Messages

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Other Announcements / Re: Women & Roguelikes

« on: September 27, 2012, 06:07:32 AM »

Only dicks can save us now. A HUGE BAG OF DICKS.

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Off-topic (Locked) / Re: RPG roguelike

« on: September 20, 2012, 06:50:54 PM »

Without playing the handheld version I can't truly compare them but I can't imagine it being better on HH than on PS1. It can be emulated on PC, and if someone were so inclined I'd recommend getting the PS1 Rom.

As for the Tao's Adventure, nice, never played that. I'll look around for that and throw it into my ever-growing queue.

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Temple of the Roguelike / Re: Welcome to Temple of the Roguelike Forums! (a.k.a. Introduce Yourself Thread)

« on: September 20, 2012, 06:48:53 PM »

Careful, certain unnamed people here think that a game with cardinal movement isn't a roguelike

Oh yeah! I should watch my step then! The roguelike police will get me, haha. I don't give one single eff what unnamed persons think, lol.

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Other Announcements / Re: Women & Roguelikes

« on: September 20, 2012, 03:33:07 AM »

It's too bad you think it'd be weird. I thought about the problems that might come up and I thought they were solvable, but it's not my podcast, lol. I think you're right that rogues are one of the more gender inclusive games, and it's likely one reason I always seem to drift toward them.

I'm not dead-set against it, I just have reservations.  I'll listen to the TMA ep and have a think about it.  I certainly don't want to approach a subject so grand as "The Gaming Gender Gap".

That sounds reasonable. I'm always for more research, but then again, my thoroughness is part of why I'm into RLs. If you guys come up with anything I for one would be interested in listening.

Also I'd really want a female developer on, because I think that's an important area that's even more distorted than the player scene.  But, well, there aren't any  :/  Uh, you fancy doing a 7DRL? 

I did a little python, javascript, and whatever php garbage wordpress is made out of, but I don't think that makes me ready for a 7DRL. There must be women devs out there in Rogues, the more welcoming to women a place can be the higher the chances are of finding them.

I know in Dredmor you won with a random build GR PD, and though I know from your blog you've played other RLs extensively I'm not aware of anything quite so equally badass you've achieved - correct me if I'm wrong!  I've tried random rolls several times to mediocre results.  It was only relatively recently (about the same time as your random victory in fact) that I beat the game myself.  Also any discussion of Dredmor is worth worth including mention of how cool the community and the devs themselves are, and you seemed well-placed to communicate that.

Haha, yeah, not just GR/PD random, but with a dead skill too. Anyway, I've also beaten POWDER 2x now. I've beaten so many of the Hack, Slash, Loot levels as well, now just to unlock all the achievements. Nothing else that compares as for accomplishments, but I play everything RL. My plans are to focus on Dredmor for now, but move into writing about powder then tome. Next could be anything (FTL?) I'm really good so I don't doubt being able to eventually ascend in any rogue I start to play. One person suggested I do a let's play video, and I'm also considering that. I'm nervous about video because I hate when people are stupid dicks to me, and with my current physical limitations things like that are long-term considerations at best. I'm seeing a bit more interest in rogues, and part of why I'm blogging about them is to try to get more people to play. Dredmor so far is an excellent gateway drug (: What do you think? Are RLs getting more attention lately?

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Temple of the Roguelike / Re: Welcome to Temple of the Roguelike Forums! (a.k.a. Introduce Yourself Thread)

« on: September 20, 2012, 03:04:07 AM »

Welcome!

I play powder, nethack, dredmor, crawl, tome, and many more. I've ascended a bunch and my goal is to beat as many as possible.

I find it interesting that you name POWDER first. Is that list in random order or do you think POWDER has some outstanding gameplay quality?

I didn't really intend any special order (why would I?). That list is far from inclusive, I just didn't feel like making an ordered list of every RL I've ever played >_>

Powder was my first classic rogue. I did actually like it a lot, and I think it's terrific. You sound like you have something against it.

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Roguelike-ish...What is a RL any more?

