Graphical Nostalgia and the Dawn of 3-D Gaming

I started playing video games in the SNES era.

I actually had plenty of computer games when I was little, perhaps the most prominent ones in my memory were a kid-oriented exploration game called Cosmic Osmo, and a somewhat more famous title made my the same pair of brothers a few years later by the name of Myst. But when I was 10, I got my first true video game console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. And indeed, I had spent a great deal of time at friends' houses playing games like Super Mario World, Secret of Mana, and Donkey Kong Country 2.

Maybe about ten years ago, 8-bit graphics, from the prior, NES generation, had something of a comeback in art and culture. T-shirt adorned with images of 8-bit Mario or Pac-Man started popping up, and you had things like Scott Pilgrim vs The World, a movie based on a series of comics that were both largely inspired by early video games.

In more recent years, I imagine as people more in my age group who might have been a little young to have played the NES when it was the current system have become content creators, it seems as if 16-bit graphics like those of the SNES have entered a similar space in terms of nostalgia. Capable of greater fine detail and a broader range of colors than the 8-bit era, the sprites and images of the 16-bit period are, to my mind, more aesthetically pleasing. In particular, the big RPGs from Squaresoft out of that era: Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, and Secret of Mana, had a uniform and effective art style that seems to be the best example of the 16-bit era's look.

But it got me thinking: will this nostalgia train keep rolling into the N64 era?

The N64 came out the year that I got my SNES, and though it feels as if they were very different times, I actually wound up getting mine a mere year later. The N64 was a revolutionary system, and really shepherded video games into the 3D era. The N64, along with the new Playstation, saw many of the game franchises we'd known for years as two-dimensional, sprite-based worlds translated into fully three-dimensional spaces. Sure, there was plenty of cheating, like how Final Fantasy VII largely had three-dimensional characters in front of pre-rendered two-dimensional backgrounds, but Super Mario 64 really wrote the rules on how to do a game in 3D, maybe most importantly in how they introduced the idea of having the player control the virtual camera (in the game, they justified it as a Lakitu hovering around with a camera.)

Translating once-2D games into 3D was the driving ethos behind the era, such that we wouldn't get another traditional side-scrolling Mario game for a decade.

And graphically, the old sprite system didn't really work when you wanted to be able to see objects (and more importantly, characters) from every angle. So graphics needed to shift into a totally new system. But it was a new process, and the power required to render these things in real time was pretty massive, meaning that we got blocky characters with low-resolution textures.

In terms of gameplay, this era was absolutely revolutionary. But in terms of graphics, it was, well, ugly.

It didn't seem like it at the time. I remember seeing a television spot for Ocarina of Time (which is now basically the Seven Samurai of video games - a standard choice for greatest of all time) and being blown away at how good it looked, but man, if you go back to it now, it's all blocky models and stretched, blurry textures. I think compared to other games of its era, it was a big improvement, but you'd never confuse it for, say, Breath of the Wild.

Graphics improved profoundly in those early eras - the Gamecube/PS2/Xbox era saw things get a lot better - consider, for example, that Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee came out a mere two years apart from one another, and yet they seem like they come from different centuries (which is actually true!)

But, largely due to the way that you get diminishing returns with processing power - like how the difference between a 60-polygon object and a 600-polygon one feels huge, but the difference between one with 6000 and 60,000 is barely noticeable - graphics seem to have hit a bit of a plateau, or rather, the improvement has been in subtler areas like lighting.

Playing the remake of Shadow of the Colossus, it got me thinking about whether we'd ever have a nostalgia for that PS2 era of graphics. In terms of games, I actually have plenty of fond memories of that video game era. The PS2 was a period in which I felt a greater drive to try out new games, and it seemed as if that console had a massive library.

But while it was a massive improvement over the previous era (32-bit, 64-bit... the whole "bit" nomenclature kind of broke down) a lot of games from that period still look pretty awful by modern standards. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - the GTA game I've definitely played the most - looks way, way better in my memory than it actually does. I popped it back in a couple years ago and was totally shocked at how blocky, chunky, and flat it looks.

