Dintiradan

Just clean installed Tridash's version (link in the forum header) and it works for me. I'm on Windows 8.1 and it complained once about running an unknown app, but that's it.

Not that I know of. Freecell is the usual recommendation if you want a full information game. My personal favourite is Yukon: all cards start on the table, and most (but not all) start face-up.

For what it's worth, I was using 'fiction' in the way Alorael describes. I wouldn't use fiction to describe a sourcebook, though I admit that's what the definition includes. I apologize for all the digital ink that has been spilled because of my post. One Hundred Years of Solitude is interesting because every online acquaintance who read it has praised it, and every meatspace acquaintance who read it has disliked it. Clearly, I need to read it for myself so I can decide which group to cut off from my life forever.

Well, poop. Kel replied just as I was typing up my post. And his post's a lot more comprehensive than mine would have been, so I guess I'll replace it with an embarrassing confession: Jeremy Iron's performance in the Dungeons and Dragons movie is a guilty pleasure of mine.

To put it another way, D&D (along with other tabletop roleplaying games) is make believe with rules. Stuff like Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms is fiction inspired by those rules (which were in turn inspired by other fiction). On the topic of both roleplaying games and what I've been reading lately: Stars Without Number. Because reading new systems when I haven't actually gamed in years is a hobby in and of itself, I guess? Anyway, it's the first time I've read anything that's a part of the OSR. Liking it so far, and I haven't even gotten to the faction system (which by reputation is something I'll probably steal and modify at some point even if I never play SWN itself). I think Past Dintiradan would be horrified that I like something with this many random tables.

What would you all think about a game that decoupled a quest hub from its physical location? Say a modern setting game that still locked locations/content based on quest progression, but all you had to do was check in via texting with NPCs? @Goo: I see stuff like that as an inevitable concession to the medium. That example could be done more organically; for example, dialogue would be as above if the player missed only one or two updates, but after missing n updates, you get an abbreviated synopsis. But that's a lot of extra writing overhead, when writing is already one of the more time-consuming parts of creating a game. (The other option is to simply allow the player to miss content if they don't talk to the right person at the right time. Some players like that, most don't.) Every once in a while you see someone complaining about the standard dialogue tree model. How silly, how inorganic, how immersion-breaking it is that you can ask the same question to an NPC one hundred times and it will give the same response a hundred times. And yeah, that would never happen with a tabletop game, or in reality for that matter. But with CRPGs there are time constraints. And sometimes you as the player miss something and need to reread it, or you return to an old save after a months-long hiatus and need to reacquaint yourself. (It would be neat to have a bespoke game master chained to my screen, but so far no one is offering.)

The map was probably made with the iPad/iPhone port in mind. It's clean and easy to read (good for smaller screens) and locations are relatively equidistant (good for touchscreens).

Pretty sure everyone who dismisses walking simulators would also dismiss most if not all interactive fiction.

Oh, hey, "are video games art". Haven't done one of these in a while. Are they art? Depends on how you define art -- I have nothing invested in my definition of the term, and most everyone else is unwilling to change theirs. If you think "experiences" count as art, then certainly video games qualify. On the other hand, once you start using terms like "sublime", then you've probably already decided for yourself. Then there's everyone who would say Rembrandt created art and Pollock did not, at which point you don't even bother bringing another medium into the discussion. One pitfall I see both sides of the debate fall into is comparing video games to film/television or novels. The usual examples cited as "artistic video games" tend to be highly cinematic or highly narrative or both, and the usual rebuttal is reductionist. Oh, the music might be artistic, the writing literary, the cutscenes as good as any film, but the game as a whole? Personally, I find the games that ape what makes film or novels successful to be the least indicative of what makes video games "artistic". The medium has a lot more in common with immersive theatre, or installation art. Or cuisine! And just as you can't judge a meal by looking at a picture without tasting it, you can't judge a video game without playing it (though many, most infamously Roger Ebert, have tried). Speaking of Ebert, one of his key criticisms of the medium, one that's overlooked by most rebuttals, is that art by definition requires authorial and directorial control: "... I did indeed consider video games inherently inferior to film and literature. There is a structural reason for that: Video games by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control." "I believe art is created by an artist. If you change it, you become the artist." "Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices." It's an odd place to draw the line, but there you go. In my mind, surrendering directorial control and even authorial control is what makes video games so powerful. With even the simplest "walking simulators", the player can pan the camera (and thus control the framing of a scene) and walk at their own speed (and thus control the pacing of a scene). The result is something far more immersive than most other mediums can aspire to. It's harder to truly surrender authorial control -- an RTS or FPS might have differing results based on mission performance, or a CRPG or visual novel might present the player with multiple choice questions periodically. But until we figure a way to put a miniature Game Master in every computer, it will have to do. Aaaand new post just as I'm about to submit this: As you might guess, I agree with the "movies shackled to crosswords" assessment. Papers, Please is a great example of video games doing something other mediums cannot. Other mediums might describe harsh circumstances forcing someone to be part of a totalitarian apparatus, but video games let you be that someone. And as for the rest: Sturgeon's Law. No lack of films being nothing more than crude melodramas with middling cinematography, and no lack of low effort, undiscerning reviewers.

