#and people in the reviews are like ''bro don't play with our feelings </3 thought we were getting fotolog back but it's a news app </3''

[welldonekhushi]

Okay guys, I'm back and.. I needed a short break after what happened in the MWIII campaign. Words can't express how shocked I was when I reached the end of the campaign and.. it left me in confusion, denial, depression and anger.

I'm putting a "read more" below because, if there are people who still haven't played MWIII, I'll keep ya guys safe.

Our theories before were constantly revolving that who's gonna die and what worse is going to happen.. it first pointed towards the fate of Price or Gaz. But, turns out we were jinxed. JINXED.

The campaign was.. okay but at the same time I felt it was small. Quite rushed. I did have a light of concern over their release date when MWII was currently trending. I was reading others reviews of how they felt about the game and yes, I agree with the same. But I wanna talk about Soap's fate this time..

Soap, who JUST started his journey, like, the one who only appeared in MWII and hoped we would see him more develop in the further games to be just.. killed off? When were they moments away from achieving victory?

So only because it's called MW3 ✌🏻 and you wanted to give us all a nostalgic experience you'll.. give them the original plot treatment? Both Soaps in the Modern Warfare universes.. died under the hands of Vladimir Makarov but in different circumstances.

This is where I got a bit angry at Price because, why didn't you kill Makarov instead of taking him in custody in Verdansk?! That guy is a walking grim reaper, and if Price took that action before, not just Soap but MANY more lives would have been saved. Soap was a man who was ready to take immediate action but always got backed off because of being bound to orders.

The end scene when they took out his ashes.. it broke me. Like, how unexpected this can be? Well, though I know Makarov already gave a warning that he was going to kill him off in the heli scene, but.. it's just not it? Like, honestly, I was hopeful Soap would survive.. it's disappointing for me, as someone who loves him so much, like anything.

So ScarSoap's now an angsty ship? Because let it be for both universes — OG and Reboot, Scarlet's going to be left behind? Welp, I'm more sad now, lol.

Otherwise, the expectations I had for the campaign were somehow, not met to the fullest but let's talk about the good things.

Price killing off Shepherd. YES, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. I freaking knew that he was going to die and my prediction called itself right. But, now that Price killed a 4-star General, he's gonna go rogue. You mean, batshit, crazy and unhinged Price on the move?!

Julian Kostov. The man. Bro, like, when he was featured in the reveal trailer, I was just hoping that he'd play the role of Makarov well and guess what? He did! I absolutely loved how he portrayed the man and he looked intimidating and twisted like a true psychopath. Truly, he could compete with the OG!Makarov and it's proven! Hats off to the actor, really <3

Price DOESN'T die. Neither in my beliefs, Farah and Alex. A relief. A pure relief, for real. The trailers showed him passing out but glad he's good in one piece. But, did that happen for the cost of killing Soap? :')

Graves and Shepherd betray each other in the conference, LMFAO! Who knew they were going to turn their backs on each other. Graves really had nothing to do with this, he was just a man following orders.. the problem lies with Shepherd, and always has.

Now, these guys said we're gonna release the "full campaign" on November 10. You mean.. the early access didn't show much of the story? So there's hope? OR NOT? Sigh, I don't want to think about it.. I just don't. I've been delulu, haha

Anyways, these are my thoughts for Modern Warfare III! What do you feel about it, let me know in the comments!

#mw3 spoilers #cod #call of duty #cod mw #call of duty modern warfare #cod mw23 #call of duty modern warfare 2023 #call of duty modern warfare iii #call of duty modern warfare 3

[stolemythesis]

