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InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)SM
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2 yr. ago

  • I somehow missed one of the middle episodes of the first season of House of Cards, and was very surprised at the boldness of having to piece together what had happened between episodes. Very demanding of the viewer.

    I did realise my mistake immediately after though.

  • While I'm very against the executive order they describe, the headline is misleading:

    Language requiring healthcare professionals to care for veterans regardless of their politics and marital status has been explicitly eliminated.

    So they can also refuse to treat e.g. republicans and married veterans.

  • Is RNG always bullshit?

    Do you feel like that's the case in Blue Prince?

    To me, the RNG feels fundamental to the puzzling in Blue Prince, not something that could be removed to make a better game. And Blue Prince is undeniably an interesting game.

  • Well... A puzzle is a challenge. In Blue Prince, part of the challenge is that you need to engage with the clues you have available, not necessarily the clues you hoped for. Removing that challenge is to remove part of the puzzle.

    You're fully within your right to say that's not your cup of tea, but I think it does contribute something meaningful to the puzzling.

  • While there is one main goal in front of you, all the shit they pile in front of you is more mystery, the solution of which will carry you closer to your goal.

    It's more like if Obra Dinn randomly had you play an Outer Wilds loop or Chants of Sennaar segment, with all the mysteries tying together.

  • Thanks for the long reply! To me, there is another element that RNG can add: the challenge of adapting. Think of x-com: you're immediately told the odds that a shot will succeed, and have to decide whether to take that shot based on that chance and the consequences of it failing.

    You know that on average things will work out fairly, but you have to be ready to push the successes without letting failure trip you up.

    During most of the game, Blue Prince poses many different puzzles and riddles to you in parallel. If you focus on one thing you've had a eureka moment about, you'll be frustrated with the lack of control, but if you approach the situation holistically, and pursue all puzzles at the same time based on what is available, it's a very different experience. Your thought processes and realizations are shaped by the randomness of the day.

    Furthermore there's always an interesting strategy element of mitigating the chance by ensuring lots of redraws in different ways, upgrading rooms to serve several purposes, piling up resources between runs etc.

    I do think it's novel and interesting, though not necessarily the best idea in the world. To properly do the holistic approach I mention you need a massive infrastructure of photos and notes to keep track of all the clues you're pursuing. I wish it had some kind of overview of found documents and clues, though I can see how that's not so simple to implement for this game in particular.

  • What value does such an agreement have? Why is it a problem that there's a plurality of equivalent understandings? Does that plurality add to or subtract from our understanding of reality?

    You say the different interpretations give drastically different pictures of physical reality, but not in an empirical sense. But can we really talk of an empirically unavailable physical reality? If pilot waves, multiverses and wave function collapses all lead to the same empirical reality, does it make any difference to physical reality which one you think about?

  • It's not so much that there's no agreement, it's that the different understandings all give the same empirical results, so there's no way to decide on which understanding is "better".

    Settling the argument is a matter of taste, not science. At least for now.