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You all probably dont care but does anyone know of a trick to get back into an instagram account?? I stupidly lost my account password. I appreciate any assistance you can offer me

@Adam Harlan Instablaster ;)

@Crosby Knox i really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff now. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later with my results.

@Crosby Knox it did the trick and I now got access to my account again. Im so happy! Thank you so much, you saved my account!

Could you please sign my petition?

@Kinjo, Hi I disagree. I usually don't post when I disagree but this guy just is too self-involved for me. He speaks likes he has all the truths. I think he thinks too much of himself. FYI: Like with the Half-life Gordon Freeman character; So yeah, perhaps, the art work can be doubted but we don't see him in the game, he's you! It's and its FPS, as in First person, you don't even see what he looks like. He's a scientist that want's to get out alive of this thing gone wrong and stumbles upon a government and alien conspiracy. What does he want?: to stay alive, what does he do?: he ask the player(you playing) to help him do this. So you try your best. Linear scripting here is needed because its not an open-world. He does not just do what people tell him, he needs all the info he can get, wich tells the story and thereby your motivation. I think Hollywood just got to his head.

Also some people do pick up ammo and health packs while you talk to them, it's pretty common even in and in particular in emergency situations where time is very valuable

Yeah, that conflict thing is all the fuss in quick USA functional narrative, but not a wholesome thing.

How has your designing characters gone? I have been working on it myself and seem to have a little trouble with coming up with designs, I've just been working on basics like gestures and stuff in the mean time

I am also in the same boat. For me, Silent Protagonists are the king class of PCs. But the general concepts taught in the video are still useful. Despite this contradiction.

I disagree with him about "Gone Home" being a game.

@@pockypurse :D

Damn, you're one good dad

After 2 years, did you do it?

Same. A brand new HD overhaul Remake would sell very well today.

Right? LoD was my final fantasy

Joel doesn't come across as a battle hardened veteran and he's actually reluctant to do much of anything, even take care of Ellie, in the beginning. You could argue that his desire to protect Ellie is quite strong considering he lost his daughter, making him more capable of a killing spree, but if we're talking about skill, then I'd agree with you - as far as we know, he's just some guy. I think Ellie on the other hand was more than capable given that zombie survival is all she knows, so I felt more connected with her during her section and found it to be the highlight of the game since being a teenager made her even more vulnerable, despite being more capable than Joel. It makes sense to have her as the main character in the sequel. P.s. please don't spoil TLOU2, I've yet to play it, but good point you made there!

@@ItsPBUH Haven't played the sequel either -- looking forward to it. And yeah, combat skill is what I had in mind re: dissonance. Emotionally/motivationally it all worked for me!

@@ItsPBUH Thats an interesting point I would argue that he has had to survive for 20 years in that world but I can definitely see where your point of view comes from.

I would say that you where not able to suspend your disbelief of the infinite enemy hoard trope due to the grounded and realistic aesthetic atmosphere the game used. which is an interesting consequence of the way they chose to tell the story.

I knew I'd find one of these here lol

I was wondering if anyone commented this, and here it is xD. I wonder what this guy thinks about that game.

The Last of Us 2 😂

Lol, didn't work on me at all

I would legitimately like to hear what this talk would be like applied to TLOU2. I actually enjoyed the game but I definitely wasn’t on board with a lot of character choices or what I was forced to do. But I think that reveling in that distress was a unique experience that I hadn’t really experienced before

Movies also have too many of these last second lucky moments and things being too convenient at the right time. The hollow character problem is too common all over. Many games have this typical habit of making sure that the player is suddenly alone before the problems start. After the player had to deal with the mess solo, they talk about "we" as if they were present and helping with something that they wanted.

he's out-gunning the military because black mesa corporatives thought it would be a good idea to make hev suit basically an armored suit with integrated medical assistance and targeting system

Mackie Messer They are so damn good!

I didn't know about any of this. GDC is bad at advertising, and I want GDCVault now