The Shadow of the Colossus remake, at least of what I've seen, basically does not change the gameplay at all. The Colossi are (I think) in the same places, and work the same way. It's really the same game, but in many ways, it now actually looks the way that the original looks in our memories.

So is there value to the old, chunkier version of the game? Or are we simply to move on and allow this remake to be the definitive version of the classic?

To put it another way: was the dawn of 3D graphics merely the first step toward photorealism that subsequent generations have only improved upon, or is there something there that modern graphics left behind that is worth preserving?

There's a Freaking Yawgmoth Card in Modern Horizons!

For someone who hasn't played Magic: The Gathering in over a decade, I'm still really invested in it. The whole War of the Spark thing was something I was excited to hear about, even if the only character from my days playing the game that featured in it was Nicol Bolas (my official "best card" I own, though it's the less valuable Chronicles version.)

Anyway, while the War of the Spark was a big deal, the original "holy crap" finale to a long-running arc was the invasion of Dominaria by the planar overlay of Rath, a plan concocted by the evil Phyrexians.

While the hero of that saga, Urza, was depicted in a legendary card that was merely "Blind Seer," the big bad of Phyrexia was a character named Yawgmoth - originally a human, he discovered Phyrexia and allowed it to corrupt him, becoming something like the Phyrexian god-emperor.

We've only had one card, recently, that even showed what Yawgmoth looked like, long after his transformation into a horrible flayed machine-colossus thing.

But there's a card in Modern Horizons - a new set that's basically a mix of crazy mechanics from all over Magic's history (and some, I believe, that never appeared.) It's called Yawgmoth, Thran Physician - depicting Yawgmoth as he was in the ancient, long pre-Urza Thran civilization.

That's all, really. I'm just nerding out.

Why I Love Warlocks in D&D 5E, Even If It's a Painful Love

D&D (ok, I should say TTRPGs in general) lets you craft a character around a story more than any video game-based RPG. Yes, there are mechanics, and there's a lot of fun to those mechanics, but as someone who really gets into video games to take part in a story that the mechanics are there to reinforce, Warlocks are just so freaking cool.

In D&D, the basis of what a Warlock is is that they are spellcasters who have derived their magic from making a pact with a powerful entity (usually a dangerous and often evil one.) While Warlocks are generally considered socially acceptable in the default Forgotten Realms setting, the nature of what you've given up (or promised to do) for your patron is a massive story hook, and the patron itself is potentially an interesting character for your campaign.

Patrons come in very different flavors, and so a Warlock who made a pact with a Great Old One (think Cthulhu) will have a very different feel than one with, say, a Celestial (like, an Angel or some similarly good entity) patron. Now, all classes have subclasses that let you customize things a little, but Warlocks have multiple avenues to customize around.

First, you have your patron at level 1. Then, at level 2, you start to get Eldritch Invocations, which I think are analogous to talents in World of Warcraft, modifying or adding certain abilities. You can then choose a pact boon at level 3, which has a somewhat minor bonus, but one that will likely set you on a very different path than the other options might give you.

And of course, you have spells to choose, though that's not so unique.

Now, there are downsides.

Pact Magic is a totally different feature from other classes' spellcasting ability. That means it doesn't add up if you multiclass, and it also has some tricky limitations.

Basically, you can only, even at max level, have four spell slots at a time. These all upgrade to 5th level, and then you get Mystic Arcanum, which gives you one spell of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level eventually.

But - you get the spell slots back on a short rest rather than a long one, which means that if your party is diligent about resting in between fights, you'll be able to potentially cast eight or twelve or even sixteen 5th level spells a day.

Still, it is a bit limiting.

A Wizard or Sorcerer might feel safe to burn a 1st or 2nd level spell slot on something to deal with an environmental or social issue. With a Warlock, you have to feel very confident that you aren't going to get into a fight before you can take an hour with a sandwich.