On the Suicide of a Friend

TW: Suicide I think we're trained as, I don't know, Americans(?) to constantly imagine that we could be the hero in any given story. What if I had said two more things to him Monday night when I saw him at choir? Or, what if I had just sent him the right text at the exact moment he did whatever it is he did (and I do not know what he did and I suppose it is none of my business). And, I suppose this is classic bargaining, there's the part of me that wants to sit him down (something I cannot do because he is dead) and be like "Bro, literally on Monday half the choir was wearing shirts that said 'Gary for President' clearly you are well loved." But then, suicide never exists as a logical thought. No one sits down with a life coach and makes a T-chart and is like "upon objectively reviewing all the evidence, me and my closest advisors have chosen suicide" (Or, well they do, but only in countries with assisted suicide options and only in the face of terminal disease) And I can make some educated guesses on "why" he did, he was a 50 year old single gay man who lived alone and doesn't that sound lonely? But, that's not *really* the reason he did it right? He did it because something went wrong with his brain and by extension his mind. So as a good Christian leftist (even when I'm mourning) absolutely, let me remind us, the living, and the well, to reach out to your friends, especially the ones who might be lonely (even if they've never say it) and remind them that they are not alone. This as an important ministry. I'm reminded of the first verse of "My song is Love Unknown" My song is love unknown– my Savior’s love to me; love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be. Gary was lovely, and it's horrendous that his brain told him anything else. But, there's a bigger picture. There are cultural and systemic things we need to talk about: 1. Phoenix has been over 100 degrees almost every day of October. I know that seems tangential, but it fucks with our brains and so I want to start there. Climate change is deadly on so many fronts 2. We've built this disgustingly atomized society built primarily on individual's living in a house, and the only proper and adult way to occupy that house is through monogamous pairing, and with the children resulting from that monogamous pairing. That is actually not natural or historically normal. It's deeply isolating to go from empty house into empty car to work where maybe you like those people but it's easy to write off those relationships merely as professional. Gary, you weren't alone, but I understand why you thought you were. 3. Healthcare in America is impossible. It's opposed to the gospel of Christ at every turn, and that's most true towards mental health where it's generally not covered. Very few plans cover it. Even my Psychiatrist appointments (and that's a "real" doctor) come with a heavy co-pay. Gary was clearly sick, but his friends didn't know. Not really. We had inklings, but not this. Healthcare could've seen he was sick, but the insurance industry blocked that from view. So anyways, we live in a deeply fallen world. I'm doing OK. It's a shock, it'll feel more real on Monday when I go to choir practice and he isn't there, and will never be there again. It'll be a shock when I look towards the back of my humble church on my wedding day expecting him to be my friend and guest organist/ianist and he's not there, but we muddle through, don't we? He was going to play hymns, and the Rose Garden Theme from Utena, and Liebestraum no. 3 in A, and the star trek theme. We were going to do a clarinet and organ recital. That's all gone now.

#TW: Suicide

[bitchsexuality]

do any of y’all remember fotolog. or more accurately Latine Fotolog and the entire culture surrounding it

like having at least 20 repeated vowels in your username because if you didn’t you were Nothing. making stupid puns using your location. the fact that you needed a premium account to comment on posts with more than... 100 comments i think? or 50? so there were people who constantly refreshed the pages of their favorite Fotolog Celebrities so they could comment without a premium account, because comments sections could get full in like... a couple minutes if you were popular enough. and there was SO much hostility about that ghdghkgsd

and yes. fotolog celebrities were a thing. which is really funny in retrospect because in spite of literally EVERYTHING, being popular on fucking FOTOLOG was still more profitable/meaningful that being popular on tumblr, which has a lot more users than fotolog did

this is a super specific niche bullshit post but let me live i’m having a moment. ?) ahre

#otherworldly whispers #like i'm pretty sure fotolog wasn't really a thing in the US or whatever because people mostly talk about myspace? #which could be because of demographic stuff ig but i don't think i've ever met someone irl who'd had myspace but not fotolog #huh i don't think i've ever heard anyone irl say they'd had myspace actually :/c #HOLY SHIT i just googled it and there's a fotolog app on the google play store #but it has a 1 star rating because it's a news app KJHSDFGKJSBDGKJGF #and people in the reviews are like ''bro don't play with our feelings </3 thought we were getting fotolog back but it's a news app </3'' #like i can't explain how funny that is because you need the Cultural Background but trust me it's SO FUCKING FUNNY #somebody is saying ''come on it's 2020 who wants fotolog back'' which on one hand yeah true. valid #but also it's 2020 this is the right time for fucking fotolog of all things to come back dude #god i'm going back in time. somebody help me i'm gonna start rambling about late 2000s argie culture #(i think it was early 2000s anyway but don't quote me on that i don't understand numbers maths or time) #no i will never tell you if that ''?) ahre'' is genuine or a joke. u will have to figure that out.

