Two Highlights From DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN

Right now, I am playing DETROIT: BECOME HUMAN, a new title by Quantic Dream studio. As its predecessors – Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain, and Beyond: Two Souls – the game uses cinematographic language with its mechanics based on decision trees. During most part of the narrative, you must take significant decisions that will affect the course of the game and result in different ends for the story. The trailer below shows the gaming dynamics and main plot:



Besides the immersive narrative and beautiful graphics, I want to comment on two great features of this game.

1) The ending phase screens show the complete decision tree of each chapter. This is a very cool feature from DETROIT, you can observe in details what type of consequence your acts generated inside the gaming narrative. This visual aid helps players understand how each character works in the ambient. Below, there's an example of this feature.



2) The opening screen always has an interesting content. Every time you start to play DETROIT, there's one opening screen with a very sympathetic female android named Chloe giving you a technological trivia. I was playing it in June 7th and she told me that that day was Alan Turing's (the British mathematical genius) date of death. Then, last Saturday morning she told me "this is a perfect way to start a good weekend". The android also takes interesting surveys, asking players about the interface between human and machine. It is just a "content snack", but it helps to contextualize the gaming experience in a more immersive way. Below, I'm sharing some of these moments:



Another great acquisition for my collection.

#GoGamers

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Mama T-Rex Announces 2020 Run

You heard it here first, folks! Mama T-Rex of the Jurassic Party has officially announced her run for the 2020 candidacy of President of the United States. With recent studies finding that dinosaurs are broadly popular amongst liberals and conservatives, she will prove quite a challenge to the incumbent commander in chief as well as any challengers from the opposing party. 

The following is an excerpt from her announcement speech:




"There is crisis facing our food supply which could leave millions to starve. My fellow carnivores know this struggle all too well. The world runs thin on meat! There are too many mouths to feed, and all of them cry for meat! Yet, as you must know, we are running out of rescources to feed them, and the UN projects that we might have to rely on insects as a replacement. Oh, hell no! I, for one, refuse to live in an America where Beef Wellington is replaced with Tarantula-a-la-carte! God damn it, we didn't win a revolution for this! Some of the hipsters who drink pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks suggest that we go vegetarian. I suggest that they get their man-buns caught in a propeller! We don't need to eat less meat, but eat different kinds of meat. So I suggest that we allow carnivorous dinosaurs to eat the undesirables of society to make more space, you know, terrorists, murderers, theives, televangelists, fans of the Big Bang Theory, furries, vegetarians, vegans, Chris Brown, et cetera. We would solve overpopulation and overcrowded prisons in one stroke.

"Now, onto my next proposal. 65 million years ago, this planet was struck by an asteroid that nearly wiped out all dinosaurs on the planet, and since then, we have remained defenseless, exposed to another strike. So I propose that glass domes be built to protect our cities from any possible stray meteors. These will be the best glass domes you've ever seen, trust me! Once the glass domes are built, future historians will look back and balk at how stupid we were to leave our cities unshielded from the elements!

"Vote for me! Vote for meat!"


Questions from journalists soon followed:


"Do you think Tyrannosaurs are well-represented in the media?"

"Not at all, we're always depicted as predators, or worse, scavengers! Herbivore propaganda films like The Land Before Time have contributed greatly to this myth of menace. I invited Don Bluth and Gary Goldman to lunch to discuss the matter. They gave me indigestion for days, ahem, but back to your question, we're very grateful to still have trailblazers like Barney, fighting the negative stereotypes that persist of tyrannosaurs. Though one wonders why he hasn't eaten B.J. or Baby Bop yet."

"Any thoughts on the revelation that Brontosaurus does, in fact, exist?"

"Whether Brontosaurs or Apatosaurus, the meat is tasty all the same."

"Any endorsements?"

"Yes, we've been endorsed by the great paleontologist Jack Horner. Of course, I had a few Velociraptors on standby to, well, persuade him."

"Any endorsements from herbivores?"

"Gandhi, I was told."

"Gandhi's been dead for decades."

"You thought the Colecanth was dead, too."

A heckler in the audience then began to jeer Mama T-Rex about her small hands. Not one to tolerate insults, the dinosaur proceeded to swallow him whole, shoes and all. Once the disruption had ended, the questioning resumed.

"The Sweet Meteor Of Death has also announced a 2020 run. Will your glass domes be sufficient to prevent his success?"

"I'll make the best glass domes, the best, believe me! I saw The Simpsons Movie, so I know how these things work. Anyway, that Meteor's a total poser, I recall when he was still a part of the asteroid belt."

"Where will we get the material to make these glass domes?"

"Well, glass is made out of sand, right? Deserts have sand, right? Nobody likes deserts, right? So I don't think anyone would mind if we just took all the sand from the all the deserts in the world and put a blowtorch to it."

"What if the glass domes break?"

Most agitated, Mama T-Rex announced that she had to break for lunch, and proceeded to gobble up the questioner before running off.

[HackRead] Google Says It Stored Some G Suite Passwords In Plain Text For 14 Years

Google says it stored some G Suite passwords in plain text for 14 years

Stuck In The Middle

I read this Tenkar's Tavern post yesterday, but this is my first opportunity to respond.

Yeah, the middlemen get squeezed.  Those seeking neutral ground will eventually see themselves taking up less and less space.  And that's a shame.  Because politics shouldn't intrude on everything... especially a leisure pursuit like roleplaying games.

To be clear, I'm also a moderate, a centrist, a classical liberal who'd rather not get involved in the culture wars of increasing polarization.  But it wasn't so long ago that free speech, rationality, the rule of law, and focusing on gaming were nonpartisan issues that everyone could agree on.

That is not what's happened over the last 3 or 4 years.  Social media is everything and everything has been influenced (corrupted?) by politics.  The more radical, the better... according to the loudest and least compromising among us.

Any clearheaded person can see that Erik Tenkar contributes to the RPG HIC (Hobby/Industry/Community).  And Pex, as Erik's mouthpiece, has every right to post links to whatever the Tavern is talking about at the moment.  Those SJWs over on Discord can believe what they want... because they're creating a reality all their own.

If Erik and Pex hadn't distanced themselves from me, I'd be there to fight alongside them.  But instead, they chose to throw the baby out with the bathwater and are now being ostracized within certain segments of the HIC because not enough babies were thrown.  Yes, also a subtle jab at post-birth abortions that's now part of mainstream Democrat policy!

Hoist on their own petard.  Sad, but not unexpected.  Live together or die alone, as Lost so eloquently stated.  Meanwhile, I'll be here patiently waiting for my apologies.  Fighting the good fight.  Designing games and doing my za'akier thing.

Good luck to everyone who wants to stay on the sidelines, where it's "safe," and go about their business without getting involved.  Eventually, you too will be swept up in the mob.  Wake up before you suddenly find your head upon the guillotine of social justice!

VS