Skip Navigation

User banner

SSTF

@ setsneedtofeed @lemmy.world

Posts
1614
Comments
2595
Joined
3 yr. ago

...

  • Any dead franchises that can survive being rebooted?

    Jump

  • Andromeda. Yeah, the Kevin Sorbo show.

    The premise is actually great, and the overall plot until Robert Wolfe got pushed out showed a lot of promise. The poisonous factor largely came from Sorbo wanting to intentionally turn the show into campy trash, and TV executives who somehow agreed with him.

    Reboot the show, get actors who won't sabotage production, and hire some half decent writers who want to do a Star Trek-like new franchise.

  • What do you think makes a story immersive?

    Jump

  • Following the rules established by the setting is a big one. If I'm constantly thinking "Wait what? That's not how that works?" I'm getting pulled out of the story. The rules can be fantastical but they should be consistent. If the established rules are broken, it should framed as or acknowledged as such. Breaking established rules can be a plot point, that's fine, but just fudging it to move the plot forward is a problem.

    Characters acting in line with their characterization. Characters obviously change, and that includes making choices that are otherwise out of character- but those should be treated as such. I'm talking about the more mundane, unacknowledged flip flopping that obviously just pushes a plot forward.

    Characters in entirely fictional settings should have some thought put into their values. A character from a post-apocalyptic setting that's reformed into a medieval type culture should not talk like or have the values of an American in 2026. Or, an American teenager in 2026 who talks like an out of touch Boomer (because they were written by one) is similarly distracting.

    In anything other than pure comedy having restraint with quips and humor. Not every character should be a snarker, and snark shouldn't be used to undercut moments meant to be taken seriously. The tone depends on the characters, and too much tonal whiplash is immersion breaking.

    In positives, if it is an entirely fictional setting, some thought to how it works goes a long way. I don't need to know the math on logistics, but if a small isolated fictional settlement has an obvious food and water source that passes the eyeball check for plausibility then it removes a potential distraction for someone wondering how it works. This applies to money, governments, currency, all sorts of things. There doesn't need to be a total breakdown how it all works but creating at least the appearance of functioning systems makes a setting more real.

    A lot of this is subjective, and almost all stories can be criticized for some of this, but there's a breaking point which a majority of audiences is probably going to find themselves not getting into the story.

  • Fallout lead Tim Cain argues games industry crisis hasn't reached the level of the 1983 crash: 'I don't think there's ever been a worse time in the games industry'

    Jump

  • There's just so much insane bloat in the industry. It feels like every game made by a AAA studio has a hundreds of millions of dollar budget, and hundreds of people working on it. A lot of people are just completely unfazed by the novelty of high production value anymore. Not a majority, but the number of people checking of AAA seems to grow constantly a little bit over time.

    There's obviously an audience for these massively produced games, but I just don't understand how every AAA game is expected to be successful like this.

    Meanwhile digital publishing, with Steam Early Access being the default example, has lowered the bar to entry in the market to basically nothing. Indie and "AA" games are on the front page of the storefront next to multimillion dollar AAA games.

    Sure the vast majority of Early Access games never get finished enough to grab attention, but given the sheer volume, even a tiny fraction of those games releasing and getting traction dilutes the hold of AAA games.

    People spending time playing Zomboid or Kenshi aren't spending that time playing AAA next big thing.

    I'm not deluded enough to think anything like a majority of gamers are playing mostly indie games, but a noticeable enough amount might be to reduce the needed profit margin of a bloated production.

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • That's the good stuff. You can round it out with the Cain books.

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • I've watched them all, and none of them really felt elevated for me. Ad Astra per Aspera was fine, but I didn't come away with any new interesting thoughts about anything from it.

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • I watched a few episodes of Lazarus and just couldn't get over how convoluted and bizarre in a bad way the premise was.

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • 7-TFA was too afraid to establish a new status quo in the Star Wars universe. It was just the Empire up against the rebels again. It didn't feel like any of the struggle and victories from the previous movies mattered. The New Republic technically existed but we never really saw it enough to get invested. We just saw the confusing Resistance. Han Solo was still a smuggling bum wearing a vest. It was vapid nostalgia bait.

