kdawg88 wrote:
Not many people are gonna exploit the game like that; the vast majority will play the game as it was intended. But then, the whole focus in Deus Ex is on having the player choose how to play, isn't it? Where do you draw the line between player choice and the restrictions placed by the developer?
There is no line, the player can do whatever he or she pleases within the rules of the game. I am just not much a fan of speedrunning for the aforementioned reasons, but if people want to speedrun DX I'm not going to try and stop them, and I am also aware my reasons on this topic aren't exactly worthwhile ones.
Also, I think a degree of humility is required to appreciate this stuff, whether you put many hours of your life into playing or developing the game. I think the artist should accept that their work will be interpreted and used in many different ways, even some that they are against ideologically.
As long as the majority play as intended, then sure. If Deus Ex was released and the only people who played it were speedrunners who never once read the text because right off the bat all they were interested in was the optimal path and finding exploits, and had their brightness ridiculously high as we see in that video, and so on, then I think the developers would have been a little upset, understandably. And yes, I am aware that all DX speedrunners have likely played the game as intended originally, I am just using them as an example for this particular point.
Deus Ex itself can be hilarious at times, but you are referring to speedrunning here specifically. No, the video had funny moments. Speed running itself requires much practice, finding the optimal path and the exploits, and trying over and over for the top time. I don't find that particularly funny. Somewhat interesting to see the rules bent in the final resulting video, yes, but not funny except the occassional moment.
This guy had clearly run through Deus Ex in this way multiple times before, I wonder if he can even play the game as intended ever again without using a single exploit.
Ah, interesting vid. I think I've seen that lecture before in it's entirety. Spector conceptualized the skill system, Smith refined and expanded upon it, I refined and expanded upon it further, next we need someone to come in and add additional branches to each tier
just kidding, but it's still not perfect yet. Demolition skill and Environmental training need more work, but overall it is now arguably balanced.