Too messy to really function

During the last year and a half that Fallout 76 has been live, I have covered its multiple... difficulties. A couple of days ago, I found a great video by Youtuber LegacyKillaHD, that summarizes the games troubled existence very nicely. I'll link it below, and I do recommend it, it's really good.

While I watched it, I was struck by a realization: The game Bethesda wanted to make and the game their parent company Zenimax Media wanted them to make is not the same game. The game the players wanted is also not the same as the aforementioned people wanted either. In essence, Fallout 76 could never work.

When they announced that all humans in the game would be players and that it was basically a PVP game, I and many others screamed in horror. To their credit, Bethesda listened and made the most toothless PVP system ever. Player 1 shoots Player 2 and does a tiny amount of damage, no matter which weapon he uses. If Player 2 returns fire, both players start doing full damage. If 2 walks away, 1 can keep nibbling away wasting all his ammunition, not harming but still annoying 2.

In short, most diehard PVP players hate the system. Most PVE players hate it as well, because they dislike all PVP, and all this because... well the jury is out on that one. If you're feeling conspiratorial, it's because Zenimax wanted to cash in on the battle royal genre that was going strong at the time. Games like PubG and Fortnite were (and still are) raking in the money and a battle royale game is cheap to make.

The problem is, Fallout is not a battle royale game, and the fans don't want that from a Fallout title. Add on the live service model that makes all the AAA game publishers drool, and you don't have a game so much as you have a complete mess. It is a collection of pieces that don't fit together- like putting monster truck tires on a Ferrari and trying to cram a huge back seat in as well. Most people won't want that car, and 76 can't really work.

In other news this post is number 400. I've been at this for 400 week with no gaps, and I'm really proud of that. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go and celebrate that a bit. Until next time, stay safe and have a great week!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9xoNN453gM

Good Agency

Video games differ from other kinds of media like books, film and TV due to one major thing: agency. That's what we're talking about today.

When I say agency, I obviously don't mean the FBI or something like that but your ability as the player to make decisions and play the game. This may sound like a small thing but it is one of the fundamental foundations of what makes games fun. 95% of the time this is a non-issue but occasionally developers really screw up.

The line between setting up a mission/quest and stealing agency can be hair thin. Good games give you the objective and let you figure out what to do. There can be several solutions or just one, but the important part is that you have to figure it out and you have to do it. Bad games tell you what to do in minute detail or don't let you do anything at all, they essentially play the game for you.

Many games like, for example, racing games don't really have a problem here as the act of racing is agency. It's your skill versus the AI or other players. Rubber-banding, or when the AI gets to cheat by snapping loosing racers up close to you is perhaps borderline agency loss, but it's done to keep you challenged throughout. It's cheap but not too bad.

So lets take a look at some examples of bad agency loss, shall we? Mild spoiler warning for World of Warcraft Cataclysm, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Fallout 3.

The MMORPG giant World of Warcraft is almost always really good at preserving your freedom, but in the Cataclysm expansion there is a quest chain that spoofs Indiana Jones. Here he is called Harrison Jones, and you get to help him delve in to ancient tombs. This chain is bad when it comes to agency loss, very bad.

Most of the chain is Jones giving you quests and you doing them which is obviously fine, but at one point the bad guy decides you have screwed him and takes you out in the desert to shoot you. You can do nothing but watch as your character walks out there and cowers in fear until Jones swings in and saves the day. Really now? At this point in the game you have fought giant monsters of every flavor and defied death a thousand times, but they thought you should meekly follow along and stand there shaking in your boots with no say so? Bad agency loss.

In the end segment of the quest chain, you do nothing at all. The bad guy and his two dragons show up and then another NPC comes along and saves the day in a cut-scene. You have 0% input while the game smugly tells its story and shows how cool the NPC's are. Bad agency loss again!

Another game that repeatedly steals agency is Red Dead Redemption 2 by Rockstar. To be fair and above board, I must tell you that I haven't played RDR2 myself, but I watched a live streamer play it for a couple of weeks, and I saw these things first hand.

One example is when Arthur has to clear out some bad guys from a ruined fort. The game demands that you kill them with a double barreled shotgun that has lousy range. You may well have a long rifle, but if you use it, the mission fails and you are reset. Bad agency loss.

Another example is when the gang you belong to is staying in an abandoned mansion and raiders attack. The game explicitly orders you up on the balcony for a bit, then orders you to run down and stand exactly next to a window and then to jump through the window to go help a friend. If you walk through the door that is right next to you, you fail! An exciting combat scenario ruined by being micro managed to hell and back. Very bad agency loss.