Now, Warlocks do have a few things to make that lack of spell slots less painful. Eldritch Blast, which is available only to them, is a really good cantrip. And you can use a lot of Invocations to boost it, by allowing you to add your Charisma modifier (which is your spellcasting ability) to the damage or having it knock enemies back, etc. One of their signature spells, Hex, is also designed to allow you to swap it from target to target with relative ease so that you get a lot of value out of a single spell slot.

And there are some invocations, like the ever-popular Mask of Many Faces, which gives you access to some of that utility magic (in this case Disguise Self) basically as a cantrip. Other invocations either give you powerful spells to use once a day (like the Mystic Arcana) or allow you to use a spell slot to cast it (effectively expanding your spell list.)

So I think the big challenge to them mechanically is rhythm. If your DM really has the whole adventuring day figured out, you can take advantage of short rests to reset your spells and a lot of your abilities (Hex, in fact, at higher levels, will often persist through a rest, meaning you effectively get a free spell that way.) But if you tend to have one big encounter in an in-game day, it might seem insanely unfair that you have so few spell slots.

Lorewise, however, it's just so profoundly cool. The conflicts it can generate, and the flavor that it lends to the story, is to my mind unparalleled. The transactional nature of your relationship with your patron makes it a more personal thing than Clerics or Paladins might have (though I think a DM can play with that too - I saw somewhere someone said Paladins are just Warlocks with good PR.)

And the customizability is really incredible. I've just rolled up a second Warlock character for Adventurer's League, and while my original is a very caster-focused Great Old One madman, this guy is a tough criminal on the road to redemption, whose pact with a Hexblade entity has made him into a kind of magical front-line fighter.

Obviously, if you have a good enough idea, any D&D character can be interesting. But I think there's so much inherent to Warlocks that makes them weirder and cooler than even super magic classes like Wizards or Druids.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh

D&D's latest adventure book arrived at my door today. I've now read through two of its adventures, Tammeraut's Fate and The Styes.

Both are very exciting premises and adventures that I could see running in 1-3 sessions (possibly longer depending on how RP-heavy your group is - so for me they might expand into like 5.) To give a basic gist without giving everything away:

Tammeraut's Fate allows you to do a kind of base defense, where the party comes across the dungeon mostly empty and is then forced to defend it as far too many monsters for them to handle at a given time without something to slow them down attack.

The Styes is heavily influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, with a decaying town or neighborhood of a larger city (your choice as DM!) playing host to a serial killer murder mystery, that, when investigated, leads into a far more troubling, alien, and apocalyptic threat.

These two are the last two adventures in the book - the former intended for players of level 7 to start with and the latter for level 11.

I'm going to read about the rules they've developed for sailing ships next, which appear to be quite substantial.

While I do love running my long campaign, I am finding some inspiration from these shorter adventures. While Tales From The Yawning Portal - Ghosts of Saltmarsh's clear antecedent - was focused on the very traditional dungeon crawls that define early D&D, I find that the adventures in Ghosts of Saltmarsh mirror much closer my own type of adventure design - pushing a little more for big action set pieces for combat and allowing the parts between to be a little more roleplay-focused.

Basically, you'll spend less time retracing intricate dungeon maps here than in TFTYP.

With my roommates heading out of town for their honeymoon, I'm considering running one of these with my other friends, given that our other games will be on hold. And, you know, because I'm going to be alone in this apartment for three weeks with only cats, and while I love those cats, I'm going to need an excuse to bring in some humans.

We've got a bevy of D&D books coming out. Next month the official Acquisitions Incorporated book releases (I've got my copy ordered already) and before the year is out, we should have Descent Into Avernus (which... I mean, come on, Mad Max in Hell? How could I pass that up?)

I've also seen rumors (not sure if this is officially confirmed somewhere) that the hardcover version of Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron will be out some time this year as well. I'm a little torn on buying that purely because I did pay money for the pdf.

But I'm finding the stuff I've read in this book pretty exciting, and definitely something I could adapt to my own setting.

Classic and a Refutation of the Ephemeral

Theoretically, the main appeal of an MMO is that you get to play with a broad swath of people in a persistent game world.

