8 Comments

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  Infinitron

  November 6, 2012 at 6:10 AM

  You know your Twitter feed embedding isn’t working, right?
• Liveware Quickies: Normative Morality And Narrative Analysis Of Fiction « liveware.problem

  November 7, 2012 at 5:34 PM

  […] Campster in Errant Signal: Dishonored and The Cynical Brit in Content Patch have talked about the respective games and their positions. […]
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  Green

  November 9, 2012 at 2:38 PM

  That was a really good review. You knocked that one out of the ballpark.
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  The Occupant

  November 15, 2012 at 12:53 PM

  A bit of an aside, but the animation reminds me of your video on photorealism. The models themselves are gorgeous, if repugnant, and full of character. The body *animations*, at least those shown/ have that marionette style that reminds me of N64 Goldeneye or, being generous, Half-Life 1.
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  DraQ

  March 30, 2013 at 10:20 AM

  I find it fairly disturbing that people conflate setting of a game/novel/movie with author’s ideal world.

  Honestly, It’s pretty dumb. Accusing game set in a world that at times closely mirrors XIX century Britain of misogyny, while implying it somehow reflects developers’ attitudes is on par with stating that developers would like to live in a world where getting falsely diagnosed with plague, then thrown into Flooded District so corrupt officials could take your stuff is a daily risk.

  And without such implication, why raise the point at all? It’s not a problem in that case, it’s just part of the setting. Settings don’t have to be *nice*, you know. World that would be good to live in rarely overlaps with one where you can have thrilling adventures.

  Sure, there are works of fiction endorsing fairly disagreeable viewpoints, but they are usually easy to see through and I definitely wouldn’t accuse Dishonored of being one.

  What I find even more disturbing is that gender/sexuality ‘issues’ somehow get preferential treatment. Singling out misogyny in a place where people are still used as expendable slave labour just feels wrong.

  Next, the morality/chaos system. I actually find it pretty clever. First the authors dodge the issue of forcing their morality on player by denying that it’s a measure of morality at all.
  But, through the consequences of your disruptive actions and/or high bodycount it ends up being a morality system of sorts, after all, but a higher level one.
  The game doesn’t concern itself with whether it’s moral to off a guard officer X (in general or compared to unlucky civilian Y). Indeed, if you use The Heart (another pretty interesting mechanics you unfortunately glossed over) on this person, you may learn that killing them is probably the closest to justice they’ll ever get, and likely better for people who would be unlucky to meet him later. However killing the guy increases chaos and further erodes already crumbling mechanisms upkeeping (very imperfect and unjust) social order and controlling the spread of the plague, so if you care, you’ll ask yourself if it’s worth it. If you don’t, well, you reap what you sow.

  As for lady Boyle, I don’t really see any “slut shaming” context, and generally would dismiss trying to find something she gets “punished” for as digging too deep and in the wrong game. She’s in the way of your little rebellion, so it sucks to be her - just as with many of those unlucky people you dispatch, many of whom genuinely believe that it was you who murdered the empress for no reason and justifiably want a piece of you.

  I don’t really see the complaint about characterization as valid either, as you get to know characters about as much as your character does (Daud being interesting notwithstanding).

  Really, the worst I can say of dishonored is that AI is dumber than bag of bricks and that blinking around can get very ‘sploity, leaving opposition completely overwhelmed by your capabilities.
  Also lighting sucks, painterly stylization evidently doesn’t work for large 3D scenes and the story was a bit too straightforward.
  Oh, I would definitely agree about start being too abrupt without giving you enough reasons to *care*.

  Other than that it’s a really good Deus Ex-like, with gorgeous art direction, unique and interesting setting, a lot of systemic interplay, really good feeling movement and nice feeling weapons.
  Other than grenades - they felt weak somehow.
• 

  John

  December 4, 2013 at 3:55 PM

  You’re wrong. EVERYONE remembers Gunther as the guy who likes orange soda.
• 

  hoodie pullover large

  October 25, 2014 at 1:25 AM

  Your style is unique compared to other people I’ve read
  stuff from. Thanks for posting when you’ve got the opportunity,
  Guess I will just book mark this page.
• 

  romance

  May 13, 2016 at 6:47 AM

  I was wondering if you ever thought of changing
  the layout of your blog? Its very well written;
  I love what youve got to say. But maybe you could a little more in the way
  of content so people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful
  lot of text for only having one or 2 pictures. Maybe you could
  space it out better?