#009: Pro Laser Platform

[Grahav]

Meh, there are a lot of games where your bastard shoot bastards of other countries (shooters) but there are also a lot of games where all kinds of bastards join hands to kill an uber bastard (fantasy genre, space operas).

So there, games for bigoted bastards and SJW bastards. Have all.

 

[Skeleon]

Maybe Erin should ask about a race of aliens that looks like pandas to get the point across better. I actually agree with her a lot and love games that give a bit more depth to their enemies than being mere cannon fodder and ooga-booga-evil. One that I'm currently replaying, Gothic, is a fantasy game where around the midpoint you fight and kill quite a lot of orcs. Not too much later, you're reminded that the orcs are no mere animals but a society and a culture as old as humanity. And while you never get to really interact with them too much (with the exception of two former orc slaves who learned the human speech), you do get to explore their village, see them dance and play music, mingle and eat, you delve deep into the ancient temples they built, including mechanical and magical devices. It's not a lot, really, but it's enough to grant the orcs some much needed depth, depth that appeared to be sorely lacking when you first encounter them and all you do is kill them after they killed a bunch of humans.

 

[size15boot]

I just noticed his eyes were Pac-man (Pac-men?). How did I not notice that until now?

 

[Darth_Payn]

What a positive little feller. I think he's great.

I agree, and hold on a minute. "Games about humans shooting humans are gross." ...I need a second to process that.

ANd he's right abot lasers. EVERYTHING's better with lasers! All Glory to Laser! KNEEL BEFORE LASER!

 

[ArcaneGamer]

What a positive little feller. I think he's great.

I agree, and hold on a minute. "Games about humans shooting humans are gross." ...I need a second to process that.

ANd he's right abot lasers. EVERYTHING's better with lasers! All Glory to Laser! KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

You left out "Beam Katanas", and Laser SMGs. KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!

 

[Imp_Emissary]

I just noticed his eyes were Pac-man (Pac-men?). How did I not notice that until now?

Based on your avatar, I figure it's because you were drunk. ;D

Meh, there are a lot of games where your bastard shoot bastards of other countries (shooters) but there are also a lot of games where all kinds of bastards join hands to kill an uber bastard (fantasy genre, space operas).

So there, games for bigoted bastards and SJW bastards. Have all.

Lasers!

Everlasting Pew Pew."

> Death to balloons!

Pfft, everyone knows that killing 'aliens' in video games is a thinly veiled reference to 'illegal aliens' and the US' strict anti-immigration policy. The whole dirty truth has been staring us all in the face the whole time. Why do you think 'lasers' rhymes with 'tasers' huh? When will you poor fools wake up?!?

*twitches*

D:<

You must be silenced.

Spoiler: You know too much. -_-

[https://imageshack.com/i/bb3qqg]

 

[rbstewart7263]

Guys admit it. While writing this Rad has become your favorite character hasn't he? Its ok its ok just change the comic to "Rad dies Radtastically" and we can all exhale and call it a day.

 

[The Wooster]

Guys admit it. While writing this Rad has become your favorite character hasn't he? Its ok its ok just change the comic to "Rad dies Radtastically" and we can all exhale and call it a day.

Despite not being a retro game fan, I really like writing Rad. He's such a departure from my usual characters.

 

[Rad Party God]

Just let's go middle ground and play a game where you kill humans with lasers, okay?

How about games where you shoot human clones with lasers?

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Come on, guys! Shooting aliens is a victimless crime!

...well, except for the aliens, but they asked for it when they decided not to be Earthlings.

 

[Mikeybb]

I DO support the laser lobby.
He makes a compelling argument.

Also, this came to mind when I read it.

"Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green."
Terry Pratchett, unembuggered but ever loved.

 

[Xman490]

Lasers are RAD. Rad like a ... um ... an oposum? No. A squirrel? No. Uhh...

 

[sagitel]

Yeah I tend to agree with erttheking, it is really tricky to pull off a good 'shooting humans' game that isn't just fetishing American military. The one thing I've never really got about the aliens with technological superior aspect though is that really we would lose... we would lose SO HARD in that scenario, and yet these games have us beating out the aliens with one man armies / squads.

Not necessarily. I'm reminded of the Harry Turtledove short story "The Road Not Taken" in which aliens with otherwise early Victorian-era tech develop FTL travel by exploiting a simple loophole about the nature of gravity that is easy to use but is very difficult for humans to observe or discover due to our unique cognitive biases. They attempt to invade a more-or-less modern day Earth, and it goes very badly for them, as they attempt to defeat automatic weapons and missles with matchlock guns. The humans easily reverse-engineer their technology and spread throughout the galaxy like wildfire.

I guess my point is that technological superiority in one aspect isn't necessarily indicative of technological superiority in all aspects, and sometimes it can be really fun when it isn't.

or you know they can use the FTL tech and drop a planet on us?

