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Geneforge != Diablo 3 at all

I thought about SMT, but ultimately I feel like this has to be a question of mechanics as much as theme -- just as style and form are also relevant parts of an aesthetic movement. And the virtue mechanics fit Romanticism a lot better IMO than either the traditional or unique components of SMT mechanics. This is also why I thought a roguelike was a good fit for modernism, a game with shifting mechanics for postmodernism, etc.

Whether the right phrasing is "attempts to" or "does," I think it's a closer fit than most RPGs, at the least. Is there an RPG would you want to put there instead?

Maybe. My thinking there was that it emphasizes the intuitive, subjective, emotional side of things (the virtues, sure, but also the fortune-teller sequence, the codex sequence, etc.) over objective mechanics (in which it's on the lighter side). The mathematical layout of the virtues is so Schiller, and it does have the pastoral idealization of forests and tiny villages -- and even shepherds! If you compare it to other games of the time, it's hard to find another with more shades of gray; I think Blake would have approved, in context. And like Romanticism it was a deliberate revolt against, well, playing by the rolls. And actually, now that I think about it, the choices of the virtues fit the movement pretty well, too. You have Spirituality, but it's grounded in wilderness (the rangers) and represented by ankhs, rather than churches, which do not seem to be formally present (despite the previous games having clerics and churches playing a rather significant role in later games of the series). Valor, not a classical virtue, but strong here (see Byron); Humility, whose lack was a recurring theme (see Shelley); and the principle of Truth (see Keats). All of that said: pretty much none of these are perfect fits, and this list is a ridiculous enterprise to begin with, so shrug

Well, I mean, modernism and postmodernism are ambiguous enough terms to begin with. But I think there are some games that can squarely fit into one of those boxes. Games that visibly deconstruct what it means to be a game, that's as postmodern as it gets: Fluxx goes in this category, and while it's a card game, there is a computer version -- implemented by Andrew Plotkin (!). (See, this all comes full circle.) A lot of briefly viral "clever" games go here: Braid, Pony Island, that sort of thing. One common thread that, for me, links together a lot of modernist art is an emphasis on being evocative. New forms in modernism are typically used in at least partial service of this goal. The forms are unusual, atonal, misshapen, abstract, so there's necessarily a lot of implication involved. Video games in general moved away from this the better the 3D, hi-res graphics got, though there are exceptions. Just for giggles, let's throw together a haphazard (and maybe inaccurate in a few places) correspondence of some broad aesthetic movements and RPGs, because this is what we do at Spiderweb, ain't it? Postmodernist: Evoland Modernist: Angband Expressionist: Planescape: Torment Impressionist: Quest for Glory Realist: Skyrim Victorian: Avadon Romantic: Ultima IV Neoclassical: Dragon Quest Baroque: Final Fantasy

What Ess-Eschas said about the ending, 100%. You don't fail -- that's the whole point! You succeed in your quest to find the map, literally by definition, because the curse breaking depends on that definition being fulfilled. I will just add that given how much the game allows distant times and places to flow into each other (thanks, essentially, also to the curse that transcends time and place) there is no reasonable way you can conclude that a map found outside the attic is not the map from the attic. Those Tarot cards are all pretty clearly from the same deck, and they are found across every boundary the game has; that goes for all the rods, too. The game is essentially the modernist moment of IF, as fits its literary ties; puzzle boxes are a postmodern thing, and can we talk about an artistic era that was once vigorous and fascinating and has now lived too long, become a grotesque imitation of itself, and needs to die, yes, please. (And IIRC, it's more like PUT STAFF IN BOX. CLOSE IT. OPEN IT. TAKE STAFF Typing that 9 times or whatever is really not much text when you think about everything you have to type when playing any IF game. There are some annoyances (like figuring out the right command to give directions to the mouse; oy) and not as many efficiencies as later games, obv, but this is such a small thing.) Also, it's definitely not the no-saves thing and I'm also pretty sure there is no way to get the last point.

At the extreme, there's also the (not so popular) "Sylak's Puzzle Box" mode of storytelling, where the author drops in massive numbers of clues but deliberately avoids having a single narrative to find in the first place. See: the 2017 season of Twin Peaks. (In that case, it pretty clearly wasn't an exposure or marketing gimmick as you suggest, but rather an authorial statement about mystery. As one of the Log Lady intros to the first series put it: "So now the sadness comes - the revelation. There is a depression after an answer is given. It was almost fun not knowing. Yes, now we know. At least we know what we sought in the beginning. But there is still the question: why? And this question will go on and on until the final answer comes. Then the knowing is so full, there is no room for questions."

