Lilura's Blog: An Ongoing Codexian Obsession

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Kiss.

The.

Ring.

 

[The_Mask]

And what kind of gay ass name is "Noah Caldwell-Gervais" anyways?

I actually sweated a bit thinking I'd have to apologize for some French-Canadian, looking at "Gervais", but turns out he's from Seattle. *shrug*

 

[Lilura]

I can listen to my own music.

With a blog or write-up, you can play your own music and read at your own pace

I usually listen to the Anvil of Crom while writing my blog; it gives me the energy to keep going.

 

[DaveO]

Lillura, why did you recommend playing the original campaign for NWN? Any expansion would be a better option.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Where's that sexy slav AI voice when u need it?

 

[Lilura]

Lillura, why did you recommend playing the original campaign for NWN? Any expansion would be a better option.

If you can cite where I recommended the NWN OC for non-newbies, please do so. If you think SoU and HotU are better intros to NWN for newbies, I don't agree: they don't have prologue tutorials.

Note that my blog has degrees of commentary based on different gaming aptitudes. It depends on who the write-up is aimed at.

 

[DaveO]

My apologies about thinking that you recommended the original campaign. Which ones have you enjoyed or recommend? I'm still only a few hours into the Phantasie module, so I'm not sure how it will turn out.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Most of these new YouTuber reviewers are a disaster. They pretty much just review the game's setting and plotline. There is so little attention to gameplay in any way, you'd be excused to mistake it for a comic book review or a TV series review. And what's worse, they are pretentious about it, take 30 minutes of your life with back of the box information recited like it was Shakespeare.

I mean, just listen to this shit



4 hours of "origin of the word Witcher", "what is a witch hunt", "how big is the game", "fetch quests are good because the quest givers feel like they really need the stuff", "story choices", "story choices", "story choices", and on, and on, and on...

Practically no discussion about the stance system, the potions role as game mechanic, the garbage clicky combat... Just story, story, story.

And this is supposed to be one of the good reviewers.

Unfortunately, YouTube is a storyfag-oriented platform. Blogs are where it's at for people who want good videogame related conversations. For each gameplay focused YouTube review by somebody like DFortae there are 100 shitty YouTube reviews of the game's plot and setting with only a passing mention of the fact it's a videogame and has gameplay.

And about Lilura's blog. The only problem I see in it is the lack of a Reader Mode on smartphone browsers. I read it much less then I would otherwise because of this.

 

[Storyfag]

Unfortunately, YouTube is a storyfag-oriented platform.

Fuck off, I happen to like it the way it is.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Unfortunately, YouTube is a storyfag-oriented platform.

Fuck off, I happen to like it the way it is.

Combatfag doesn't realize that these long reviews are meant to be the vidya equivalent of film analyses (which are also popular on YT). Complaining that they don't focus on mechanics in the former is akin to whining that the latter do not focus on the cinematography of the movies in question rather than the themes.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Practically no discussion about the stance system, the potions role as game mechanic, the garbage clicky combat... Just story, story, story.

Twitcher is interactive movie, so it's no surprise that he talks mostly about storyfag shit. His review of Prey is more about gameplay

 

[ScrotumBroth]

Spider and Lilura

Watch and learn kids, this be some ol' school kung fu.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Complaining that they don't focus on mechanics in the former is akin to whining that the latter do not focus on the cinematography of the movies in question rather than the themes.

I like the ones that focus on cinematography more, though

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Complaining that they don't focus on mechanics in the former is akin to whining that the latter do not focus on the cinematography of the movies in question rather than the themes.

I like the ones that focus on cinematography more, though

To each their own, but that's not what these videos are about. Cinematography (and mechanics in the case of games) matter only insofar as they add something to this sort of 'literary critique' as it were.

It's just silly to complain that these vidya analysis guys focus on storyfaggotry when that's the whole point of this content niche.

 

[Ol' Willy]

To each their own, but that's not what these videos are about. Cinematography (and mechanics in the case of games) matter only insofar as they add something to this sort of 'literary critique' as it were.

Videos about Kubrick, one of the best directors of all time, spent at least half of their time talking about cinematography of his movies and his personal style. Because man was very good at that stuff and remembered for it, considering the fact that a majority of his movies are adaptations of someone else stories.

Same true about Leni Riefenstahl: very few people discuss the plot of "Triumph des Willens" or "Olympia", but actually do that about the cinematography.

Thus, these two are ones of the ultimate cinematografag directors ever

 

[Testownia]

Most of these new YouTuber reviewers are a disaster. They pretty much just review the game's setting and plotline. There is so little attention to gameplay in any way, you'd be excused to mistake it for a comic book review or a TV series review. And what's worse, they are pretentious about it, take 30 minutes of your life with back of the box information recited like it was Shakespeare.

I mean, just listen to this shit



4 hours of "origin of the word Witcher", "what is a witch hunt", "how big is the game", "fetch quests are good because the quest givers feel like they really need the stuff", "story choices", "story choices", "story choices", and on, and on, and on...

