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Actually, it's nothing nothing Candle.
Back to you.

Wait, does that mean the title was "Candle"? 

It grinds my gears that there are so many nature "documentaries" that are all about painting nature as some kind of giant gladiator arena that's all about animals killing each other,

It was only a few years ago that I learnt that documentaries aren't supposed to teach you stuff. They're just there to be entertaining. So with that in mind, things such as "facts" usually don't matter.
I know that I sound dumb for having not realized that sooner. But you can't blame me for not realizing that something as boring as documentaries, were being made as entertainment. 

I liked a number of the games I played this year, and more would be nice

A bit of shameless self promotion, but my game Black Friday:https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/2304/ is a comedy horror.
As for pure horror, how about The Terrible Old Man: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1901-the-terrible-old-man/.
It's short, but should be right up your alley, considering it's based on Lovecraft.

I then loaded up Out of time and it couldn't detect the game. I think, as far as I could tell, they tell the SCUMMVM Launcher the titles of each game manually in their code.

Yes, that's the real problem, unlike with ags engine they require a hardcoded detection info (exe filename and md5 summ). Guess this worked well with ancient engines where all the games were released 10+ years ago. But with AGS this will become a nuisance as more games are released in real time.
I explained how AGS engine detects games to the programmer who ported it, but idk if they are allowed to implement separate detection methods in scummvm. If they could, maybe they could've just parse the folder for ags data and read game titles from there.

ScummVM doesn't seem to have any problem with detecting AGI fan games. So it's definitely possible for them to implement a more general detection system.

Japan still stubbornly think there’s going to be an Olympics this year. I can’t see it happening. We haven’t even started vaccinating yet. There’s talk of having it behind closed doors but what would be the point?

Do you think we're going to get a "Mario and Sonic at the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games" if it does happen this year? 

What's going on in that picture? 

If I had to take a guess, there's a white wall with a smaller red wall protruding out of it at an angle, somewhere in real life. So someone took a photo and drew an outline around that red wall to make it look like when you're placing an object in an invalid position on a game.
But it looks photoshopped, so maybe not. 

I just tried the latest Daily snapshot of SCUMMVM and it now supports AGS games. But I think it is limited to like up to 2.73 or something like that for now. https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#daily

By that, do you mean that it doesn't play any game made before 2.73, or that it doesn't play any game made after 2.73?

I will admit, you've definitely nailed that Sierra art style.

...why do I have a sudden urge to play Settlers III again?

Really?
Personally it gives me the urge to play Age of Empires. 

And if "gamers" can keep up the meaningless hyperbole for this long without being drained, I'm fairly sure everyone else can. Especially when it comes down to politics.

Aren't gamers the prime example of wearing their superlatives thin? I've seen so many games called "best game ever", in some cases before the game is even out and playable (see: Cyberpunk 2077) that it's become an utterly meaningless phrase. Same for review scores.

You know that picture with the cup and two faces. I feel like we're talking about that.
Because the reason you just brought up, was the exact same reason why I brought it up in the first place. But clearly we're both looking at it from different viewpoints. 

Hello all,

It was over two years ago that I decided I would make narrative games. Yet it was only a couple months ago I started the creation of my first game (which you can find here).

So what happened between these two events? What I did for two years? I documented myself to get ready for it.

Not only I looked into how to use AGS or other engines, I also looked into games themselves, read articles on the topic, played games to see what was good or not good, and above all, constantly reminded myself that I did not know anything about making games and I had to learn and learn and learn more.

Sounds exactly like what I've been doing for the past decade.
The only difference is, I've only been doing it as a hobby. 

I took a quick look at your blog. It looks interesting. I might give it a more indepth look at a later time.

Meaningless hyperbole drains people, though. If everything is "the worst X ever", then eventually nothing is really the worst. Same for "best X ever".

Have you ever seen how "gamers" act? 
I wish you were right, but unfortunately you clearly aren't.

And if "gamers" can keep up the meaningless hyperbole for this long without being drained, I'm fairly sure everyone else can. Especially when it comes down to politics.

No we won't. We'll just go with "worse than Trump!" And that says it all. 

