I haven’t, I don’t have Stellaris, but to be honest I am kind of exhausted by the theme of 4x games which always boils down to “paint the map your color”… like I don’t want to, I am bored with that. I want to win but the unquestioned assumptions in the foundations of 4x games is a bit too cynical for me even though I love playing war games, but then again there is a difference between two sides blasting it out in a war and an ever growing suffocating empire that consumes all under its color and banner and has no other objective than endless growth…

Almost every 4x game is concerned with consolidating power under your control, I mean yeah it is fun right! I am not trying to bash it as inherently bad but at a certain level I find it a really constricting theme after awhile even though I love playing evil villains in fantasy as the next person. I just want more from the genre in terms of evolution of game design at a foundational level not just more stuff and more dlc and more mechanics and more different kinds of space war. If the only shape of an empire game is of an oppressive unstoppable regime either succeeding or failing to rise I just think that is pretty limited in vision. Not that there isn’t an amazing diversity of strategy games that don’t fit the mold that I am describing, but in general I think there is truth to my point.

For a reference of what something different can look like, see modern euro game design in board gaming, in particular I think the board game Oceans creates a compelling strategy experience that while still being about winning isn’t inherently about just being the most powerful creature or presence on the board at any one moment. Mutual benefits are complex and arise spontaneously because the objective isn’t complete annihilation for anybody.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/232414/oceans

I guess you could argue my criticism is all a matter of perspective, any kind of winning is going to encourage more winning and snowball to some degree in a system that isn’t totally random, but then again the feeling of getting near the end game of almost any 4x gets a little bit tedious for most people, not only because every single turn takes more and more admin/micromanagement of a bigger and bigger empire but also because the most common impact of winning a 4x game is that the gameboard/environment becomes more and more homogeneous and less and less dynamic the closer you get to winning. Winning should reward you with interesting choices and dynamic board states not an experience that feels like a chokehold even though winning again can always be reframed as the process of gaining a chokehold on a system.

(again, a general point, I know and love that there always exception to the rule)

Yeah and the mechanism for adjusting your phasers is in the style of “Don’t Stop Talking And Nobody Explodes” co-operative minigames that border on silliness in their fiddly complexity at points as part of the fun (also a vehicle to poke fun at the goofy technobabble in Star Trek hahaha).

Harry Kim, we all want you to be promoted, but it isn’t productive to be upset with other Ensigns for getting promoted more than you.

I love how upset some people get about Tilly serving on a big burly masculine warship that sometimes has the serious job of killing people.

If a crew like this didn’t have people like Tilly on it, it would have fallen catastrophically apart after the 10th crisis or so.

Especially in this season it so obvious how Tilly’s intelligence manifests in being able to bypass entire complexes of prejudice and social norms (perceived and unconscious, spoken and unspoken) whether they be human or alien, and get right to the point with somebody. In an organization that is constantly trying to establish trust with a variety of unknown actors, Tilly is an incredible asset.

Stay angry, fools.

edit You know what is actually hilarious, TNG failed to really use Troi’s empathetic mind reading in interesting ways for most of its run, to the shows great detriment, but Tilly is basically who Troi would have been if Troi hadn’t been sidelined or written to be unconfident or naive for the stupidest reasons in most episodes. Tilly regularly walks into rooms and nearly instantaneously perceives the emotional context of the people in the room (whether or not she knows them that well) and boldly addresses it head on in a way that somehow isn’t overbearing, aggressive or intimidating. I don’t understand how this can be understood as anything but a minor superpower.

I am loving this seasons so far, does anyone know if I watch the TNG episode that this season connects too if it will spoil anything for later seasons of TNG? I am still in like season 4 or 5 as I am going through TNG, VOY and DS9 all at the same time.

Loved the first episode, I think the way they brought Book back made sense and I think the season set up connecting to an underutilized TNG episode is absolutely awesome, I could not be more down for this kind of season of Discovery. On to the second episode!

I am really gonna miss Discovery, I am not sure Doug Jones is going to miss dressing up as Saru for every shoot though.

Still though wow he really knocks it out of the park with conveying an alien with a physicality much different than ours, he has to easily be one of the best aliens in the whole series.

I really hope this is good, I am actually really excited to see how this turns out, I don’t necessarily have high expectations but also I don’t think there is any reason it has to suck so long as Georghiu isn’t let of the moral hook for being an awful, murderous leader.

Also Michelle Yeoh is great so I am excited fuck it.

I can’t wait!