I can provide 2 examples of text in games that I've never been tired of reading:
- OSRS quests: Even though the "press spacebar in quests" meme still applies, the quest dialogue box is small enough - with a decent sized font [1]- that I don't feel tired reading through the tidbits one box at a time
- Control: I'm a big fan of SCP so I have an _incentive_ to go through all of the collectible files, then read through them. In this instance, having optional incentivized reads massively boost my enjoyment of the game.
Even if it was interesting, I found incredibly frustrating reading in Control.
In general, interrupted reading is annoying, in videogames this is a hard requirement, so it makes it annoying by default. To me if there is text in a videogame to narrate stuff, wrong medium is being used. Small reading rarely is ok of course.
Portal 1 has a good example of not needing reading and still telling interesting an interesting story
Agreed. I enjoyed control’s aesthetic but I didn’t want to read dozens of files at a time. And I didn’t want to open up my inventory to read it. If text must be there I prefer it to be more like resident evil style. Brief collectibles, read on the spot. All of them tending to be plot specific and relevant. Typically each “page” is just a few sentences.
Little in the way of open world building with an expectation that you know who all these people are. Discussions of gods in games irks me the most. Oh my god how I hate reading religious lore in every game.
If I have the opportunity to use my gaming machine - I want to spend it playing a game, not reading lore. But I really appreciate good lore if it's made available elsewhere (books, apps, websites, etc.). If lore is going to only be available in game I think audio logs ( albeit with optional subtitles) are a better solution than walls of text.
RS in general has uniquely good questing (RS3 has made some truly great experiences). They go so far past "collect 10 bear butts" in a way no other game I've encountered does (though one could argue that story-driven games similarly don't _need_ questing in the same sense). Some of them are frustratingly slow, but overall it's a compelling system.
Another game worth mentioning here is Cultist Simulator. Usually the text is not directly informative but atmospheric, nevertheless it is the point of the playing... it is where the listlessness and excitement and Lovecraftian grossness is communicated and those are kind of the only reason to play.
Now, this is atypical from the other examples in the OP. You will read the same piece of text many times, it's just the flavor on a card that you are trying to activate, or maybe it's the outcome. But it has some similar aspects, like that every card is identified by one word, you get the remaining info in sort single paragraphs when you focus the card, etc.
I've played Cultist Simulator too! I remember winning (ascending) just once after quite a few hours. The aesthetics and sound design in that game fit together real nicely, and I always suggest to my friends to play that game blind
Does it ever become clearer? I've tried playing it a few times and never managed to get anywhere, like I'd maybe acquire a single follower, and then shortly afterwards die of malnutrition or something. Its a game that feels like its probably got some amazing depth to it which I'm not quite reaching.
Mechanics-wise, a big part of the gameplay is figuring out for yourself what to do. Everything is discoverable, but you have to be willing to take a few jumps without seeing where you'll land. The early experience feels like you're just trying to keep a bunch of plates spinning; with some practice, that gets comfortable enough that you have bandwidth to also make forward progress.
Settings-wise, yes but also no. You find out more, which all seem to be part of a coherent whole, but the entire whole is not revealed.
I have to give Bethesda credit for "The Lusty Argonian Maid" (https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/The_Lusty_Argonian_Maid...), which always gives me a laugh when I stumble upon it in a bandit cave. There are some genuinely good short stories in books scattered about the game, too.
I've just started Control and I'm really enjoying the game. Naturally I too am listening, watching and reading all collectables. Its a beautiful game and its art direction very unique.
Doom Eternal was another game I was interested in reading the lore and text. It offers a nice pause from the action.
I loved Control, I played it knowing nothing about it. I wasn't even sure if it was first or third person. Didn't know if it was a shooter or anything.
It's one of those games I wish I could forget and play all over again from the start, anew.
Here's a video that brings more perspective from My Deep Guide who reviews quite a whole lot of e-ink devices (timestamped for relevant part): https://youtu.be/K79MPnPq4_M?t=508
The thing that stood out for me is the way they push for a subscription as you purchase your device. The Marker Plus used to be $99, but they inflated the price to be $129 so that if you choose the Connect plan, it "slashes" the price back to $99 - how it originally cost before, according to the video.
IANAL but have been through the material in compliance training: I'm reasonably sure that this would be illegal according to Australian consumer laws.
You can't advertise a price as having a discount if it was never sold at the higher price.
Since you can technically buy it at the higher price now without the sub, perhaps they could argue that they increased the price of the pen, and introduced the discount in the same stroke, and maybe ACCC would let it slide - but they certainly wouldn't be amused.
The pen pricing is even better in AUD, btw.. and that's WITH the "discounts". AUD170 for the eraser one.
Mind you, those rules don’t stop such things from happening, even from purely Australian companies. I’ve tracked a Clevo-ODM laptop seller for years that’s perpetually at 25–40% discounts across all of their products (though they cycle through some of the specific components that are discounted), and I’ve been tracking one manufacturer’s only-sold-by-them 12V/100Ah LiFePO₄ battery for 15 months when they’ve had a $1,299 RRP marked down to $489–$469, with the alleged RRP recently reduced to $899. I’ve never complained to these companies or to the ACCC, but from other vaguely similar things that I have reported a couple of times I don’t expect much to happen.
