While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

[Symphony D.]

It's not as hard but it's also far almost infinitely less rewarding, so the cost-to-benefit ratio is probably within an order of magnitude or two. If you don't enjoy the rewards of the process, you won't enjoy the process, and there's no reason for you to undertake the effort necessary to get good at it or change to get good at it. The "reward" that NES offers a moderator is (maybe) seeing players reciprocate your efforts with effort of their own (orders, stories, fan art, music, spoken verse, whatever)[1]. If you don't get hype for that "reward," then you aren't cut out for moderating.

You might also not enjoy the elements of the process, which are generally 1. work ethic, and 2. either A. you legitimately enjoy working with other peoples' ideas and synthesizing them into a coherent whole[2] or B. you enjoy storytelling and can find a way to convincingly ignore what it is they want while giving them something that still makes them happy and/or entertained.

Generally speaking, I guess if your only failing in this schematic was work ethic, and you liked both the rewards and other aspects of moderating, you could overcome that through diligence and hard work. If any of the others sound unappealing to you though, you have no business moderating, and saying "Oh, well, just rewrite your personality, scrub, all the cool kids do it" isn't valid advice on its face alone for pretty obvious reasons.

[1] You might go in for just having created something, but there are plenty of forms of creative expression that don't require other people, so presumably you appreciate the more direct feedback of those people, which is why you're interacting with them so directly to begin with.
[2] This is, interestingly, diametrically opposed to playing, where the primary element of the process is imposing your ideas and overall vision on others (players and moderator alike, since you're shaping the space both have to work with), usually through force when disagreements arise. The notion that good players would necessarily make good moderators is therefore patently false. A good player might be able to use element 2B instead, admittedly.

 

[erez87]

That's still not as extreme as "saying "Well, they could change," is about as profound as saying "Well, they could become astronauts and go to Mars."...

People can very easily find something to gain from moderating which can't happen in the astronaut case.

What I'm trying to say is no one should feel discouraged from moderating just cause they may not have the right personality type.

 

[Symphony D.]

What I'm trying to say is no one should feel discouraged from moderating just cause they may not have the right personality type.

Yeah, and anyone can write a novel too! All we need to do is look at how many novels actually come out of NaNoWriMo and... oh.

The notion that anyone can do anything (and therefore should or must try to) is both an intensely modern one and an incredibly stupid one. Most people aren't cut out to mod. Most people aren't cut out to teach. Most people aren't cut out to soldier. Most people aren't cut out to write. Most people aren't cut out to do a whole hell of a lot of things. That's life. The endeavor of moderating is not somehow different and apart from all the other endeavors that one can embark upon, even if it's for a tiny forum on an obscure corner of the internet about make believe countries or whatever.

I disagree entirely with your premise. I think people should feel (mildly) discouraged. They should ask themselves "Is this a good use of my time? Is it a good use of the time of others I am asking to participate in it? Will we be successful at it? What are my realistic odds of success at doing this thing?" and if they come up with negative answers then they shouldn't do it and should go something else instead. That's critical thinking. (Also the people most likely to go "Nah, I can do it" are suffering from Dunning-Kruger, but that's neither here nor there.) They can try it in spite of that but they shouldn't be surprised if they do then in fact wind up failing at it. There's nothing wrong with failing. What's wrong is to go on failing ad nauseam while learning nothing from it.

Let's actually look at some real examples. I'll start with my own record. I've had 3 serious attempts at running games, SymNES I with 2 updates, SymNES IIα with 1.5, and From the Ashes with 0. For 3 games across 8 years, that's an average of 1.167 updates per game and 0.4375 updates per year. Am I good mod? Statistically, no. Would I recommend you join a game if I started one? Statistically, no. The statistics don't answer the question of whether I'm cut out to be a mod, but I'll tell you the answer to that is also no. I don't find the rewards engaging, I hate the work, I don't like working with other peoples' ideas, and I don't tell stories to please others, so I fail every single requirement. Whenever I wind up having a successful thread, it's because it doesn't rely on the traditional formula, and although it may have NES in the title, never is it actually a NES. (Protip: I'm never running a NES again.)

Since he's decided to tacitly put his record up for review, let's look at Thlayli's record, also spanning almost 8 years. TNESI had 5 updates. PureNES, co-moderated with North King, had 4 (we'll count those at half, so 2 functionally). TNESII had 2. TACNES never launched. TACNES II had 0. stTNESI had 0. AFSNES II had 1. I don't count CivIVNES. For 7 games across 8 years, that's an average of 1.429 updates per game and 1.25 updates per year. Is Thlayli a good mod? Well, his numbers are better than mine, but statistically I'm also going to say no. Is he cut out to be a mod? Only he can really honestly objectively answer that.

