MTG Salvation

The skultulla spawn reason depends on the map. In the main storyline, it's mostly 1000 enemies killed. But it changes in Adventure Mode and New Game +.

When you successfully complete the spawn trigger (such as 'kill 1000 enemies') the Spiderweb shows up on the map. The skultulla will be somewhere inside of the spiderweb-covered areas. It likes to hide in places that you need tools (such as bombs) to reach. When you get nearby, the music will dim and you'll hear the stereotypical scratching. The skultulla itself is roughly the size of the bomb upgrade pickup.

I've put about 26 hours since the game came out. Beat main game on Hard, working on Adventure mode, and contemplating Hero Mode. Lots of fun, I just wish it had online co-op.

Hey guys. As part of a school project, I'm going to be writing a paper/letter about games. One of the things I intend to use is a survey about how people feel about gameplay videos, and how that affects their decisions to buy games. So I'd like to hear what you think. Can you answer just a few short questions?

1.) Do you look for gameplay videos when deciding if you should buy a game?

2.) Is the gameplay footage provided by the developer enough to convince you one way or the other?

3.) Do you ever search for videos from independent producers (let's players, reviewers, etc.)?

4.) Has gameplay footage you came across convinced you to buy a game you weren't considering already?

Feel free to answer just yes/no, but any elaboration would be helpful. Thanks in advance! You can find my answers in the spoiler below.

Im more talking about things like pokemon red, where if you run out of money trying to find the gold teeth in the safari zone you can literally get into a position where you have no choice but to restart. Or a fps game where you get to the final boss with no ammo and no way to get any other than restarting the level because you just hit a checkpoint. Hali did tyat a lit, minus the boss bit.

My question here is what do you mean by 'burnout'? Do you mean 'what makes you grow tired of a game'? 'What makes you grow sick of it'? 'What makes you switch games'? 'What makes you hate one?'

If it's just grow tired of a game, repetition kills a game for me rather quickly. The same act over and over.

I rarely grow sick of games or hate them, but any game that results in me unable to make progress through no fault of my own due to a puzzle with no reasonable solution or not enough information to process, a boss that's unreasonably strong for where you are in the game at that point, or a save point that makes you do something you're unprepared for that won't you leave will quickly result in me disliking a game simply due to bad game design.

As for switching, I generally switch games when I don't feel I can make any more progress. 'Progress' being a term in my head and a completely subjective one at that. In a game like Call of Duty, it's going to be me thinking I can't play any better or derive any more enjoyment out of playing well. In a game like Fez, lack of progress is an inability to solve a puzzle even with repeated attempts. Things of that nature.

I beat the main storyline of Fez about a week ago, and have been hunting 100% completion ever since. Some of those puzzles are dastardly. One I only completed by accident.

Basically, you should just see a doctor. Anything to do with mental faculty like inability to read should immediately prompt a doctor's visit. If you don't like your PCP, see someone else. Good insurance would allow for that. Don't make excuses, ask for a day off at work, and then go see a doctor.

Just finished Teslagrad this morning. Gorgeous game, amazing soundtrack. Tons of puzzles, challenging bosses. Fantastic sidescrolling platformer, and the visually conveyed story works amazingly. Definitely recommend it to everyone who's a fan of the puzzle platformer.

I really, really want to play it, and would happily hand money over... If I had any extra to spend right now. Sadly, I must wait. Do you think it's worth the $25, or is it sale fodder?

I hate to say it, Puddle Jumper, but you've actually established yourself as completely unworthy as respect in the current discussion. You propped forth an unpopular opinion (among this current group) and have given no particular backup or reasoning for this opinion, then asked others to change your mind. The topic in question that you're asking for us to address is far too broad to respond to in any reasonable amount of time, has absolutely no context whatsoever, and has a significant disconnect from what you're asking and what you're saying.

If you are asking what positive effects gaming has on the player, you've been given quite a list to work from.

If you are asking us to convince you that gaming is worth your time and respect, you should probably just bow out of the conversation at this point. That request is simply trapping anyone who responds to you. We can give you our answers until we're blue in the face, but until you actually tell us why you hold your opinion, there's nothing for us to say. You say that you think video game companies are trying to make us spend a lot of time on video games and are making us devalue our time, but you have given us absolutely no reasoning to back that up. You think gaming is considered an illegitimate thing, but you don't really explain why, and you are (given that you apparently play Magic: the Gathering given your presence on this site) a gamer and you're in the company of gamers.

YOU are the one with this paper, not us. If you'd like assistance in writing it and need help supporting your theories, I'm sure a lot of us are definitely willing to help. But I'll speak for myself when I say that I don't want to write the paper for you, and I also don't feel that people who enjoy video games should have to justify that enjoyment. If there's a case to be made, it's on you, the person writing the paper and taking that position, to make your case FIRST. Then your target audience, debate partner, or whoever else can actually address it.

