tekHedd – the blog

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Haggai is an interesting little book of the bible. It’s two pages long, and while it’s named for the prophet Haggai, it is really just a rant. God really could pour on the abuse in those days. Just to make sure you know He’s serious, He points out that all of the bad things that have been happening to “the people” recently are his doing. He’s really in a mood. Haggai’s entire role is one of “the guy who listens to the ranting” and “message boy.”

God takes a moment at the end of his rant to appoint Zerubbabel as his chosen one and the new leader of the “people.” He does not tell Zer in person, but instead tells Haggai to deliver the message. I’m not sure what to make of that.

God doesn’t seem to understand why a series of droughts and plagues fails to make the people love and worship him. Haggai 2:17 nicely summarizes his bafflement:

I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.

There is a complete lack of understanding of human nature here. You can’t just use the stick; there has to be a carrot too! “I beat you repeatedly and yet for some reason you still cringe when I raise my hand!” Oh well. What can you do?

Aside from setting the mood, point of view and graphics in a game are only really relevant to strategy gamers in the sense that they dictate gameplay. As I have recently realized, gameplay is important.

Some acquaintances were talking about New Vegas and “whether it was good”, or “better than F3” and so on… I realized that while New Vegas had good writing and decent design within the limitations of the engine, the ultimate problem is that, as a strategy gamer, I really didn’t enjoy the game part of the game. I found VATS kind of MEH, and of course I burned out my FPS gaming pleasure center easily a decade ago, and what’s left? Crafting? The “walking around” mechanic? There’s not much to the actual game other than a sightseeing engine.

In contrast, I can create a new Fallout 1 character and have an interesting experience, even though I’ve memorized all of the story lines and death animations, because the game itself is entertaining. I’m not replaying it because of Vault Boy, although that stuff is always good for a laugh… in the long run the gameplay is still fun. In a strategy RPG it’s all about the long run.

At some point, regardless of the vibe, environment, art, story, and so on, this is a game, and Gameplay is important. As my friend pointed out, that’s why we don’t call it a Computer VibeArtStory. It’s a Computer Game.

Of course, good writing is a prerequisite. :)

“Was that a warning shot, or do you just suck!”