For context. Runelite HD is an graphical overhaul plug-in to go with Runelite, the de-facto 3rd party client for OSRS players. The project has been announced a while ago and regularly updated (teased).
This morning we learn that the plug-in would have been released today, but Jagex has asked the developer to shut it down.
I have never seen an app developer berate a customer for saying that ads are disgusting, but that changed today. From one of the review's replies"
"You, instead of Puffin, are disgusting. You are OK to pay for the phone. You are OK to pay for the mobile data. You are NOT willing to pay for the app that you use extensively. You need to fix yourself for not being disgusting."
May be they would have to risk a trial to convict both but he would plea guilty to protect his wife. If the state believes he was the most responsible then they may judge a guaranteed conviction without the cost of trial to be worth it.
The wife (and family) lost 2.6 million, plus her job, and the husband - so it's not like she got away with something, just avoided the worst of the punishment.
If they kept the $2.6M in a liquid saving account just for cases like this one, yeah, that wouldn't be so bad. But I don't expect that's the case and in practice that could mean for example losing her house.
>Insider trading violations may also include "tipping" such information, securities trading by the person "tipped," and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information.
It sounds to me like even giving information to someone if you know that person will trade is illegal.
I had to respond since I didn't want Namecheap to remove my business from the internet. The response from the support agent was:
"""
The preceding report appears to have been sent to you in error. Please accept our apologies for the mix-up and the false positive alert.
Please let us also assure you that we do value our long-term partnership with you and value you as our loyal customer. The situation experienced is no more acceptable to us than it was to you.
Such a time frame was specified in our initial email as phishing is considered to be a time-sensitive issue. However, we try to extend the time frame provided to our loyal customers to the maximum possible extent. Hence, the 24-hour time frame would have been extended in case of no-response from your side and we would tried to reach you again.
"""
I CC'd the CEO, but haven't heard anything direct. I can't have my domains with a company that has their trigger finger glue to the "suspend" button. I just don't know who else to register with. It's all a race to the bottom in terms of service and pricing. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground between MarkMonitor and Namecheap.
There used to be a middle ground between MarkMonitor and NameCheap, but Network Solutions was acquired by web.com. Not horrible but they at least do not have a trigger finger on domains and they proved their backups worked in the OVH fire. I had to help teach their support staff how to use "dig" and it took many emails back and forth to get a new tld set up, but no trigger finger. I am happy with Mark Monitor though.
Glad to hear it's working out for you on the work front Geoffrey. Do you have any concerns about long-term plans living in the van?
Also, any cool stories to tell about power maintenance? I see you have giant solar panels but wonder if they're enough for your daily workload - do you have enough power at night?
Sorry if you've answered these questions before, I'm new to your blog!
Not OP. The van in the article appears to have ~800W of solar on the roof. Depending on preference, lighting requirements can be ~5-30W, laptop requirements ~20-150W. If heating and cooking needs are met with natural gas (the most common solution- and I can see a gas pizza oven in the article). Making some assumptions:
* the solar panels deliver average ~200W for 8hrs per day, 1.6kWh total
* OP has average 50W power draw while working, 8hrs per day, 0.4kWh total
* OP has lighting requirements of ~20W, 4hrs per day, ~0.1kWh
I guess he's probably fairly comfortably net positive for electrical power. In my experience the solar panel estimate is reasonably conservative, although I've experienced some extended periods of very bad weather where my panels produce less than 5% of their rated maximum (in the UK- not Aus!).
Well, it's working for me right now. I've been in the van for a little over six months now and have a planned rough end date around mid next-year, so it's somewhere between living and long-term traveling.
I'm not much of a city dweller. It's not that I hate cities, they have their charms, it's mostly just that the things I most enjoy don't exist in them. My job is reasonably flexible and living in a van allows me to be closer to the things I love to do: skiing, climbing, running/hiking (off road), especially. Typically I'll do one of those for 2-4 hours per work day, and much of the weekend. Because I guess you may wonder: I find this makes me happier and gives me more motivation in general, which, anecdotally, has a positive impact on my work.
A little more background: I work an average of 40hrs/wk; I have no children; minimal financial responsibilities; I live in the van with my partner, who works ~20hrs/wk, also remotely.
I basically travel from activity to activity. Right now I'm skiing. As the snow recedes, I intend to take some time learning to paraglide. Then climbing season will begin. Circumstances permitting, I'm hoping to spend time in Scotland and Norway (in particular) over the spring and summer months, perhaps Greece/Corsica/Sardinia/Spain/Italy (unsure) before winter, then likely the Alps somewhere.
For that 4th bullet, did you mean "hóa vàng"? I think the paper stuff that's burned symbolizes things that will be carried to the afterlife - where their ancestors/dead loved ones currently are. This is why you may find many modern objects like phones, cars or even houses in small paper forms ready to be hóa vàng-ed.
- OSRS quests: Even though the "press spacebar in quests" meme still applies, the quest dialogue box is small enough - with a decent sized font [1]- that I don't feel tired reading through the tidbits one box at a time
- Control: I'm a big fan of SCP so I have an _incentive_ to go through all of the collectible files, then read through them. In this instance, having optional incentivized reads massively boost my enjoyment of the game.
[1]: https://oldschool.runescape.wiki/images/Monkey_Madness_II_-_...