past the age”. For example, I was introduced to Fallout by 3. The show made me want to try the originals, and after a few hours of struggling through the ui and dated graphics, it started to “click”. Now the original only competes with NV in my list of favorite Fallout games. Have a friend who had basically the same experience with the original KOTOR.

Oh that one, yeah… no fuckin clue. Maybe a cyberman from Dr Who, but like… wearing a suit?

I’m thinking the silhouette of a classic Area 51 style alien.

100%

Not sure I would want my company involved the top three. Bottom two for sure tho!

Does entropy get prep time?

Tim Sweeny! Is that you!?

Literally came to say this.

It’s what it’s

Too many to count then? Me too buddy, me too.