But that persistent nature is also sort of an interesting wrinkle. In truth, one of the things that is remarkable about MMOs is the way that the game world keeps evolving regardless of your participation. Yes, the vast majority of content sits static - even though Illidan has been brought back and then locked away at the Seat of the Pantheon, there's nothing stopping you from raiding Black Temple and letting him monologue for a full minute before you can fight him.

But there is change, and that goes from systems to graphics to the world itself.

I spent a ton of time in Undercity on my rogue, and now, barring some Bronze dragon conveniences, he can't go home again.

In releasing WoW Classic, though, Blizzard is playing with the idea of, at least in the instance of the game's first era (I'd say expansion, but it's obviously not actually an expansion,) turning back the clock and allowing something to truly remain static.

On one hand, that undercuts one of the major appeals of an MMO game world. As good as, say, Skyrim is, after eight years of playing through Tamriel's northern nation, you sort of want to move on. You want to see where the story goes from there.

Yet at the same time, you don't necessarily want to lose what existed before. You might have loved Avengers: Endgame, but that doesn't mean you never want to watch, say, Captain America: The Winter Soldier ever again. It will be a different experience to go back and experience a work of art again, now knowing where things were headed, and you don't necessarily want to be robbed of the chance to reevaluate it.

While Cataclysm is the biggest culprit in removing what had been Vanilla WoW (I'd argue that it was a mixed success in bringing something better - they just painted themselves into a narrative corner by actually making it built around the current events of Cataclysm instead of making something perennial.) In the current game, there's no way for you to hang out in a peaceful Camp Taurajo or to ride along the dry and dusty canyons of Thousand Needles. What came after has value as well (I personally love the whole steamboat system in the "new" - actually like nine years old - Thousand Needles) but being forced to give up the old is not necessarily a good thing.

Now, there are arguments for the ephemeral in art - performance art, whether it's the stuff you'd see in a museum or some public venue or more traditional performances like theater or ballet, has an inherently ephemeral aspect to it, in stark contrast with something like film, where the only way to experience the work is in its "preserved for the future" state. Some prefer live theater because each performance is its own, individual piece of work, and once a run is over, you've missed it. But if you have seen it, you've seen something special, and been placed in a club of a very small number of people to have gotten a chance to see that as it was.

Does this apply to games?

Vanilla ran from 2004 to the very beginning of 2007 (I think Burning Crusade was the latest launch within what would be established as WoW's two-year expansion cycle.) Until the release of Classic, it largely existed solely within that frame.

Admittedly, its elements mostly remained through the run of Burning Crusade. There were a handful of added quests (particularly in Dustwallow Marsh, which was something of a dry run for the massive Cataclysm revamp about three years later.) But even though all of its instances still existed through the run of BC, the fact was that most players had moved on, and the system changes - like those for classes - meant that even if you did decide to keep running Blackwing Lair at level 60, it wouldn't exactly be the same.

So it's an interesting experiment to restore a version of the game that hasn't existed since roughly early 2007 (actually it might be more accurate to say late 2006, given that I think the 2.0 patch launched before the new year.) What does this say about the need to preserve video games in general?

It's something I've been thinking about a bit while playing through the remake of Shadow of the Colossus - another one of my all-time favorite video games. SotC's remake is extremely faithful, basically a graphical upgrade with slight adjustments to controls. But does that eclipse the need to preserve the original version? What value is there in keeping the 2005, PS2 iteration of that game when we have this new one?

Well, consider how much Star Wars fans have wanted to see the original trilogy in its pre-Special Edition form. Sure, George Lucas cleaned up the movie, but also added scenes and a bunch of then-state-of-the-art mid-to-late-90s computer graphics. Does the value of seeing the films as they were when they first released apply as well to old games?

And even if we want to be able to experience them as they were, is there also value to not being able to?

How I Intend to Pillage Descent into Avernus

It's only just been announced, so obviously I don't have a copy of D&D's next big adventure book to look through, but already there are a few reasons I'm excited for it.