Fallout 3 is a really great game, but the last part contains a crazy bad agency loss. At one point you have to walk through a door. If and when you do, you are hit by a stun grenade and kidnapped by a faction. It doesn't matter what you do, or what your skills are, you will be taken. I tried having maxed out sneak and using a stealth field, but the scene still triggers and you go down. Lousy agency loss. One could argue that the story couldn't continue without this event happening, but I call BS on that. The story could have been written in any way they wanted, and they chose to take agency away from you.

With other forms of entertainment, your only agency is whether you consume it or not. Read the book or put it down. Watch the movie or turn it off. In games, it is all about what you do and how you do it. It infuriates me to no end when developers forget this and start playing the game for you or start telling their own story that has got nothing to do with you. It's bad design and should be shunned and avoided.

Perhaps I have ranted enough here, so I'll head out. Join me again next time and until then have a great week! Stay safe and play games with good agency!

Time to learn

Hello and welcome to another installement of Eccentric Spheres!

Today we are getting our learning on with some documentaries.

First up is The Great Escape from Alcatraz Prison:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVtaxYKk74M

followed by The Trial of Adolf Eichmann:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uANesju1B58

and finally Lost Worlds: Persia's Forgotten Empire:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3bOL8j3ypQ

Unfortunately I have to cut it a bit short today, but join me again next time. Until then, stay safe and have a great week!

The Remedy

This week we're taking a radical departure from our usual content. This week we're talking about flu remedies. Or a particular remedy to be precise.

DISCLAIMER:

1. The following information is based on my personal experience, yours may wary.
2. The remedy is not, not a medicine. If you are really sick, go to the doctor! Especially these days. If you suspect that you may have Covid-19, aka Corona virus, follow the guidelines set forth by your government. Let me repeat: This remedy may help you stave off a cold or get better faster, but it is not a medicine and I am not a doctor. See a doctor if you need to. I take no responsibility for your health. Thank you.

Story time. Back in the mists of time known as the early 2000's my wife’s boss gave her the recipe for this remedy, as my wife was getting the flu and she noticed that my wife was sounding a bit hoarse.

She came home and told me, and we tried it out. This was the original:

Squeeze the juice from ½ lemon. Add 1 crushed clove of garlic. Drink. (Serves 1-2 people)

It tasted pretty heinous, but it actually worked. Crushing garlic releases allicin, which is a powerful antioxidant and also helps reduce inflammations. Combined with the Vitamin C bomb from the lemon, it helps your immune system fight off the cold. But it sure ain't fun going down!

Then, a year ago or so, I was coming down with a cold and the wife went to the store to pick up lemon and garlic. But, to everyone's surprise, they were out of lemons. Being a resourceful woman, she got oranges and limes instead. This new version tasted so much better it was crazy. However, the limes here are pretty expensive, so we went back to lemons, but this time with orange included. Besides, lime has less Vitamin C, so oranges and lemons are preferable anyway. The sweetness from the orange balances out the incredible sourness from the lemon and even makes the raw garlic a bit more palatable. With the increased amount of liquid I have also increased the garlic. So the new recipe looks like this:

Squeeze the juice from 1 lemon and 1 orange. Add 1-3 crushed cloves of garlic depending on their size. Drink. (Serves 2 people)

Then recently, I was reading up on ginger, and how healthy that is. Yes, you can sort of see where this is going, but wait! There's more!

I'm a fan of several cooking shows on Youtube, and some info must have slowly fermented and combined in my brain. Our new recipe is this:

Peel a nub of ginger and grate it. Crush a roughly equal amount of garlic. Put both in a small jar and mix. Pour honey to cover and stir to mix. Add 1 teaspoon of the mix to the juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange. Drink. (Serves 2 people)

This new recipe is amazing! The honey and orange are pleasantly sweet while the garlic and ginger adds a nice heat. Honey and ginger are both very good for you and the mixture seems to stay fresh in the fridge a fairly long time. The honey stops air from getting to the garlic and ginger, and honey is essentially a preservative. Use you own judgment though.

A small warning. Fresh citrus juice goes bad pretty fast, so it's not recommendable that you make more than you can drink immediately. Also, I never take this more than once per day and never more than three days in a row, it's pretty strong stuff and you might want to be nice to your stomach.

I have told several people about this recipe and 95% go “Eeww, sounds nasty. I don't want to”. Yeah it's not cake, but every time in the last almost 20 years that I've felt a cold coming and I haven't taken a dose, I've gotten sick. It works, it really does. These days I chug a bit a couple of times a day just to boost the old immune system army. Again, it's not a medicine or a cure, but it helps. Try it out.

That is that. I hope you are all healthy and that you're careful. We are not out of this yet but it is getting better. Until next time, stay strong and have a great week!