[blogenana]

Doctor Who - Earthshock Live Review

So I have my crisps and lemonade and im ready to continue my journey through classic who - idk why I just started live blogging it...

• People are climbing

• So they've found something- an alien I'm assuming- why do humans always tamper with things we shouldn't

• Oh they haven't found something theyre looking for people

• I hate how classic who drags on so slowly

• Sinister music

• 'probably nothing" foreshadowing...

• Okay get to the killing already

• YES FINALLY HELLO DOCTOR

• Wow I forget they must have their own rooms in the Tardis

• Lots of books in Adrics room

• "why should that interest me" ooh okay Adric getting a bit sassy

• Why's he fed up

• looool "I'm tired of being considered a joke" "why am I being constantly teased" maybe because you're annoying and you make sexist remarks?

• oh chill

• The doctor don't have time to deal with this

• aww okay Adric being jealous that Nyssa and Tegan get more attention from the doctor than him is kinda cute

• 'I give you my word' 'just as you gave your word to Tegan" okaaaaay go off (spoiler alert) ik Adric dies in this because I saw a spoiler so this is very sad foreshadowing that the doctor will break his word to Adric about making time for him- kinda sad

• I hate the celery stick

• okay Adric kick off

• Doctor can't take criticism which is interesting because the last time he was probably ever blamed for something was One with Barbara and Ian. I don't remember any companion ever criticizing him like this before

• 'Well it can wait' you'll regret that

• "I'm tired of being an outsider" this would make sense if we had seen him being an outsider before - in my opinion Tegan is the outsider as she's new and not as mathematically advanced as the others. also I would say that Adric is the closest to the doctor out of all 3 so his point isn't really valid

• I guess this is the writers way of making adrics death more tragic

• ooh Adrics theme

• I swear he was an outsider amongst his own people too

• 'the tools would go missing" why do these people never take the hint

• forgot Adric was from e space- tbh what was the doctors plan when he did demand to go home eventually- did he wanna travel with him till he died?

• "e space is another universe, there isn't a taxi service that goes back and forth"

• Romana mention!

• "im not waiting around while you plot the course to your own destruction" the doctor has never experienced a companion death before - also foreshadowing

• "you know I think since his regeneration he's become decidedly immature" this is funny also like 4 was soooo mature

• I like Adric and Five's relationship

• the actor who plays Adric has gone better

• Nyssa is the most mature out of this entire group

• "breathe deeply and relax" why is Tegan a meditation instructer out of nowhere

• the doctor didn't take much convincing

• lol the doctor bopping Tegans nose was cute

• Ooh Dinosaur bones

• let me guess - the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was an alien spaceship or aliens killed them

• Someone screamed

• Ooh yeah she be dead

• Okay the villains look like they're wearing gimp costumes

• Reminds me of American Horror Story Murder House & the leather monster

• Aah doctor who giving a lesson on how the dinosaurs were killed. We love a show that educates

• Did I mention how much I hate the celery stick because I hate it honestly whose idea was it

• Bro chill why is this man grabbing the doctor like that what he do

• Calm the fuck down mate

• Gimp people be shooting

• Okay they may be androids but they'll always be gimp people to me

• Android vision

• CYBERMEN!!!! DAMN

• Why they gotta hit us with the plot twist like that i wasn't ready

• The Cybermen looks sad

• Hehehe the face is funny

• Gimps be strong

• Why do the Cybermen sound muffled

• I find it more creepy when they have human voices than Robots because it makes It more real that these machines have humans in them

