Gabe at Penny Arcade: Does videogaming help?

[Nifft]

Just look at Gabe's 3d lazer mirror puzzle. You'd never see something like that described in depth as a major challenge to the heroes in a fantasy novel, because reading about someone meticulously positioning mirrors is boring.

Interesting. I was thinking of Mission:Impossible, or movies like The Mummy (the mirror + sunlight scene) & Legend (again mirrors + sunlight), as being the inspiration.

Example, I can think of a dozen "falling" sequences in video games that might have inspired the mechanics of his freefall sequence as well as the narrative. Novels can inspire the raw idea, the narrative arc, and so on; but they have less specific hooks that you can bring to mechanics.

Huh. What sprung to my mind was all the times James Bond did cool stuff in mid air.

Clearly spy movies are my go-to source for inspiration!

Cheers, -- N

 

[webrunner]

A lot of people criticize 4e for being too 'video gamey', but in my mind this isn't a bad thing. Video Games have long been a perfect marriage of mechanics and experience, and if you have a bunch of people who don't mind it you can really have a lot of fun. The "MMO night" he did is just an example of that.

And it's not just fantasy video games.. play Uncharted 2 and DM a game in Eberron.. there's a lot in there, from the catacombs to the train, which can be lifted liberally.

 

[Betote]

In fact, I generally enjoy DM'ing for people who play videogames. First of all, they understand the basics of tactics and strategy. And also, they're less prone to using the best single trick all the time: they play videogames for that, and when they abandon their WoW or their God of War, they want to try out as many different things as possible.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Interesting. I was thinking of Mission:Impossible, or movies like The Mummy (the mirror + sunlight scene) & Legend (again mirrors + sunlight), as being the inspiration.

Rarely do those have any puzzle detail, though. Whereas playing through any number of Legend of Zelda dungeons in either 2D or 3D could give you straight up useful puzzles.

For me, at least, there's something a lot more immediate about angling 4 mirrors and bouncing a light with my shield to open the passage to the sacred whatsit than watching Rachel Weisz move one mirror to light a room.

Not that I have anything against watching Rachel Weisz, as a general rule.