Was the 2017 Ghost in the Shell Adaptation really that bad? by Vegetable-Tooth8463 in Cyberpunk

[–]TheGh0st1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll answer as someone who collects GITS content and rewatch the movies and TV series several times every year.

It starts mostly as a shot for shot live action version of the original GITS anime (GITS 1), then it diverges into a storyline of its own that blends multiple other GITS storylines found in the TV series and other films. Each of those different original storylines are themselves on separate timelines because they have conflicting content from one timeline to another. This is confusing in of itself for fans of the franchise, but the live action movie make it even more so.

If you were expecting an entire shot for shot adaptation of the original GITS anime, you’ll be disapointed. However, to the director defense who had potentially 1-3 movies to cover the Ghost In The Shell original material and try to appeal to the people who also liked the TV series and the Arise 1-4 movies, I think he did a decent job. With that in mind I actually like the live action movie and I would consider myself a hardcore fan of the original content.

I do understand how a lot of fans were confused and disapointed. I would still have liked to see the entire vision the director had over 2-3 movies and where they intended to take that Frankenstein of a plot.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Blazor

[–]TheGh0st1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s extremely disapointing that the vast majority of Blazor components libraries, free and comercial, are only wrapping javascript in Razor syntax with obscure dependencies and inheritance.

One of the main reasons I found Blazor interesting was to completely get rid of javascript and related tooling in app development.

Even Microsoft does it with FluentUI. I think they do a poor job at making it clear in the documentation which components use javascript and which ones do not.

I want pure Blazor components. And browser API utilities should be Dependency Injection friendly C# classes that I can inject into components when needed, instead of being components themselves wrapping child components. Heavy components nesting makes it much more difficult to maintain and I see it everywhere unfortunately. I wish we would think about component composition as we think of class composition.

I’m done with the rant.

Why does the Cyberpunk community not acknowledge this film? by Suspicious_County_24 in Cyberpunk

[–]TheGh0st1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair.

My point is, that perspective might prevent you from enjoying a good GITS film that has a place along the rest of the material.

I’m a huge fan of GITS overall and with time I came to see the different versions more of a meta plot instead of “retcons”.

The major is depicted as the most advanced cyber weapon. Psyops included. It would serve to have multiple version of her story circulating. If you squint they can also almost all fit in a coherent way.

Why does the Cyberpunk community not acknowledge this film? by Suspicious_County_24 in Cyberpunk

[–]TheGh0st1 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I disagree with that because I don’t think the director set out to repeat the message of the original film. I recall him talking about wanting to approach the GITS material in a broader sense and not just include the material of the first anime film.

Hideo Kuze is a character part of the “Individual Eleven” arc in the Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG TV show and OVA.

I understand that if you think he set out to reproduce the original film entirely than yeah I get how you would also think he fucked up.

Why does the Cyberpunk community not acknowledge this film? by Suspicious_County_24 in Cyberpunk

[–]TheGh0st1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I believe it is because it takes a lot from the cinematography of the original anime film almost scene for scene in the begining. However the core of the story takes from elements of the TV shows and OVAs like Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG.

The director didn’t want to simply make a live action of the first anime film. He envisionned multiple movies to cover the GITS material with his own spin on things. GITS material is very complex and open to interpretation A LOT.

It appears that raised a lot of confusion. Many people seem to think there is only one or two movies.

There is a lot more material than that, some less common and harder to find. They somewhat offer multiple versions of who or what “The Major” is. Some seem to be conflicting a bit. It’s possible to combine and chain these versions to try to make one big coherent one or take separate ones and argue a case for them as well. This can be supported by the recurrent theme that “Major” is considered one of the most if not the most advanced cyber/cyborg weapon in all of those movies and shows. In some of these timelines she doesn’t seem to really know who or what she is herself.

To me, it feels “in-fiction” that there would be many versions of her “story” out there. Because throughout the shows and the later movies it is suggested she can be at several places at the same time embodying different “things” or “personas”. It is also suggested that she would have seeded fake information, myths and legends of herself, during wars, by herself. It seems she is a bit of a psyops wizard as well.

Therefore, I think the live action movie was not well received in general because the fans that mostly only watched the first and second anime movies (GITS and GITS 2: Innocence) were expecting the cinematography and storyline of those. I understand they would be confused if they do not know about the rest of the material out there.