First off: it's the first adventure to take place in the Outer Planes. Yes, it's theoretically linked to Baldur's Gate, but I suspect the time you actually spend in the city will be brief. Of the published adventures, barring brief forays into various demiplanes and such, the only one I think truly takes place not in the Forgotten Realms is Curse of Strahd, which is in the Demiplanes of Dread and thus the Shadowfell.

But while the Shadowfell and specifically the Ravneloft setting within it are super cool with their gothic horror vibe, taking things to the Outer Planes will give us a chance for truly surreal high fantasy - not to mention that the vibe they're going for appears to be very strongly the kind of over-the-top stuff you'd see in a Heavy Metal cartoon.

Furthermore, it looks like it will be a kind of D&D equivalent of an open world complete with Infernal Warmachines that are inspired primarily by the Mad Max movies (especially Fury Road, which - confession - is actually the only one I've seen...) Basically, imagine riding the War Rig while a bunch of demons and/or devils are chasing you down, plus it's all in Hell.

That's pretty metal, right?

So, what to take?

Well, there's a region of my homebrew world that is actually largely inspired by Mad Max as well. Essentially, the world is a post-apocalyptic one, but it's been 20,000 years since the calamity that ended the old, technologically advanced (think Star Trek levels but for magical reasons they were never able to go into space) civilization. Most of the world has managed to rebuild and recover, and it got to a standard medieval fantasy level, where it stayed until about 20 yeas ago, when people started discovering a lot of relics from this old civilization and now they're reverse engineering things and undergoing an incredibly rapid industrial revolution.

But this one region, called Parthalia (after the lost civilization) has been kept largely unsettled, despite the fact that, unlike the rest of the world, the vestiges of this lost civilization were not cleared away during the post-apocalyptic "Reign of Madness." The secret reason for this (spoiler alert for any of my players) is that there's a group of angels there who have kept people away since "Deluge." But a few scrappy people have managed to eke out a life there, seeking to make their fortunes plundering the ruins, but of course also having to deal with the anarchy that exists there.

Now, this isn't my Lawful Evil plane or anything. But I think that I'll be able to steal the vehicle system and just re-skin it. Instead of Infernal Warmachines, I can just make them vehicles built out of post-apocalyptic scrap. Instead of fueling it with Demon Blood, we could have some ancient substances traded around the region.

Avernus will also apparently have a number of warlords who are each vying for power while the Blood War rages around them. That might be good inspiration for the kinds of characters one would find in Parthalia.

I'm eager to see more about this. While I'd have liked to see a sourcebook in the vein of Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes or Xanathar's Guide to Everything announced, I'm really eager to see what we might get in this really crazy-looking adventure.

D&D's Next Adventure is Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus

At the Stream of the Descent (or whatever it's called) Wizards of the Coast has announced its next adventure book, which will be called Descent into Avernus. While the story will start in Baldur's Gate - the Gotham to Waterdeep's Metropolis, sort of - it will quickly send character as low as level 1 into, literally, Hell.

Well, technically the Nine Hells of Baator. But you get it. It's the Outer Plane of Lawful Evil, where players will get way in over their heads in the Blood War - the endless conflict between Devils and Demons, where Law and Chaos clash across the lower planes.

I believe this is the first 5th Edition adventure that takes us to an Outer Plane - Out of the Abyss was filled with demons, but the action took place in the Underdark. Here, however, we'll actually be going to the Hells and fighting (or bargaining) with devils.

Avernus is the first layers of the Hells - built originally as a paradise to lure souls to the Hells, it has become a blasted wasteland and the primary theater of the Blood War. Apparently part of this adventure will allow players to build Mad Max-inspired vehicles from the hellish machinery that the devils use to fight the demons, which suggests the following:

This is the most metal D&D adventure to come out for 5th Edition.

EDIT: As if to seal that deal, Joe Manginello's character, Arkhan the Cruel (the red dragonborn oathbreaker paladin who serves Tiamat) is an NPC in this.

I'm eager to check this one out, even though we haven't even gotten Ghosts of Saltmarsh or the Acquisitions Incorporated book yet. The adventure appears to be built for players of level 1-13 - very intentionally dropping underpowered characters into basically the most dangerous place in the multiverse.