(Part 2) Best products from r/truegaming

This is extraordinarily thorough. So thorough in fact, that you should also consider board gaming. Reading this, it just makes a lot of sense for you. I think board gaming would fit you like a glove.

1. Video games have moved away from couch co-op. You've made a great list here with a lot of solid points, but I doubt you would have ever reached your conclusion, had you considered board games. Keep Talking is certainly a good entertaining game, nothing against it. It's just, that game feels plucked like a needle out of a haystack. Like you've biopsied out a very small node from inside a large mass.

You don't really have this problem with board games. Literally every single board game in existence is designed to be played with people immediately around you. I hesitate to use the phrase "played co-operatively" simply because most board games are NOT co-operative - though there are notable exceptions like Pandemic or Ghost Stories. Both great games.

Board games use human beings as the engine the game runs on. That's not to say board games pit intellects against each other in some sort of valid competition of "who's the most smartest", but to say: humans are social machines and will surprise you with their grasp of system thinking. If I have five or six people in the room with me, I'd prefer the game that we're playing to exist in the head-space between us rather than on some electronic device.

People have come over to my house in the real world. Why not play a game with them that also exists in the real world? I can play videogames over online multiplayer until I'm blue in the face. Just last night I reinstalled Bad Company 2 and played with a few old college roommates. If I had those old friends over to my house, we'd play a board game. It seems crazy to me that someone has taken the time to drive over to your place and you set them down in front of a computer.

2. Because boardgames have always been designed around a social experience taking place in the real world, they're just better at it. This is definitely subjective. You can feel free to disagree with me all you want, but there are mechanics that I just don't see in videogames. Sure, I could load up Gremlin's Inc and replicate what is probably the best roll n' move game I've ever played, but roll n' move is a Monopoly era game genre. Board games can move past this.

You can't play Two Room's and a Boom on a machine. You can't play Bid n' Bluff games like Liar's Dice, Sheriff of Nottingham, or social deduction games like Coup or Love Letter. You can't play physical dexterity games like Jenga (still great fun btw), Flick em' Up, or Catacombs.

There are just games that play better with groups of people because they exist in the real world and make use of humans as the operating system.

3. Board games are much more open to much more people. I don't know about you, but in my experience board games are just more accessible to a wider range of people. I'm maybe going to get a round of Mario Kart out of the adults in my life that love me, but I've sat down with people over 50 and had a great time with Ticket to Ride. At family reunions I've enjoyed Dominion with young children and grandparents alike. Settlers of Catan, Blockus, and Carcassonne are all genuinely fun games I played to death with my family.

How crazy is that? I would really look forward to playing one of those games with my whole family. I can't think of even one videogame that fits that criteria.

4. Perhaps most simply, there are incredible games that just don't exist in videogame form - even though they could. Is the total conversion mod for Crusader Kings II not giving you that full heady Game of Thrones experience? Why not just play Game of Thrones. This is probably my favorite game and it's just not on computers. I can imagine a version of Cosmic Encounter played over online multiplayer, but why? It already exists in perfect form. If I want to play El Grande, or Arctic Scavengers, or Lords of Vegas - well . . . those games just don't exist as videogames.

5. Just honorable mentions. Seven Wonders. Splendor. Blueprints.


TL;DR. There are a ton of great board games out there and if you actually are struggling to think of something that you and your friends can enjoy together in the same room - maybe give it a shot rather than lament the lack of couch co-op in videogames.

For me it's not the inherent graphics (assuming you meant graphics to mean technically impressive renderings) themselves, but rather the general "look" of the game that matters. Part of that is the obvious response, "I like things that look good over things that don't," but I think there's another factor here that often gets overlooked, one which I find to be very important: gamefeel (there's a book about it that uses that term)

The virtual sensation of playing a game, I think, matters a lot more than it's given credit for, and the way a game "feels" to play is—as far as I know—entirely based on the sensory feedback the game provides, a large portion of which are its visuals. There's a reason action games use all those particle effects when you land a hit: the visual feedback changes the sensation of the hit. In other words, the aesthetics strongly affect the gameplay.

The Errant Signal episode "Kinaesthetics" articulates the concept of gamefeel (which he likes to term "kinaesthetics") very well. You should consider checking it out.

This is my rather plain jane mouse - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083EZE4M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Logitetch speakers, Sharkoon Skiller keyboard.

I've rather enjoyed my keyboard. Works perfectly for me, has a little bit of flair (Blue keys, blue lights), and media buttons for changing volume and such on the fly.

I didn't spend much on the set of peripherals since I put about 800-900 into my gaming pc this year, and hell I think I'm quite fine with them as is.

The next thing I change will be my speakers or mouse, most likely. Logitech, even their cheaper speakers, are pretty good- but I'd love some great sounding music. Maybe a 2.1 or 3.1 setup.

if your interested in an over-all history of video games The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steven L. Kent is a good read with a focus on arcade and early console games while Tristan Donovan's Replay: The History of Video Games has more of a focus on the development of pc games.

I'm required to do a lot of reading at work and uni, so most of the time I use games as my mindless way of kicking back. It usually takes a pretty long break for me to get back into proper literature, but then I do enjoy reading about games. I can particularly recommend Games of Empire.

The debate shouldn't be about console vs PC as PS3 does support keyboard and mouse combo provided the developer has added the code for the same. I think Unreal Tournament and CS:GO support them from what I have heard and then there are peripherals like this and this for people who are more comfortable with a mouse.

I certainly agree that at present, Sony has more perks through PS+ and it sounds like a really good deal as long as you keep the subscription up!

I just would like to point out that PS+ is $5 and will only be optional for the current gen. $5 per month is $60 a year which is the same price as XBL currently. It does look like you can get a year of PS+ for $49.99 which sounds more economical, but you can get XBL cheaper if you shop around a bit.

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-LIVE-Month-Gold-Membership-360/dp/B0029LJIFG

Wrote a similar thesis and found this book to be really valuable to me: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/081667647X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

The author, Ian Bogost, is probably the most recognized academic doing work in the area of games, so it's probably worth your time to find some other stuff by him as well

Unfortunately I have not read many books relating to the gaming industry/community. I mostly stick to books on game design. I can however recommend one book, How to Do Things with Videogames. It's a collection of 20 essays relating to video games and how their growing as a medium. It's a really good read.

There is a book called Game Feel (which I thought your post title was referring to). It's well regarded in the game design community. It goes into elaborate detail on all the points you brought up. Just if you're curious about going down this rabbit hole a bit further.

Don't use your credit card to purchase Live but look on sites like Amazon and Newegg that have the 12 month gold cards cheaper.

All do if you buy something like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0040UAYI4

In regards to the keyboard/mouse, I'll just leave this here