Moogle Emperor

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Heroes of Might and Magic (1995, New World Computing)

PC

THEN 93

NOW 60

Gaming has never presented a tougher act to follow than the one-two-three punch of the best games of 1994. If anything could do it, though, it would be Heroes of Might and Magic.

This was independent New World Computing at the height of their expertise, combining their popular Might and Magic brand, which was coming off the success of Might and Magic V: Dark Side of Xeen in 1993, with gameplay based on their clever tactics game King’s Bounty. Seasoned with a robust strategic layer, the results were very much to taste.

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Filed under Heroes of Might and Magic New World Computing retro games PC turn-based strategy strategy games tbs Heroes Heroes 1 Game of the Year 1995 PC games goty writing

2 notes

Final Fantasy VI (Squaresoft, 1994)

SNES

THEN 100

NOW 93

What happens when a game breaks the ratings scale? When it’s – not necessarily so good today, but so much better than what had come before – that, on a scale of 1 to 100, it goes to 101? That hadn’t happened since the 80s, but in 1994, it happened three times. I would have rated X-Com: UFO Defense something like 108 by the standards of the previous year. Mega Man X would have been 101.

Final Fantasy VI – originally released in the west as Final Fantasy III – would have been 118.

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Filed under Final Fantasy VI Final Fantasy JRPG retro games Squaresoft Final Fantasy 3 Games of the Year writing FF6 FF3 SNES Super Nintendo goty

5 notes

Doom (id Software, 1993)

PC

THEN 97

NOW 68

It may be hard to believe today, but in the beginning of 1993, first-person shooters just weren’t on most gamers’ radar. A few early examples, like LucasArts’ experimental The Eidolon, failed to find a mass audience. More recently, id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D had proven a hit, but first-person games were still mostly RPGs, and bestsellers were still mostly adventure, strategy, or platform games.

At the time, no one could’ve imagined that any other genre’s reign over the industry was doomed.

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Filed under Doom id Software retro games FPS PC games Games of the Year goty writing first-person shooter

1 note

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (SEGA, 1992)

Sega Genesis

THEN 96

NOW 80

The original Sonic the Hedgehog seemed an almost impossible act to follow. When Sega’s blue hedgehog sped onto screens – just a year earlier – he went a long way toward putting their console, the Genesis, on an even footing with Nintendo and its iconic mascot, Mario. To revisit the series just a year later represented either extraordinary confidence, or extraordinary hubris.

Fortunately for us, it turned out to be the former.

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Filed under Sonic the Hedgehog Sega Genesis retro games Sonic 2 Sonic the Hedgehog 2 writing Games of the Year goty platformer

117,502 notes

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

Okay, this is in incredibly petty nitpick, but: if you’re writing a fantasy setting with same-sex marriage, a same-sex noble or royal couple typically would not have titles of the same rank - e.g., a prince and a prince, or two queens.

It depends on which system of ranking you use, of course (there are several), but in most systems there’s actually a rule covering this scenario: in the event that a consort’s courtesy title being of the same rank as their spouse’s would potentially create confusion over who holds the title by right and who by courtesy, the consort instead receives the next-highest title on the ladder.

So the husband of a prince would be a duke; the wife of a queen, a princess; and so forth.

(You actually see this rule in practice in the United Kingdom, albeit not in the context of a same-sex marriage; the Queen’s husband is styled a prince because if he were a king, folks might get confused about which of them was the reigning monarch.)

The only common situation where you’d expect to see, for example, two queens in the same marriage is if the reigning monarchs of two different realms married each other - and even then, you’d more likely end up with a complicated arrangement where each party is technically a princess of the other’s realm in addition to being queen of her own.

You’ve gotta keep it nice and unambiguous who’s actually in charge!

Okay, I’ve received a whole lot of asks about this post, so I’m going to cover all of the responses in one go:

1. The system described above is, admittedly, merely one of the most common. Other historically popular alternatives include:

  • The consort’s courtesy title is of the same rank as their spouse’s, with “-consort” appended to it: prince and prince-consort, queen and queen-consort, etc. This is how, e.g., present-day Monaco does it.
  • The consort is simply styled Lord or Lady So-and-so, and receives no specific title. I can’t think of any country that still does it this way, off the top of my head, but historically it was a thing.

(Naturally, your setting needn’t adhere to any of these, but it would be highly irregular for it to lack some mechanism for clarifying the chain of command.)

2. The reason why the consort of a prince is historically a princess even though those titles are the same rank is basically sexism. This can go a couple of ways:

  • In many realms, there was no such thing as being a princess by right; the daughter of a monarch would be styled Lady So-and-so and receive no specific title, so the only way to be a princess was to marry a prince.
  • In realms where women could hold titles by right, typically a masculine title was informally presumed to outrank its feminine counterpart. So, e.g., kings outrank queens, princes outrank princesses, etc.