I'd actually say his talk shows why people should be more open minded about the new Saints Row Reboot. So much of what he talks about can be seen with what they are doing and how they are likely to handle things. The bit about Walter White as a character and the subject of contrast was a big one (especially since Breaking Bad is a clear inspiration for the game) "one of the things that makes characters really interesting is when you have maximum contrast between their characterization and the actions that they take" With Walter White that contrast is how he starts as a meek chemistry teacher and goes on to become a drug kingpin. Likewise there is a similar contrast at work with the characters introduced for the new Saints Row reboot and their eventual goal of forming a criminal empire. The contrast is what will make them interesting characters because it allows for more of a journey as they have to grow and evolve to become the new Saints rather than starting already custom made for it. If they already fit the roles like a glove then there's far less room for them to grow and develop over the course of the story because they would already be most of the way there. But in this case they aren't there yet and that's the idea, just like Walter White as a chemistry teacher wasn't yet at the point of being a drug kingpin. He had to go through various events, set backs, difficulties, and character growth to get there just like the new characters likely will on their way to becoming "Saints" in the new game. Also on the subject of unifying character purpose. The new crew want to grow into a criminal empire, likewise fans will want them to grow as well so that they can become the characters people want the Saints to be. Players want the Saints and therefore have a vested interest in these characters growing into people who can properly fill that role. Unification of action, the characters will work to build up a gang and eventually a criminal empire and that's exactly again what players will want to do as well. People have been clamoring for a return to some of the gang concepts of early titles and not only are we getting that but we get to watch it get built up from complete scratch all the way to a criminal empire. The importance of characters having to have obstacles between the character and the objective. Meaning this new crew will inevitably face numerous obstacles and hardships in order to get what they want which in turn forces the aforementioned character growth to change them from nobodies to Saints. He very clearly knows what he's talking about and the fact that what's going on with the new game fits so well with the concepts in this talk just shows that he and Volition aren't just making this up as they go or doing it on a whim. They have a plan for how it needs to be handled to make it work even if that's not immediately obvious with where it begins.

I have to completely agree with the respondent, this is in no way "an anime problem", some of the most rounded and human antagonists I can think of are from anime. True, some really, really crappy ones exist in anime, but that is equally true for video games, and Hollywood movies. Most "over power" characters in any form of fiction have that issue.

If anime for you is all about neverending shounens, then you're right. But anime has much more than Naruto, Dragonball, Bleach or One Piece including overpowered characters whose powers turn against them (e.g. Madoka or Claymore). And even those shonens are not that simple at time (e.g. my namesake for One Piece). But yeah, even good anime is not secured from a pitfall - so everything beyond the Golden Age in Berserk is this kind of example.

@@LukeVilent Well in dragonball goku wants to protect the people he cares about, has and always will. As he gets stronger though he desires stronger opponents to improve himself because he gets bored (like any real person would), he seeks to challenge himself.

@@AstraAnime Well, this is exactly what the author perhaps used to mean. So the guy - whatever guy, first has stats 10 and is struggling to get over 9000 to protect the beloved ones - and here you have a drama. Suddenly his stats are over 100500 bazzillon, and in order to continue the franchise you need to drop even stronger opponents for no obvious reason except for saving eventually the very Live, Universe and Everything from an imminent annihilation. It's kinda hard not to make this into a spiral of boredom.

Their want is the conflict

he does not have a personality and he does not have objectives, you have. He is just an avatar and it would be a lie to say that he is a good character. Whether he is or not does not matter because it isn't the main focus of Half-Life.

You say revenge I say the player is acting in self defense

But they design the gameplay to fit the char, like if ur playin' Barbie's dream house, and they added a gameplay mechanic where she wield's a torch, n' start's lightin' asses on fire, that's a gameplay reflection on HER. Doesn't matter wat U do, just the fact that it's there shows that Character -> gameplay. Not to mention if u add Bazooka's, Medieval Sword's, n'' Ninja Dagger's - 2 her arsenal. -',`x'D"

But that's not what she's doing, that's what you're making her do. She has the torch, but I choose how and what she does with it, but often we see in games that what we do with the character is not what they are necessarily assumed to be doing and that their actions are more diverse when they are disconnected from us. This is often visible in cutscenes, where our characters end up having not only more diverse reactions compared to what we can express and that their feelings on a situation can be not only different from ours but dichotomously opposed. This is how games can create ludonarrative dissonance, as you get the Nathan Drake scenario where Nathan Drake is somehow dropping pithy one liners after killing a small village of people and seem like a sociopath. Man, I want to go into this more but I am not very verbose coming off of spring break with little sleep XD.

A blank canvas at least offers the possibilities... Interesting thought... One can make someone need something, but to want something is his decision. So I guess a game attempting to make someone want something has to establish the need and then the player and character wanting it are automatically on the same page, while establishing that a character wants something forces to player to just follow him.

Herr Schmidt empty characters are rough. Bella from twilight is an empty character. She has brown hair, has divorced parents, is "pretty", and her biggest personal concern is that she's too fat. That is all that exists about her back story, and that exists about her appearance. Anyone who doesn't relate to that at all doesn't insert themselves into her character, they just see her as a disposable background character whose best purpose is as vampire food. It's the same with the emotionless white males with brown hair and husky quiet voices especially if its like it was in Watchdogs 1 where it's a emotionless white male with brown hair who is also a a middle aged programmer.

