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Helios is an exceptionally lazy ending that lets the player get away with not actually making a decision that impacts the world of the game, instead allowing the player to imagine the ending they want by giving the player character total authoritarian control. Fallout New Vegas doesn't end with the Courier running the strip. The city state ending relies on player choices with the factions but ultimately it's up to the factions themselves to determine the fate of New Vegas. The Helios ending in comparison is a total narrative cop out. I think there's something to an authoritarian ending, giving supreme power to some dude who really really promises he won't use it for monstrous evil is a fun decision to have to make, but it should have been an NPC in the story you had to take a chance on, not JC. Beartaco fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Aug 4, 2023 |
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Aug 4, 2023 00:25
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 11:39 |
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The best example of this sort of ending is Djikstra from the Witcher 3, a pretty shady guy that works in military intelligence but with a silver tongue and some lofty ideas. Do you take a chance and overthrow the monarchy to install him as ruler of Redania?
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Aug 4, 2023 00:38
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Reveilled posted:It's been so long, I don't remember how the logic of destroy internet -> new dark age worked. Tong is one of those terminally online people that thinks whatever is happening on Twitter at any given moment is the single most important thing in the world. He's the sort of guy with a lot of things to say about Elon Musk and shutting down the internet is shutting down his whole world. It's more of a metaphor, really.
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Aug 4, 2023 10:53
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Typo posted:yeah I think the Helios ending is the only "good" ending, in the sense at least there's -hope- that things will be better for humanity It's the fun thing about authoritarianism. We're able to look at a totalitarian leader and imagine all the good they could do with all that power, when in reality without democratic systems in place the only person they're able to represent with all of that power is themselves and their own incredibly limited world view.
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Aug 4, 2023 23:45
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Rappaport posted:Do city builders count as a power fantasy? Usually the player is the omnipotent god-king, i.e. the mouse cursor telling everybody what to do, so it kinda fulfills the narcissistic part I guess. But for example in Timberborn, which is still in early access, the current "number go up" - goal is trying to make your little buddies as happy as possible, as measured by the game's abstracted over-all happiness tracking system. Of course the game's mechanics do allow for formation of starvation gulags, so Absolutely. Building real cities involves getting involved in community activist groups and joining local politics. What I wouldn't give to just plop a billion dollar railway system through my city. The beavers don't have a say in any of it. Just because you're catering to their needs doesn't make it not a totalitarian power fantasy.
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Aug 10, 2023 03:52
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 11:39 |
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There's no such thing as benevolent totalitarianism.
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Aug 10, 2023 04:01
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