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Tom Battey is a freelance writer & designer, fiction author and videogame commentator. He writes these profiles in the third person because he understands this is how it's supposed to be done. He enjoys coffee, science fiction and role-playing games. His writings on these subjects can be found on The Internet at tombattey.com. |
Member Blogs
Accessibility & the Folly of Exclusivism  |
| Posted by Tom Battey on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:51:00 EDT in
Design
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| AAA videogames are making themselves daunting to newcomers with closed-minded design, and a vocal minority of game-players celebrate this as an expression of 'depth' or 'complexity.' Why? |
| Read More... | 77 Comments |
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The Walking Dead is a difficult game, but not in the way you probably think I mean. |
| Posted by Tom Battey on Fri, 12 Apr 2013 07:40:00 EDT in
Design
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| The Walking Dead is a difficult game, but not in the way we would usually describe a game as 'difficult.' The Walking Dead is difficult on an emotional level, in a way that very few games are, and at times I found it hard to continue playing. |
| Read More... | 2 Comments |
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A Place for Nostalgia |
| Posted by Tom Battey on Sun, 10 Feb 2013 06:20:00 EST in
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| Level 5's Ni no Kuni has made me nostalgic for a childhood spent absorbed in great sprawling RPGs. In an industry constantly focused on innovation and the cutting edge, is there still space for games that look squarely at the past for inspiration? |
| Read More... | 0 Comments |
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Nothing is certain, except death and poor checkpointing |
| Posted by Tom Battey on Mon, 07 Jan 2013 08:47:00 EST in
Design
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| Why has 'challenge' become synonymous with 'death', and why do so many modern games approach the idea of player death so poorly? How can designers use death to pose a meaningful challenge, rather than a repetitious slog of endless checkpoint restarts? |
| Read More... | 0 Comments |
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Call of Assassin's Horse Armour |
| Posted by Tom Battey on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:16:00 EDT in
Business/Marketing,
Console/PC
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| Instead of bloating an already expensive product with free-to-play-like micro-transactions, what if publishers used the F2P model to broaden customers' purchasing options? |
| Read More... | 4 Comments |
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Enjoying Japanese storytelling is not being racist. |
| Posted by Tom Battey on Mon, 20 Aug 2012 06:11:00 EDT in
Business/Marketing,
Social/Online
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| Assassin's Creed III developer Alex Hutchinson recently accused games journalists of exhibiting a 'subtle racism' in favour of Japanese games. This is a really dumb thing to say. It's also doing a disservice to an entire swathe of great storytelling. |
| Read More... | 9 Comments |
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Tom Battey's Comments
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Comment In: Accessibility & the Folly of Exclusivism [Blog - 04/23/2013 - 06:51]
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Ah, Half Minute Hero, that ... Ah, Half Minute Hero, that game is awesome. I think I got really far in it, and got a load of extra modes and stuff...I know I stopped playing way before I 'd seen everything though. Gret game. |
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Comment In: The Walking Dead is a difficult game, but not in the way you probably think I mean. [Blog - 04/12/2013 - 07:40]
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Nor can I. But it ... Nor can I. But it is an argument that 's brought up regularly - usually with regards to games like Proteus or Dear Esther, games that are not inherently 'fun ', games you can 't really 'play ', where you 'll always have a vocal minority declaring them 'not a ... |
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Comment In: Why must Monster Hunter 4 be visually ugly? [Blog - 04/11/2013 - 05:18]
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And I imagine the tremendous ... And I imagine the tremendous profit each handheld iteration of Monster Hunter makes in Japan alone more than justifies the decision. The West might not understand it - though we still buy enough Pokemon games that we ought to - but that investment clearly pays off. |
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Comment In: The surprising grace of Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry [News - 02/08/2013 - 01:18]
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Wow. A really interesting take ... Wow. A really interesting take on the series. It 's strange to hear from a DMC fan who doesn 't automatically consider DMC3 the best one. r n r nAnd while DMC3 actually IS my favourite game of the lot, you 're dead on in many respects. DMC hasn 't ... |
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Comment In: What Resident Evil 6 Taught Me [Blog - 01/06/2013 - 08:13]
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This is wonderful. I 've ... This is wonderful. I 've still yet to make it all the through the Resi 6 DEMO, let alone the actual proper game. How such a big studio with so much money and experience can make a game so dreadful on almost all accounts is beyond me... |
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Comment In: Call of Assassin's Horse Armour [Blog - 10/30/2012 - 01:16]
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I don 't think this ... I don 't think this model could be applied at the physical retail stage - I 'd hate being confronted with a whole bunch of different configurations on the shelf as well. Hell, the endless limited editions are already bad enough. r n r nBut it 's a much more ... |
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