Sunday is for buying your book from an independent bookstore. Before you support a local business, read this week’s best articles on games (and game-related things).
On The Washington Post, Aidan Moher considers how The greatest Japanese RPGs of the 90s have come to the West. Moher talks to native Westerners about how the industry has gone from “late minded” to “small industry”.
“In the Dark Ages [of localization],” Smith said, “I’m picturing a guy in a room alone, just saying the words. No matter how good a writer you are, you won’t be able to produce your best material under those circumstances.” With a string of Western hits in hand, Square began to realize the value of high-quality localization, leading to new collaborations between Japanese creators and Western localizers. “Suddenly you are giving people more time, and ultimately paying people better.” Funny enough, Smith said, localizers start working better when they don’t starve and burn out.
Diego Nicolás Argüello wrote an article for The Verge on Dwarf Fortress breaking 16 years old tradition by hiring another programmer. Content includes Putnam joining the Dwarven Fortress team and her experience working with the game’s code, among other details.
Putnam says that typically open source projects will choose to use a standardized code format. Even if that wasn’t the case with Dwarf Fortress, she found it easy enough. “It’s just one person’s password. It is very consistent. People ask how bad I am at coding and I don’t know what they mean,” she laughs. Algorithmically, the game is “fairly well optimized,” and she doesn’t seem to think major changes can be made. “Dwarf Fortress does more calculations than most games. It’s amazing how it runs better than The Sims 3.”
On Uppercut Crit, Camille Butera wrote about Food community in Citizen Sleeper. Butera ponders how the game sees food not only as something that helps maintain our physical fitness, but as a way to share joy with others.
Completing the quest requires access to one of the last unlockable zones: it’s the quest that haunted me when I first played the game—a quest that may not continue the plot, but It was on my to-do list again, a little reminder of coming together that I left unfinished. And when I finished it, bringing along the mushrooms he needed, which my Sleeper had planted himself, I had a feeling of satisfaction. After all, I brought joy to this character. And in return, I witnessed a moment of closeness, a bond over food that pleased both parties—for the caterer, the awakening of old memories, for the Sleeper, the development of new things. The sleeper becomes important in this space, a creative person, who belongs to the ecology of this space, both ecologically and socially.
For Newsweek, Alice Gibbs wrote about a guy who thinks his wife doesn’t respect him as a pilot. Except he’s never flown a plane – unbelievable.
Some commenters compare it to other professions and hobbies. One Reddit user wrote: “I have 590 days of Duolingo, so I call myself an interpreter for the UN,” while another posted: “Flying permits involve some flight hours. reality, not simulation. If that were the case, every GTA fan would be a driving champ.”
This week’s music is Amtrac’s Extra Time album. This is Spotify link And YouTube link. An album specially tailored to go around a Cyberpunk city at night.
That’s it for this week folks, have a great weekend!