What do you mean the joke ending? The ending isn't a joke; there's bits of humor, maybe, but it's quite serious, IMO, a real capstone for the themes brought out in the course of the game. Which speak to the human condition, particularly in the modern era, as much as anything. I know you said "to me" at the beginning; I still think your assessment is unfair. Yes, maybe this is the big difference between us. Vice versa on those, though Medusa's a lot more interesting.

I think you hit on a good distinction: I may be happier with implication than you are. If anything, I think I prefer things not going too far in the direction of being completely spelled out. Piecing together the running threads in the history of the Meldrews through deduction and inference and incomplete entries in the reference book, which mostly wasn't mechanically necessary and never provided a complete picture, was maybe my favourite part of Curses. I certainly don't claim it has better elements than the rest of that list (much of which I've played and loved), but I give it credit for a certain freshness, a lack of technical artifice -- "mechanical" actually would be the last word I'd use to describe its beauty. Sometimes that's more important to me, and that's really why I still play so many old, old games.

This is a mistake, but do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. Also, CURSES. And a whole of bunch of other IF, that's just the lynchpin for me. But I suppose then we're treading the line between video games and writing, anyway...

Oh. 3 in Three. 3 in Three is totally, completely, sublime art.

The "just walk away from the valley" ending is not the non-aligned ending, just to be clear. That's the "I give up" ending. 😛 The non-aligned ending is what you get when you destroy the Takers and Barzites (and optionally the Awakened and Loyalists, that's up to you, IIRC) without allying with any sect. (Well, without remaining allied with any sect, if we're being specific.) And it's great. Not depressing at all, one of the most triumphant and positive endings in the series.

Um, alhoon, as you can see, that entire post was only about G2. Again, I don't know what you are talking about.

The non-aligned ending in G2 is by far the most satisfying ending in any Geneforge game. IMO.

I have no idea what you are trying to say here, since you quoted a comment about G2.

Ice is a really favorable attack type in G2 due to inherent accuracy and stunning bonuses, while fire attacks just have bad stats period. Magic Shaping's still better in G2, but Fire's functional.

I know you acknowledged art in general above, but I do think the difference is not that great. There's a lot of really bad writing out there. Obviously, video games as a medium aren't well suited to do some things that novels, for example, can do. But they can absolutely speak to the human conditions the same way fairy tales and folktales can, and that's sort of the same category as some of the better fantasy & SF lit. To take one example, if you break down and analyze the story in Final Fantasy IV, it's remarkable how closely it tracks with both Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. There's just enough subtlety that no one really notices it, but once you look, the parallels are remarkable. Are most CRPGs closer to Eragon than Lord of the Rings? Absolutely! But so are most fantasy novels.

G1 is the only game in which it's favorable to make new creations throughout the game, and even then, it's not always the best option. In all other games, you want to make good creations as early as possible and keep them alive forever. The definition of "good creations" differs from game to game. Fire is doable in G2, thanks mainly to Cryoas and Cryodrayks. When you do G3, if you play a Shaper, you'll want to go Magic for sure.

In fairness, most romances in novels are also pretty bad. This is especially true in the fantasy and speculative genres that most frequently find their way to RPGs.

Leadership? Geneforge did this. Meh

Comeliness? ...

Just to piggyback, re difficulty settings, they have a greater impact as enemies rise in level. The goblins at the start of A4 are extremely low level, and Icy Rain is indeed super strong at the beginning of A4. Things won't stay that easy. By the Eastern Gallery you'll be unhappy, trust me.

Based on some rudimentary internet sleuthing, I'm not sure I think that siennilox is actually related to the author of Homeland.

And frequently the flaking is caused by their realizing there are more lucrative opportunities for them! Especially if they are being paid that little. 50-100 hours a month for $300 will never attract even remotely good talent. It's not that $300 isn't a lot for some people, it's that there are much better opportunities even remotely over the internet. Feel free to link to that example and prove me wrong...

Exile and Nethergate don't have resistance stats in the first place.