What I learned from my failures is that I'm not cut out to do this thing and that generally speaking I shouldn't keep trying, because as somebody who wasn't Einstein once said, "the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result." Since I was slightly disappointed with this outcome, I decided to investigate what the reason was, and it ultimately boiled down to temperament, as I articulated. Thlayli, in his apologia, comes to basically the same conclusion, and he pins his failing essentially on the work ethic component of the process. Maybe that is or isn't the case. Maybe he can change, going on a decade into making stabs at the process. But the fact it's taken going on a decade to get to this stage of introspection and dissection of performance is plenty of proof in my book that you should absolutely view your prospects at being good at modding, or anything else, with a healthy dose of skepticism.

However, for him to sit there and then throw out afterwards something tantamount to "Well, anybody can do it, they just have to change their personality," is ridiculous, like you can just open up brain.ini and personality.cfg and change a few variables, and it implicitly only acknowledges the work ethic component, as if all one has to do is work harder and they can do anything.... well, no, no you can't. You can work as hard as you want and you'll never be Mozart. You can work as hard as you want if you're crap at physical fitness and doing violence and taking orders and you'll never be a soldier. And you can work as hard as you want if you don't like working creatively with other people and you'll never be a NES moderator.

 

[Terrance888]

If you don't count SilliNESes, experiments, or current NESes, my average update per real dead NES (TerraNES) is 20. :3

So I'm like, nearly 10 times the updater than these guys.

(join terranes)

EDIT: Intended to put this in on my earlier post.
For TerraNES1, #1 wasn't an issue as I haven't developed that instinctual repulsion yet, and #2 was less of an issue because I felt totally justified with taking one and a half weeks per update (because I looked up to NK). Now I feel inadequate if I take more than three days per update (because I looked up to NK). And scheduling a couple hours per day for about 10 days is much easier than scheduling 5-6 hours per day for three days in my current situation. Or even 4 hours for one day for TerraNES2's concept.

That said, the niche I carved out for myself on tuesdays is coming up again, so if nothing stupid comes out of my mom's mouth the update should be up this afternoon. EDIT: Or if #1 or #3 doesn't cause me to procrastinate. :3

EDITEDIT: Well, I can analyze if I'm fit to Mod or not, in the Symphonic style.

1. Work Ethic
Well, I am a procrastinator. Even so, when I procrastinate I tend to procrastinate "productively." That is, say I'm doing a difficult war between two players I'd watch a few battle scenes or documentaries on youtube when contemplating stuffs. Or someone has a very far out program I'd wander Wikipedia and the web in general looking up stuff. This isn't research, because I don't do it with the goal of finding something, just with the goal of putting off the decision by looking at possibly related thingys.

That said, I love writing, just find it hard to sit down and punch through when I'm not feeling good about writing, or get things going so I get the time to write when I get the good feeling. When things come together well, I can easily pour out the written part of an update from the outline in about 4 hours.

As for the stats, I dislike stats in the fact they "cement" the world with "facts", but I like stats in the way they allow relative comparison and direct and alternative method of feedback on player action. For doing stats, I like formulaic and dislike fluffy thingys. Should this cool idea get +2 or +3 EP? Should that temple boost culture once or twice? Did they lose 10 or 12 units on campaign? This is the stuff that bugs me. Once the outline and stat summary is done though, the actual inputting of stats is calming and theraputic.

This puts me back into: making the outline. Personally, I need to get over my fear of establishing facts and "laying down the law" so to speak. I need to be much better about knowing when to outline, and when to just bang out a paragraph while excited.

So Work Ethic? When not distracted, relatively enjoyable, if not necessarily focused.


2A. Synthesis
I love other people's ideas. The clash of characters, cultures, civilizations, different viewpoints, it's all so grand! I also like interacting them both IC from NPC and "advisor" standpoints, and OOC as the Mod. As a moderator, I focus on solving conflicts, be it war, conversion, colonization, or mercantile dominance, and introducing more ones from NPCs, cultural shifts, and "random" (appropriate) events. Most of the more "random" events I established between 5-10 turns earlier.

