Editorial Oblivion article at NY Times

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Popular Communist rag, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com">The NY Times</a>, has taken a brief interlude from sabotaging the national security of the United States and has written a <A href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/29/arts/29obli.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=f716dbab06faa55a&ex=1144299600&emc=eta1">a little article</a> about <A href="http://www.elderscrolls.com">Oblivion</a>. There's all kinds of fun tidbits from <b>Todd Howard</b> and various other people, including this gamer:
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<blockquote>Rebeca Ames, 26, a World of Warcraft player who works for the Brooklyn Children's Museum and has dabbled with Oblivion, said the absence of a social context often leaves single-player games feeling a bit pointless. "There's no doubt some people are saying, 'I'd rather be playing Oblivion,' since it came out," she said. "But I end up feeling in a single-player game that there's no one to share your accomplishments with."</blockquote>
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<i>Attention whore!</i>
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Thanks, <b>bardon777</b>!
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[glasnost]

the absence of a social context often leaves single-player games feeling a bit pointless.

Pfft, I play games because I'm an antisocial bastard. Games are an escape, like hiking or a book. Multiplayer has a very limited appeal for me, especially with strangers.

 

[EvilManagedCare]

Well of course there's nobody to share your accomplishments with, Rebecca, you stupid twat. That's the very essence of a _SINGLE_ player game. You see, this way after you turn an important quest in to Patrick Stewart, you don't get the pleasure of reading in chat:
"ZOMG u r teh roXXOrz." Or, if you fail a quest, you avoid reading: "lrn2play nub."

Furthermore, if this wackadoo finds validation only in the form of chat text from her little e-friends on World of Warcraft when she completes a quest, she has way more problems than she thinks.

Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want to play a single player game.

For me, it's just that I don't want to play Oblivion at all.

And while we're on the subject, Proverbius hit it right on the head with his description of the NY Times.

 

[kingcomrade]

What are you guys talking about, the New York Times is one of the only newspapers brave enough to speak truth to power and reveal Bush's lies for what they are. I suppose it isn't all that ignorant rednecks would go out of their way to slander a paper simply because it doesn't let you live in your fantasy world where Iraqi babies aren't murdered with napalm and radioactive tank blasts for their oil. Yeah, where do you think baby oil comes from, cowboys? THAT'S RIGHT, FROM BABIES. It's mind-boggling how people so patently stupid to not catch that unsubtle inference can operate a computer, much less read or write.

 

[HardCode]

In the words of Mark Levin, "New York Slimes."

 

[Section8]

Well of course there's nobody to share your accomplishments with, Rebecca, you stupid twat. That's the very essence of a _SINGLE_ player game.

Which is exactly what she said, although she didn't brand herself a stupid twat. She's just expressing an opinion that single player games essentially lack the critical feature she looks for in a game. And funnily enough, it's perfectly relevant to the context of the article.

What the article appeared to miss however, is the fact that the Elder Scrolls games are essentially offline MMOG worlds, and that they more-or-less fail to provide even a facsimile of social context, something that is absolutely essential to a single-player RPG.

 

[Kraken]

Being european and not into american newspapers, how is NY Times a communist rag that sabotages national security? Honestly, I'm curious.

 

[Drakron]

Remenber ... communist=evil to people born and raised in the US of A.

Also remenber US of A = colonized by the rest of the world trash.

 

[Brother None]

the absence of a social context often leaves single-player games feeling a bit pointless

The hell?

Ok then, so much for reading books. Pointless.

 

[Way1and3r]

Remenber ... communist=evil to people born and raised in the US of A.

Also remenber US of A = colonized by the rest of the world trash.

Communism probably also equals evil for anyone who spent most of Stalin's reign in a gulag or in a prison under Mao.

For a country colonized by everyone's trash, they seem to have done fairly well for themselves.

 

[Azarkon]

Rebeca Ames, 26, a World of Warcraft player who works for the Brooklyn Children's Museum and has dabbled with Oblivion, said the absence of a social context often leaves single-player games feeling a bit pointless. "There's no doubt some people are saying, 'I'd rather be playing Oblivion,' since it came out," she said. "But I end up feeling in a single-player game that there's no one to share your accomplishments with."