In either case, no ambiguity exists.

(Interestingly, this suggests that in a more egalitarian setting where masculine titles are not presumed to outrank their feminine counterparts, or vice versa, you’d need to explicitly disambiguate rankings even outside the context of same-sex marriages. Food for thought!)

3. It would also be possible to have two kings or two queens in the same marriage without multiple realms being involved in the case of a true co-monarchy. However, true co-monarchies are highly irregular and, from a political standpoint, immensely complicated affairs. If you’re planning on writing one of those, be prepared to do your research!

4. The next rank down from “countess” is either “viscountess” or “baroness”, depending on which peerage system you’re using.

(Yes, that last one actually came up multiple times. Apparently there are a lot of stories about gay countesses out there!)

image

I’d like to argue with this, but I can’t.

I never thought about this, and have actually done it wrong in the past! You’re absolutely right, though.

If you’re doing this in a fantasy setting, rather than, say, a sci-fi or futuristic space opera one, it might be worth inventing terms instead of using a lower rank or rank-consort. If the people of your setting have always had to distinguish between reigning and non-reigning figures, they’ll probably have developed linguistic conventions to account for that.

On the other hand, invented terminology can easily become silly and/or cumbersome - apos’tro’phes, anyone? Using rank-consort as a “translation convention” is probably better even for fantasy, unless you’re very, rightly confident in your fantasy linguistics. At the very least, if you’re inventing titles anyway, might as well go whole hog and invent separate reigning and consort versions.

(via prokopetz)

Filed under writing aristocracy noble titles fantasy titles gendered titles prokopetz

2 notes

Civilization (Microprose, 1991)

PC

THEN 97

NOW 58

When I think of the most venerable franchises in electronic gaming, a few names leap to mind. Mario, of course. Pac-Man and Ultima. Perhaps Castlevania and Mega Man. But behind only Mario in significance, I would have placed Sid Meier’s Civilization. Imagine my surprise when I started compiling my list of games and realized Civilization was more than a decade younger than some of those titles!

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Filed under Civilization Sid Meier Games of the Year retro games strategy games turn-based strategy Sid Meier's Civilization PC games GotY 4X games Microprose 1991

5 notes

Strider (Capcom, 1990)

Sega Genesis

THEN: 99

NOW: 77

In the late 80s, there was no comparison between the games available on home systems and what arcade cabinets could do. The graphics, sound and gameplay in the arcade surpassed even the highest-end gaming PCs. Consoles couldn’t hope to compete.

Few games demonstrated this better than Capcom’s spectacular 1989 actioner, Strider. With its large sprites, high quality music, detailed animations, gigantic bosses, and innovative gameplay, it eclipsed anything you could play from the comforts of your couch.

Attempts to bring Strider to the home met with mixed but generally little success. The NES version wisely avoided being a port at all. It was instead a more open side-scrolling actioner based on the same story and setting. Other systems tried and failed to capture what the arcade managed so well, with results that mostly served to highlight their limitations.

But in 1990, Capcom brought Strider to the then-new Sega Genesis, and our expectations of what an arcade port could be were forever changed.

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Filed under Strider Genesis SEGA Capcom retro games Games of the Year goty writing

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The Moogle Emperor’s Games of the Year

What makes a Game of the Year? Boiled down to its simplest, the answer is obvious: it’s the best game released in a year. That just leaves you with a new question, though. What makes something the best?

Everyone will have a different answer for that one. For some, it will hinge on theme or story, on whether a game spoke to their heart or their mind, on whether its characters stuck with them. For others, it will hinge on controls or level design, on whether a game challenges them to their limits, on whether that challenge was fair or arbitrary. For others, it will hinge on spectacle, on technical excellence, on artistic achievement, on engrossing music. For still others it’s simply a matter of time – how long a game holds their interest and whether their hundredth or even thousandth hour playing it is as enjoyable as their first.

For me, as, I think, for most of us, it’s a combination of a little bit of all of the above. But even that doesn’t fully answer the question if you’re talking about older titles.

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Filed under Game of the Year goty game reviews retro games Dragon Naturally Speaking arm injury tower defense

28 notes

time-elemental asked: I feel WotC is looking out for the emotional wellbeing of the playerbase through promoting inclusiveness and general decent behaviour; which is awesome. I do think though that WotC could up the promotion on the physical wellbeing a bit. Agree?

cerxi:

markrosewater:

I have no idea what you mean.

I think they’re implying Wizards should encourage Magic players to exercise, eat well, and practice good personal hygiene, which, I mean.. Not really Wizards’ job, and also how?

A new Un- set that requires elaborate dance and exercise routines to use the cards! This is clearly a good idea with no conceivable downsides.

Filed under design ideas suggested in jest do not reflect the opinions of this developer bad design game design reblog Magic the Gathering cerxi Mark Rosewater Un-sets exercise