Mind, I HATE working with other people's cliche's. There's a difference. Merchant republic that loves money and spends money to get money? Meh. Merchant republic balancing landownership with naval control, military force for defense with investments and colonies, and has a rivalry with a historically stronger power? That's spaceman's Axum, and it's cool. Conquering empire with a Pax Imperium interior? Meh? Conquering Empire which continuously developes both internally and externally and successfully manipulates their neighbors to their ends to ensure success in every war they embark? That's Iggy's Hyak, one of my favorite countries, but would be still undeniably successful even if I hated it.


2B. Storytelling
Rule of cool never had so many lovers and haters.

 

[erez87]

Sym I agree with you mostly, but claiming to use healthy skepticism means admitting you don't really know why you failed in MODing some NESes. You can guess according to what you feel were the reasons, but really, you don't know.

So yes, a person needs to think deeply on his ability to make a lasting NES, but he should not be discouraged because we don't know what makes a good mod.

Until we know more, I'd say, anyone can and should try.

And to be clear, I'd join any nes you make with a ruleset and background that appeal to me, even after your previous failures. Many people fail before they succeed and MODing isn't quantum physics. Writing is a learned skill not a born one and not as complex as math, and it doesn't need to be a north-king masterpiece... It just need to be fun for all.

 

[Symphony D.]

Sym I agree with you mostly, but claiming to use healthy skepticism means admitting you don't really know why you failed in MODing some NESes. You can guess according to what you feel were the reasons, but really, you don't know.

No, healthy skepticism does not mean "Things are unknowable, so we just shouldn't pretend to know anything!" I know exactly why I failed in modding (all the aforementioned reasons, plus hating the time periods) and so I'm using my personal experience to form a general framework.

Also, we pretty clearly do know what makes a good mod, and that's a mod that actually has the capability to produce updates in some quantity. If they demonstrably do not have that capability, based on say, past performance record, they're not good. If the writing is amazing and the ideas are great and it only lasts three updates, that's still bad. That's still a lot of time and effort functionally wasted.

That isn't to say that good mods produce good games (let alone what those are), but what makes a good mod has a pretty clear bottom line definition, and it's somebody who actually delivers a product. That product might be great, good, average, bad, or terrible, but it has to exist in the first place. If you can't make it, you automatically lose.

And to be clear, I'd join any nes you make with a ruleset and background that appeal to me, even after your previous failures.

"I am a scammer. Invest in my scam."
"Hmm, well, maybe it's not a scam."

 

[Thlayli]

Interesting points, Symph. The only alteration I'd make is that technically PureNES had 2 threads with 10 total updates between them, as far as I can remember.

Overall I don't claim that it's easy to change, but the only way to change your performance, if you want to, is to be more systematic about your process. That's my theory at least. I think I was too embarrassed to pin my failures on my temperament until now, but I think I'm glad that I have. Having achieved decent levels of change in other work ethic related areas of my life, I feel reasonably confident I can extend this to NESing. I would consider it a mark of pride and accomplishment to get to 10 updates or more. So that is what I will strive for at first.

Edit: As for SysNES, I was just going off of you telling me Dis said the main reason he stopped updating SysNES was that he found it "exhausting," and given how much maintenance we know the spreadsheets had to have on the mod's end, I attributed it to that.

 

[Symphony D.]

Edit: As for SysNES, I was just going off of you telling me Dis said the main reason he stopped updating SysNES was that he found it "exhausting," and given how much maintenance we know the spreadsheets had to have on the mod's end, I attributed it to that.

It was the spreadsheet repeatedly corrupting and/or not functioning as intended. Stats ≠ mechanics.

 

[erez87]

Healthy skepticism also includes not making logical fallacies I assume? I didn't say things are unknowable, I did say we don't know them, and so we can't go on living our lives as if we do.

We don't know what makes a good mod, we don't even know if it is only one thing. Maybe if we invest into researching the subject we might find out. But then we will have the problem of finding out how do we know if a person have the traits that make a good mod. There are no good personality tests out there to my limited knowledge on the subject, and even if we knew what a good mod needs, we still won't be able to say who is a good mod and who isn't. We also will have to find with is a sufficient mod is since that is more than enough for a running NES.

You claim to know what made you fail. You claim it's because "I don't find the rewards engaging, I hate the work, I don't like working with other peoples' ideas, and I don't tell stories to please others" plus "hating the time periods". Can you show evidence that those led to your failures in your NESes? Can you show evidence you hate the work - and that hating the work made the NES fail? Can you show evidence those are constant things that will hold you back from being a sufficient MOD in the future? Evidence that you ALWAYS hate the work, hate the time periods, don't like working with other people etc... Somehow, I doubt that. This isn't science, these are emotions. You feel you are inadequate as a mod, and claim your feelings are the reasons. I think what made me fail was that I was bored with the updating of massive stats, I liked only the map making. These things can and do change constantly, just like any other emotions.

