Youtube Recommendations

[Syt]

His vibe is more like, "Our lovely gaming hobby is used ... by ... the military!!!" Again, he tries to be balanced, but it feels like he's been quite sheltered.

Well the military has been using gaming for training purposes since the Kingdom of Prussia was a thing. Hell, if anything we are using the military's hobby.

Oh, he covers that, and some of the evolution into Chainmail and D&D etc.

[grumbler]

I don't think that Quinto Smith quite understand what military training is, because he keeps insisting that training aids are weapons, not training aids.  Training aids don't kill people (unless something goes horribly wrong in the training) and what he is talking about here is training that replaces some manual with a simulation.  And sometimes not even that, just replacing a manual with an interactive manual.

I guess that some people who design or review wargames are just desperate for some philosophical approach that makes their work seem edgy.

[Jacob]

[grumbler]

The only thing better-tuned to bait clicks than "Stupid Americans never heard of this!" is "this (evolutionary) thing was revolutionary!"

It looks cool and seems to be artistically ahead of its time, but it isn't the first graphic novel.  And tons of people around the world, not just some Americans, haven't heard of it.

[Jacob]

I admit the title is click baity

My main reason for sharing it is that I love Corto Maltese and that Hugo Pratt's early life (which I didn't know about) is pretty damn interesting.

I don't have a strong opinion about what the first "graphic novel" is, but I'm still curious to hear what you think it is (since it's not Corto Maltese).

[grumbler]

I admit the title is click baity

My main reason for sharing it is that I love Corto Maltese and that Hugo Pratt's early life (which I didn't know about) is pretty damn interesting.

I don't have a strong opinion about what the first "graphic novel" is, but I'm still curious to hear what you think it is (since it's not Corto Maltese).

I don't know about which was the first one, but there was a graphic novel published in the early 19th C in Switzerland, which was then pirated by French, British, and American publishers.

I agree with you that the vid's dissuasion of Hugo Pratt's early life and how it impacted his decisions on characters and plots was interesting.

[Admiral Yi]

8 charts that will change the way you perceive dating.  I found this eye opening.

[Syt]

Tristan Hughes from The Ancients podcasts (which I think some of us here listen to) looking at some of the best and worst depictions of Rome in movies and TV.

Worst moment: "Ah, David Tennant, Doctor Who. A long time ago, I remember watching this when I was growing up." (The episode aired 16 years ago.)

[Josquius]

Best looking game ever - a (brief) look at some of the "best looking" games and how it evolved over time (making omissions by necessity).

[youtube]rTOE
Goes to show again how far ahead Crysis was (and in some ways still is - like the destructive environments. Too bad the second half of the game goes from semi-realistic near-future military shooter to an alien invasion shooter).

I've been thinking about this for some reason. The 2000s trend for destructive environments and everything being interactive- Shenmue is a stand out one, being able to touch basically everything in the Ryo's house. Even racing games of the time tended to allow damage far more than today.
Its really weird we veered away from this. I wonder why developers did so. That's a topic that deserves more coverage.

[garbon]

Best looking game ever - a (brief) look at some of the "best looking" games and how it evolved over time (making omissions by necessity).

[youtube]rTOE
Goes to show again how far ahead Crysis was (and in some ways still is - like the destructive environments. Too bad the second half of the game goes from semi-realistic near-future military shooter to an alien invasion shooter).

I've been thinking about this for some reason. The 2000s trend for destructive environments and everything being interactive- Shenmue is a stand out one, being able to touch basically everything in the Ryo's house. Even racing games of the time tended to allow damage far more than today.
Its really weird we veered away from this. I wonder why developers did so. That's a topic that deserves more coverage.

Feels like a lot of effort for marginal gains.

[Syt]

That's what I'm guessing. Unless you can implement it very easily with minimum fuzz or it has significant gameplay impact there's likely little reason to spend resources on it.

Plus, fully breakable environments can be a headache for level designers - what's the point of crafting a cool setpiece when the player can just completely obliterate the level geometry and bypass/break your carefully scripted events?

[Admiral Yi]

A clip from The Green Book in which they bleeped out the black character saying negro.

[grumbler]

A fascinating story that will teach you much about how the USSR operated under Stalin.

[Josquius]

That's what I'm guessing. Unless you can implement it very easily with minimum fuzz or it has significant gameplay impact there's likely little reason to spend resources on it.

I'm not sure it is so much work though?
Objects are generally independently created models. To make it so these aren't permanently stuck in place but rather can be moved.... Doesn't sound like such a huge programming challenge- the issues perhaps more in system load of tracking where they all are.

Plus, fully breakable environments can be a headache for level designers - what's the point of crafting a cool setpiece when the player can just completely obliterate the level geometry and bypass/break your carefully scripted events?

Yes.
This is far more the reason I fear. Level designers want to carefully craft their entertainment corridors. They want to create interactive movies. They aren't keen on giving players genuine choice and the opportunity to improvise.

[garbon]

That's what I'm guessing. Unless you can implement it very easily with minimum fuzz or it has significant gameplay impact there's likely little reason to spend resources on it.

I'm not sure it is so much work though?
Objects are generally independently created models. To make it so these aren't permanently stuck in place but rather can be moved.... Doesn't sound like such a huge programming challenge- the issues perhaps more in system load of tracking where they all are.

I don't know the technical details but lets assume what you've put out that trivially easy to have objects able to move about. 1) I think they'd still need to have more effort put in as you could see them now from all angles so all angles would need to look good. 2) There would need to be meaningful things to do with all these objects that can move about otherwise it'd just be frustrating to players. Only so many times you want to smash everything to bits vs. try to use these moveable objects in some fashion.

Plus, fully breakable environments can be a headache for level designers - what's the point of crafting a cool setpiece when the player can just completely obliterate the level geometry and bypass/break your carefully scripted events?

Yes.
This is far more the reason I fear. Level designers want to carefully craft their entertainment corridors. They want to create interactive movies. They aren't keen on giving players genuine choice and the opportunity to improvise.

We've seen what happens when they don't focus on narrative choices. We end up with what a lot of time is spent with in Ubisoft games, doing a whole lot of busy tasks / a whole lot of nothing.

Also, do recall that all of this is done not as pure art but as a business. Unless there are signs that players enjoy games more when they can interact with everything, why bother?