    8-TLJ was made by someone who seemed to actively hate Star Wars. Somehow a Star Wars movie starting with a Yo Mama joke managed to just get worse and worse.

    9-TROS isn't even worth discussing. I don't think anyone wanted to make or see it, but it had to be pushed out by obligation.

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • SNW can be ok, but it leans pretty heavy on the action, and the moral quandary episodes are hit or miss to a high degree. I can't think of a single high concept scifi premise episode of SNW that made me say "Wow." and stuck with me. The war PTSD episode with the transporter buffer triage was very good, but more emotional and less scifi high concept. And I've already seen MASH.

  • What piece of media thoroughly disappointed you?

    Jump

  • Freelancer.

    I know everyone hates games publishers but this was a perfect example of a publisher untangling a mess. Microsoft bought Roberts' company and immediately dialed back the unworkable ambition, put Roberts in a consulting role where he didn't have a final say over anything, and actually got the game finished and released.

    Star Citizen is what happens when the same guy who made such an intractable mess of development discovers an infinite money glitch as long as he never stops developing and never releases a full game.

  • What is a game you can’t understand why its so popular ?

    Jump

  • That's how this goes every time a question like this is asked. I agree. There's a lot of games I personally don't enjoy at all, but I can understand the appeal to a certain audience.

  • [OC] Soviet BMP-1 IFV

    Jump

  • Lemmy Shitpost @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    M55 Heavy Self-Propelled Howitzer

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Skull of a mosasaur

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Soviet BMP-1 IFV

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Cast of large placoderm fish skull

  • What's with black superheroes and lightning powers?

    Jump

  • The fact that you're getting so many replies about other characters should be a sign the premise of the question is faulty. You're asking people to stop giving you examples that contradict your confirmation bias.

  • What character is the king of plot armor?

    Jump

  • The intelligence to curate universes to ensure you're the smartest person in them is like some sort of self sustaining Gary Stu feedback loop.

  • Break the conditioning, maximize your horsepower.

    Jump

  • Someone already linked it, and amazingly the horse electrolytes weren't even the worst thing going on with that guy.

  • What character is the king of plot armor?

    Jump

  • Yes, but my point is that his hyper-intelligence is to a point something we just have to believe in since he is being written by people who aren't hyper-intelligent themselves.

  • What character is the king of plot armor?

    Jump

  • Rick Sanchez.

    He's supposed to be the smartest person in the universe. The rub is that the writers aren't as smart as they want him to be, so that leads to them writing his enemies to be dumber than how smart they can write him, to preserve his in-universe superior intelligence.

    He can make anything out of anything. He has cybernetic implants that can do anything the plot needs.

    I actually like the show (a social crime in 2026) but being an overpowered, plot armored, walking deus ex machina is his gimmick.

  • [OC] Saw this guy bringing home some food

    Jump

  • I think it's a green shield bug.

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Saw this guy bringing home some food

  • srsly though, i hate it when newspapers say "slam"

    Jump

  • Senator Michaels took a folding chair from the top rope to the proposed highway grading study budget!

  • Lemmy Shitpost @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    Break the conditioning, maximize your horsepower.

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Heckler & Koch HK53 Firing Port Weapon and M231 Firing Port Weapon

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Cast of a Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis skull

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Asaphus kowalewskii trilobite

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Naturally occurring pyrite cubes

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    Mark VIII "Liberty" tank. One of three still in existence.

  • HistoryArtifacts @piefed.social
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    1903 bolt action Springfield rifle with a Pedersen Device, which converted it to submachinegun, and a prototype semi-automatic RIA rifle.

  • HistoryArtifacts @piefed.social
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    Mark VIII "Liberty" tank. One of three still in existence.

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world
    OC

    T131 atomic cannon

  • HistoryArtifacts @piefed.social
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    US military Model 1910 equipment

  • HistoryArtifacts @piefed.social
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    Model 1899 Krag-Jorgensen carbine and Model 1892 Krag-Jorgensen rifle

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    Delivering a dinosaur for the exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. Arthur Pollock, 1984.

  • pics @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    The instruc

  • Comic Books @lemmy.world
    SSTF @lemmy.world

    Uncanny X-Men #251, Nov. 1989. One of the most iconic X-Men covers. Created by Marc Silvestri and Dan Green.