Practically no discussion about the stance system, the potions role as game mechanic, the garbage clicky combat... Just story, story, story.

And this is supposed to be one of the good reviewers.

Unfortunately, YouTube is a storyfag-oriented platform. Blogs are where it's at for people who want good videogame related conversations. For each gameplay focused YouTube review by somebody like DFortae there are 100 shitty YouTube reviews of the game's plot and setting with only a passing mention of the fact it's a videogame and has gameplay.

And about Lilura's blog. The only problem I see in it is the lack of a Reader Mode on smartphone browsers. I read it much less then I would otherwise because of this.

- "Practically no discussion on the stance system" - he dedicates a good few minutes to the topic, which is more than enough, since that particular mechanic is extremely simplistic.
- "Clicky combat" - also got several minutes. No more is required, unless you're a frothing moron.
- "Role of potions" - also addressed as a critique of all three games, in that the potions are completely optional and unnecessary to master the games, even at the highest difficulty levels.

He spends, in total, around 20 minutes talking about the gameplay mechanics, which is more than enough, since the systems in the first game outside of alchemy are shallow, with the aforementioned being fairly complex, but completely optional.

 

[Ontopoly]

There is so little attention to gameplay in any way,

If I was writing a review for witcher 3 I wouldn't really focus on the gameplay (Or at least the combat and rule system) either since it doesn't have a ton going on there. What's the point?

 

[samuraigaiden]

What's the point?

It's a videogame. It's not a movie. You can't skip combat. You can't skip exploration. The Witcher games can take 30-40 hours or more to complete. During most of that time, you will be engaging with the gameplay, not the story.

Complaining that they don't focus on mechanics in the former is akin to whining that the latter do not focus on the cinematography of the movies in question rather than the themes.

Most movies are 90 minutes long. Longer ones go up to 3 hours, anything above that is extremely uncommon. And they are not interactive. You sit, you watch and you follow a story. What people do when watching a movie is watching a story told through moving pictures and sound.

Equating cinematography to gameplay is some ludicrous bullshit. The technical aspects of film making equate to the technical aspects of game making, which are programming, game design, animation, etc. Gameplay is what the audience of the game does during the majority of the game. Movies, you watch. Games, you play. Gameplay IS the experience.

The first Witcher does one of the craziest, most bizarre gameplay things of any I can remember. The sequence that leads up to the hellhound boss. 2-3 tough and unskippable enemy encounters, then a genuinely tough boss fight if you didn't prep, then if you saved the witch you also get to fight a group of villagers immediately afterwards. The first time I played that I couldn't believe what was happening.

Dude made a 4 hour review of the game that doesn't mention it.

My personal theory of how that happens. Easy mode, playing with a walkthrough open at all times, knowing his audience. He played through this same sequence, but maybe he did not even notice what was happening. The entire thing probably just felt like busy work.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Equating cinematography to gameplay is some ludicrous bullshit. The technical aspects of film making equate to the technical aspects of game making, which are programming, game design, animation, etc. Gameplay is what the audience of the game does during the majority of the game. Movies, you watch. Games, you play. Gameplay IS the experience.

I don't necessarily disagree, but you are mistaking the direction taken by those content creators in their analyses as being a flaw in execution rather than a matter of intent. They are applying to games the same sort of literary criticism that other YTers have applied to movies & TV series, some of these YTers even covering both (whether they branched out while initially covering a single medium or did both from the getgo).

Ultimately, all I'm saying is that you shouldn't mistake this sort of content for conventional video game reviews and thus shouldn't criticize them from the perspective of what makes a good video game review (which doesn't mean that you can't criticize the very idea of this type of content, but you should also understand that - despite some overlap - these analyses have a different intended audience).

 

[Lilura]

Most of these new YouTuber reviewers are a disaster.

Most are pretty bad, yeah. I was thinking of taking some of the charlatans to task on my blog, but it's better to formally ignore their existence since being ignored is much worse than being critiqued.

I also ignore requests from YouTubers who beg to sponge off my commentary. What they see in my commentary is an advanced transcript for their vids; something that is far superior to their incoherent rambling because it's formalized, systematic, and is expressed in decent English.

I'm not against vid-based commentary, though. It's just that, at least as it pertains to RPGs, most blogging / writing is better.

 

[DaveO]

Liliura, could you please reply with which NWN modules you recommend? Thanks!

 

[rogueknight333]

Liliura, could you please reply with which NWN modules you recommend? Thanks!

https://lilura1.blogspot.com/2021/01/NWN-Best-Modules-List.html

The assessment of Swordflight is correct, in my totally objective and unbiased opinion.

 

[DaveO]

Thanks so much for sharing! I downloaded all of the modules. It will give me something to do to not burn out on the multiple games I'm already playing.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Change of avatar when?

Latro will be your Elliot, heh

 

[kuniqs]

Is there a way to read this blog with those stupid graphic/interface special effects disabled?

No offence, just ruins my enjoyment.