Decided to open up a thread to a little series that comes off Penny Arcade every Wednesday with a new topic to be discussed about
they generally talk about Video games, what bad/good video games have, what caused this, what companies do that is good/bad
and they touch up on stuff explaining on Diversities, its not Bias stuff its stuff they talk about and research about and tell us what it means and why, they some times they give their own say at the very end of what they researched but they say its what they think
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Graphics=/= Aesthetics = STYLE
What does this have to do with SWTOR well lets start with the http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode...vs.-aesthetics Episode
They talk about how a games graphics should be built up around its Aesthetics, being an easy way to say one thing about it, its the STYLE of the Game, or how they say in the video Emotional Context
graphics=/= Aesthetics = STYLE
i say this because a lot of people say this games graphics suck and that its ps2 level graphics, what they are actually picking on is just the style of the game, and as well its damn beta, the graphics have been improving over the course of the beta's life to fine tune the style of the game.
SWTOR's Aesthetics, the music, the mechanics the sound, all this add to what it is called Holistic its that feeling you get when you are really into a game, its one of the reasons Bioware doesn't want to break the 4th wall in this game
They bring up on this talking about Bioware's Mass Effect and how it actually feels they are in sci-fi space, putting together structure , character design the music and the voice speech patterns of the different aliens, i pulled that small list from the video its self
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Pacing
The next one i would like to put down is Pacing http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/episode-07-pacing
Pacing almost always, as the episode puts it follows this chart below roughly 9/10
Bioware has followed this chart before and shown it works, multiple times, they will know how to deliver it in SWTOR themselves, plenty of other games follow this curve, from the start of the game, to the end, to even the very small stuff as even just conversations in the game that feed to what was said earlier Holistic
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Microtransactions
Another episode they touched on was microtransactions in this episode http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/microtransactions
now no word has been said of them going to microtransactions, but im bring this up over some debate of what the VIP room will lead to, im going to keep this one short because right now all thats being talked about started at 5:20 in the show, NEVER SELL POWER,
the VIP room may be something the CE people may only be able to get into, but its only to a single room to a vender that only gives items which is pretty much a reskinned green/blue item gotten from a quest and or flash point, they give no advantage of what someone of the same level can get and the area it is does not have any content or stuff that is even relevant to other players that did not get the CE
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Achievements
Another Topic i would like to say involves the Achievements system they are putting in and how it wont be super easy Achievements like as its put " put in the CD get an achievement" way
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/achievements
pretty much there is 3 kinds
The Unavoidable - This is the one being removed, " Took Breath" kinda thing
The Optional- To a lesser Degree these being the " Earn so many of such and such" these ones you don't have to get but they are there, they will most likely be in there, but they will be to a lesser degree, if they are in it will be interesting questing experiences and add to replay value
The Inspiring- This is the one Bioware is going for, yes one thats labeled as one would be to kill a world boss, but the world boss isn't part of the story and its not the way they designed the game, its achievements to go out do stuff with your friends or play the game a little differently to see what would happen
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Enriching-lives
early episode
http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/enriching-lives
in this episode they talk about Bioware's game ME2 its the second of the game with the Geth, the reprogramming or killing them quest
i didn't remember it to much as its been months but watching this reminds me that.. i actually did think of the outcome of what way which side would go, now i didn't think of it like the way they displayed about certain people being reprogrammed but i thought of it more of, does killing thousands of geth outweigh changing the way they think of the equal amount
yes people will say they just wanted the good or bad points but im sure plenty of people actually thought over there choices
bioware is fairly good on having you pick your choices in their games, i mean in the first one you had to pick between the male crew member dieing or the female one dieing, i let the female one die its been so long since i played it i can't remember all the reasons for it besides the building is gonna explode
this just reassures me your gonna run into moments like this in SWTOR to were you really just have to think of what your gonna/are do/doing
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Please at least Watch the videos if your going to talk about a certain aspect of what i had brought up, you will kind of see what kinda stand point i am at after watching episodes of these guys
Disclaimer?
Now Plenty of people will probably pick this apart saying how Extra Credits was a bad source or something, but honestly, down to it, they say almost everything of a game that makes games, games and how they are made badly, and games how they are made very good, and how certain companies handle stuff they research the stuff they talk about and they talk about stuff on the standing point of the industry/Designer/Consumer
Disclaimer 2?
I would also like to say that how people will Handle this game will be different, you can't change their taste and when they do not like the game or scream out that its bad, its not fitting to how it fits into THEIR opinion, they do not like the style of the game or how stuff moves, its THEIR opinion