Ubisoft and Activision games are popular too. You need to tell what you are talking about. The challenge of the game or the story? I dont think that much people would FINISH hatred just for the story. Also manhunt isnt popular because its a game, its because word of mouth "hey man, you know this game which you strangle people using a bag?", it gets bigger and bigger and people who play the game plays it for a 30 minute and get bored. You call that popular, or ''popular''?

You're kind of taking what he is saying a little too literally and missing the point that is being made with the statement. When he says that it's a problem for characters to do what they are told that isn't a overarching statement that applies to every single iteration of a character being told something. You have to note the context of the rest of the talk alongside it. To give an example look at Gordon Freeman vs Geralt. Gordon Freeman has no real personality. He gets told what to do, and he does it. No context from him, no real involvement from him. As Bernstein mentions towards the start he's basically an avatar. He may have a face and some background details but we aren't given any real context of what Gordon wants, why Gordon is doing this, what Gordon thinks about what's happening. He's a blank canvas for the player to take control of which while I wouldn't say that's automatically a bad thing it does make him fairly weak in terms of being an actual character. Now compare that to Geralt. Yes Geralt often does things he is told but there's context behind that. He takes jobs because he's a witcher and that's his career (also because he wants money), he does what he is told because it will help him achieve his own desires, he takes orders because it is to help a friend. And beyond that simple act of doing the action we also get all sorts of other context of Geralt's thoughts and involvement in regards to what he's doing through his dialogue and response to what is happening around him. As a more specific example at the beginning of Witcher 3 you have the Gryphon hunt. Geralt and Vesemir openly state that they wouldn't do it for free Geralt only takes on the job because he then finds out that doing so could lead to information on Yennefer. So while he is doing something he is being told to do there is character motivation and context backing it up. Beyond this as he goes through the quest we get opportunities to explore his thoughts on the matter such as his dialogue with the Nilfgardian commander over how he's handling their control of the territory. Geralt isn't just an avatar, he's not just mindlessly doing the task with context or comment. He's an actual character who has his own thoughts, opinions, and motivations which is the key difference and that is the point Bernstein is making overall. It's not purely just a case of doing what they are told = bad, That point is in combination with the rest of the discussion regarding the difference between a character and an avatar.

@@CeliriaRose Hello:) Dammit, I was writing a well-structured comment, about 7000 character long, and then I pressed some combination of keys on my keyboard and it disappeared. The worst thing is, I hardly remember or care enough to write it again, or to even make a better version of it, so I'll just say this: you are correct, but I was talking about how characters are essentially led to an ending, doesn't matter whether they serve as a function (Gordon) or they're an actual person (Geralt). The difference between Gordon and Geralt is that Geralt's rationale falls under grand narrative and the story of the game, which makes it a good dramatic peice to observe and participate in, while Gordon simply observes and reacts in order to progress through the rest of the game by observing more of the story (this is Call Of Duty 101).

@@phlegios I mean you aren't technically wrong but given the talk is expressly about character writing it's reasonable for it to take a stance more in that direction than the idea of the mostly blank observer type of protagonist. If it was a more broad talk just about making a good game protagonist there would be more room for debate but in regards specifically to strong character writing an in depth character like Geralt is obviously going to be the clear winner simply due to the fact that silent protagonists are weakly written characters by design (because they aren't supposed to really be characters beyond a basic context to justify their existance within the story). So in regards to your original comment he's not contradicting himself because the talk is specifically on the subject of strongly written characters as opposed to simply being a good protagonist. Also I would add a side note that good characters aren't necessarily lead to an ending. Ideally in character writing you want it to feel like the characters were the ones creating their own path. They make their own decisions, they have their own will. The player will inevitably end up being lead but it's a matter of whether it's the NPCs or the protagonist who does the leading.

@@CeliriaRose Maybe you're right in that he didn't say anything contradictory. I haven't watched this vid since the first time 6 months ago, and really now isn't the time to rewatch it, so I'll just agree with you on that one. Also, could you note (although there's no need, just curious) any games where the protagonist moves the story forward instead of NPCs doing the job for them? Maybe we could argue over that topic :)

@@phlegios Witcher 3 as mentioned is primarily driven by Geralt primarily in regards to him trying to save/help Ciri (though towards the end Ciri takes some control to fit the theme of the story). The Uncharted games are generally driven forward by Nathan Drake with him pursuing the treasure and seeking out clues. Red Dead Redemption 2 has a mix where early on Arthur starts more subservient to other characters but gradually shifts to being more in control of what he does later on. Now that I think about it Rockstar tends to like that kind of style of a character being pushed around until eventually breaking free as other games like GTA V and Max Payne 3 follow a similar style. Speaking of Max Payne 1 was also driven by it's titular character (though most revenge based stories kind of naturally lend towards that). It's actually a bit tough to come up with a lot as many games tend to like to lean towards either more simple blank protagonists that won't get in the way or fully player driven.