Quote from Puddle Jumper

Lastly, just to play devil's advocate for a minute here: books and movies and music and art have been considered a poor use of time in the past, sure. But the production of those forms of art has always been about elegantly getting a point or a story across to the viewer. Games, on the other hand, are increasingly just about getting people to spend more time playing them. There's something appealing to us about "RPG elements", but they aren't artistic. They're manipulative. The specific reason they're in games is to get people interested in playing long enough to hit just one more milestone. That's a business model that devalues customers' time, and trains their customers to devalue it to themselves. (Please keep in mind that while I really do think this, I am actively looking to be talked out of the opinion, or at least find a good counterargument for it. I am not trying to piss anyone off here.)

You keep coming back to this 'spend more time playing them' bit, but it's a very, very bad argument to make. Simply enough, you need proof.

The argument you're trying to make here is that video game companies want you to keep playing their games, yes? Not just buy more, but they want you to specifically keep playing a specific game for longer periods of time.

This may be true for the games in the 'time management' genre that specifically do this on purpose. Things like Farmville, for example. But they do it because they can make money out of you by encouraging you to keep playing. The more you play, the more you see that you need the microtransactions that make longer periods of play possible. Those games are legitimately manipulating you into playing longer because they make more money.

The same holds true for MMORPGs like World of Warcraft. They want you to keep playing for long periods of time because you pay them for long periods of time.

But what about a game like Starcraft II? You pay for it once and then you play it for hundreds of hours. Blizzard makes no more money on you for it. They made their money and that's it. What's the motivation for them to encourage you to spend more time playing it? Same with games like the Elder Scrolls series. What's the motivation for them to make you play it longer?

There's actually very little motivation for them to make you play longer other than customer satisfaction. If you're willing to put 300 hours into Elder Scrolls V, why would you buy Elder Scrolls VI when it comes out? If you're not done with V with all the content within, the only reason for you to buy VI is because of the 'ooh shiny' factor.

The 'ooh shiny' factor is, in my opinion, what games like Madden, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Final Fantasy are focusing on. They want you to forget the old game and get the new one as soon as it comes out. That's what makes them money. The longer you're willing to play the older one, the less money they're making off of you. This is where things like map packs come in. But the more you play in a game you only pay for once, the less they're actually making.

"RPG Elements" aren't meant to be artistic. Frequently they're meant to give a better element of progress to a game, or to give a player a level of control and customization over their character. Something like Borderlands, for example. Yes, you may be inclined to grind up a bit to get yourself maxed out. But the RPG elements aren't for that. You're going to level as long as you play the game. They exist to give you a sort of progress element beyond just 'I made it to the next stage', and they're there to let you customize your gameplay experience for more enjoyment of the game. I'd probably like playing Axton with his turret just fine by itself. But being able to use the turret as a teleporting nuke that softens up enemies so I can run in and mop them up makes him more fun to me. My friend likes playing the Psycho just fine, but he likes him more because of 'you're in my spot' among other things.

Your assertion that they're trying to get us to devalue our time seems to be based on flawed ideas. "One more milestone" means nothing as a business model if the companies in question don't actually make money off of it. Typically, game length helps a customer feel more secure with their purchase, happier that they didn't spend their money on a short experience. I would be unhappy if I spent $60 and only got 6 hours of gameplay out of it. On the other hand, I'm generally ecstatic if I spend $60 and get 80 hours of gameplay out of it.

Time to add Evolution: The World of Sacred Device to the list. I beat the main storyline for the second or third time a week ago or so, but I only just finished the endgame. Amusing, if grindy.

When asked by parents at work, I tell them that, yes, there are.

One example is hand-eye coordination. Especially in games that require twitch reflexes like Call of Duty or Super Meat Boy, you very quickly have to develop the ability to react swiftly to what it is you're seeing.

There's also logical thinking skills and the ability to think outside the box. See the Professor Layton series for the former and games like Scribblenauts for the latter. But there's even games like X-Com that force you to look at your map/battlefield/whatever and think of a strategy to make things work.

Interpersonal communication and organizational skills are often part of gaming. I've read (though I'd have to hunt down the article) that you'd do well to cite your role as a raid leader in WoW on future applications for a job because that shows you can organize. If you're getting twenty or more people to work together on a single project that requires teamwork and split-second timing, you've got a hell of a job. And if you do it well, many jobs are going to want that type of skill on their payroll. And while you may scoff at 'interpersonal communication' and think of the many 'your mother' comments on the 'net, think of a game like League of Legends. You need to be able to establish teamwork and communication with your teammembers in the first few minutes of the game. That's not much time to get across information. Encouragement helps, and people learn that. See also the WoW raiders bit.

Rapid thinking and calculation are typically trained up in games. It may be something like an RPG where you're calculating, in your head, how good a new piece of equipment is. While you may not be looking at exact numbers, you're going to be estimating quickly. It's a valuable tool. Or perhaps calculating how many more monsters you need to kill to level up. Planning ahead to see what your next level should take to optimize your character. Looking at routes through a battlefield to see what's the fastest and safest way through. Things like that. Games don't always do the math for you, which means you have to do it yourself.