"actually has the capability to produce updates in some quantity" isn't a good mod. It's a mod. If you don't produce updates in some quantity, you didn't mod, you just started a game and let it die. moding means producing updates. That is totally circular reasoning. A mod is good if he makes updates, if he makes update he's a mod. Come on. You barely had three NESes. Do you really thing that's a good enough record to claim we have evidence that you are a bad mod?

Yes dead NESes are a lot of wasted time, and a lot of lost emotional investment. How did North King once called me? The longest mourner for his dead NESes (I still mourn them), also "like an axe-friendly ex". I admit to those, I'd still join any NES of his and attempt to stay (I "hate" myself for failing miserably to join his most successful running NES).

Also scamming by definition means you are up to no good. You aren't. You are just trying to start a game to have fun and let others have fun. That isn't a scam.


I'm not sure people really change. But I also don't claim to know what makes a good mod, personally I doubt it's a single thing that you must have within you. It's probably a myriad of traits that each influences in different ways and you can have some, not have others, and still be a sufficient and even a good mod.

In short - anyone who wants to mod, should try. As many times as he wants. He should learn from his failures, but that shouldn't stop him from trying again. Maybe the time period wasn't right, maybe the rules were too complex to handle, maybe it wasn't the right moment in his life to run something... You have a problem with working with others? Don't - make a ruleset that leaves them much less to do and gives you more power over the world, it will surprise you how successful that may be. If you ran 100 NESes (for a good database) and failed them all, fine than you could start doubting yourself. Considering no one ever ran 100 NESes... I'd still believe in you as a mod if you start a NES. Who knows, maybe than all the pieces will be in the right place and it will last for 40 updates. Sure it requires a leap of faith, but so does not doing anything, and I prefer the more positive one. Positive realism - that's the way.

 

[North King]

Number of NESes: 15
Mean Number of Updates: 5.467
Median: 2
Minimum: 0
Maximum: 30

Since we're all navel-gazing: I'm the moderator with probably the most mixed track record in NESing, with a long string of failures (several runs of 1 or 0 update NESes come to mind) and, obviously, one sterling exception. Prior to End of Empires, my most successful NES had run to 15 updates, but that's only part of the story -- prior to 2012, I was horrifically bad at getting updates out in a timely fashion. I was infamous as the moderator who took more than a month to get updates out; several of EoE's updates took me 4-6 months. Since then, with the exception of the BT and its 60,000 words, I've been a more or less consistent monthly updater, with the majority of them cranked out in a single weekend.

A few things explain this change. Obviously, there was some overhaul of my work ethic (item #1). Nothing changed regarding items 2a and 2b; I've always loved these aspects of moderating.

We could add an item 3, attention span -- or more properly, patience. Staying on any one NES for a long period of time used to be anathema to me. Obviously, that changed to some degree; I still get bored, but EoE is sprawling enough that it drives its own content and interesting things happen with barely any input from me. Long runners just do that, you'll notice that even with the acrimonious end, CI players were producing tons of stuff outside of what EQ generated, and I've been lucky enough to have literal novels-worth of stories posted between my updates. But no one's going to invest that kind of time (understandably) in something they have no idea will last, and more to the point, people will simply have a dearth of ideas early on in an NES. There's only so much conniving you can do when the fictional world is young.

So a moderator needs to have the patience, or at least be able to fake it, in order to get that NES over the proverbial "hump" where it transitions from moderator-driven content to player-driven. At this point (which I would theorize happens somewhere in the teens), the world becomes interesting enough on its own that the moderator could effectively reduce their workload without impacting player investment.

To this, I'd add an item 4. We'll call it "time available." An less kind way of putting it would be "having no life." The blindingly obvious reason I transitioned from being a relatively poor moderator to a remarkably consistent one was my graduation from college. Not only do I have weekends with pretty much nothing to do, I have a lot fewer ways to spend that time; this has, not surprisingly, correlated strongly with a huge spike in content generated for the forum. I would never have spent two days more or less completely on an update before then. Does this mean updating must come from someone who has largely abandoned their RL footprint to invest everything in their online persona?

I'm not sure.