 

[Sleepy Sol]

This comic reminds me of the times when I was 10 or 11 and would justify the thought of playing Halo to my parents with the exact same reasoning as Rad. A bit on the silly side, I suppose. Though I also just remembered I was playing Freedom Fighters on the Xbox a lot at the time as well. And all you do is shoot Russian dudes in that game. Guess they were only worried about M ratings.

 

[Jandau]

*looks at the FB comments*
Criminy christmas, somebody needs to teach these people how to take in a piece of fiction. Not everything a character says is a personal author mouthpiece. Sometimes characters are just characters and have their own motivations!

I blame TVtropes. Everybody's too 'smart' for their own good.

That was your first mistake - you looked at the FB comments. Don't do that. Never do that. It's for the best...

 

[KingPiccolOwned]

Yeah I tend to agree with erttheking, it is really tricky to pull off a good 'shooting humans' game that isn't just fetishing American military. The one thing I've never really got about the aliens with technological superior aspect though is that really we would lose... we would lose SO HARD in that scenario, and yet these games have us beating out the aliens with one man armies / squads.

Not necessarily. I'm reminded of the Harry Turtledove short story "The Road Not Taken" in which aliens with otherwise early Victorian-era tech develop FTL travel by exploiting a simple loophole about the nature of gravity that is easy to use but is very difficult for humans to observe or discover due to our unique cognitive biases. They attempt to invade a more-or-less modern day Earth, and it goes very badly for them, as they attempt to defeat automatic weapons and missles with matchlock guns. The humans easily reverse-engineer their technology and spread throughout the galaxy like wildfire.

I guess my point is that technological superiority in one aspect isn't necessarily indicative of technological superiority in all aspects, and sometimes it can be really fun when it isn't.

or you know they can use the FTL tech and drop a planet on us?

Wat? Like seriously, how the hell do you actually expect that to happen? Where are they even going to get the energy necessary to move an entire planet, even knowing said vague loophole in the way gravity functions? Not every fictional civilization has technological application on the level of goddamn Gunbuster you know.

So far this strip is farting in every direction possible.

New games are stupid because enemies are never eliminated and there's always more war, even though old games relied on equally insistent nemeses like Bowser and Robotnik. Military shooters are gross, and so are alien shooters, but 'cool' overrides the awfulness of the latter. And so on I'm sure.

I'm not so sure that this comic is saying the things you think it's saying. Mostly because I'm not sure you're really taking Erin's little diatribe in context with the rest of the conversation really. The point be made by her (and therefore the authors) doesn't seem so much to be that "Modern games are gross, and old games are too.", at it is that attempting to deride games with real-world settings on the basis of their content, whilst grandstanding for the "innocence" of retro/sci-fi/fantasy games is fundamentally hypocritical, and intellectually lazy. In a number of ways it can be seen as a send up of the... For lack of better words "Moviebob school" of videogame analysis.

*Attempts to summon The Wooster*

Incidentally Grey, what do you think of my various ramblings on this subject? Assuming you give a damn that is.

 

[Norithics]

No but everything these guys' characters say is, at least most of the time.

How could they be though? I've listened to their podcasts, they actually talk about how Erin is kind of a terrible person and as a result the things she says are always shadowed by the fact that it's coming from someone as self-centered and spoiled as her. If that sounds to you like someone using a character as a mouthpiece, then I'd suggest reading a bunch of political cartoons and seeing what that really looks like.

 

[Imre Csete]

What's with the laser love? Mr. Torgue disapproves.

 

[Kerethos]

:/ On the one hand we have a pretty good argument on how their's not much different between mass killings of humans by humans, and mass killings of aliens by humans when both are sentient.

However, on the other hand is a laser cannon. <.<

This is a tough moral choice! <.>

*Knocks on door*
Excuse me sir. Do you have a moment for our lord and savior Lasers?

Is the commandment "Thou Shalt Not Laser", or "Thou Shall Laser"?

"For God so loved the world that he gave Laser, so that whosoever believes in Laser shall not perish but have everlasting Pew Pew."

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was Laser. And God saw the Laser, that it was good: and God fired the Laser in the darkness"

 

[BX3]

*looks at the FB comments*
Criminy christmas, somebody needs to teach these people how to take in a piece of fiction. Not everything a character says is a personal author mouthpiece. Sometimes characters are just characters and have their own motivations!

I blame TVtropes. Everybody's too 'smart' for their own good.

Oh, good, so I thought I was the only one that noticed all the cancer and assumed personal attacks. Honestly would've sooner expected those types of comments to be here, not Facebook.

...
... uh, no offense, guys.

I just noticed his eyes were Pac-man (Pac-men?). How did I not notice that until now?

Yeah, they turn all Pac-Man whenever he's being simple. A pretty amusing touch.