• hHaven't seen them in some time

• I love Tegans sarcasm

• I'm cracking up at the Cybermen voice

• 1 gimp down 1 to go

• tThe gimps be dead

• 'prepare to activate the devise" dun dun DUN

• Damn the Cybermen be skinny

• I'm bored i want doctor/cybeman action

• Okay it's getting intense

• Cybermen be SHOOK

• "cyber technology is too advanced for earthlings" figure it out then mate

• He's recognised the Tardis

• THE BEST DIALOGUE "TIME LORDS, BUT THEYRE FORBIDDEN TO INTERFERE"

• THIS ONE CALLS HIMSELF THE DOCTOR, AND DOES NOTHING BUT INTERFERE

• YESS PREVIOUS DOCTORS VS CYBERMEN

• I'm geeking out

• Imma watch this bit a few times hang on

• Aah I loved that it was so cool bloody hell I'm a nerd

• The 2nd Cybermen looked shocked while he was watching

• "have you no emotions sir" classic

• "Adric do you have a moment" "I'm hungry" Okay I like him in this one he's a mood. Why is he suddenly likeable the ep he dies

• "all part of the daily routine" see what I mean

• Well your daily routine Is gonna end soon

• He doesn't wanna go home!!

• Doctor is relieved it's cute

• Ah this is sad

• It would be easier if i didn't know he was gonna die

• Cos I do like their relationship

• Okay we're being introduced to new people

• "you're beginning to bore me" the writers knew

• I'm trying really hard to concentrate I've zoned out

• Ah the doctor has got my attention "I want to announce my presence, see what the reaction is" course

• aaaand the doctor is caught and he's being accused for murder again

• Don't they have cctv just check it

• "apprehended why can't he just say caught" me in English classes

• 'even under the threat of death he has the arrogance of a time lord"

• I thought Cybermen had no emotions but this Cybermen just said he wants the doctor to suffer for their past defeats - revenge is an emotion which is v ironic

• Hh SHIT the Cybermen are walking

• lol tegan " im just a mouth and legs" she's such a mood

• The Cybermen music is cool

• The doctors face when he sees them

• Aah the soldier has betrayed them

• Why is it that whenever there's a women in charge the men who is second can't handle it and goes rogue

• iIt's such a typical trope

• The dialogue for the doctor is great

• "you know them"

• "oh yes, we go back a long way"

• Haha "I'm surprised they didn't mention me" 'well perhaps you overestimate your importance" "oh I doubt it" doctor is and will always be that bitch

• The doctor is doing doctory things

• "that's very clever" "oh it is" the doctor bragging about how clever he is starts here

• Damn tegan she just shot a Cyberman

• Flashback to "the doctor makes people into weapons"

• Finally the doctor vs Cybermen showdown

• Lol I knew they would kill the betrayer

• "our records indicate that you have a fondness for earth" (especially earth girls)

• "this time we shall succeed in destroying the earth" no you won't mate

• Ah the Cybermen coming out of plastic Wrap is a throwback to the 2nd Doctor Cybermen story

• Tegan looks like a badass with the gun

• So they're destroying the leaders of various planets before they destroy the Cybermen

• Tegan has no idea what she's doing

• I love how Five says the most savage lines with the most polite tone

• He could tear you down and look like he's complimenting you

• Tegan has been caught

• Cyberman in the Tardis is weird

• 'who is this woman' - 'no-one of consequence' - 'thanks a lot - gotta love Tegan

• Okay wow that scene between the doctor and the Cyberman about emotions gave me goose bumps what a thrilling scene

• The Cybermen has a point- he can control the doctor because he has emotions

• I'll never get tired of the debate about emotions between them because it genuinely feels like the Cyberman defend the concept of having no emotions to defend their existence

• Five looks hot when he's defending emotions

• Fuck they need to leave Adric behind

• Shit I'm getting nervous

• His theme is playing!

• The Doctor looks conflicted

• Adric leaving his hand out after the doctor let go...