What I do know is this -- there's very little harm in someone trying their hands at moderating. A few updates will probably be enough to tell them whether a) they really enjoy it all that much, b) they care enough about the idea of it, and c) they have the schedule for it. That's a couple dozen hours down the drain for them (assuming failure), and rather less than that from the players, who, after all, won't invest that much in a new NES even if they DID trust the moderator. I am also of the opinion that very few people know before that proverbial test run whether they will be good moderators or not. I am thirdly of the opinion that moderating is the most hellishly difficult work on this forum, with brutal time demands and a veritable horde of players who demand updates come faster, longer, better, and that any encouragement we can offer in this environment is a good thing. Very few people are cut out to be good moderators; I agree on that much. But acknowledging likely failure is not the same as assuming it. The thing that keeps this forum going are the NESes, obviously, and the thing that keeps an NES going is a dedicated mod. We need as many as we can get.

 

[Terrance888]

Well, I don't have a life. The problem is, it's because its still owned by my mother.

All joking aside, I admire NK's example of success after long periods of experimentation, and even self-change. His work ethic continues to amaze me. Shock me even. I used to be happy I turn out updates every 1-3 weeks with 3 haituses because I compared myself to you, NK. Now, I feel inadequete .

 

[Symphony D.]

You claim to know what made you fail. You claim it's because "I don't find the rewards engaging, I hate the work, I don't like working with other peoples' ideas, and I don't tell stories to please others" plus "hating the time periods". Can you show evidence that those led to your failures in your NESes? Can you show evidence you hate the work - and that hating the work made the NES fail? Can you show evidence those are constant things that will hold you back from being a sufficient MOD in the future? Evidence that you ALWAYS hate the work, hate the time periods, don't like working with other people etc... Somehow, I doubt that. This isn't science, these are emotions. You feel you are inadequate as a mod, and claim your feelings are the reasons. I think what made me fail was that I was bored with the updating of massive stats, I liked only the map making. These things can and do change constantly, just like any other emotions.

Well, if you want to talk about logical fallacies, personality ≠ emotions so argument = invalid. Also, I'm glad to see you've discredited every social science so succinctly, most impressive.

"actually has the capability to produce updates in some quantity" isn't a good mod. It's a mod. If you don't produce updates in some quantity, you didn't mod, you just started a game and let it die. moding means producing updates. That is totally circular reasoning. A mod is good if he makes updates, if he makes update he's a mod. Come on. You barely had three NESes. Do you really thing that's a good enough record to claim we have evidence that you are a bad mod?

A restaurant makes food. A restaurant that does not make food is not a restaurant. A restaurant that fails to continue making food is a failed restaurant. A man who has had three failed restaurants is bad at the restaurant business.

wow
much controversy
so firebrand statements

Also scamming by definition means you are up to no good. You aren't. You are just trying to start a game to have fun and let others have fun. That isn't a scam.

"I am going to promise you a product and not deliver. Invest in my product."
"Hmm, well, maybe he'll deliver the product."

I'm not sure people really change. But I also don't claim to know what makes a good mod, personally I doubt it's a single thing that you must have within you. It's probably a myriad of traits that each influences in different ways and you can have some, not have others, and still be a sufficient and even a good mod.

To be a writer, you must write. To be a moderator, you must update. Those are the basic criteria for being good at the activity. It's not more complicated than that. There are different levels of performance from there, but that is the fundamental requirement to be considered in the activity.

In short - anyone who wants to mod, should try. As many times as he wants. He should learn from his failures, but that shouldn't stop him from trying again.

Or you could go actually do literally any other number of things in the world that are immediately fun and productive instead of experimenting with something at which you repeatedly fail in the hopes that someday you might succeed. You know, just a thought.

 

[North King]

I would also note that I am of the opinion that NESes should die. Erez mentions mourning for my previous NESes. I would like to mention that every NES I did before my current one is a pile of crap, and that most of the updates before update twelve of my own NES are a pile of crap, and as a matter of fact revising those earlier updates to make them higher quality is a project I've put off for some time. I was 14 when I started moderating, and I was pretty awful (doing the count of updates for my NESes was a particularly painful endeavor, as I caught some glimpses of the updates I was doing back then). I started the vast majority of my NESes when I was 15 or 16, and they were similarly bad. Since then, I have a much deeper understanding of history, science, statistics, and the quality of my writing has improved tenfold at least. This is natural, and I would probably follow Symphony's example and disavow all of my work that dates back before 2 years ago, but I'd rather leave it as a lesson on how much a body can grow. We do change as people; hopefully we change for the better, and I do think we can consciously direct much of that change.

