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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   2147 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 3, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I played Harry Potter Legacy and reached 100% completion last night. I cant remember the last time I 100% completed a game like this. The assassin creed series and far cry series have the similar big maps and lots of collectibles, but I tire of the game before I ever reach it.

It was a good game, combat was interesting, if a bit easy once I got the hang of it (I had to turn up the difficulty to hard, but still never died). I liked a few of the side stories more than the main story. There were some silly fan service moments, like at the end how your house ends up winning the house cup cuz one of the school teachers gives out a bunch of points to just you.

There was some level of story and gameplay disconnect. I was slaughtering a dozen enemies at a time, and still sometimes got reactions like "you are a kid, it is much too dangerous for you!" Kinda like when some no name bandit in Skyrim tries to mug the dragon born that is walking around in Daedric Armor.

I had fun roleplaying a bit and making my own personal cannon. I unlocked the killing spell, and never used it on anything smarter than a Troll. It was a little silly that the killing spell got treated so badly, but I created a literal mountain of bodies without the killing spell. (unless they are all just sleeping)

I also had the thought that finishing a game at 100% completion is kind of bad. One thing that could be said in favor of an assassins creed game that I play to 80% is that there was enough content for me to play for as long as I was enjoying the game. I suppose I could start a new playthrough in harry potter in a different house, but Ravenclaw felt like it fit best, and I don't respect the other houses very much.

I've only watched gameplay and haven't tried it myself, but while the game seems like a good game, I'm mildly confused at the poor job it does of being an RPG in some important regards, such as making you feel like a student in Hogwarts as well as an intrepid adventurer.

What I do find baffling is how inconsequential the use of Unforgiveable Curses is, even if you do them in public or in front of your teachers (!). I understand the desire to not be too restrictive of the player, but it would have been easy enough to have it diegetically explained as a temporary relaxation in the light of the Goblin Revolt, and make the character face repercussions for blasting anything and everything they see with a killing curse, even if you don't end up in Azkaban or kicked out of school.

What I do find baffling is how inconsequential the use of Unforgiveable Curses is

I think that's just the way transferring original material to another medium works (you see it a heck of a lot in fanfiction, and in media it's often a form of fanservice that isn't the 'boobs and butt' type): there's this Cool Thing, you want to see/be able to do the Cool Thing, we're gonna sell it on 'your character can do the Cool Thing/the main characters do the Cool Thing' and so whether it's movies or games or what you will, the Cool Thing gets done willy-nilly.

In the books, there's a moral and ethical price - after all, this is why they're called "Unforgiveable" Curses. But when you're doing a tie-in/spin-off of a major franchise that is a licence to print money, you weigh up "Do I make it so that Cool Thing is rare and dangerous, or do I let your main character be the one who can do Cool Thing at will to blast the mooks because You're Just That Special?" and you decide "the fans want Cool Thing, if I don't give them Cool Thing they won't buy this".

So now you can go around zapping people with Unforgiveable Curses because that's what the majority of customers want. I also think there's a certain coarsening around morals and ethics in recent years (I know this is going to come across as "kids these days") but we've had a CW thread about "why bother with rules in war, the most effective way to win is crush the enemy and by shortening the war aren't you saving lives, so hell yeah use chemical weapons, bomb civilians, whatever it takes so you win fast and hard!". That to me is the mindset which goes "Unforgiveable Curses are really effective, use them, never mind the bleating about morals or the effect on the soul, pshaw!"

While I think you’re spot on regarding Cool Things, and the coarsening is plausible, I would hesitate to use this site as a bellwether for public morals and ethics. It’s very, very self-selected for edgy contrarianism.

That's true, but I have seen such attitudes expressed elsewhere and some years back. I do think there's been (for whatever reason) a genuine lack of understanding about rules of civility, where it's "but it's war (or other conflict or struggle), why wouldn't you do all you could to win, no matter what it takes?" That there are some things that are just wrong to do seems to be completely out the window. Whether that's due to "but we're the Good Guys so it's okay for us to do it" thinking or not, I can't say.

I am not sure how new it is, ending WW2 with nukes was arguably a breach of those erhics of civility in the service of ending the war quicker and thus saving more lives overall, is basically exactly the same logic you were talking about. Down to the same debates really.

Hardly - the destruction of civilian population centers with strategic bombing was not new in 1945. It was something accepted and widely used by all sides. nor was the use of nuclear weapons rationalised in those terms until later.

Thats...my point. It isn't some new invention, to breach the "civilized norms" of war. Because everyone accepted targeting civilians was ok then, so complaining about people now and making it some criticism of modern people wanting to break the sacred rules of war is nonsensical. We've always justified it to ourselves. Whether its targeting civilians, using weapons of mass destruction and so on.

It wasn't new then and it isn't new now.

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