hey thanks for all that smoke btw

There's no other explanation: you must be lacking in persistence. After all, I've certainly finished everything I've started.

It's been over two weeks, Slarty. As punishment, you must also rank Wuberg, the MtG puppet.

I've been playing the beta for Arena (the new free to play implementation of Magic the Gathering) for over half a year now. While it's still very much a beta, it's improved a lot over the past few months, and they've been expanding the player base. I got a bunch of invite codes last weekend, and I still have three left, so if anyone's interested in the game, send me a PM. Window-only at the moment, unfortunately. EDIT: All keys have been claimed. If you're still looking for keys, https://www.reddit.com/r/MagicArena/comments/8zzqpl/beta_codes/ is a good start.

All that scenario contains are troubled words from a troubled mind.

I've received complaints about unruliness and anti-muffin activities. This brunch is over!

While I am loathe to bump this topic, I find myself in the midst of a schism; only Slarty, the ultimate authority on all things everything, can mend it. Muffins with bits of fruit in them. Muffins with bits of nuts in them.

For the optimal experience, you need to play Waterweb while on shrooms yourself.

Ooh! Instead of wasting money on the ceremony and reception, we can pay Jeff to write our marriage in-game!

Now I'm curious how many piano tuners play SW games.

Sadly, no word on why Queen's Wish will be a trilogy while the previous series, King's Quest, was much longer. I can only extrapolate that Jack's Desire will be a standalone game.

I've never gotten the appeal of avocados. It's just tasteless filler to me, certainly not bad, but nothing good about it either. Maybe it's a cilantro-esque thing where people get different flavours out of it? Today was "guess I have to do something about this half-finished can of diced tomatoes". Thaw a chicken breast, pat dry, rub with Italian seasoning, sear four minutes a side. Add chopped onion and crushed garlic, saute for a couple minutes. Then add the diced tomatoes plus some basil (fresh if at all possible, because fresh basil is Best Herb) and simmer for ten minutes. All told, takes twenty minutes, which means rice is a great side. Butterfly the chicken if you're in a hurry, I guess? It's a good base recipe that can be modified easily. Alas, family does not like the spicy variants.

slarty it is really important that you rank this mashup.

Point. Though the whole setting approach is very much a matter of taste. I've got zero attachment to New York -- in fact it's usually a point against Yet Another New York Cape in my books. Whereas Metropolis, Gotham, Opal, whatever can be anywhere. (On a side note, could we put "relevance of urban superheroes when violent crimes in urban areas have been dropping for several decades" on The List?)

I'm trying (and failing) to find the Bendis(?) quote where he says that a crossover with 616 would be the surest sign that the Ultimate universe writers had run out of ideas. Marvel's relative cohesiveness has always been its biggest strength, and it has its history to thank for that. I think that other than Namor and Cap (I dunno if the first Human Torch is still a thing) it was designed from the ground up to be a shared universe. Whereas DC's a bunch of different properties that merged together. I suppose DC started the shared universe thing with World's Finest and the JSA, but not to the same extent that Marvel did.