Typewriter Dispatches 01/07/25

The last upload was a JPEG image file with 2754x3572 pixel resolution. Using my work scanner I now have a JPG file with 5069x6563 pixel resolution. I also realized I should include a text version for those who use reading programs to browse the internet so I’ll type up what the images have at the bottom of these posts.

January 7, 2025

A long time ago, on a Twitter account that no longer exists, I offered forth a dilution of game genres to the barest elements. Since no written record exists outside of Discord messages on it I thought I might do so here.

1.) the numbers go up

2.) competitive arena

3.) you will feel EMOTION

4.) a linear sequence of scares

I think I had another for the Nintendo Toybox(tm) so maybe I will add it back in. Now lets test. Elden Ring: numbers. Zelda: TotK: numbers. Minecraft: numbers. Portal: linear. Mario: numbers. Among Us: arena. Balatro: numbers. College Football 25: arena. BLOPS6: arena. Helldivers 2: arena. Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero: arena. Astro Bot: numbers. Metaphor: numbers. Warhammer Space Marine 2: linear. Dragon's Dogma 2: numbers. Echoes of Wisdom: numbers. Tekken 8: arena. Hades II: numbers. Persona 3 Reload: numbers. Silent Hill 2: linear.

Not many "emotion" games. I mainly think of the indie platformers like Gris or Journey or Inside or Night in the Woods or Omori or even maybe Season: Letter to the Future. This is all in good fun anyway. It is sad though that a majority of games can be summed up with "numbers go up." We are all about accumulation of things in both life (in order to survive) and in our interactive entertainment (where we can accumulate much, much more than we will ever have an opportunity to in life.)

Even Nintendo games, once renowned as toyboxes, are now Numbers. Tears of the Kingdom especially shows this with its myriad of currencies. Pick up a hundred different items for your bottomless bag. Add up the shrines, flashbacks, light roots, sky towers, fairies who make your equipment numbers go up, korok seeds that make your equippable weapons go up. One other option I listed in the original version was for emergent gameplay, essentially the sandboxes like Far Cry or more recently Caves of Qud, where the game was really about the random things that would happen as different systems ran into each other. Now I find that has also been subsumed into the Numbers. Everything is just numbers go up. Your killstreak in Call of Duty, your experience points in the RPG systems that have infected every game released nowadays. Even most linear games are about some form of ascension in number of weapons or items acquired. The Last of Us, Silent Hill 2 Remake, Dead Space Remake, Resident Evil 4 Remake. Too many remakes.

Not like numbers is new. Arcade games were all about making numbers go up. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare really is the before and after game upon which our modern gaming landscape sits upon. Multiplayer gaming, RPG XP systems, challenges to complete, ways to customize your weapon, selling more content digitally, it exploded outward.

I prefer a nice linear sequence of scares myself. A Max Payne 2 to cure my battlepass riddled soul.