u/UnhappyGroceries1987

I understand this might get deleted.

But I lost my educational scaffolding when Jedi Knight Dark Forces II died.

I remember having similar discussions then that we are having now. Orthographic editors vs WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get)

“No no , I know exactly what the engine is wanting, your editor makes it bloated with too many extra polygons and bad adjoins and engine crashes on load”

(JED vs JKEDIT argument)

I used to make maps and mod games because I was lacking an experience and wanted to give it to others.

Making places “Feel like places”

“Simulating systems”

and happened to find a community of people that shared the same tools, same engine, and immerse ourselves in each others projects.

Once that DIED. I found “Well the pressure to create isnt there anymore, SWG is coming out, Half-Life 2, we have quake III… starcraft II, AVP classic, AVP 2 .

Cry engine comes along …

So much saturation of content you ask yourself “What do I latch onto ?? What is NEXT”

But there isnt any because “If your desire is to create an experience you lack” and now there are so many games doing it FOR YOU.

You stop feeling pressured to create, you feel pressured to “Explore these new systems as a player”

I do not need to create a world anymore, SWG already does it. I can finally live here with other players.

Its been a LONG LONG TIME.

And I find it ironic that now the world has shrunk again into the same arguments I remember having from 2002.

“Unreal is bloated” thats ..what they would have said about JK edit va JED.

But to me diving into Unreal I saw it for myself. You are encouraged to construct maps and environments from Meshes now.

Before , Blocking out and cleaving perfectly flat surfaces with minimal vertices was …what we ALL did.

Now you watch any tutorial and they say “Oh yeah these …geometry brushes are here, but no one uses them”

You are encouraged to construct SCENES from objects of high poly count. Because it is the easiest work flow, and it seems to be how it is designed.

Anyway….

The arguments between Godot Unity and Unreal are amazing to me because I remember stopping everything all together when we had dozens of paradoxical choices and no idea what to latch onto …

If we had anything like these now when I was a kid, I have no idea what life could have been like.

My issue is how it seems to be done in a blatant back handed way with a meta sense of irony intentional on the developers.

Hogwarts legacy is a good example for me currently. “Hey ive got 14 quests in my journal , im going to clean this up and manage it and get back to the story”

And its the specific manner in which once its time to TURN IN a quest , now there is another NPC AT THAT LOCATION with a quest.

This kills the psychological reward of having managed work flow and accomplished something.

It makes it feel like a Job.

Instead of a sense of completion you are stuck in a loop of managing incoming tasks you cant stay ahead of.

I honestly believe devs really sit there and think “Lol watch this, when every quest is flagged for turn in ? We are gonna put another NPC beside him with a new quest ;) this is gonna be great”.

Theres a distinction between “Oh wow I FOUND this really interesting quest”

Vs “I keep getting TASKS FLOODING MY MAILBOX”

*edit* I should add Im binge watching all of Drew Wagar’s videos on youtube 😂

Im a humanity first kind of guy but thats because I value sentient life in general. If we encountered other races I would probably learn to become protective of them as well.

Humanity first becomes “Sentient life first”

But what if the sentient life wants to KILL YOU.

Which brings me to my point.

Thargoid “Aggression” only results in tactical engagements against infrastructure and assets in SPACE

if the thargoids were “Evil” why have they not depopulated our planets?

They destroy ships and stations but STRATEGICALLY. They should be depopulating as well.

The fact our planets themselves go untouched says a lot about our relationship.

Like how I reluctantly kill wasps building a nest around my house. Its regrettable , but must be done. However you dont see me going on a campaign of world wide Wasp extermination. I have no ill will towards you.

But really what kind of person are YOU.

When you kill. Thargoids are you like “This is regrettable but necessary”

Or “HECK YEA HUMANITY FIRST BOOOOM LOOSERS”