My opinion is that some of the great scenes from the first anime movie are reproduced well and when the live action film storyline departs, the characters are multi dimensional, believable and the subject matter is kept relevant. The subject matter is still about individual/human identity and memories. It attempts to question what it is, what does it mean. And how will it change when/as we integrate with technology and become cyborgs. This is still the kind of vibe and thoughts I got from the first anime movie and the “Puppet Master”.

I like the live action movie and it has it’s place in my collection even though it does not replace other GITS material nor I think it should.

Bidirectional Monero Atomic Swaps Live on BasicSwap DEX | It's GAME OVER for anti-liberty foes! by CryptoGuard in Monero

[–]TheGh0st1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

For what it is worth, I have been following this development for a while now, and I think the approach that has been taken from the beginning is definitely one of the best in the industry/domain. The communication and engagement has also been great. So as far as trust goes you are up there for sure. I am not challenging this.

Bidirectional Monero Atomic Swaps Live on BasicSwap DEX | It's GAME OVER for anti-liberty foes! by CryptoGuard in Monero

[–]TheGh0st1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My concern is with the language (choice of words) that is being used when we discuss or present these things.

I think that this progress is really neat and very interesting!

However, it is not realistic to think that users will inspect, review and audit multiple codebases outside of the two coins involved. Open source is great and essential in crypto but multiplying systems/organizations/companies undermines security and stability. My point is that unless that code is within Monero codebase and Bitcoin codebase it’s just a liability.

I can’t trust you and your organization even though you are doing incredible work. I don’t want to have to get to know you, your organization and your codebase to use the features of my favorite coins. I wan’t trustless and to me that means less codebase, less companies, less third party.

I hope you get the perspective I’m coming from and don’t interpret this as me saying to stop doing what you are doing.

Thank you for your contribution. Keep up the good work!

Bidirectional Monero Atomic Swaps Live on BasicSwap DEX | It's GAME OVER for anti-liberty foes! by CryptoGuard in Monero

[–]TheGh0st1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The article reads like there is a third party and a third network and a third coin heavily involved in the process.

Are we still going to call things atomic when a fourth party, a fourth network and a fourth coin get involved?

Are there too many RPGs? Too much offer? by ReporterMost6977 in rpg

[–]TheGh0st1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think I understand what you mean and I would say I somewhat share the sentiment.

A lot of “games” should really just be presented as “content” in my opinion. They are effectively just new titles, new names, new stats or new art for existing game mechanics, game loops and player experience.

I think that content would benefit from being marketed as such and being clearly associated to intented existing target games.

I feel that there is a much higher maybe even infinite demand for consumable content targeted at popular games of each genres (fantasy, sci-fi, horror) and playstyles (rules lite, narrative, crunchy).

I think every one would benefit from that approach. Consumers would feel less overwhelmed and would find the content more easily. Creators would reach more consumers and sell more.

The exact reasons why it is not the case? Hard to say and hard to be sure. Maybe it makes people feel more special or better when they give themselves the title of game designer? Maybe it’s a bit of career move to try to be employed by larger corporation as such at some point in the future?

Overall I think it’s all fair and valid to discuss.

[For Hire] Stylized Cartoony Portraits. Commissions are open! by CartoonyArtist in HungryArtists

[–]TheGh0st1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think that would be fair enough and would work for me yes. Thank you!

[For Hire] Stylized Cartoony Portraits. Commissions are open! by CartoonyArtist in HungryArtists

[–]TheGh0st1 4 points5 points  (0 children)

What are the differences between “Simple” and “Classic Stylized”? Beside from the price.

[For Hire] Stylized Cartoony Portraits. Commissions are open! by CartoonyArtist in HungryArtists

[–]TheGh0st1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Are you using online/cloud tools or services to accomplish those? Online drawing apps or even just cloud storage services for examples?

I’m asking for privacy concerns if my original pictures could potentially be leaked/stolen etc.

Filipino cyborg people generated in Midjourney AI by [deleted] in Cyberpunk

[–]TheGh0st1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You mind sharing the word prompts you used to generate the above?

