Interesting Links for 08-06-2012

[andrewducker]

• I Was a Good Mormon Wife ... Until My Husband Stopped Believing in God
  (tags: viaSkreidle religion mormons )
• Plastic screen deforms on command to give touch-screens physical buttons on demand.
  (tags: viaTheWeaselKing touchscreen mobile technology )
• Digital music sales outstrip physical media in the UK
  (tags: money music uk )
• Stamp duty system could change in Scotland (I'm in favour of getting rid of the hard edges)
  (tags: scotland tax )
• A list of words that should be banned from newspaper comment sections
  (tags: funny comments language )
• I've never seen a crossover between rhythm and platform games before
  (tags: music computer_games )
• Neil Gaimain interviews Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons about Watchmen in 1987
  (tags: comics davegibbons neilgaiman alanmoore watchmen )
• 10 Things I Want My Daughter To Know Before She Turns 10
  (tags: children daughter mother parenting )
• Videos of the best graphics at E3. The Final Fantasy one is my favourite.
  (tags: video graphics computergames )

Comments

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

One platform game with significant rhythm-based aspects is the brilliant And Yet It Moves; BIT.TRIP RUNNER is based entirely around the concept (being a platformer in a series of music/rhythm-based games). You should buy more indie games ;)

[andrewducker]

I own And Yet It Moves. I remember enjoying the world-rotating aspect, I don't remember any rhythm-based gameplay. Is it much later on?

And it turns out I already own Bit.Trip.Runner, I just haven't played it yet (I played Bit.Trip.Beat a bit though, that was fun).

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

There are various levels in the later stages with platforms that disappear and reappear in time with the music; I'd call that rhythm, but it's not the core of the game, merely an important feature. It's one of my favourite platformers.

[andrewducker]

Gotcha. I still have it installed, I shall have to get back to it at some point!

[kiffkin.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't call And Yet It Moves brilliant - it's a brilliant idea but in practice it's very badly implemented, being both awkward and annoying. If it clicks with you then great, but be aware that it doesn't for large numbers of people. And, apparently, I didn't get far enough through to find any sort of rhythm gameplay. I'm all for people buying more indie games though.

[johncoxon.livejournal.com]

If it clicks with you then great, but be aware that it doesn't for large numbers of people.

You could say that about literally every game ever made.

[kiffkin.livejournal.com]

I was being polite.

[andrewducker]

In what way?

[ajr.livejournal.com]

I got And Yet It Moves, it was in one of those Humble Bundle things I picked up once, I think. And so, having played it, I think I can say with confidence that when kiffkin says "I was being polite", what that means is "It is fucking shite." I really couldn't get on with it at all myself - I kept forgetting the right way to rotate the screen, so I'd forever be turning it the way opposite to what I meant to, but the part that really bugged me was the falling. You fall too far, you die. Fair enough. But what happens when you fall is, first you're falling very slowly, and then you're falling very fast. There's no real progression between the two states, which makes it near impossible to judge your falling right. Plus, supposedly you can fall on a slope and slide down it instead of dying, but that never blinking worked for me either.

Really wasn't terribly impressed by the execution of it at all.

[andrewducker]

They weren't terribly impolite, I agree - but I find replying to someone who likes something by saying "It's awkward and annoying" to be less than entirely constructive. Clearly the person that liked it didn't find it awkward or annoying, or they wouldn't have said it was brilliant, so saying so doesn't do anything except set you in opposition to them.

You, responding direct to me, with a detailed list of problems, and your impressions listed as matters of personal taste ("I couldn't get to grips with it", "I wasn't terribly impressed by the execution of it at all", etc.) comes across much better, IMHO.

[kiffkin.livejournal.com]

Rhythm/platform crossover - There's a game that's been knocking around for a while that does this called BIT.TRIP RUNNER (random video of some gameplay here). It's a very different aesthetic to Rayman (isn't everything?) but just as incredibly difficult. Also, if you have any interest in platformers and you haven't played Rayman Origins, get on it asap :D

[andrewducker]

Origins arrives yesterday. Waiting for Julie to get home for Multiplayer Awesomeness!

I Was a Good Mormon Wife ... Until My Husband Stopped Believing in God

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That's really moving. I think it's really hard for most people to imagine what it's like to give up something fundamental to your identity like that, and very easy to forget.

It's a bit easier to imagine having to give up your community: if I discovered something that made me ostacised by most of my friends, that WOULD be really hard. But if I discovered that something I'd built my identity round was completely invalid... that's something that does happen to a greater or lesser extent secularly (discovering physics is non-deterministic, discovering many charities are futile, etc), but not normally quite so much.

I imagine something like "discovering being intelligent, or being nice to people are actually bad things" and how I'd deal with that -- I have no idea.

[simont]

The thing I thought was interesting was the bit where she said the crack in her belief had arisen because Mormon doctrine said one thing that she knew to be false (namely that her husband must have lost faith due to some kind of obvious sinfulness like porn), and she thought, well, if it's wrong about that then what else might it be wrong about?

It must take a lot of intellectual courage to reexamine your entire belief structure based on one small discrepancy like that. I'd have imagined that the more usual response would be to fudge round it ("he must have sinned in his head where I couldn't see it" or "that's not what the text really says and my fellow believers are misinterpreting it" or any of the other usual suspects) so as not to have to throw away everything.

[interactiveleaf.livejournal.com]

The part I found revealing were the multiple times she referenced the afterlife.

It was very clear that part of her block on letting go of that religion was that if she did that, then she'd have to believe that she was going to die one day, and not come back, and she's terrified of that.