I think my points have been largely lost.
Saying that tilesets are easymode just indicates that you're elitist.
I didn't mean to say they are. In a way they're the opposite. When I said they pull a different audience in, it isn't so much because ASCII interpretation is hard to learn or impossible, as someone said and I disagreed, but rather because I highly suspect most people don't actually give it a real go. They're put off by the apparent difficulty of learning to interpret it which is overstated. And yeah, I kind of alluded to my elitist point of view. I'm all for elitism. If I were a masochist, I'd start by talking in terms of leadership and politics.
The word I tend to use is douche.
With the way stuntaneous is talking you might as well take it a step further and say ASCII graphics, and all graphics, are bad. You might as well just have text descriptions for everything to allow your imagination to picture the scene, this also overcomes problems with ASCII like character overload for items, monsters and environment.
Thanks, douche! People who talk like that tend to be the words they're throwing around. If you read what I said again, you'll find I didn't imply that.
Agreed. Stuntaneous DOES come across as a douche, but a passionate douche - I respect his opinion, but I think he's completely and utterly wrong. He's concerned that graphics = poor game, but that's simply not true for 'indie' games. Graphics = accessibility, and opens up a fantastic game experience for those who aren't in love with text like he is.
That's not a bad thing, it's an amazing thing. It allows people to access a superb gaming experience and then - hopefully - put pressure on larger companies to offer gameplay over graphics, whilst still ensuring there's at least SOMETHING pretty to look at.
That's how you get away with it, Sharp.
Gameplay over graphics! A phrase I use regularly. I'm not particularly attached to ASCII or against graphics in the game. I'd love to see a graphical representation but one that looks decent. Do it right or don't do it at all. As I said, pegs and holes, some in the roguelike community love to awkwardly jam 'graphics' into these games and they go about it in a horrible way. The format, the style, it's far from doing it right. To get around the inherent limitations in such a game would probably require something a lot more involved than haphazardly slapping a tileset over the top. Perhaps tiles could be partially generated based on their neighbours' content to create a smoother transition whilst aiming for a recognisably distinct 'border'. Animation could be given more attention. Perspective could be considered. 3D visualisation, also with the previous mentions in mind, offers possibilities but would need to deal with the common barren, blocky halls of 90s-shooters look.
I just prefer ASCII because it looks nicer.
I have no complex opinions on the matter.
Much of how I feel except I do have the complex or thought-out opinion. I'd say more than an opinion because, you know, sometimes people know their stuff.
My personal favourite ASCII game is X@Com. It's not pure ASCII, but it retains the easy-to-read aesthetics of it.
It's a nice example of innovation. It seems the author can see the merits of ASCII and perhaps identify with what I've said.
I hope this topic's had its fifteen minutes. It's never fun to 'discuss'. People get unnecessarily hostile. Anyway, I'm a metric man. You can't do (non-awkward) science without it.
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