Haha, as someone with ADHD noticing him talking to himself made me empathize with him more lmao. I guess its all in perspective

You don't talk to yourself?

that's a shame. being human is actually kinda cool, you should try it sometimes

I didn't like Gone Home tbh

TLoU's ending is AWESOME

@Caleb Geizer there's a journal you can find that says they tried it multiple times and made zero progress on a cure

​@@LieseFury That is considering you did find it.. And read it.. I never read codex's in games. You want me to understand your world, either show it to me or explain it as I go along through a more immersive approach rather than a wall of text. This can be an npc giving pieces of information, this can be through a clue finding thing that you see in many other rpgs and Gone Home

I hate TLoU 2

Sorry, hate to break it to you. But you didn't seem to get it at all then. The latest movies didnt just lack strong written characters. It lacked plot as a whole seeing as it just redid the same story with the same kind of characters. (father son, turning evil turning good, killing baddie) It was very inconsistent and lacked continuity. The new sabers still feel weird to me, the protagonist being strong with the force not needing any training felt very off since it was nothing like how it was with anakin) There were no force powers in most of the fights despite her being strong with the force and not needing any training. So it also lacked fitting star wars like fight choreography. You bring up Darth Maul, which has an excellent fight / duel sequence that people love to refer to to this day.. But the Fight Choreography in the latest movies is just so incredibly bad, that every time you go and watch the new films, you are left thinking why the heroes won a particular fight with all these clunky moves they put out.

@@somethingsomething7507 In the case of the topic this Ted Talk is about. I see why the new Star Wars went wrong with their Characters. In the case of everything else as you mention? You are right, it was not only the Characters that went wrong. Everything went wrong. Not even have Darth Maul some great moves, but he also has a stronger will and therefore is a stronger character than Ray. According to this Ted Talk.

Yes, as is (almost) always the case. There are pretty simple rules about how to build a theme, story, characters, story arcs etc. and there is an incredible amount of movies that just don't do it. It's also why I defend episode 1 - it has that. It is poorly shot, it has bad lines, etc. but everyone has some motivation, some goals, plot has a reason, etc.

He wants your gold! He wants a successful business. Not everyone wants to slay dragons, but every character has a want.

I know this reply is a year late, but whatever. Just by looking at the characters and game examples he gives it's clear to see he means all major characters. So he is saying this principal should always apply to your main character, the antagonist, companions and yes it should also always apply to any major named npc like a quest giver or someone of importance like a landlord, family member, mentor, etc as well. And I 100% agree with this. So to clarify, a merchant the player talks to whose only purpose in your game is to influence the player's gold or inventory space obviously does not apply to this concept. That just wouldn't be very practical. Ofcourse, this does not mean a merchant cant be an npc that gets introduced, dreams of opening up a shop somewhere and later in your game opens up that shop whether it be through timetravelling mechanics, or having the player helping them out in the form of giving away their gold. The important take away is that by giving a character a want, you have added a layer to these characters that allow the player to be more immersed into your world. Again, it does and should not apply to all characters, but if you want a stronger represented character in your world, this is how you do it.

Merchants are also not the people you go to for character development and the like, they are here on both levels here to buy and sell stuff, in most games the fact that they don't go beyond that doesn't matter to the players

While there is some truth to "let it go at some point" , "cool" is not a metric. Composition and Design is a deep topic and when properly applied, separates the emotionally working games from the ones that don't. Just like with paintings. Yes, it is absolutely worth it to dabble hours or days establishing proper use of color theory for your game. It is not something arbritrary or spontanious. At least not entirely. It requires a lot of knowledge and iteration, or "fiddling".

Doesn't make it good, and that's one which, from what I can see, is a F2P, whale-based income stream

why can't it,.game?'"

All movies, books and games with stories are just stories. Just using different methods to tell those stories.

In swedish we have two words that separate game into two categories. First one is "spel", it's something like chess. And then there's "lek" which is things like "house". You can't win at "hourse" or "fireman" but you can win at "spel". I think Gone home might have more in common with playing "house" than it does with chess.

"Can we just agree that "Gone Home" is NOT a game" No. We can't.

no