Ice Cream Jonsey wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2017 7:34 pm One thing that is true is that Gone Home and Dear Esther got an inordinate amount of coverage due to the fact that the developers were buddy buddy with game journos.

In case anyone forgot, the whole Gamergate scandal started because Zoe Quinn, a game developer who wrote a game called "Depression Quest", was a bit more than buddy buddy with game journalists. She was fucking some of them for good reviews of her (pun intentional) depressingly bad game.

Ok. Having thought about it, he's been fine here. And I might have been in sleep debt. So I walk all that back about this place.

It is truly a sombre day for us all.

That's because Mays posted mEHHH all over it, torpedoing your thread. I don't want him accessing my systems any more because of exactly what you described. I do NOT need the constant bitch-ass negativity.

I am just amazed, because what kind of piece of trash dedicates his life to destroying the forums that one guy that he claims to like has put together? There's millions of other ones to ruin, but he's obsessed with the two that I put together.

So, enough of that. I don't want him around. He was better here since he got reinstated, but it doesn't matter, a clean break is what is needed.

Btw, i posted my review on Caltrops just to confirm that I knew exactly what would happen.

It did.

Quite a website you've got over there.

Well, I was not attempting to convert anyone, I just think it is the only thing that does what it does, and is memorable and beautiful for it.

I look forward to hearing your impressions.

Very well then, I shall get it too. You have converted me.

Well, I streamed 95% of it last night, then finished the last bit in the morning, and immediately replayed the entire thing. You can speedrun it in under a half-hour if you know where you're going.

I can understand why it bombed (and so do they, according to the article I read) -- I'm sure most would find it very short for $10, there's (almost) no replayability other than to see how cool it is again, and it is most definitely firmly affixed in the "walking simulator" genre, which I am thinking people have had enough of.

But what a walk.

Complaints about the story are valid. Complaints about the length and the price are valid. ALL OF YOUR COMPLAINTS ARE VALID. But it's just the most beautiful, coolest thing I've ever seen, and there is one moment, one small interlude that finally got me to shut up on my stream last night and let the game play, because it was so hauntingly beautiful.

No complaints here.

Also, not having read up on the history or knowing the actual truth, my theory would be that it bombed because I didn't know about it. I mean, really, in a sense. I have a loving, intimate past with both Introversion and cave games, am ensconced in the gaming culture, and I had no idea it existed until yesterday, when I found it by accident.

Marketing problem. That's my uneducated theory.

I never played Gone Home, and while I didn't have a gob-slobberin' reaction to Dear Esther, my position is still that it had the greatest caves in all of gaming, so when I saw it was a cave game based on the best part of Dear Esther (which is the best part of any game ever, for a cave-lover) it had the desired effect on me.

At any rate, you can go ahead and save yourself $10, because the Pinback Morning Show will be streaming it at 9 PM Central on Friday night!

If it's a nighttime stream, is it still the Pinback Morning Show? All signs point to "yes"!

This lost them a ton of money. I am going to quote to you why people stayed away.

This is its intro:

"Inspired by Gone Home and Dear Esther, Scanner Sombre is a..."

Those are two games that a great number of people hate. Those are two games that a great number of people feel are representative of the growing worthlessness of certain genres of games. Those are opinions I do not share, but that's the reality of it. One thing that is true is that Gone Home and Dear Esther got an inordinate amount of coverage due to the fact that the developers were buddy buddy with game journos.

Why on earth Introversion decided to lead with that, I have no idea. But they were targeting a very specific set of people with that opening, to the point where someone like me (who would gladly buy anything they ever made up until I read that sentence) alt-tabbed away.

Somehow without my knowing it, Introversion (of DEFCON & Prison Architect fame) released a cave exploration game in April. WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED?

There is that very rarest of things, a Steam Demo for it.

If you like adventure, caves, and all things cool, when that demo screen says "This is the end of the demo, BUY NOW?", if your mouse (err, trackball?) doesn't immediately click that shit, I will be impressed.