• "I'll see you soon" this is the actors best performance because you can see in his eyes he knows he won't

• The Doctor has never had a companion die before so he walks away without looking back

• "it will once you start getting rusty" Tegan is funny

• Adric is plotting

• The Cybermen say they have no emotions but forcing Tegan watch her own planet getting destroyed is extremely sadistic

• Clever Adric

• The Earth looks different

• Okay so Adric's cleverness is what gets him killed because he knows he can crack the code

• The Dinosaurs! I knew it!

• Oh crap Earth is safe but Adric doesn't know that

• I think this comes down to Adric wanting the doctors attention and wanting to be the best to have his attention

• The Doctor has his pin!

• Five suffocating and shooting a Cyberman is shocking to see

• Adric whyyyyyy

• This Cyberman walking towards him is bloody persistent

• "Now I'll never know if i was right" such Adric last words

• Id like to believe he was

• Damn.

• The Doctors face. The fact that it could have been avoided if he just left the ship

• Adric is the first companion that died on the Doctor's watch

• Adric died thinking the Earth was going to be destroyed and he could have stopped it

• The credits!! his gold star! the silence! this must have been a shock to the viewers. If i didn't know beforehand through spoilers I would be going crazy

• Earthshock had it's ups and downs, the downs in regards to the pace of the plot however the story was good and the Cybermen were fantastic especially their interactions against the doctor. Tegan and Adric were great. Nyssa didn't really have much to do. Davison was amazing. I liked the writing.

• Also I liked the structural shift of the story to the cave androids to the bomb to the spaceship to dealing with The Cybermen to saving Earth and then to Adrics death

#Doctor Who #Earthshock #Fifth Doctor #5th Doctor #Adric

[supermariorpgrom-blog]

10 Things Most People Don't Know About mario rpg rom

Which games are good for children to Enjoy on Nintendo 3ds consoles? That's an inexpensive web page or place to get Those people game titles? If possible, can our youngsters Participate in absolutely free 3ds or ds online games on The hand-held? In this particular put up, allow me to response you these thoughts.

™

Those people Nintendo 3ds and ds games encouraged for children

3DS Online games

DS Video games

The place to purchase these 3ds or ds online games with low-cost selling price?

You've these choices to decide on for getting the ds or 3ds online games for your Young children' 3ds consoles.

The way to Enable your kids play absolutely free 3DS or DS online games over the console?

Simply just, You merely have to have 2 flash playing cards. A single is sky3ds+ for enjoying totally free 3ds video games, the other is R4 3DS for supporting absolutely free ds games. The two cartridges are allowing every one of the 3ds/3ds x;/2ds/new 3ds console end users to Perform free of charge 3ds and ds roms without having obtaining even a single Formal recreation card.

Wii is usually a gaming console that was introduced by Nintendo in calendar year 2006. Wii console is usually a seventh technology gaming console and a less expensive substitute to its rival consoles like PS3 and Xbox. Wii console generally will come filled with two Wii video games: Wii Vacation resort and Wii Sports and various extras like distant and nunchuk. This a person deal allows you to begin fidgeting with your completely new Wii console within just few minutes. It's every one of the things which are necessary so there's no need to acquire anything else not even online games. You can find this whole Wii package for just $a hundred thirty Whilst if you need to acquire some other gaming console then You need to pay back a great deal more i.e. close to $300 for your Xbox 360 and $250 for PS3. This helps make Wii an extremely wise alternate.

But any console is incomplete without having a bunch of great or I really should say outstanding games. Nintendo has solved this problem much too by supplying an enormous listing of game titles. Nintendo's video games are comparatively more affordable than Other folks. On a mean a Wii video game is obtainable for only $fifty while others charge a minimum of $70.

Right here I'm listing major five bestselling Nintendo Wii online games of all occasions.