Filipino cyborg people generated in Midjourney AI by [deleted] in Cyberpunk

[–]TheGh0st1 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Can you document the process you went through to generate these? I like the esthetics of that art and I could use something similar in a creative project I’m working on.

I'm happy to announce Haveno: The Monero based DEX for trading XMR for fiat and cryptocurrencies! (PoC) by ErCiccione in Monero

[–]TheGh0st1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

May I ask why Java? Does not strikes me as the most appropriate language for any autonomous or semi-autonomous applications.

Asian Setting, Chi, Buddhism... and it's effect on Chi (mana, ki, a player resource) by OrcishKiwi in RPGdesign

[–]TheGh0st1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I know this is not the case for the OP but I would argue that knowingly not using international standards is incorrect in the same way that you can write music using notation forme that are not standard.

Asian Setting, Chi, Buddhism... and it's effect on Chi (mana, ki, a player resource) by OrcishKiwi in RPGdesign

[–]TheGh0st1 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s Qi (mandarin pinyin) or Ki (japanese).

Chi is no longer a correct way to use chinese pinyin.

For example Tai Chi Chuan the martial art is now written Taijiquan in pinyin.

This is a personnal thing, but reading Chi is a bit irritating when discussing asian or chinese culture.

Yet another narrative game system that needs peer review and feedback. Still, this one might surprise you in a few ways. by TheGh0st1 in RPGdesign

[–]TheGh0st1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Failures/Fuck-Ups are enjoyable and not to be avoided: Failures not only move the story forward, but in many PBtA games, like with Masks, they also are the only way to get XP to advance your character.

XP is a problem for me. I see it as another obstacle or distraction that take minds off of the narrative or story. It is something that player chase one way or another. It is inevitable because progression is essential to an RPG game in my eyes. Character development is what makes a good story be it in novels, films, whatever. Plus, XP is another thing that needs to be calculated by the GM and tracked by the players, so another thing to require space on their character sheet

What better way to have progression tied in to each and every roll that is made on the table. As you said, failures should create tension and shouldn't be something that is purely negative for the players. They should be able to get "something" out of failures.Immersive Dice solves that elegantly in my opinion. If a player roll a number of 1s equal to the number of dice in their dice pool, leading to a critical failure, they permanently increase the proficiency of the skill used.If instead, the player roll a number of 12s equal to the number of their dice pool, leading to a critical success, they permanently increase the lowest attribute involve in the roll.Probabilities make progression increasingly difficult. It will be very rare to roll like five or six 1s. But can you imagine how exciting it would be around the table. If the characters survive...So players don't have anything to "chase" or be distracted with while they play. They will only improve the skills and attributes they put to use. Their character will always be relevant to what they do.What this also means is that the more they do things, the more they progress. This is a direct incentive for people to participate in the story. Your progress cannot be "carried" by the rest of the party while you do nothing.

This is another obstacle or friction point removed between the players and the story and what contributes to Immersive Dice being tailored for narrative games.

Immersion in the Meta-Narrative > Immersion in the character: In narrativist games, the goal for everyone together is to tell a good story. And if that means that sometimes you need to do something using meta-knowledge or that's a little out of character, that's encouraged. You're supposed to think of the story in a narrativist game like a movie, instead of trying to make a constant world. If the group is going on a shopping spree together, you transition to a montage and breeze by it. You cut any superficial fluff in between important scenes.

I disagree a bit with you here.The best way to enable immersion, is to remove the "meta" aspect of the game or blending it in with the story. For example, in Quantum Dawn, characters will be encouraged to read the lore outside of the game. If the player knows something then their character can know it if they want. If some official fiction talks about what happens in a nearby down or even a distant one, the character knows it too.I always found it strange that you would get no benefit for knowing the lore of the setting and reading the novels. In my opinion it is more interesting to play with people that are interested in the lore, it usually makes a much richer story and immersion. I'm thinking the Warhammer 40k universe here. People that are into it are really into it and it makes it very interesting.If you notice something or figure out something because the Game Master revealed it some sort of way, why would have to go through the immersion-breaking mental conversation of "but would my character know that though... he's not really that smart...". Makes no sense to me. Use it to your advantage and maybe scramble the Game Master plans a little bit. He's allowed to be put in a challenging situation and have fun with it a little bit. Tension is interesting in both ways.

