well, frankly it doesn't look so bad in motion, or at least you don't notice it
"But. He. Fails. Hard." is a weird way to describe that level of success. We're talking about someone who makes enough to own a house in New York City, jets around the world to deliver speeches to packed convention halls of admirers, releases best-selling and top-reviewed games, gets to work from home and spend all day with his family, and does all this while writing exactly the stories he wants, exactly the way he wants, without ever going through crunch times or satisfying a corporate hierarchy. We should all be so lucky as to fail like that... In many ways, it's what Avellone should have, rather than having to do piecework on other people's projects.
Yeah, I get that, my point isn't that the game is above criticism, only that there's a real disconnect between the criticisms being leveled in this thread and the universal love the game gets on Steam, GOG, etc. Even the rare negative reviews praise the writing as extraordinary. So, really, my reaction is that he's not writing for this audience, he's writing for himself and for his audience.
I might feel differently if I saw even one or two of the game's actual players echoing these complaints, but I just don't.
Yeah, I get that, my point isn't that the game is above criticism, only that there's a real disconnect between the criticisms being leveled in this thread and the universal love the game gets on Steam, GOG, etc. Even the rare negative reviews praise the writing as extraordinary. So, really, my reaction is that he's not writing for this audience, he's writing for himself and for his audience. I might feel differently if I saw even one or two of the game's actual players echoing these complaints, but I just don't.
Sometimes, when an author at last has creative freedom, the result is that fans of earlier work are disappointed -- like, I really enjoyed The Matrix but didn't particularly enjoy any of the Wachowskis' later work; I really enjoyed QFG but Hero-U doesn't appeal to me much; pretty much every fantasy novelist worsens over time in my opinion. So it may be that you guys enjoyed Dave's earlier games more than his current project. My point is that you can't really call it a "failure," though, if he is telling the story he wants to, the way he wants to, and is winning money, fame, and friends in the process. So I think the lines of criticism here are just off. It's one thing to say that Unavowed lacks psychological plausibility, moral nuance, meaningful narrative twists, clever turns of phrase, whatever -- I'm not sure those criticisms would be correct, but they would not be subject to the response, "But his game is a gigantic success and he's having fun." By contrast, criticisms like, "He's dumbing his game down, he's failing, he's a bad writer," etc. -- those seem necessarily inapt to me because they relate either to his subjective state of mind (which seems to me to be free and happy) or to his ability to reach an audience (which seems to me very effective).
Of course not. He's a performance artist who is also playing for an audience. That I consider him among the finest game analysts "working in the field right now" doesn't change that fact.So Darth Roxor is not an actual player of this game?
Now that we've sent Amos into the wild blue yonder...
Thank GOD!
Hadouken!
You know, I get that the party members are supposed not to have any agency with regard to these ~moral dilemmas~ but this kind of total cuckery on their part is just stretching it way too far.
But was he even human anymore? I dunno. A debate for another time.
Hello. I am Logan. I am defined by nothing more than two stupid shticks.
Yeah, I get that, my point isn't that the game is above criticism, only that there's a real disconnect between the criticisms being leveled in this thread and the universal love the game gets on Steam, GOG, etc. Even the rare negative reviews praise the writing as extraordinary. So, really, my reaction is that he's not writing for this audience, he's writing for himself and for his audience.
Successful' doesn't mean good, and if someone wants to get into establishing objective qualities of adventure game writing and why this fails along those lines, no doubt they can.
I guess I'll stop derailing the thread by white knight for Dave. He reads the Codexs and posts when he feels necessary, so he can chime in if need arises.
Did that change anything? An achievement unlocked at least, or not even that?
Soo, is there a scream of pain or something like that
Now that we've sent Amos into the wild blue yonder...
Did that change anything? An achievement unlocked at least, or not even that?
Now that we've sent Amos into the wild blue yonder...
Did that change anything? An achievement unlocked at least, or not even that?
There's Steam achievements for all decisions. So we can see that there's twice more people who chosed to keep Amos as a muse rather than killing him or giving back the power to Calli.
Guess are aren't in this plane any more.but I thought he could no longer be summoned to this plane without Harrison alive