Random Gaming Thoughts

[PlasticCasket]

Where's the fun in that? If you want a similar experience, play through normal with a level +80 character. I put countless thousand hours into D2 and I can tell that without enemies, you're just walking (or teleporting) through empty, tedious maps.

I see what you're saying... D2 sorta splits at the seams at a certain point. In the OP, I was picturing (albeit extremely vaguely!) a sort of Diablo (original, not D2) visual experience in which you just descend further into the crypt, encountering enemies which aren't concerned with battle, but rather phase through you or act in other curious manners (interact with you indirectly). Maybe the walls turn into screaming skulls before toppling over themselves to reveal another descending stairway. I don't know. Maybe it still wouldn't be fun! Sometimes I just like to immerse myself in a virtual landscape.

[Hazerd]

When you guys go garage/yard sale hunting, do you goto every sale you pass by weather it looks like it may have games or not.

Also do you always ask if they have games before even looking?

[PlasticCasket]

When you guys go garage/yard sale hunting, do you goto every sale you pass by weather it looks like it may have games or not.

Also do you always ask if they have games before even looking?

Go to every sale, speak to no one, dig like a freak, leave in shame or with buyer's remorse (the latter never really lingering since yard sales are usually so cheap!)

[BoneSnapDeez]

I simply stop by any sales I see during the course of my commute to the city of whatever. I've never asked for anything specific, I just browse around.

I don't have much luck with yard sales in these parts. There's only a small window where yard sales are even possible due to the persistently cold weather. And houses are spread really far apart out here too.

[Flake]

Luke's commentary on the original Metroid got me to thinking about the way the developers were able to interchangeably store map data in the same sectors by tagging the data as either horizontal or vertical. The end result was Metroid's now-characteristic horizontal and vertical corridors. This was all thanks to (and in part because of) Nintendo RD1 opting to use the still-newish MMC1 chip instead of the older UNROM.

Looking back on it, if RD1 had opted to use either the easier-to-program for UNROM or the new hotness at the time, MMC2 (only ever used in Punch Out!!, btw) then the designers may not have been forced to use such an unconventional technique. I don't understand a lot about the technology but from what the Wikipedia article indicates, Metroid was designed using entirely the wrong technology. That decision to use the MMC1 led to the creation of a whole subgenre in gaming, though.

Limitation does seem to inspire creativity.

[Luke]

Luke's commentary on the original Metroid got me to thinking about the way the developers were able to interchangeably store map data in the same sectors by tagging the data as either horizontal or vertical. The end result was Metroid's now-characteristic horizontal and vertical corridors. This was all thanks to (and in part because of) Nintendo RD1 opting to use the still-newish MMC1 chip instead of the older UNROM.

Looking back on it, if RD1 had opted to use either the easier-to-program for UNROM or the new hotness at the time, MMC2 (only ever used in Punch Out!!, btw) then the designers may not have been forced to use such an unconventional technique. I don't understand a lot about the technology but from what the Wikipedia article indicates, Metroid was designed using entirely the wrong technology. That decision to use the MMC1 led to the creation of a whole subgenre in gaming, though.

Limitation does seem to inspire creativity.

Exactly.

[Retrogamer0001]

Luke's commentary on the original Metroid got me to thinking about the way the developers were able to interchangeably store map data in the same sectors by tagging the data as either horizontal or vertical. The end result was Metroid's now-characteristic horizontal and vertical corridors. This was all thanks to (and in part because of) Nintendo RD1 opting to use the still-newish MMC1 chip instead of the older UNROM.

Looking back on it, if RD1 had opted to use either the easier-to-program for UNROM or the new hotness at the time, MMC2 (only ever used in Punch Out!!, btw) then the designers may not have been forced to use such an unconventional technique. I don't understand a lot about the technology but from what the Wikipedia article indicates, Metroid was designed using entirely the wrong technology. That decision to use the MMC1 led to the creation of a whole subgenre in gaming, though.

Limitation does seem to inspire creativity.

Exactly.

Would you say that freedom limits creativity? Or that we're simply more satisfied with mediocrity/ the status quo because of not having limits? I ask because it's something I've thought about myself.

[Jmustang1968]

Or even better, you have great game design and creativity with less limitations.

While some of these tricks and clever workarounds these designers do to get around limitations are impressive, I have also read many a story and heard accounting of how great something could be or could have been of not for the technical limits. How many good ideas or games were either failures or shelved for awhile because they were ahead of their time or tech?

[MrPopo]

Would you say that freedom limits creativity? Or that we're simply more satisfied with mediocrity/ the status quo because of not having limits? I ask because it's something I've thought about myself.

Freedom is overwhelming. When you have limitations you have an anchor point you can build your work around. "Write me a story" is a much harder task than "write me a sci-fi story", which is a harder task than "write me a sci-fi story without any spaceships".

[Jmustang1968]

Would you say that freedom limits creativity? Or that we're simply more satisfied with mediocrity/ the status quo because of not having limits? I ask because it's something I've thought about myself.

Freedom is overwhelming. When you have limitations you have an anchor point you can build your work around. "Write me a story" is a much harder task than "write me a sci-fi story", which is a harder task than "write me a sci-fi story without any spaceships".

But then you have to qualify the creativity. Was it a net positive that they found a clever way to write a sci-fi story without spaceships? Or do you just appreciate the accomplishment? Or would it have been better to let them have free reign to create whatever they wanted?