In some cases there's genuine learning to be had. Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis have all sorts of historical facts built into the games, like policies of the Holy Roman Empire or the de jure borders of Portugal. Scribblenauts, which I mentioned before, can easily improve your vocabulary as you search for words that fit the puzzle you're on. Or perhaps something like Cooking Mama which imparts, in small doses, cooking techniques that you can take to the real world.

You said that people can't do time management with video games. I have to disagree. There are games like Dead Rising where time management is everything. How much time do I have to do this, or that? There are games like the Atelier series where you have X amount of days to do everything and you have to figure out how you're going to make it all work. Or games like Recettear where you have a set time limit to do as much as you can. This can teach you to put a value on things and decide what's your best actions in a short period of time.

Catharsis is a big part of gaming for some people. Gaming can be a way to relax and get away the stress of the day. If you can sink yourself into Street Fighter, your rapid button presses may be the best way to get our your frustrations. You may go into a game with a time trail (like I did recently with Blood of the Werewolf) and put all of your stressed energies into beating that time.

Relaxation is another huge thing. Take a game like Knytt Underground, Zen Bound, or Poker Night at the Inventory. These are games you can just sit back and enjoy. There's little in the way of stress in these games. You can just have fun with them and lower the blood pressure. That definitely helps out.

Highroller linked to the Huffington Post bit I wanted to point out. There's some side projects that gaming helps, but there's plenty of things that gaming can add to the individual. Generally they are side effects from the actual gaming. I play Battlefield as a Sniper, and a side effect is that I begin to understand the concepts of gravity on bullets over distance. So, physics. They can make concepts easier to grasp as you actually mess with things and see how they work. Or just practice various things, like hand-eye coordination.

Quote from Sir Sapphire the Third

I think of all the people I am subbed to the only one that is partnered directly to youtube is Boogie2988 (aka the one that did the francis videos).

He is really nice and Might be the best to get an honest answer on that matter.

I may have to go look him up and send him a question, thanks.

and to be honest. if your big thing is lets play style.. your a dime a dozen. your not gonna get any good offers.

Probably not. I'm not really looking for 'good offers', though I have gotten a few that I just wasn't ready for at the time. I'm simply looking to get a few dollars to pay for the next game. Side-project style.

Quote from 9909

I don't want to dissuade you from this if it is your passion, but the reason why I didn't reply earlier was that it is simply not very practical, due to the plethora of other YTers offering similar content in a similar manner. It is somewhat of a pipe dream. However, let's, for the sake of the thread, discuss it anyway.

I'm well aware of the pipe-dream status of this. This is more for my own entertainment than anything. I play games, so I might as well do thi while I do.

For starters, becoming a YT Partner is difficult. Before you set out on becoming one, do familiarize yourself with the terms of the program and do some more research into it.

Actually, this guy discusses becoming and being a Partner rather well.

I don't know if this is up your alley, particularly with this confusion in posts #3-5.

I've looked at both already. They don't quite have the answers I was looking for, so I was popping this thread up to see if anyone else had resources I could look into.

In addition to that, they are are legally gray and Google has been taking them down and suspending users that upload them.

Google isn't doing that on their own. If a video goes up and the original copyright holder doesn't want that video up, google takes down. And if you do it often, they suspend or remove. But it's based on the wants of the original copyright holder.

I've been making a point to get permission to Let's Play prior to actually doing the videos for any game recent enough to make a problem. Typically the copyright holders in these instances (even as high up as Microsoft and Sony) are happy to give permission to make the videos, if not to actually monetize.

It's just a matter of actually doing the research.

When I say 'partnered', I mean literally partnering with Youtube. Right now I don't get any ad revenue because I haven't gone with anyone so far. The previous offers didn't seem to be good for me, and I wasn't getting views/subscribers to a point where I felt it would be worth it.

I doubt I'll get Managed, I'm not big enough for that.

I know the Nintendo Content ID problem, so I'm avoiding them. I hadn't heard about Sega though. My biggest issue right now is the INDmusic problem, since I did some VVVVVV videos and apparently they're involved.

What I'm looking for is more information about directly partnering with Youtube and if that'd be a decent idea. What I can expect and things like that. There's a lot of comments from Youtube and from other networks, but I was looking more for anecdotal information so I can make a decision.

Specifically, I'm at a point where I'm actually considering monetizing my youtube channel. I've got a reasonable number of suscribers and views per day, I know of a number of games I can get permission to Let's Play, review, or otherwise work with, and I'd be interested in making a few dollars simply to buy the next game.

That said, I'm unsure of what the partnership would entail, if I'm ready for it, and the hurdles that would come next.

Anyone here already partnered up? Do you know of any websites or forums that I may be able to snag some advice and assistance?