The Gamer's Quarter

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

what the hell, pick on dhex
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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I thought about saying dhex but then I thought it would be better to say you since we're BEST BUDZ and it won't matter

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

not anymore, we ain't
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D-A-I-S · . Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 123

we have - I guess we've always had - this great big green terrible (not terrible but terrible) fuzzy puppet with a goofy horrific expression, the shape of a man, and we called it

we called it

i'm sorry

i'm sorry

we called it i'm sorry

that's not it's name

i'm sorry

i don't believe that videogames profit from symbolism.

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Narrative does, though, and videogames often profit from narrative RIGHT? Portal certainly does, anyway.

Guys I wrote up all our findings on my blog! I think I gave quite a balanced and reasonable view of the whole thing, although I did write it staunchly form the perspective of someone who is convinced that GlaDOS is indeed intended to look humanoid. It's especially interesting if you're interested in the thought process which goes into animation and game character design, or at least my own speculation and perspective on it.

Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

I just linked to my blog because I didn't think you'd appreciate a massive influx of portal kids spamming your forum (worst case scenario). And anyway the thread is kind of retarded, at one point I talk about someone throwing someone's dick into the sea. I did credit and link everyone who contributed in the blog post, though.

Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

It's Birthday Cake!

You have been trained in the womb to navigate deadly mazes!

Go forth and navigate!

Watch out for those headcrabs.
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I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

dhex · Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:16 am Post subject:

how could throwing penises into the sea be anything less than classy?

actually, in this context, it's legitimately classic.

and i'm glad this thread went places, regardless.
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Lestrade · Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:25 am Post subject:

I approve of this thread. I don't think the symbolism goes far beyond the immediately visual, but the parallel is interesting nonetheless. I never looked at GlaDOS long enough in one spot to determine what it/she looked like, oddly enough. (Actually, I only played Portal a week ago, so this is all very exciting for me.) But now the game feels richer because there's a bit more context there.

I'm going to try to play with the developer commentary this weekend. Good hunting, Mr. Matlock!

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

This thread annoys me because now my Portal joke article isn't going to have the same impact Sad

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Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

oh yeah, my blog is at harveyjames.livejournal.com. I'm pretty proud of the conclusions I made regarding what all the symbolism means. It's pretty grounded and avoids way-out speculation.

Ketch · . Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 420

http://www.slashfilm.com/wp/wp-content/images/hostl2heatherposter.jpg

The poster of Hostel 2.

Worm · . Joined: 08 Jan 2008 Posts: 142

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Exit stage left, exit stage right, there is no place to run, all the fuses in the exit signs have been BURNT OUT

Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 1:31 am Post subject:

Related. (To the GlaDOS-as-sympathetic-character topic, not so much anything else that's going on here.)

dhex · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:01 am Post subject:

as an aside, one theme that i haven't seen touched upon - which isn't surprising because it's so marginal in our particular age of the victim - is that despite being (resentfully) sentient and autonomous enough - at least - to try to kill the pc (and successfully murdering her antecedents) several times over, she displays no actual sense of responsibility. it's always "now look what you made me do!"
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Cycle, do you think the Marathon protagonist likes being bossed around by? :O

I mean, it's more or less established that you get a kick out of killing things.

P.S. Durandal takes responsibility for everything and doesn't care!
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:25 am Post subject:

i've got cool guns if you like killing things.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

SMUG INTELLECTUAL. Formerly-rampant human-coded AI with a sense of humour seeks bipedal oxygen-breathing cyborg for serious relationship in the galactic core. I've got cool guns if you like to break stuff. No yuppies. MRa2572 (5/23).

SLEEPING BEAUTY. Long-deactivated extraterrestrial personality construct in search of gullible carbon-based cyborg (< 20% machine) to confuse, irritate and teleport randomly around an abandoned desert planet in the core. All answered. MRa268' (5/30).

GOD'S GIFT TO NEURAL NETS. Traitorous extremely-rampant reprogrammed human AI with no sense of humour seeks elusive, heroic cyborg of uncertain manufacture (you know who you are) for mindgames and long walks in hard vacuum. MRa2261 (5/16).

DAMSEL IN DISTRESS. Captured and partially-disassembled human-coded AI trapped on alien homeworld seeks succour from a tall, dark and handsome cyborg with big guns. Let my rescue be the basis of a lasting relationship. MRa4451 (5/23).
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:48 am Post subject:

huh?

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Play these, dhex. Start with the second one.

Honestly, they'd be up your alley.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:01 pm Post subject:

i've tried playing marathon for the last ten years or so. no joke!

just never clicked for me.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Sadly, any synopsis falters at showing just how grand a tale it is. Do you mean the original? I typically recommend people start with Durandal followed by Infinity, really.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

dhex · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 12:23 pm Post subject:

all of them. i was in college when someone in the paper's office got a copy of the marathon collection and installed it on one of the design macs. i was playing quake deathmatch at the time so...yeah.

shit happens.
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Redeye · . Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

What I like about Marathon are the counter-insurgency missions were you're supposed to find and eliminate all suicide bomber clone B.O.B.s. The thing is, though, any method except burning them causes them to detonate and they look exactly like any other guy, save for the nonsensical prattle.

But on the other hand, you're not penalised for civilian casualties.
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

You're penalised in the first game, in the missions we're you're supposed to protect them. If too many die, Leela can't get enough information out of them and you miss out on a little bit of the story. Apparently, the original plan was to take you through a different path of the game if you failed (which they sort of implemented in Infinity) but ended up cutting it.

In Marathon 2 and 3 you can go nuts. If you shoot them with a pistol, it won't kill them but you'll see that they bleed yellow blood, that's how you tell... plus they are only in green suits, they say different things than normal bobs plus they tend to charge right for you, so you can pick them out pretty easily... but they still get the drop on me every now and then.

In that one mission where you have to clear out the human base, I always like trying to take out the exploding b.o.bs in a way so that they'll fly back and kill a bunch of normal humans. Hilarious!
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dessgeega · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:26 am Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:35 am Post subject:

man, the stage in durandal where you have to find the explod-o-bobs among the human population of the bunker and then pfhor beam in and start attacking the bunker and you have to hold off the attack while the explod-o-bobs try to take advantage of the chaos to sneak up on you and go boom. that's a great stage.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

YES.
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Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 5:54 am Post subject:

Harveyjames · the meteor kid Joined: 06 Jul 2006 Posts: 3636

Hey the guy off the Psychonauts cover linked to this thread from his site! Score! Next stop the world!

Dracko · . Joined: 10 Oct 2005 Posts: 2613

Who is he?
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"This is the most fun I've ever had without being drenched in the blood of my enemies!"

Intentionally Wrong · Posted: Sat Apr 19, 2008 12:51 am Post subject:

Patrick?

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Think about how awful this joke would have been to pull off if the 'psy' glitch was still working its misery over all of us here.
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Like you thought you'd seen copter perverts before. They were nothing compared to this one.

kirkjerk · . Joined: 12 Apr 2006 Posts: 1227

I just bought a Garmin nuvi GPS, one of the ones with Text-to-Speech for reading street names. (Which seems frightfully impressive 'til I remembered my C=64 doing about the same thing in 1982.)

Only the American accent does the street name reading, and the end result is a voice that in tone rhythm and emotional content is an awful lot like GlaDOS.
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