#videogame
Triptyque Silent Hill 1
https://www.mideel.fr
#peinture #painting #art #SilentHill #videogame #mywork #mideel #autopromo
@miguela@diaspora.psyco.fr, je crois que tu aimes beaucoup l'art ;-)
@nadloriot@diaspora.psyco.fr
@salinger3@diaspora-fr.org
Hi folks, I'm looking to play a non-Early Access strategy/management #videogame with indirect orders like Dwarf Fortress or Tropico, but I don't care about any sandbox aspect, I'd like it to be story-driven and/or level-based like Frostpunk or EndZone: A World Apart.
Any idea?
Reality check: Microsoft, David Bowie, Bill Gates, and a creepy video game called ‘Omikron’
Omikron: The Nomad Soul. (Image via Steam)
Yes, there was a game called Omikron: The Nomad Soul, starring a virtual David Bowie, released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows. No, the game was not made by Microsoft. Saying that Bill Gates had anything to do with it is like calling Apple CEO Tim Cook the mastermind behind Facebook because the social network runs on iPhone.
Call me a puppet if you will, but chalk it up as another off-the-mark COVID-19 conspiracy theory involving the Microsoft co-founder.
The adventure game, made by French developer Quantic Dream and published by Edios Interactive (now Square Enix), is getting lots of attention this week due to the rise of the Omicron variant, as you might imagine.
Fueling the conspiracy theories are the game’s underlying themes and anti-government plot, as illustrated by Bowie’s character in this Omikron clip.
I’ll just leave this nice little video game. It came out in 1999. Voice is David Bowie.
[
](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Omicron?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
[
](https://twitter.com/hashtag/videogame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
[
](https://twitter.com/hashtag/davidbowie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
[
pic.twitter.com/MyvOHoMbE4
— Gracie Chameleon (@cheli23)
[
November 30, 2021
](https://twitter.com/cheli23/status/1465830541740105730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
“Wake up, people of Omikron,” Bowie’s character says, warning that they’re being turned into government puppets. “Join the awakened ones, and rise up to fight for your freedom. Together we can win.”
If you haven’t encountered a Quantic Dream title before, games journalist Thomas Wilde explains that the studio “went on to make some of the weirder games of the next few generations: Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human.” The studio “loves narrative, nudity, and frankly, incredible pretension,” he notes.
Omikron: The Nomad Soul came out for Dreamcast a year after its Windows debut.
As luck would have it, Omikron is available to this day on Steam. As part of my due diligence, I bought the game this morning, and I’m playing it now. Maybe I should schedule a COVID test for later today, just in case.
posted by pod_feeder
Reality check: Microsoft, David Bowie, Bill Gates, and a creepy video game called ‘Omikron’
Omikron: The Nomad Soul. (Image via Steam)
Yes, there was a game called Omikron: The Nomad Soul, starring a virtual David Bowie, released in 1999 for Microsoft Windows. No, the game was not made by Microsoft. Saying that Bill Gates had anything to do with it is like calling Apple CEO Tim Cook the mastermind behind Facebook because the social network runs on iPhone.
Call me a puppet if you will, but chalk it up as another off-the-mark COVID-19 conspiracy theory involving the Microsoft co-founder.
The adventure game, made by French developer Quantic Dream and published by Edios Interactive (now Square Enix), is getting lots of attention this week due to the rise of the Omicron variant, as you might imagine.
Fueling the conspiracy theories are the game’s underlying themes and anti-government plot, as illustrated by Bowie’s character in this Omikron clip.
I’ll just leave this nice little video game. It came out in 1999. Voice is David Bowie.
[
](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Omicron?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
[
](https://twitter.com/hashtag/videogame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
[
](https://twitter.com/hashtag/davidbowie?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
[
pic.twitter.com/MyvOHoMbE4
— Gracie Chameleon (@cheli23)
[
November 30, 2021
](https://twitter.com/cheli23/status/1465830541740105730?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
“Wake up, people of Omikron,” Bowie’s character says, warning that they’re being turned into government puppets. “Join the awakened ones, and rise up to fight for your freedom. Together we can win.”
If you haven’t encountered a Quantic Dream title before, games journalist Thomas Wilde explains that the studio “went on to make some of the weirder games of the next few generations: Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, Detroit: Become Human.” The studio “loves narrative, nudity, and frankly, incredible pretension,” he notes.
Omikron: The Nomad Soul came out for Dreamcast a year after its Windows debut.
As luck would have it, Omikron is available to this day on Steam. As part of my due diligence, I bought the game this morning, and I’m playing it now. Maybe I should schedule a COVID test for later today, just in case.
posted by pod_feeder
Off the cuff review of Disco Elysium
Since I installed Disco Elysium: The Final Cut by ZA/UM a week ago, I practically inhaled it, playing it every chance I got, for as long as I physically could, until I finished it yesterday night in about 30 hours.
