I can solve at least two, and possibly all three, of those problems in a single pass. How to kill people and stave off boredom for days at a time while systematically reducing your GPA to rubble (http://www.nethack.org). Better yet, if you choose a chaotic you can even SACRIFICE people. It is so much more rewarding to kill someone if you can then transmute their warm dead body into black flames and thereby summon Demogorgon. Ah, yes. (I'm retarded...sorry about the first post....)
Nethack is one of those awful pits of timewasting and stuff and...and...and it's not nice, and it's too full of cute subtle stuff, and you have to play it over and over and just because you ascend as one thing doesn't mean you're anywhere near done because then you have to ascend as everything else as well, and and and...
and besides, if you get hooked and post to rec.games.roguelike.nethack and my boyfriend flames you for Jeopardy quoting replies, I'll never forgive myself.
This, too, is a soluble problem. Nethack is a proper superset of Diablo II. In 1/30 the space. Here's a relevant (edited for length) quote:
Sampling "Diablo II," I could see why: That game and its successor are basically Nethack, writ large with 3D animation and stereo sound. I couldn't help noticing that it still lacked the breadth of gameplay that Nethack had in abundance. When it comes to immersing you in a game, vivid graphics only go so far, and often actually work against that effect.
With every object, tool, weapon and creature imbued with a wealth of attributes, every situation has endless potential. The aforementioned cockatrice, for example, could turn you into stone, but that is only the beginning. If you kill one, then pick it up with gloves, you can wield its body like a flail, instantly turning monsters to stone when you bash them with it. (Usenet wags dubbed this maneuver "wielding the rubber chicken.") If you have a wand of Polymorph and also wear a Ring of Polymorph Control, you can actually turn yourself into a cockatrice, and explore the dungeon in that deadly form. You can even lay cockatrice eggs, too -- usable as hand grenades of instant paralysis.
In Nethack, at any point, anything seems possible. Jean-Christophe Collet, a DevTeam member who discovered the game while working for a Parisian Unix company, says he was enthralled by "the sheer complexity of the situations you could get into, and the way that there was no 'right way' to get out of them." Surrounded by Orcs, for example, you could incinerate most of them with your Wand of Lightning, but the blast would likely ricochet off the opposite wall and crisp you, too. You could wear your Ring of Conflict, which would magically compel the Orcs to start attacking each other instead -- but then again, wearing it would probably also compel your pet Large Dog to attack you. When I review computer games now, I always begin with the question, Is this game as complex and engrossing as Nethack? And even now, more than 10 years from the day I discovered it, it rarely is.
--Wagner James Au, "The Best Game Ever" www.salon.com
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
outlets condoned by forces for good in the community
DON'T DO IT, SKEETER.
Date: 2001-03-27 07:12 am (UTC)and besides, if you get hooked and post to rec.games.roguelike.nethack and my boyfriend flames you for Jeopardy quoting replies, I'll never forgive myself.
Re: DON'T DO IT, SKEETER.
Date: 2001-03-27 07:57 am (UTC)Die? (y/n) y
I am a Jedi, like my father before me. I will not serve you. AAAAAAAIIIIIEEEEeeeeee....
Re: DON'T DO IT, SKEETER.
Date: 2001-03-27 11:45 am (UTC)Re: DON'T DO IT, SKEETER.
Date: 2001-03-27 03:22 pm (UTC)Sampling "Diablo II," I could see why: That game and its successor are basically Nethack, writ large with 3D animation and stereo sound. I couldn't help noticing that it still lacked the breadth of gameplay that Nethack had in abundance. When it comes to immersing you in a game, vivid graphics only go so far, and often actually work against that effect.
With every object, tool, weapon and creature imbued with a wealth of attributes, every situation has endless potential. The aforementioned cockatrice, for example, could turn you into stone, but that is only the beginning. If you kill one, then pick it up with gloves, you can wield its body like a flail, instantly turning monsters to stone when you bash them with it. (Usenet wags dubbed this maneuver "wielding the rubber chicken.") If you have a wand of Polymorph and also wear a Ring of Polymorph Control, you can actually turn yourself into a cockatrice, and explore the dungeon in that deadly form. You can even lay cockatrice eggs, too -- usable as hand grenades of instant paralysis.
In Nethack, at any point, anything seems possible. Jean-Christophe Collet, a DevTeam member who discovered the game while working for a Parisian Unix company, says he was enthralled by "the sheer complexity of the situations you could get into, and the way that there was no 'right way' to get out of them." Surrounded by Orcs, for example, you could incinerate most of them with your Wand of Lightning, but the blast would likely ricochet off the opposite wall and crisp you, too. You could wear your Ring of Conflict, which would magically compel the Orcs to start attacking each other instead -- but then again, wearing it would probably also compel your pet Large Dog to attack you. When I review computer games now, I always begin with the question, Is this game as complex and engrossing as Nethack? And even now, more than 10 years from the day I discovered it, it rarely is.
--Wagner James Au, "The Best Game Ever"
www.salon.com
Re: DON'T DO IT, SKEETER.
Date: 2001-03-27 03:59 pm (UTC)