At the same time, when you take that into account, your goal as a moderator can't be to create perfection the first time around; e.g. the first half of my NES does not measure up to the second half. The goal should really be, "let's just not make this something I'm embarrassed to look back at," which I feel reasonably confident I succeeded at.

 

[erez87]

Oh always have fun. If you choose to mod again, do it only for the fun. I thought that's obvious. These are games - they are purely for fun. Otherwise, they will fail, almost for sure.

Hating the work isn't a personality trait, it's an emotion, mostly explained by your extra reasoning of hating the time periods. Not liking working with others can be either a personality trait or emotional thing - but here I suggest, if you still want to mod, mod a NES that gives you more power and influence and takes away the ability of others. You'd be surprised how successful that may be. Family NESes tend to give much less power to the players from the usual nation through the ages, yet for some reason they are really sought by players here to some sort of extremity that if someone manages to make a working one... It's going to be one amazingly successful NES.

Again, scamming requires you to be up to no good. You don't ask for investment in your NES to do harm to others to gain something yourself. You do it since you are seeking fun and hope they do to. That's the only investment worth doing even against previous evidence, fun. At least I hope so

I would also note that I am of the opinion that NESes should die. Erez mentions mourning for my previous NESes. I would like to mention that every NES I did before my current one is a pile of crap, and that most of the updates before update twelve of my own NES are a pile of crap, and as a matter of fact revising those earlier updates to make them higher quality is a project I've put off for some time. I was 14 when I started moderating, and I was pretty awful (doing the count of updates for my NESes was a particularly painful endeavor, as I caught some glimpses of the updates I was doing back then).

Perhaps, in your opinion. Still, those were a lot of fun, and whenever fun dies, its kind of hard. But that's just my emotional traits also if they didn't die you wouldn't have the current one... still... bah.

 

[North King]

Right, they were a lot of fun, if you were a teenager.

 

[Symphony D.]

Hating the work isn't a personality trait, it's an emotion, mostly explained by your extra reasoning of hating the time periods.

"Laziness: not a personality trait."

Not liking working with others can be either a personality trait or emotional thing - but here I suggest, if you still want to mod, mod a NES that gives you more power and influence and takes away the ability of others. You'd be surprised how successful that may be.

"Make something that's not a NES and call it a NES!" Or one could just give players no control, eliminate them entirely, write a novel or film, and actually get paid. Hmm...

Family NESes tend to give much less power to the players from the usual nation through the ages, yet for some reason they are really sought by players here to some sort of extremity that if someone manages to make a working one... It's going to be one amazingly successful NES.

I don't care about pointy-stick games. I care even less about doing linguistics and religion for pointy-stick games. Somewhere 20,000 leagues below that point resides my opinion of small-scale character-driven games.

Again, scamming requires you to be up to no good. You don't ask for investment in your NES to do harm to others to gain something yourself. You do it since you are seeking fun and hope they do to. That's the only investment worth doing even against previous evidence, fun.

Protip: wasting the free time of others given they are mortals with finite lifespans and time is in fact a kind of form of harm, deliberate or not, malicious or not.

 

[Crezth]

Everyone stand back, Crezth sprained his ankleuru and is lashing out.

Quick! Form an opinion with no wider knowledge! gogogo

 

[erez87]

Right, they were a lot of fun, if you were a teenager.

Which we were. They still died while we were teenagers...

 

[Terrance888]

I'm still a teenager.

EDIT: Double post.

 

[erez87]

"Laziness: not a personality trait."


"Make something that's not a NES and call it a NES!" Or one could just give players no control, eliminate them entirely, write a novel or film, and actually get paid. Hmm...


I don't care about pointy-stick games. I care even less about doing linguistics and religion for pointy-stick games. Somewhere 20,000 leagues below that point resides my opinion of small-scale character-driven games.


Protip: wasting the free time of others given they are mortals with finite lifespans and time is in fact a kind of form of harm, deliberate or not, malicious or not.

Laziness? Or hating that work? Two different things. So which one is it?

It's NES. A NES doesn't have to have players play whole nations through the ages. There are so many kinds of NESes, any story-based game would be NES (and even some boardgame NESes with no story).

You aren't interested in it. Ok. IF you want to mod, find the game you want to mod. It isn't simple, I'm still looking for mine for years, but it's possible.

It may cause harm, yes, but if it isn't deliberate or malicious it isn't a scam. I want you to mod, which will make you spend much time, because I want to play in more NESes. Am I scamming you?