And if someone is worse then that person, we'll just say "worse than *insert name of previous worst president here*."
You really can't run out of descriptions for terrible leaders. 

Also, I love the Thanos story! Is that of your own creation?

Yep, I made it there and then. Thanks. 
It took a while to come up with it though. 

[Why did Thanos just snap his...]

"For Sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."

I get that the story is meant to make you think that the baby died. But I honestly can't help but think that the baby was simply born with big feet, and that it's actually a story about how you shouldn't buy too many baby clothes for a newborn.

So here's my six word story:
Why did Thanos just snap his...

I thought I'd already mention it, but I'll say it again: I don't think every single piece of media has to pass any such criteria, but I do think more should, and those that doesn't pass the criteria should have a good reason as to why.

So they aren't required to pass the test but they must have a good reason for failing it?

Who decides what constitutes a "good" reason for failing the test?

I don't want to talk for Blondbraid, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I can tell, what she's saying is like when a humble vegan explains why they don't eat animal products.
She's not telling you to adopt her belief, but she's hoping that by explaining it, others will gain a better understanding and at the very least consider adopting it.

So to answer your question, the person who constitutes a "good" reason for failing the test, would be the person watching the movie or TV show at that time.

The people talking about the Bechdel test are critics, not cultural dictators.

Interesting choice of words.

When a critic says that some form of entertainment should pass a (or any) test to be acceptable are they not, in a way, attempting to dictate culture?

Isn't everyone always trying to dictate culture?
I'm fairly sure that's how culture comes into existence.

Soundfonts are HUGE.

No they're not. Or at least, it doesn't appear to me as though they are
Some of the best ones definitely are, yes. But GZDoom comes with a 3.13mb soundfont, that actually sounds quite pleasing to the ear. If anything, it sounds like the default windows soundfont, but with some extra reverb.
Maybe it's because I'm unfamiliar with how soundfonts work, but that clearly looks like a small soundfont to me.

It sounds like the overall answer to my questions, is that because some people are unable to see things from another person's perspective, they assume that others can't see things from their perspective.

Also, for the record, my sister also grew up with games, and I asked her, and she really didn't give a crap about the male orientation in them back then or even now.
I'm not sure whether my sister's experience or Blondbraid's experience is the norm. If I had to take a guess, probably Blondbraid's. But it's all anecdotal anyway.

That all being said, I can't help but feel as though there's something incorrect about this whole discussion. 



One last thing:

And I don't think characters have to be relatable in the sense that they have the same personality like me, but they do need to be relatable in the sense that you can tell why they are feeling the feelings they feel or take different actions throughout their story.

I'm the same. 

This might be hard to believe, but I didn't realize you were a woman until your last post - for some reason, "Blondbraid" made me think of a Viking beard or something .

Heh, same here. I remember when I first figured out Blondbraid was a woman.
The username really does make you think of a viking beard. Or maybe a viking ponytail. 

Also, I have a question somewhat based on this discussion.
Why do males have to be displayed as masculine and females have to be displayed as feminine, for it to count as those genders being properly represented?
Why can't a man be feminine and a woman be masculine? What even constitutes as being masculine and feminine anyway? Aren't those purely cultural concepts? Aren't we forcing genders into stereotypes by "properly" representing them in this way?

Also, why do people feel the need for a character to share either their gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation for them to be relatable? I can think of countless media where I relate to a character that's nothing like me, either because their personality is similar to mine, their goals, or the situations they've found themselves in. To be honest, I can't think of a single character that I've found relatable simply because he's a straight white male.

Lastly, why do people feel the need to relate to a character in order to enjoy them? Plenty of people seem to enjoy Kirby, yet I highly doubt anyone relates to Kirby. 

Personally I see the Bechdel test as more of a rule of thumb for competence than equality or anything like that. Despite how other people may see it.
You see, a creative writer will have a wide variety of characters. A talentless hack will just write copies of themself and one-dimensional characters. Assuming the majority of writers are white males (a bold assumption, I know), that would mean that the majority of talentless hacks will have their works star nothing but white males, and the only characters that aren't a white male will only be made to fufill a one-dimensional stereotype needed for that story.

As a talentless hack myself, I feel that sums up all of my stuff quite well.