Guy who thought not playing video games would give him the free time to do everything he's been planning on doing (he got more reading done and that's about it)
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2"I do not recommend quitting video games. It will make you realize the limits of your genetic potential and you will be really disappointed after inevitably not building towards your goals. With video games, at least you stay a dreamer."
I expected to get a lot of writing done but weirdly all my inspiration has utterly dried up. I suspect it's because video games suck at telling stories and therefore inspire me to do better, while reading great books doesn't leave me thinking about how I could do better (because I couldn't)
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13"I think it's actually because inspiration comes when you unconsciously know you don't have to do it, and it evaporates once you finally sit down with the task ahead of you. A bit like how you get really tired and brainfogged when you have to write a nuisance email or something but become level-headed and sharp right at bedtime. That's not just me, right? right?!"
This is part of it as well, yeah, but normally I can at least hit a flow state by forcing it. Lately it's all force no flow
All this to say I think the flow state feels so good it's probably the reason why I have a really hard time forcing myself. I always end up waiting for this mood to strike me. Jon Blow talks this. I think that guy is always in grumpy forcing himself mode. He looks like it.
The Witness is the only video game with good writing btw
they just need good writers, which are lacking in the industry
Real good writing in games has never been tried
axiom: writing in video games can only be good if it serves the gameplay
Vampire: The Masquerade had great writing independent from the gameplay. Fallout 1 and 2 had memorable bits too.
RPGs in general have always been in a weird inbetween state though, because making dialogue choices is literally the gameplay. It's the genre most remembered for "good writing"
RPGs are seemingly defined by gameplay being secondary, sometimes subservient, to something else (plot, setting, an excuse to show off character designs, roleplay in very rare cases) which is why they all suck and I hate them (I love RPGs)
When you play tabletop the setting and the conversations and interactions with NPCs are even more central. computer RPGs are a shallow imitation of that
Guy who decided to make a turn based pixel art 2d jrpg to tell his story so he wouldn't have to write a novel
Guy who decided to make it pixelated and "Earthbound-inspired" so he could say his awful artistic abilities were actually just a stylistic choice
I actually like jrpgs for the gameplay. I'd make a save before the final boss in ffvi and replay it many times.