Weekly Links #138

Hello, everyone. I failed to write more than a couple of lines on Laser Sky since Thursday, because real life, but there are plenty of links this week as well. For one thing we have a trio of classic games retrospectives: if you wanted to know what happened to Cyan after making Myst, or what it was like to work on Bioshock, or yet again what makes Call of Cthulhu special, you'll be well-served.

In other news, my friend fluffy has a very nice write-up about what Undertale meant to them. Not much to say about that except "go read it". Got a few more comments on this longer interview from the Don't Die project, that touches on personal games, crunch and more. See, it starts by pointing out how people in the game industry take themselves much too seriously, and while that's obviously true, I disagree with the provided explanation. No, it's not mostly 15-year-olds. When are we going to accept that most gamers are pushing 40 these days? They're pushing 40... and they're still insecure, abusive brodudes. Of course they are. Masculinity is hollow.

Who do you think the younger gamers and developers are learning from?

And now for the I-told-you-so segment. From MIT Technology Review we learn that most people use VR not to explore 3D worlds, but to simulate watching good old 2D movies -- not even the kind that pop out of the screen -- on a virtual home theater setup, even while squeezed into a cramped airplane seat. Which begs the question, why not simply use those little LCDs strapped to your eyeballs to fill your field of view directly with the 2D movie you wanted to see in the first place?

Ah, but then you couldn't brag about the size of your GPU, am I right?

(Speaking of which, it's been a while since I last heard of a 3D movie being advertised in theaters. Looks like that, too, proved to be a short-lived fad... AGAIN. Just like last time. And yes, there was a last time. But no worries, people will make yet another futile attempt in 30-40 years or so, after mostly everyone will have forgotten the last pathetic failure.)

Last but not least, I didn't even get around to buying a PICO-8 license, and there's already a freeware clone in development. Such a blatant clone, in fact, it's downright suspect. Might be worth playing with anyway. And in the game design department, here's an article arguing for achievements in roguelike games as a way to offset the frustration of underserved permadeath. And idea to keep in mind for my next attempt at one, whenever it happens.

In the mean time, have a nice week, and thanks for reading.