1.Wii Athletics: As Formerly I have told you this game titles also comes along with new Wii console but even when you don't get it without spending a dime this activity is totally truly worth getting. Because the title suggests It truly is an average sporting activities game package. It is made up of 5 different game titles. Wii Sports is definitely the No.1 bestseller from Nintendo until now it's a lot more than eighty two million copies bought everywhere in the environment and acquired quite a few awards for greatest athletics video game from diverse companies and topped the rankings of review Web-sites.

i. Tennis: This video game is both out there on one player method and two players mode. In two players manner, gamers can possibly workforce up and Participate in against other staff managed by Wii or can Participate in in opposition to each other. On this manner both the gamers are required to have their own individual Wii remote. Awesome video game to play along with your Little ones and for informal players.

ii.Bowling: Bowling is as simple as authentic bowling. You simply seek to hit all the ten-pins and make the collapse. This recreation is additionally out there in multiplayer mode where you can Enjoy against Yet another participant one after the other Along with the exact distant. You do not need any excess remote for this. All-in-all it is a good sport to Perform.

iii.Baseball: In this particular sport it is possible to Participate in an average three innings match in which you can do the two pitching and batting with all your Wii distant.

iv.Golf: Now enjoy playing golf in the convenience of your house and with out getting one golfing club. A 3-gap plus a nine-hole golf study course is accessible to Perform.

v.Boxing: Using this type of activity you could delight in doing boxing with out the risk of breaking your nose. It truly is a three spherical boxing match

where you compete against a player managed by Wii routinely or you'll be able to opt to Enjoy in opposition to Yet another player in multiplayer manner.

To start with these online games can sound to generally be a little tedious but motion Command can make them really feel diverse and pleasurable.

If You can't afford taking part in these games In point of fact as they need to have high priced club memberships and almost speaking not everyone seems to be capable of acquiring these types of type of luxuries. Wii athletics is the proper destination in which you can love these games with Your loved ones with out paying a dime. Its entertaining and allows in earning robust bond in family members amongst parents and kids.

2.Mario Kart Wii: Launched in 2008 this recreation has proved to become the next bestselling Wii video game created by Nintendo alone. Till 2013 Nintendo has sold around 34 million copies of the activity. On this sport Nintendo's planet renowned character Mario as well as other figures contend to the kart racing keep track of. This recreation has a large selection of tracks(32 tracks) that you can be played by 12 unique players.

Essentially there are actually four modes accessible to play:

i.Grand Prix: It's also possible to connect with this method as the single player method as you have to race with eleven other Wii managed characters.

ii.Time Trials: As you are able to guess from its name, in this manner you might be competing versus a ghost character and try to complete the observe in finest time.

iii.VS: As opposed to manner is very same as Grand Prix mode the one is which you can pick out any track you may https://rpg-rom.com/ have by now unlocked.

iv.Battle: Fight mode offers you added ten levels to Perform. The two VS and battle method are also multiplayer modes that may be performed by using a most variety of four players.

3.Wii Sporting activities Vacation resort: Again Nintendo attempts to make Yet another Tremendous hit gaming package similar to Wii Sporting activities and does it correctly. This activity is also a big strike with around 31 million copies bought. This sport was released during the calendar year 2009 and readily available like a standalone version. This match has 12 distinctive athletics online games to Participate in. Here is the listing of all 12 game titles:

i. Air Athletics

ii. Archery

iii. Canoeing

iv. Biking

v. Frisbee

vi. Basketball

vii. Swordplay

viii.Wakeboarding

ix. Table Tennis

x. Golfing

xi. Bowling

xii. Electricity Cruising

Each one of these game titles are movement managed and performed much like the real ones. Some areas of these game titles are controlled by the pc. But each of the video games are very enjoyment to play.

4. Wii Enjoy: The fourth bestselling activity from your Nintendo franchise, With close to 28 million copies offered everywhere in the environment.

Just like other top three bestselling Wii video games this recreation is usually a acquire of nine diverse online games. Find Mii, Table Tennis, Shooting Array, Laser Hockey, Pose Mii, Billiards, Fishing, Tanks, Cost. Every one of these video games are available in both equally multiplayer and solitary player modes.