Maybe she's speaking the obvious, but it's the truth and part of the fundamental reason why Bethesda's games are soulless shells. You can't make a single-player MMORPG and expect it to work just as well, just as you can't make a FPS and expect bot matches to replace MP.

 

[almondblight]

Being european and not into american newspapers, how is NY Times a communist rag that sabotages national security? Honestly, I'm curious.

In the US that's what one says about any newspaper where the articles don't explicitly state that that persons point of view is fact. Also remember that to nutcases like KingComrade and Saint, the media not owned by Matt Murdoch is infested by anti-American Commies (an epithet in the states).

 

[Hamster]

Rebeca Ames, 26, a World of Warcraft player who works for the Brooklyn Children's Museum and has dabbled with Oblivion, said the absence of a social context often leaves single-player games feeling a bit pointless. "There's no doubt some people are saying, 'I'd rather be playing Oblivion,' since it came out," she said. "But I end up feeling in a single-player game that there's no one to share your accomplishments with."

Maybe she's speaking the obvious, but it's the truth and part of the fundamental reason why Bethesda's games are soulless shells. You can't make a single-player MMORPG and expect it to work just as well, just as you can't make a FPS and expect bot matches to replace MP.

One little problem - Oblivion is not MMORPG. And never meant to be one.

 

[Azarkon]

Intention and result are two different things. Consider this: what if the ES series was, in fact, an early forerunner of the MMORPG genre - only Bethesda missed the obvious boat?

I don't claim that Beth set out to make a single-player MMORPG. I claim that their games are very similar to single-player MMORPGs - with all the problems associated with that idea.

 

[Levski 1912]

Man...if the NY Times is a communist rag, I wonder what Democratic Underground is...

 

[Claw]

Communism probably also equals evil for anyone who spent most of Stalin's reign in a gulag or in a prison under Mao.

Does capitalism equal evil for anyone who was or still is imprisoned at Guantanamo?

For a country colonized by everyone's trash, they seem to have done fairly well for themselves.

So does organized crime, tbh.

 

[Hamster]

I claim that their games are very similar to single-player MMORPGs - with all the problems associated with that idea.

Can you explain what the hell is "Single Player Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game "? With examples please...

 

[Nightjed]

I claim that their games are very similar to single-player MMORPGs - with all the problems associated with that idea.

Can you explain what the hell is "Single Player Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game "? With examples please...

have you ever played morrowind ? its the closest thing to a mmorpg where you are all alone

 

[kingcomrade]

Also remember that to nutcases like KingComrade and Saint, the media not owned by Matt Murdoch is infested by anti-American Commies (an epithet in the states).

Justify this please.

 

[Data4]

Man...if the NY Times is a communist rag, I wonder what Democratic Underground is...

The cesspools of the deepest pits of hell? The puss oozing out of a boil on Satan's ass, perhaps?

-D4

 

[Data4]

Also remember that to nutcases like KingComrade and Saint, the media not owned by Matt Murdoch is infested by anti-American Commies (an epithet in the states).

Justify this please.

Who the fuck is Matt Murdoch? Is that Rupert's middle name, and I'm the dumbass?

-D4

 

[aweigh]

Always remember people, republicans = evil !!!

 

[kingcomrade]

You suck at trolling.

 

[Hamster]

I claim that their games are very similar to single-player MMORPGs - with all the problems associated with that idea.

Can you explain what the hell is "Single Player Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game "? With examples please...

have you ever played morrowind ? its the closest thing to a mmorpg where you are all alone

Well, Azarkon said that Beth games are very similiar to SPMMORPG's, so Morrowind, as one of Beth games doesn't count

 

[Nightjed]

well, just imagine you playing any clasic mmorpg where the server is empty and there are only npcs going arround, thats a spmmorpg, sounds boring ? i havent played oblivion but i didnt find morrowind very fun