Self Immolation

This week’s “Free Thursday” offering is not safe for work. MA for language, lots of it.

If you played video games back when “ridiculously complex and totally arbitrary solution space” was the usual victory condition, you will appreciate this (if you haven’t seen it already):

Patrick

Patrick is a mid-40 year old geek with an undergraduate degree in mathematics and a master's degree in Information Systems. Nothing he says here has anything to do with the official position of his employer or any other institution.

12 Comments

  1. The near 14 minute mark where he’s making incoherent noises is my favorite part.

    • I particularly enjoyed “This is worse than Ann Coulter,” and when he stipulates that it is also worse than both the novel (including author citation!) and the movie versions of “The Da Vinci Code.”

  2. Kind of reminds me of that guy who was teaching some kind of literature class and decided to have the class play “Ultima 7” as an example of how games could really tell a good story and still be open-ended.

    It was a disaster, because the kids were used to the end product of 20 years of video-game development since Ultima 7 came out, and found it completely unplayable.

  3. “Who mastered the art of invisible block technology?” Hilarious.

  4. … at least it isn’t the game that induces heart attacks. They pulled that one after it killed someone… [And then they made a sequel! That one was less deadly though…]

  5. If this game looks fun, allow me to recommend “Super Meat Boy”.

    That’s the modern game that this made me think of.

    • Didn’t Dungeons and Dragons lead someone to suicide? A while back I think.

      Come to think of it, it’s probably led many to suicides. We’re not talking, “Candy Land” or “Chutes and Ladders” here. Does anyone know of chess and suicide?

      • Generally speaking, “broken sense of self” is what leads to suicide.

        Everything else is typically window dressing.

      • Bobby Fischer’s story is not exactly a happy one.

        Unless you believe everything you read in a Jack Chick publication (indicating that you already lack the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality), chances are good you’re thinking about that made-for-tv movie called “Mazes and Monsters,” based on the saddening but not-related-to-Dungeons-and-Dragons suicide of James Dallas Egbert III in 1980.

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