5. New Tremendous Mario Bros. Wii: The sport was released back again in 2009. Till now 27 million copies are previously sold worldwide and however counting. It appears like by the end on the 12 months this figure will cross 28 million mark. It really is the main Mario Bros. recreation developed for Wii console. This match contains 9 unique worlds unfold in eighty concentrations that Mario should go through to avoid wasting his princess Peach.

#Mario Rpg Rom

[symbianosgames]

Game Developer magazine's Brandon Sheffield reflects on what designers can learn from their first video game loves. (Originally printed in Game Developer's March issue, available now.)

They say you're forever dating your first love. Not literally, of course, but the early patterns set by your first relationship, and the relationships of your parents, tend to strongly influence how you approach love and relationships for many years to come.

I wonder: Is the same true for games? Do those early games we played in our formative years influence what we now perceive as "good" and "bad" in interactive media? Do they influence how we design games? I submit that they may.

Let's think about a series like Dark Souls/Demon's Souls. These games are punishing, require rather exacting inputs from players, and have somewhat fiddly controls that require getting used to. That sounds like a nice recipe for a failure stew. So why did these games succeed?

One of the praises you often see from reviewers is that the series reminds them of the glory days of Japanese console and arcade games, which were built with much the same recipe. It's like a new love affair with an old flame - the same problems as always, yet sweetly, lovingly familiar. Japanese publication Dengeki said of Demon's Souls, "Fans of old-school games will shed tears of joy." IGN reviewer Sam Bishop echoed the sentiment, saying, "Those that can remember the good ol' days when games taught through the highly effective use of intense punishment and a heavy price for not playing it carefully should scoop this up instantly."

But what about people who didn't grow up with that experience? What about those who are more used to frequent checkpoints, and the game providing a full experience to blaze through in one go, rather than in halting steps? For them, the game is a harder sell, which is why Sony passed on publishing Demon's Souls in the West, and core-oriented niche publisher Atlus had to step up and do it instead.

For Demon's Souls, its link to the past helped it succeed. But perhaps the reverse can also happen: Our personal game heritages could, at times, make us slaves to our past interests. For example, I tend to like games that are interesting, but flawed. To me, a glitch in an otherwise super-polished Call of Duty is extremely glaring and illusion-shattering, but I'll happily forgive poor graphics and the occasional invisible wall in a game like Nier, which stabs out in all directions with new ideas. If a game tries hard to do something different, I'll forgive its faults - and if I want to be a designer who makes games that are good at making money, this preference for different-but-flawed could hold me back from making games with commercial appeal.

With this thought in mind, I decided to dissect my own past as a player to see what influence it might have had on my current interests.

My history is a bit odd - I went from the 2600 and Intellivision (which were already old when I got them, but they were affordable!), to the TurboGrafx-16, which I saved up for months to afford. And this is the console that informed my early days as a player of games.

The Valis series, for example, is not very well known, but I played it to death. It's an action, platforming, hack-and-slash affair that stars a high school girl, out to save the world, with a sword taking on a horde of monsters. Pretty standard fare for the 1990s.

You could jump, perform a sword attack, use magic (and could power up both of these attacks), walk, and roll. I replayed Valis III recently, and I noticed something about those rolls that may have influenced my current interests and design habits. Rolling allows the player to travel for a set distance, both under obstacles and across gaps. But this distance is such that, at times, beginning a roll just a few pixels one way or the other means life or death in a difficult platforming section. On top of that, the platforms themselves can occasionally have dressings that don't count as area you can stand on.

This is most likely something one would want to avoid in the modern era, because it feels like the game has tricked you, when you've clearly made the roll visually, but it's counted as a death. Less obvious, though, is the triumph you feel after defeating that particularly difficult section. It's as though you've succeeded in spite of the game's efforts to thwart you. You are actually fighting against the game itself, which we're generally told not to do - but in a modern game like Demon's Souls, it makes the thrill of victory that much more compelling.