« on: September 20, 2012, 03:00:47 AM »

There's nothing wrong with setting up some parameters for what makes a RL. That said, those parameters can be done with enough finesse that they're not hard and fast rules that apply in stupidly limited ways, right?

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Off-topic (Locked) / Re: RPG roguelike

« on: September 20, 2012, 02:59:09 AM »

It's so nice to see someone else who's played Azure Dreams. I didn't realize it was released as a handheld game, I can't really imagine playing it on a small screen.

I used to draw the girlfriends when my hands worked. I had skills of an artist back then. Who was your fave lady?

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Other Announcements / Re: Women & Roguelikes

« on: September 19, 2012, 07:31:35 AM »

So you ask questions. Interesting questions. Are we designing things that only dudes like? What does that even mean? Is there a way we can include women and basically double the number of players? Without pandering? Can we even discuss this topic without seeming ignorant? Uninformed?

As for me (and I don't speak for ALL women just me) I like all sincere questions. I think it hinders discussion when people are too afraid to sound "stupid," "ignorant," or "sexist".

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Other Announcements / Re: Women & Roguelikes

« on: September 19, 2012, 05:41:59 AM »

Are you really suggesting we don't have enough international accents on the podcast...?

No, and I guess I could have been more clear. I was making a general statement about inclusiveness of underrepresented persons. I made a list of examples of what I meant but it wasn't aimed at your podcast directly.

Disabilities is something I'd like to cover more - we're arranging an episode about designing for the visually impaired right now, but there are wider accessibility issues too.

I like that idea too. The importance of accessibility is becoming more known, and as such I'm sure there'd be a lot to discuss.

A gender podcast seems weird though. It's something that's more to do with how communities behave, not how the games are made or designed. Roguelikes thankfully tend to avoid misogyny ingrained in the artwork or gameplay...

But I do agree more visibility of women into roguelikes would be a positive thing.

It's too bad you think it'd be weird. I thought about the problems that might come up and I thought they were solvable, but it's not my podcast, lol. I think you're right that rogues are one of the more gender inclusive games, and it's likely one reason I always seem to drift toward them.

Have you a link to the TMA episode you mentioned? I'm curious to see how they dealt with the subject matter.

Yeah, NP I just didn't want to put it up and open the floor to hellacious trolling. Three Moves Ahead Ep 48: The Gaming Gender Gap: http://flashofsteel.com/index.php/2010/01/19/three-moves-ahead-episode-48-the-gaming-gender-gap/

By the way we were thinking of inviting you on another Dredmor episode, TheCakePie, on account of you being a skilled player who has publicly blogged about the game. We don't really have any concrete plans though...

Considering including me is news to me, thank you. (You know I don't just play Dredmor, right?) I'm pretty surprised I was actually mentioned in this discussion at all, but if you still think about it I'm openminded to discussion about that at some point. Anything like that would have to wait a while, I'm adjusting to some hardcore meds. I'm easy to find though so get in touch if you want to talk about it later.

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Other Announcements / Re: Women & Roguelikes

« on: September 19, 2012, 03:49:44 AM »

I wrote reply to this thread already but it seems that I either failed at posting or it was deleted. I'm just gonna post again.

I'm going to focus on the good points people had to say here.

An episode of Roguelike Radio on women & roguelikes would be really interesting, provided the panel was comprised mostly women who play roguelikes.  Johanna Ploog would obviously be awesome to have on.  Tiffany Martin from Cake Pie (http://cake-pie.com/about/) would also be great.  She's written about an experience on the Dredmor forums where one of the devs laid down the smack on casual sexism: http://cake-pie.com/women-gamers-gaslamp-games-forums-are-amazing/931/).  Additionally, I know a couple female mathematicians who play nethack (whether I can get them to agree to a podcast is uncertain).

I think this is a terrific idea. I'm not specifically endorsing myself here but in general I'd like to see people included in discussion who aren't normally represented. Naturally these should still be people who have something of value to contribute, but we should stop acting like only guys play rogues.

