Live data from Hacker News

A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and failure

aeon.co

41–44 of 44 posts

Re: A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and failure

#41

A long time ago (though admittedly in this galaxy) I made a computer game with moral choices a key element in the gameplay. I named it Legacy. It was a Java GUI app. Though a small game in terms of feature set and code size I always remember noticing how it was one of the more fun (to me) games I ever made. Had to do with mating, family and inheritances. It ended up influencing my more recent designs as well.

Is it available to play?

Re: A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and failure

#42
post #11

Another attractive element of these games is the moral questions that sometimes arise. I know this is particularly true in "This War of Mine" (e.g. - choosing to take in a starving child that comes knocking on your door, but who also becomes a resource burden on your small tribe). Questioning and reflecting on decision making, moral choice, and consequences of (in)action are a central focus of literature study, so I…

This War of Mine is the only time I've ever felt genuinely troubled by a moral choice in a videogame, and it was for an unscripted reason. Spoiler in ROT13: Oehab gur pbbx jnf bar bs zl cnegl zrzoref. Ur jnf fubg va n enaqbz envq frireny qnlf ntb, naq jr'er bhg bs zrqvpvar naq onaqntrf. Vg vf irel pyrne gung Oehab jvyy qvr vs ur qbrf abg trg onaqntrq, cebonoyl jvguva 2 qnlf, juvpu zrnaf jr unir rknpgyl 1 avtug gb fpn…

And it is exactly unscripted moments like that which can provide interesting fodder for conversation. It is all too easy (as a poster below points out) for people to let their moral beliefs exist unchallenged, but when dealing with young people we need them to ask and answer tough questions. Even becoming comfortable with 'not knowing' is a huge task.

Re: A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and failure

#43

A long time ago (though admittedly in this galaxy) I made a computer game with moral choices a key element in the gameplay. I named it Legacy. It was a Java GUI app. Though a small game in terms of feature set and code size I always remember noticing how it was one of the more fun (to me) games I ever made. Had to do with mating, family and inheritances. It ended up influencing my more recent designs as well.

Is it available to play?

the code exists on one of my disks somewhere. If you email me your email address I could notify you when I find it and get it usable for you. my email in my profile.

Re: A new wave of videogames offers lessons in powerlessness, scarcity and failure

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose this is not a language, is some kind of cypher, how do I read it, please?

Paste the text here: http://www.rot13.com/index.php

I just had fun writing a goofy ruby script to rot13 this comment thread: https://gist.github.com/dpritchett/bfa3423dcab85ee46ddf
Post reply on HN