I knew I wanted to write about it because I have Opinions™ but when I opened a new blog post about it, I couldn't come up with any structured text. I still feel the need to write about my experience, and as a result the following may be a little discombobulated.
First of all, Disco Elysium is a full-on artistic experience. The graphic style, the music, the writing all are outstanding in their own right. The gameplay is also pleasing. The role-playing mechanics are clear and satisfying, with meaningful choices and a welcome tinge of randomness for tension.
As with most other RPGs with multiple choices within a linear story, I won't play it ever again. I enjoyed my playthrough that I made mine, and I don't want to learn the limitations of the choices, I don't want to find out about the narrative funnels I would be forced through.
Still, the game is pretty forgiving, and through the excellent inner monologue interjections, the game is able to regularly hint as negative dialogue outcomes to avoid them. It also affords to go meta and comment on some the player's actions rather than the actual character, which got some well-deserved laughs out of me.
The political content added in the Final Cut has been mostly disappointing. The game's nihilistic message doesn't leave a lot of room to develop any political ideology, and it results in a shallow criticism of all the presented ideologies that eventually amounts to absolutely nothing. Additionally, using some real-world political ideologies (communism, fascism) was confusing as the historical context, important to define these terms, wasn't the same at all. I developed this point earlier: https://friendica.mrpetovan.com/display/735a2029-1761-576b-54bd-625220881901
I also noticed in the credits the mention of the hosts of the Chapo Trap House podcast as voice actors, and combined with the aforementioned lack of political substance of the game, it confirms my belief that this podcast and the larger "dirtbag left" culture it represents has less to do with politics than entertainment.
Started playing Disco Elysium by British studio ZA/UM and after about 4 hours I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand I absolutely love the inner monologue with all the different aspect of one's personality and the tailored experience the initial stats value provide through successful automatic checks and the interjection they trigger. The passage of time also is an interesting mechanic.
On the other I feel like all the political topics are just for show. Several political philosophy terms are thrown around in conversations with NPCs, but they either fizzle into a vague apolitical stance or it puts the main character who, like the player, doesn't have a good grasp on the political history of the game world, on the spot to express unnuanced opinions through seemingly forced dialogues options.
What about you? Have you played or finished or abandoned Disco Elysium?
Mini #videogame review: Yoku's Island Express (2008) by Villa Gorilla is a super cute adventure-pinball mashup. Many actual pinball mechanics are presents, flipper/bumper/ramp/sinkhole/drop target/inlane/drain allow to progress through the world or arranged in a mini-table with simple objectives.
The game provides several hours of good fun to finish it and is free on the Epic Game store until August 9th.
yoku
Why we do not provide keys
…and why the game builds are not for free.
(french version below)
A few days ago Distant Dials, a #videogame made by @Nylnook and me, was shipped on #Itch.io and a bit later onto #Steam.
It’s our first game available on Steam and I was quite surprised that despite the lack of publicity around our short discussion based experimental game, I received (and I still do) a bunch of activation key request by various Steam curators or streamers.
I’m writing this to respond to them.
The main gameplay part of Distant Dials can be completed in about one hour. Of course the game can be played for longer, but let’s say in one hour you’ll definitly know enough to write a review if you want.
Distant Dials cost about 3$. With the price and the duration of the game, someone used to Steam will catch on very well what’s going on. I assumed Steam curators already know what I’m about to say, but hey! It seems they don’t. Anyway, I think people spending time to test a lot of games to review them will have a (small?) budget to buy some…
But this is not the point, the point is you can refund games on Steam if you have played less than two hours. Yes, you can pay for Distant Dials (3$), play it for most of its content and refund it so you get back your 3$ you obviously miss dearly.
If you can beg for keys on an email, you can go through the steam refund process, at least you spare me some paperwork.
So that’s one thing.
Second thing is the game is available on Itch.io. For those who didn’t know, it means no DRM (Digital Rights Management) on the game. On Itch.io, Distant Dials will cost you 2$, we will prefer if you give 2,99$ (which is the price on Steam). When you get the game, you will have an executable file you can use to play the game, but you can also pass it to your friends so they can play too.
Most of the time, copy and sharing games is a thing condoned in the friends and family circle only. Under copyright laws it’s not because you can share things that you’re allowed to. The no-DRM thing on Itch.io is pretty much for personal use and personal copy.
Except it’s not the case with Distant Dials. See Distant Dials is a free software and its assets are under free licences (Libre Art Licence and CC By-Sa 4.0) including builds of the game we’re making.