There is a lesson here for me as a designer: I can sometimes focus too much on making things smooth for a player in the immediate term, versus their long-term experience.

I won't bore you with my history as a player, but revisiting these old game-loves continually revealed patterns in my current thinking. For instance, Bonk's Revenge's somewhat mystical and alchemic systems helped drive me to chase the elusive beast that is emergent gameplay in a simple game world. But is that my white whale? That pursuit has, at times, led to feature bloat (which is exactly what happened in the subsequent Bonk installment, incidentally).

Just to make sure I wasn't the only one who's influenced by his past, I asked my friends Tim Rogers of Action Button Entertainment and Frank Cifaldi of Gamasutra.com, with whom I record a weekly podcast (which is also called insert credit), to talk a bit about their formative games, and found them similarly branded by past experience.

For Cifaldi, it was The Secret of Monkey Island, which gave him the first glimpse of a full, living interactive game world. This colored his interest in games for years to come; when he was young, he made adventure games in HyperCard, and later, when he was working at GameTap, he made an interactive community adventure game called Captain McGrandpa.

Rogers, meanwhile, thinks Super Mario Bros. 3 is the best game ever made. SMB3 is very much about precision and timing of jumps and reactions, but also about secrets - warps, hidden passageways, and coin boxes in the sky. It's no wonder, then, that the first game he directed (ZiGGURAT for iOS) is a deceptively simple game about timing, precision, and nothing else - aside from the occasional secret.

For your human relationship problems, you can go to a therapist - but they'll just reflect back what you already know. I highly recommend you take a self-analysis approach to your game history. Going back and dissecting those early learnings can help you grow past your earliest ideas of what a game is, or can be, because while most lessons will be good, some will be bad as well.

The musical platformer Sound Shapes is an interesting case study: If you read the postmortem in the December 2012 issue of Game Developer, you'll see that the game's mastermind, Jon Mak, said, "I don't like platformers, or level editors, but in the back of my mind they made sense." He also added, "That was a thing that we learned: We couldn't achieve our design goals with what we would do naturally."

So here is an example of developers playing against their type, and against their early imprint. This worked well, and brought Sound Shapes to critical acclaim, and many IGF nominations. But at the same time, is it any wonder that (sorry, Jon) the game just doesn't feel like a solid platformer? It feels like an interactive music toy where platforming happens to be the mechanic to drive progress. Without the music element, this would not be a loving homage to the platforming genre.

There are lessons in our past for all of us. Try it out on yourself; think about the first game that really grabbed you. Maybe it's the first game that compelled you to keep coming back, aiming for a perfect score; maybe it's the first game that made you feel like games were a living world; maybe it's the first game that let you play against another player.

Revisit these games with new eyes. While playing them, think about the jump distances for platformers, or how you start a drift in a racing game, and how long that drift lasts. Think about the level progression in RPGs, or the score multipliers in a shooter. How has your current work reinforced those old ideas? How have they strayed? Should you be more critical of those old ideas? It's an interesting exercise which can yield some surprising results. Even if you don't come away with something practical, you may have an easier time explaining why you prefer to sink hours into Minecraft over Skyrim - or the reverse.

The kids of today expect autosaving, persistence, checkpoints, and massive interactivity on a Minecraft scale. And they're not wrong to expect it! That's what they grew up with, and that is to some extent the future of entertainment. But when they grow up, what will they expect from games? What will their first love affair teach them to love and hate?

Getting closer to the now, what about kids who grew up with the Nintendo 64? The precise magic of GoldenEye 64 has never been properly revisited. What of a child who grew up with the Dreamcast? Is anyone serving her needs?

I'm not suggesting we need to mine the past and prey on nostalgia. But attempting to serve similar experiences to those people felt in their youth - in new and modern products - can be a valuable goal. Nobody wants to play a new game that's exactly like GoldenEye 64. They want to play a game that feels like how they remember GoldenEye 64 at the time they were playing it. With a little self-analysis, and a careful study of these bygone eras of games, you might just get at that mystical and elusive feeling.

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