ArisKatsaris comments on November 2013 Media Thread - Less Wrong

4 Post author: ArisKatsaris 01 November 2013 08:31PM

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Comment author: ArisKatsaris 01 November 2013 08:32:27PM 1 point [-]

Other Media Thread

Comment author: cata 01 November 2013 08:56:25PM *  5 points [-]

The 2013 Interactive Fiction competition is currently ongoing: http://ifcomp.org/comp13/info.php

It has a variety of fairly short games playable online, some being parser-based (you enter a command and the world tells you what is happening) and some in other forms (e.g. Twine games, where there's a clearly marked set of things you can do at each node, CYOA-style), some puzzly and some less puzzly. Here is a brief introduction to parser-based IF if you find yourself confused.

I enjoyed:

  • Captain Verdeterre's Plunder by Ryan Veeder - a short puzzle game with an entertaining narrative voice, where you rush to scrounge up valuables from your sinking ship and make it off alive.
  • Their Angelical Understanding by Porpentine - a moving allegorical story about something like pain and redemption.
  • Coloratura by Lynnea Glasser - where you play a strange, inhuman mind which can emotionally influence humans to try to get them to achieve your goals.
  • Solarium by Alan DeNiro - an alternate history about nuclear holocaust with fantastic elements.

Additionally, if you play them and have an opinion then you can sign up and vote afterward :-)

Comment author: iDante 02 November 2013 12:27:44AM *  11 points [-]

I've been reading this awesome web serial called Worm. Highly recommend if you want some action and suspense. There's a bit of rationality business in there as well, but it's spaced out and the story is long. I see it's been recommended previously on here as well.

Comment author: gwern 02 November 2013 01:01:32AM *  10 points [-]

And also recommended by Eliezer:

Worm continues to be awesome (I’m up to Vol. 13). I didn’t even notice until I was halfway through what I’ve already read that all of the characters were using their superpowers intelligently, that none of the supposed geniuses were behaving like idiots, and that the flying bricks who would be the central Powers of other tales were properly taking second place to the real movers and shakers, namely anyone with any sort of informational, cognitive, or probability-based talent. Doing this so smoothly that I don’t even notice because my brain considers the resulting world to be ‘normal’ really ought to deserve some kind of epic bonus points. For many readers, though not all, Worm should be a strong candidate for treating HPMOR withdrawal (the author updates very quickly and regularly).

Comment author: Vaniver 02 November 2013 01:24:32AM *  10 points [-]

Caveat: Worm is really dark. The characters are clever, the protagonist makes the most out of a superpower that seems mediocre at first glance, and there are enough twists and turns that I would look at the clock and realize that I'd been reading for six hours. (Worm is really long, so if you're the sort of person who has to keep reading fiction be warned that it will eat a week or two.)

But, despite those positives, terrible things happen to everyone always. I found it similar to Game of Thrones in that it was engaging but depressing, and unlike GoT where new characters are introduced, dance about, and then die, in Worm there's a clear protagonist who, as far as I can tell, always wins eventually. I also found the superhero fight sequences less engaging as time went on- but they can be skimmed with little loss.

Comment author: cousin_it 01 December 2013 01:46:09AM *  3 points [-]

Worm had some moments that hit me really hard emotionally.

"V ybfg genpx. V sbetbg ubj gb punatr ure onpx."

"Znef! Vg’f gbb fbba! V jnag gb xvyy gurz! V jnag gb xvyy gurz nyy!"

"Hagvy jryy nsgre gur fha tbrf bhg, gurl guvax"

"Gur bayl jnl jr’q nyy npuvrir nalguvat erfrzoyvat crnpr."

The fight scenes do get tedious though, by the end I was mostly fast-forwarding them.

Comment author: Tem42 09 July 2016 03:13:21PM 0 points [-]

I'm just starting arc 9, and am ready to give up. It's fun enough, but there doesn't seem to be any rationality here. I would buy an argument that the author is rationalist, but not any of the characters so far. (The backstory does suggest there the characters have done research and thought deep thoughts, be we see none of that.)

If it suddenly improves please let me know -- I've heard enough good things from enough people that I kept going this far, and it'd be a pity to quit just before things get interesting. But I'm almost a third of the way through, and still nothing :-/

Comment author: Furcas 09 July 2016 07:26:13PM 2 points [-]

If you don't like it now, you never will.

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