Grumpy Gamer

Yes, I’m tired of dystopia fiction. A sentiment I probably didn’t need to repeat because it’s in the title, but I really am. Nothing points this out more to me than Star Trek.

In a Star Trek vs. Star Wars internet argument I am firmly in the Star Trek camp and this is with eight years of working at The Death Star Lucasfilm (I kid, working at Lucasfilm was magical but I’m still a Star Trek person).

Star Trek used be be about hope. Even in the dark days of the 1960’s cold war you could see hope for our future in Star Trek. They mange to comment on our then messed up world while being optimistic about the future. It’s a lesson current Star Trek could learn from.

Next Generation followed in that tradition. There was conflict but also hope in what the future could be.

Voyager was still about hope and the ideals of the federation.

Deep Space Nine started out that way and then it became a serial about war.

Enterprise also started out in a hopeful future, then it became a show about war and dystopia.

Years later Picard showed up. How I wanted to like this show, but it’s a bleak show in a bleak future.

And Discovery. WTF! Yes, they saved the future federation but it’s a bleak dystopia world I don’t want to relax in after a day of hard work.

And I won’t get into the bad writing where every problem on Discovery is solved by deus ex machina or some mind-bending quantum physic problem being solved by some crew member in 30 minutes.

There is a lot of long overdue cast diversity in Discovery. They get some kudos for that. Just not for their writing.

I am holding out hope for The Captain Pike Show where they claim to get back to the roots of Star Trek. We’ll see.

Lower Decks is great! It’s funny and takes place in the Next Generation world.

Now comes the worst offender of them all: Star Trek Prodigy.

Prodigy is a show on Nickelodeon for kids but it takes place in a dark dystopia world. Did I mention this is for kids? Seriously? The first 45 minutes is fighting and killing and people trapped in a forced labor camp. Did I mention this is for kids?

Maybe it gets better after the first episode (which I didn’t even make it through).

Prodigy should have been set on a Next Generation Enterprise-like ship. Next Generation had families on board and would have been a perfect setting for Prodigy. Smart and precocious kids getting into trouble and saving the day.

But in the optimistic future that we owe our kids.

P.S. No matter how bad these Star Trek shows get, I will still watch them all.

P.S.S. The Orville isn’t “Star Trek” but it’s a darn good “Star Trek” show. I hope it returns, but I don’t have my hopes up. Stupid Pandemic.

I’ve decided to go back on Twitter but with a few changes:

1. I unfollowed everyone.
2. I will only post once (or maybe twice) a week.
3. I only check twitter once every 1 or 2 days.
4. I will only post positive things and mostly about game dev.
5. I will not add rubbish to the Twitter dumpster fire.

I used to follow 200+ people and now I follow 0. I apologize if I unfollowed you. It doesn’t mean I love you any less. I might follow people at some point, but only friendly positive people.

I left Twitter because it was doing serious mental damage to me.

6. Maybe, just maybe this will help make twitter a better place.

I wrote Scumm and I don’t think I could do what they did.

Respect.

Happy Birthday ScummVM

Chatting with a game designer friend the other day and we were bemoaning the state of adventure game puzzles and it got us talking. So I was wondering what is your favorite puzzle in Thimbleweed Park, Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island or any other classic point-and-click game?

Do you like head scratchers? What makes a puzzle good? What makes a puzzle hard? What makes a puzzle just busy work? Is that bad?

This series on Commodore’s Assemblers from pagetable.com is giving me flashbacks to hacking out GraphicsBASIC in my childhood bedroom. Good times.

I loved this game… all I want is for it to be on the Switch.

It is with great sadness that I found out that Judith Lucero passed away.

Judith was the lead tester on Monkey Island, Monkey Island 2 as well as a vast number of other Lucasfilm games.

She was the one who taught me the importance of testers and how they are a critical gear in the machinery that makes up making a game. Testers aren’t just unit tests in human form. They have a unique perspective on the game and poke not only at the bugs but also the design and the thought process of playing a game.

It’s a lesson I have never forgot and never will and I owe most of that to Judith.

Here is a email Judith and MI2 testers sent me. It goes on for 5 pages. Some of the suggestions were implemented.

“D” bugs were design bugs.

If Apple really cared about iOS privacy they would give the user to ability to block any app from reaching the internet. A lot of the iOS apps I used have no need to ping the internet but they all do to gather metrics and do who-knows-what.

Rather than create a complex and unenforceable privacy policy Apple should just let users block the app from using the internet. Or require a certificate to access the internet and don’t allow it if the fundamental use of the app isn’t to connect to the internet. There is no need for single player games to hit the internet all the time.

I use Little Snitch on the Mac and everything f**king program tries to connect to the internet. I block them all and only a handful fail so, yeah, they don’t need to.

If Apple really cared about my privacy they would do this.

For going on 17 years the Grumpy Gamer blog has been and always will be April Fools’ day free.

Stay strong.