I think it's a bad idea. A really, really bad idea. I don't think that gender is important when you talk about games. People, regardless of gender, play games because it's fun. That's your answer on why some women play roguelikes. If those people are game developers, then make roguelike radio episode inviting them because they are awesome game developers. Not because they are female. Otherwise it will probably be a discussion about stereotypes and that's not the most thrilling subject, not for a fun podcast about games, anyway.

I don't really see the reason to care that much about women who play roguelike games at all. You will never meet us in real life anyway

I think that you raise an important concern. I'd hate to see this done horribly too. It'd be easy to do that, without any research or effort you could just ask boring, predictable, stereotypical questions that don't mean anything or act like we're magic for playing a hard game. I was involved in 2010 in the Three Moves Ahead podcast talking about women in strategy gaming. The demographics are low for women in strategy gaming too, and the podcast was done really well so I know this can work, it just requires some finesse. Just because an idea could go wrong doesn't mean it needs to be shut down.

I'd really think women would join communities and play more games where women are underrepresented if people were more welcoming. Having women visible helps create a welcoming atmosphere.

As for me, I'd think it's smart to look for new perspectives beyond the only one usually represented. Grab a disabled rogue expert, or someone who's gay, or a woman, or wtf someone who isn't English/American/Australian.

TL;DR: Include women good. Be a dick bad.

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Other Announcements / Re: Women & Roguelikes

« on: September 19, 2012, 03:34:28 AM »

(accidental double post, but not to be confused with the missing post I mentioned)

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Traditional Roguelikes (Turn-based) / Re: Roguelike-ish...What is a RL any more?

« on: September 19, 2012, 03:00:00 AM »

Darren Grey, nice post.

You're right, geeks love to get into definitions, I think that's one thing we do well. I've read a few articles on the reasons why people play games (you probably already know this but there are some books on the subject, and  it's now studied heavily by students and marketing people in the games industry).

I personally like this subject. I wrote a bunch of words about that here:http://cake-pie.com/so-what-the-heck-is-a-roguelike/377/

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Temple of the Roguelike / Re: Welcome to Temple of the Roguelike Forums! (a.k.a. Introduce Yourself Thread)

« on: September 19, 2012, 02:51:37 AM »

Hi guys, I too like dem roguelikes. I write a blog about gaming and beauty (because I'm apparently a masochist). My specialties are rogues, indy games, and I write about some of the kickstarters I like. For people into beauty stuff, I write about skincare, beauty products from Asia (S. Korea esp), and budget products. I haven't posted too many articles (slow but steady), but I've been a journalist in the games industry for a long time so this is like my weirdo side-project. I'm disabled and I'd welcome conversations with other disabled gamers to compare notes with.

I play powder, nethack, dredmor, crawl, tome, and many more. I've ascended a bunch and my goal is to beat as many as possible. I enjoy a challenge, and strategy games are my fave but I've been around for a while and I'll play any game if it's good. I don't limit myself.

Nice to meet you all!

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Off-topic (Locked) / Re: RPG roguelike

« on: September 19, 2012, 02:39:03 AM »

I really enjoy 2D top down rpg games such as zelda or Pokemon. I also really enjoy the difficulty and randomness of roguelike games. I was wondering if there are any games that combine these 2 elements into 1 awesome game. I understand that roguelikes are in some ways already rpgs (adom is an example ) but they just seem to be a lot more complicated. With all of the stats and numbers the game can become alot less casual then I would like it to be. I do not want to constantly be worrying about the hundreds of stats my player has and then the hundreds of stats each item has. A more casual zelda + some roguelike elements is what I am looking for. Anyone know if there are games like this?

DUDE. You must play Azure Dreams. You may not have heard of it because it's a console game (PS1) but it's one of my all-time faves. It combines Pokemon, town development (with fun, optional minigames), and a glorious rogue tower. You collect and train pets who come into the tower with you, you basically level those guys up and try to beat the tower. It's such a terrific game and though it's 2D isometric it feels old-school enough. If you try it out let me know what you think.

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Off-topic (Locked) / Re: Roguelike Tattoo

« on: September 19, 2012, 02:33:32 AM »

That's dedication. Nice tats, guys.