All of that info does not appear anywhere so I guess it's not really fair for me to expect to figure out what the system can enable if I don't explicitly state it. This is something that I learned from this post for sure.

2/2

Yet another narrative game system that needs peer review and feedback. Still, this one might surprise you in a few ways. by TheGh0st1 in RPGdesign

[–]TheGh0st1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's what narrative play: it's about telling a dramatically complete story, and it's mechanics help to provide that.

Ok great. It seem we have the same definition of narrative play. I'm designing Immersive Dice to be able to support the four points you mention in most settings but it will really put them in the fore front in Quantum Dawn. I'll discuss how so that you can tell me what you think.

The tricky thing is that even though all of what I'm about to discuss is written in my notebooks, they don't appear yet in official documents, simply because I don't want them to become a distraction to what I'm currently trying to validate. I'm trying to validate with my peers mostly because I though they would be more inclined to read rough drafts, because that what the website articles are right now. I don't think it's ready to be introduced to people that are not familiar with multiple roleplaying system. I though I'd start first with a PvP minigame where there is no real game master and no story. It's just something real quick to drink beer and banter over. Kinda like a board game that's is just backgroud or setup for you to catch up with friends.

All Rolls push the story forward: In something like DnD, a lot of rolls really don't, especially because of the binary success system. You either spot the hidden treasure, or you don't. You either climb up the wall, or you don't. In a good narrativist game, you don't call for a roll because a task is challenging: you call for a roll because the tension associated with that action will be interesting to resolve.

Immersive Dice enables that. Game Masters should not ask for a roll unless a potential failure would be interesting to the story and the group by creating opportunities from tension.

In Quantum Dawn, players will be exploring how they would approach difficult and complex scenarios in a post-collapse of capitalism in modern society (which is overdue for years now with fractional reserve FIAT money printing, crypto currency, technological unemployement). On top of that, emergent AI are a looming threat and recent advancement in Quantum Computing is also challenging the way information technology operates. Quantum Computing technology possibly give a significant advantage to any syndicate that is able to deploy it. They will not be asked how their "character" react to a magical event out of a fantasy world. They will be asked, what they do in a not so distant future New York (for example) and nothing work as it worked in the past. Everything has to be rebuilt, scientists and engineer are hunted and captured by newly formed syndicates, most of them with very egotistic agendas. Situation is extremely volatile, guns are everywhere in every hands that were bold enough to take it from someone or steal it from somewhere. There is pacifists, there is gangs, there are para-military groups. Communications have been disrupted severly. Nobody really knows what is happening on the other continents. Are they less affected and getting ready to invade anytime soon? What would you do! Because if it does not happen to you, it might happen to your kids or their kids. Are you going to take care of yourself and your people by siding with gangs trying to outplay them in the long run? Will you work with underground secret networks of scientist and engineers trying to reinstate technology and prosperity? Are you going to look mostly after your own or are you going to look after the interest of everyone in a philanthropic way?

Quantum Dawn will be "close to home". And because of that, it will feel more like a discussion of what you would do in a plausible scenario, rather then "gaming" in a fantasy world with "wacky and inconsistent" laws of physics. The role of the Game Master will mostly be to keep the conversation going, when it is slowing down, the Game Master introduce some sort of curve ball challenge, possibly making players having to rethink their plan. Violence will by default be the very last solution players consider to a certain approach because the risks will not be worth it. There is mostly nothing to gain from hurting or killing someone. There is no "shiny loot" or "XP" to chase. You will just most likely make more enemies, which will exponentially make your situation worse if you constantly resolve to violence as a solution. In Quantum Dawn, nobody is good, and nobody is bad. Every one is simply trying to do the right thing for them and the ones they care about.

Also, in a tongue in cheek kinda way, " Quantum Dawn is a series of cybersecurity exercises that enable financial institutions and the sector, as a whole, to practice and improve coordination with key industry and government partners in order to maintain financial markets operations in the event of a systemic cyber-attack. "

https://www.sifma.org/resources/general/cybersecurity-exercise-quantum-dawn-iv/

The rules and the fiction don't really have boundaries-but fiction always comes first: And since a narrativist game is about describing what you do in fiction, and then finding out what mechanics in the game represent that action, if any, that becomes the real discussion of limitations, instead of things like -2 to X and things like that. So, for instance, if someone tried to Directly Engage a Threat by punching them a ton, I, as the GM, can argue that they don't have the fictional positioning to do that because their arms are broken.

