My girls and I have been playing Tera Online lately -- separately, since we only have one computer that can run it well. It got me thinking about why I'm playing this multiplayer game as a single player experience, which I think has much to do with the way that the grind has changed in modern RPGs.
The indie scene continues to be where it's at these days. I want my games faster, more challenging, and different. Monaco's aesthetics are cool, and it's gameplay grows on you nearly as quickly, especially the multiplayer.
While I have become more and more a glutton for punishment over the years, enjoying games that make me play more and more perfectly in order to survive, the interesting thing about Monaco is how mistakes become the best parts of the game.
Bad situations in this game and silly mistakes turn into events that are a pleasure to solve. Your or another player's error redefines the objectives of any given level as you have to figure out how to improvise to make that well planned heist -- that just fell apart somehow -- get back on track again.
Moving Pixels Podcast: Monaco, Neon Noir Heists and the Pleasures of Making Mistakes
Death, sex, and video games. Okay, maybe just death.
Oh, Nick and I did a podcast on minimalism and games a week or so ago.
The Moving Pixels Podcast Explores Minimalism in Video Games
What do you want in your representation of reality? Authenticity or that which meets your expectations?
Filthy toilets or a well scrubbed head?
I kind of threw this together at the last moment. It's a piece based on some thoughts I already chatted about on the last podcast that concern how Infinite, like the original Bioshock, approaches its concept of game worlds, player choice, and scripting. Of course, these questions also, perhaps, reflect how the series presents its sense of the real world itself, free will, and determinism.
There's always a lighthouse. There's always a man. There's always a city.
