i mean this is a reflection of games really struggling to provide fail-forward states as opposed to fail-and-reload states.
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Replying to @perdricof @arthur_affect and
for me the strongest dissonance i ever had while gaming was Tomb Raider. in our world, lara dies over and over and over and over. but in the game world she never dies; she's just this unstoppable killing machine.
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Replying to @perdricof @arthur_affect and
wound up writing a short story with that conceit--what it would be like to face this nightmare of the person who just can't be stopped, who gets to respawn and reload every single time you stop her. it remains an unsettling idea.
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Replying to @perdricof @arthur_affect and
Terry Pratchett wrote a book Only You Can Save Mankind about this concept. The aliens from a shoot-em-up try to broker peace with the unstoppable warrior who has killed thousands of their people and resurrects every time he dies.
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Replying to @TGNProfessor @perdricof and
Sure, but "resurrects every time he dies" is at least comprehensible. A video game protagonist *unmakes* the circumstances of their death [or other mission failure], and no-one [possibly not even themselves] knows what happened.
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Replying to @Random832 @perdricof and
This was more the extra lives era of gaming rather than modern games where you can save anywhere. When Johnny dies he has to replay the level, which to the aliens looks like launching a new attack on an area they just defended and sent reinforcements to replace everyone he killed
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Replying to @TGNProfessor @Random832 and
Right, although true to this era of PC gaming there weren't actually "extra lives", once you unlock a mission you can replay it as many times as you want until you beat it Hence Johnny getting the nickname "The Hero With A Thousand Extra Lives", as a riff on Campbell
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Replying to @arthur_affect @TGNProfessor and
He does find the wreckage of an annihilated ancient civilization of Space Invaders, from back in the day when you did have to keep track of lives, after his dad makes a comment about how much games have progressed since the good old days
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Replying to @arthur_affect @TGNProfessor and
One thing I loved about this book was that Pratchett, unlike many other authors of his generation, genuinely loved video games and had clearly spent a lot of time playing games just like this The game in the book is very clearly a parody/knockoff of Wing Commander
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Replying to @arthur_affect @TGNProfessor and
And it's kind of a commentary on how paper thin the plot of Wing Commander originally was and especially their refusal to make the Kilrathi as a whole anything more than Always Chaotic Evil thugs
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(Which led to the whole thing about how after the Kilrathi defector character Hobbes had been created WC3 has him turn on the humans again and reveal he was a loyal sleeper agent all along because having a genuinely good Kilrathi just can't be allowed)
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Replying to @arthur_affect @TGNProfessor and
The era of FMV games seems particularly prone to this goofy dissonance. Like how in Red Alert nobody has EVER taken it seriously and it leads to stuff like the harvesters asking "what is IN this ore stuff anyways?" while the other side yells at them to stop asking silly questions
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Replying to @loudpenitent @arthur_affect and
You're seeing "living" people act like cartoons, it does odd stuff to your suspension of disbelief.
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