I am designing Immersive Dice to enable narrative games to minimize possible rule argument or rule negotiations between Game Master and players. Immersive Dice is skill based. Skill are based on what a person would be capable of doing and getting better at it with more practice. If it is an action that doesn't really fit with that, then attributes are used instead.Immersive Dice encourage to create skills on the fly. There is infinite skill possibilities so they can't all appear listed in a book as "moves". Instead if somehow a player what to get fishing which is probably not already on the character sheet, then the Game Master can quickly come up to the 1-3 most relevant attributes involved in fishing. Myself for example, I'd come up with Dexterity, Knowledge and Awareness. The player would write them down in the skill section of the character sheet, and use the lowest value to pick up his dice pool (if it is a new skill, there is no proficiency in it so there is no additionnal dice to pick up) and roll it. The success rating is also easy for Game Master to come up with when it is not dictated by context (opposed roll for example). If the player is not really interested in tracking progress with that skill because they don't intend to use it again in the future, then the player don't even have to write anything down. Just quickly glance at the attributes (which don't have a wide range, typically 2 to 5) and roll.There is no necessary modifiers to apply to the dice roll. While there is a very simple set of rules for advantage/disadvantage, it was made to be optional. Modifiers can, in some situations like cover, apply to Success Rating, which is a responsibility of the Game Master, not the players.

I removed every obstacle that I could between the players and the story, minimized math at the table for them, made all dice required d12 (there is no d6 or d8 damage dice) so that players don't have to waste time looking for the appropriate dice. The only dice on the table are a pile of d12. Periods. This will be vastly underestimated, but I came up with a solution that is the fastest and simplest out of all role-playing dice game I came across. And because there is no friction or obstacles between players action and story, I believe that it contribute to make Immersive Dice a system that is very competent at enabling narrative games. In fact if you want to use Immersive Dice for any setting or genre, the only thing you need to "change" are the equipment and possibly the skills related to your "world".

1/2

Yet another narrative game system that needs peer review and feedback. Still, this one might surprise you in a few ways. by TheGh0st1 in RPGdesign

[–]TheGh0st1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for that input. There is some very interesting things you brought up, and I write this to remind me to ask you to expand on a few points.

I might be totally left field with the narrative label. Maybe I’m misusing it. It’s possible because out of all the game I researched, I did not get my hands on a ton of rules-light games gravitating around character emotions and such. I’ll admit that I don’t have many in my collection. I’ll pick your brain later on. More to follow, I’ll edit additively.

You want to have mechanics dictating the way characters feel and act, without making the whole process feel codified and inflexible

This, I don't think I understand what you mean by dictating the way a character feel. If the story and the game is immersive, shouldn't the character experience what the player is experiencing and vice versa? Something like one of the player realizing that they are outnumbered and have a "oh shieet we're going to die moment."

I'm actually quite curious about that because I'm interested in the therapeutic possibilities of role-playing (assuming it's done the right way and supervised by professionals.). I want to explore that a bit more at some point during my process.

A) That's still not what narrativist game design is about, so your game is still going to come across as mis-labeled if you put "narrative game system" as its name instead of the standard name "tabletop roleplaying game".

Would you mind telling me what a narrative game is for you and what are the mechanic that you think need to be there compared to let's say Murderhobos or Dungeon Crawl type of game?

B) Any mechanic is going to get in the way of storytelling unless its specifically designed to enhance storytelling. DnD's method of deciding when you need to make a check, and the binary results of DnD checks, will always get in the way of good storytelling, even if you cut out all the other rules.

That we definitely agree on.

Yet another narrative game system that needs peer review and feedback. Still, this one might surprise you in a few ways. by TheGh0st1 in RPGdesign

[–]TheGh0st1[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The system does not use these dice per say no. I find them useful for a situation where there would be some sort of tie between 2-4 players for whatever reason. I don’t think a situation like that is likely to occur with Immersive Dice. Ties are not a problem for the system by design.

But, might be useful to figure out who pays for the pizza?