Meaning: you are actually authorized by us to paid the game on Itch.io then distribute it for nothing. You can ask a very rich friend to paid the game for you and then you can both enjoy the game, isn’t it great?
Apparently not, because we’re still asked to give keys.
Now you may say: « Why bother make a price on builds, if playing the game for nothing is so easy ? ». It is a good question, answer is: because free means freedom not « for free ».
It’s not we don’t want you to play the game unless you paid for it, rather than we want you to know that it has a price and a cost.
So Distant Dials has a price, we think it’s a fair one and we will not give keys to any players what-so-ever. If at one point we want the game to be for free, we’ll make sure to make it happen, but we’re not here yet.
Pourquoi nous ne donnons pas de clefs
…et pourquoi les exécutables du jeu ne sont pas gratuits.
Il y a quelques jours Distant Dials, un jeu fait par @Nylnook et moi-même, était publié sur #Itch.io et un peu plus tard sur #Steam.
C’est notre premier jeu disponible sur Steam et j’ai été très surpris de recevoir, malgré le manque de communication autour de notre court jeu de discussion expérimentale, (et ça continue encore) un paquet de demandes de clefs d’activation venant de curateurs Steam ou de streamer.
J’écris ce texte afin d’y répondre.
La majeure partie de Distant Dials peut être complété en environ une heure. Bien entendu, le jeu peut être joué pour plus longtemps, mais en une heure vous en saurez assez pour en écrire une review si vous en avez envie.
Distant Dials coûte environ 3$ (2,39 euros). Avec le prix et la durée du jeu en tête, quelqu’un d’habitué à Steam conprendra vite où je veux en venir. Je pensais que les curateurs Steam connaissaient cela, mais on dirait que non. Et on pourrait penser que des personnes passant du temps à jouer à des jeux pour en écrire des reviews auraient ne serait-ce qu’un petit budget pour en acheter…
Mais ça n’est pas le sujet, le truc c’est qu’on peut se faire rembourser les jeux qu’on achète sur Steam. Il faut pour cela y avoir joué moins de 2 heures. Il est donc possible de payer pour Distant Dials (3$), y jouer pour voir la plupart du contenu proposé et demander un remboursement Steam afin de récupérer vos chers 3$.
Si vous êtes capable de m’écrire pour me demander des clefs, vous êtes capable de passer par le système de remboursement de Steam. Au moins vous m’épargnerez de la paperasse.
Voilà pour le premièrement.
Le secondement est que le jeu est disponible sur Itch.io. Pour ceux et celles qui ne le savent pas, cela veut dire qu’il n’y a pas de DRM (protection contre la copie) sur le jeu. Distant Dials vous coûtera 2$ sur Itch.io, on préférera si vous nous donner 2,99$ (le prix Steam). Une fois que vous avez le jeu, vous pourrez récupéré le fichier exécutable, que vous utiliserez pour jouer, mais que vous pouvez aussi passer à vos amis pour qu’ils puissent jouer aussi.
La plupart du temps, copier et partager est toléré dans le cercle familial et pour les amis. Sous le régime du « Tous Droits Réservés », ça n’est pas parce que vous pouvez faire quelque chose que vous y êtes autorisé. L’absence de protection incluse dans Itch.io est plutôt là pour facilité les usages et copies personnels qu’autre chose.
Pour Distant Dials ceci ne s’applique pas. Distant Dials est un logiciel libre et ces assets graphiques et audios sont sous licences libres (en l’occurrence la Licence Art Libre 1.3 et la CC By-Sa 4.0), cela inclus les exécutables du jeu que nous fournissons.
Cela signifie que : vous êtes autorisé par nous à, une fois le jeu payé sur Itch.io, le redistribuer gratuitement à qui vous voulez.
Vous pouvez ainsi demander à un ou une de vos amis (riche de préférence) de payer le jeu pour vous et vous pourrez ensuite tous deux en profiter, n’est-ce pas super ?
Apparemment non, car on nous demande quand même de donner des clefs d’activation.
Alors on peut se dire : « Pourquoi rendre le jeu payant s’il est si facile d’y jouer gratuitement ? ». C’est une bonne question, la réponse est : car libre signifie liberté et non gratuité.
La question n’est pas de vous empêcher de jouer au jeu sans payer, mais de vous faire comprendre que ce jeu à un prix et un coût.
Donc Distant Dials a un prix, on pense que le prix est honnête et on ne donnera de clefs à aucun joueur ou joueuse en aucun cas. Si à un moment on souhaite rendre le jeu gratuit, croyez bien qu’on le fera, mais on en est pas encore là.